O'Leary issues Angel challenge

Aston Villa manager David O’Leary has challenged club record signing Juan Pablo Angel to turn back the clock and recapture his goal-scoring form of two seasons ago.

O’Leary admitted he had planned to operate with Angel alongside Milan Baros, a £6m (€8.8m) summer capture from Liverpool, during the current campaign.

But Angel has been woefully out of touch and upstaged by Kevin Phillips whom O’Leary had initially earmarked as a squad player when he signed the 32-year-old from Southampton for £750,000 (€1.1m).

Phillips scored his fourth goal of an injury-hit season at Sunderland last weekend but Angel is still to find the target in 12 appearances – a sharp contrast to 2003-2004 when he was on the mark 23 times including 16 times in the Premiership.

It may be purely coincidental but, since signing a new four-year deal in the close season of 2004, Angel has looked a shadow of his former self and is again likely to be on the bench for Saturday’s home clash with Charlton.

O’Leary admitted: “I bought Milan to play alongside Juan Pablo. I was looking for Juan Pablo to be the player for Milan to play off, allowing him to make his runs and work off the flicks.

“I bought Kevin Phillips for £750,000 (€1.1m) to be a great squad player – one who could come into the side but wouldn’t throw out his dummy if he was left out at times.

“Kevin is the sort of player who if he does well, he stays in, but alternatively is someone you’ve always got on the bench to come on.

“As it has turned out, I’ve got just what I knew I’d be getting from Kevin when I first tried to get him from Sunderland two years ago. He’s a great pro who deserves everything he gets.”

O’Leary knows that Angel has to start finding the net again if he is live up to the reputation that persuaded John Gregory to splash out more than £9million for his services from River Plate nearly five years ago.

He said: “When you are bought for £9million, for that kind of money you would expect a player who can both create and score goals. You shouldn’t be taking a chance on someone with that sort of outlay.

“You still see flashes of things when Juan has come on in games and in training, and you hope. But the bottom line is that he needs to score goals. That’s what strikers are paid for.

“It was very disruptive for Juan with his injuries last season, right from pre-season with his knee. But this year he had a good pre-season and has just had the odd niggle but nothing like the injuries Phillips or Baros have had.

“What will change Angel is to score goals. What we will judge him on is goals and what we want him to do is score goals like he was for us when I first came in two years ago.”

Phillips is aware that Villa have to build on their 3-1 triumph at the Stadium of Light which edged them away from the relegation zone.

He said: “We are coming up to an important period of the season where the games come thick and fast and if we can string two or three wins together, that jumps us well up the league.

“I’ve been in this position before. The longer you are down there and the longer you go without results, it does become harder. Put two or three wins together, and it gives everyone a massive lift.

“It gives the players loads of confidence going into each game. Once you start seeing a bit of daylight between you and the bottom five or six clubs, it is a good thing to see. There is still an awful lot to play for.

“I don’t think anyone expected us to be where we are at the club. We deserve to be there because we haven’t performed. We’ve got a batch of games and then the busy Christmas period where we can get some points on the board.”