Leon Bailey praises Aaron Danks for making Aston Villa players 'comfortable'
Leon Bailey reckons first-team coach Aaron Danks hit on a system in which more Villa players feel comfortable as he urged them to build on Sunday’s 4-0 win over Brentford.
Winger Bailey delivered his best performance since joining for £25million from Bayer Leverkusen in the first match after Steven Gerrard’s sacking.
Villa had scored just seven goals in their first 11 Premier League matches before running riot against the Bees.
Bailey said: “With the playing style we played, more players felt comfortable, I guess. It was more so important that we were all working for each other. That was lacking a bit.
“That’s something we can work on as a team and we should work on it very fast. Hopefully that can help us move up the table.
“We all knew what the job was to do. We knew we had nothing to lose, so we just had to go out there and give it our best.”
Danks stepped up from his role as first-team coach following Gerrard’s dismissal immediately after Thursday’s 3-0 defeat at Fulham, a result which left Villa outside the relegation zone on goals scored.
That made Sunday’s turnaround even more remarkable with Villa scoring three times inside the opening 14 minutes through Bailey and a brace from Danny Ings. Ollie Watkins then completed the scoring against his former club in the second half.
“He (Danks) was very impressive,” said Bailey. “He did his thing. He really took charge in a short space of time and I have to give him a lot of respect for that.
“The time (between the matches) was very short for him to come up with something but he did. We’re very pleased.
“He was quite clear what he wanted from us – be wide and to stretch their back line and create space in the middle for Emi (Buendia). I think we did that very well.
“The front three were on the ball a lot and created a lot of opportunities, which we needed. We needed players in the scoresheet as well and we did that. A clean sheet too was important. It was a performance that was much needed and we will try to build from here.
“This is football and we understand it. We are professional, we are all trying to do our best. We are frustrated sometimes but at the end of the day we are all one. This result showed when everyone is together great things can happen.”
