BY FORTUNE MBELE WARRIORS’ Marvelous Nakamba made the perfect start to his career under new Aston Villa manager Steve Gerrard and he won himself praise from the club’s fans in their 2-0 win over Brighton and Hove Albion.
Villa parted ways with coach Dean Smith and replaced him with the Liverpool legend, who sat in the dugout for the first time in the Birmingham-based club. Nakamba, who was used sparingly by Smith, came to life with a good performance that hinted he could thrive under Gerrard.
On their official Twitter account, Aston Villa released Nakamba’s statistics, which showed that he had a near perfect performance. “(96% pass accuracy (27/28 pass accuracy for @Nakamba_11 at the weekend. Marvelous performance,” the club posted on its social media pages. Villa left it until the last 10 minutes to score both goals that secured them victory, with goals from Ollie Watkins and Tyron Mings.
The Birmingham Mail was full of praise for the former Bantu Rovers star. “But it was the performance of Marvelous Nakamba that caught the eye of the supporters after he completed 27 of his 28 passes in what was a solid display by Gerrard’s side. And now fans are hoping Gerrard can tease the best out of the Zimbabwe international as they rushed to laud his display on social media.” The supporters were mesmerised by Nakamba’s show.
One Tom Ellis said Smith failed to utilise Nakamba.
“This is where Dean struggled to utilise Nakamba, he’s generally done the basics very well. Asking him to progress the ball is too much,” he posted.
Kevin Hughes said: “He’s never going to be pinging 30-yard diagonals, but if you want a DM to sit and cover, he’s fine. This is why I wasn’t on board with the summer calls for a ‘DM’. We have one, just not often used. A better quality CM, sure, but that’s a different conversation IMO.”
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