Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce has revealed that Chris Samba could be utilized as a forward in future.
Bruce utilized Samba as a forward during his side’s loss against Sheffield Wednesday this weekend as he looked to use the big defenders size and strength to try and reduce the two goal deficit.
Wednesday ended up winning the game through goals from Adam Reach and Jordan Rhodes though Samba did manage to pull one back with virtually the last kick of the game and he bundled the ball over the goal line.
Bruce said: “We’ve brought Chris in to shore us up at the back. I’ve seen him go up there many times for Blackburn years and years ago, but I thought we were too direct.
“It’s alright having him up there, but we went right from the back too early up to him which is something we’ll work on in the next couple of weeks. If we do put him up there, don’t think we have to just smash the ball forward.
“He’s a threat in the box as you can see with the goal he’s scored. We can’t just smash it up from 50 yards, we’ve still got to try and work it out wide and get it into the box where we can get the best out of him.”
Samba used to be utilized as a makeshift forward while playing for Blackburn Rovers and it may be a good idea for Villa to use him as a forward in future. However they will need to feed him with balls from out wide rather than straight down the park.
