Anwar El Ghazi is having a hard time in the English media. The Aston Villa attacker played an unfortunate match against Southampton on Friday night (1-0 loss), which was already the fifth loss in a row for the Birmingham club. In the eleventh minute, El Ghazi received a yellow card and with a showy schwalbe he applied for a second one not much later.
“The beginning was a nightmare for Villa“, writes the Guardian. “They were lucky that referee Andy Madley did not draw a second yellow card for a mindless foul on Southampton’s teenage sensation Tino Livramento. A few minutes before half time, El Ghazi made another stupid decision, springing up quickly after diving into the penalty area. Ralph Hasenhüttl (Southampton’s trainer, ed.) was furious, but Southampton was possibly even more surprised that El Ghazi was still on the field in the second half.”
Also analyst Jamie Redknapp of Sky Sports had a clear message for El Ghazi at halftime: “Please stop fouling and stay on the pitch.” “A shameless dive”, said the BBC the schwalbe of the Dutch international. However, the criticism of the English broadcaster about his performance was somewhat nuanced: “Villa seemed like new in the second half, with El Ghazi and Emiliano Buendía coming very close to scoring.”
After the departure of former star player Jack Grealish to Manchester City for a record €117 million, El Ghazi is one of the players in charge of his legacy. Danny Ings, Leon Bailey and Buendía were also met in that context, but the former is injured while Bailey and Buendía are not yet able to impress. El Ghazi has scored once in six Premier League matches so far this season and has not yet provided an assist. The Villans are currently in fifteenth place in the ranking with ten points from eleven matches.