Angel is ready to welcome Beattie
Sunday, 2 January 2005 15:38Juan Pablo Angel would welcome the arrival of James Beattie at Aston Villa to help take some off the weight off his shoulders in attack.
Angel is having to carry the burden of being Villa's only fit senior striker and it has coincided with a barren run of nine games without a goal for the Colombian international.
Darius Vassell will not have recovered from his broken foot until March while unproven on-loan Chelsea striker Carlton Cole is now out with a hamstring problem.
Angel may soon have Beattie as his strike partner, with the striker set a deadline by Southampton manager Harry Redknapp to choose between Villa and Everton within 24 hours after both clubs had £6.5million bids for the player accepted.
Angel, who will again spearhead the Birmingham side's attack at Crystal Palace tomorrow, said: "Any good player is welcome at Aston Villa and I think that James Beattie is a quality player - and he is a goalscorer.
"The main thing is to work for the team and someone with the quality of Beattie would be very, very welcome.
"I would welcome it. In the last few games I've been playing mostly on my own up front which is not the best thing for a striker."
Angel has netted only five times in 2004-05 compared to the 23 goals he scored last season but he is not overly concerned about his current drought.
He said: "Does the lack of goals worry me? Not really. Obviously as a striker you want to score every game and goals give you that extra lift of confidence.
"But I've not been worried about my performance. I've been quite happy in the way I have been playing and I hope to end this bad run as soon as I can."
Angel added: "The whole team played against Blackburn and it would have been a crime not to get the three points and it was good to have Nobby (Nolberto Solano) on the score-sheet again. He has got some vital goals recently.
"I did everything I had to do but I'm more pleased about the whole team. We won again after playing some good stuff in the previous few games but without getting the points.
"The goals will come. I created chances again. You could say it was bad finishing or bad luck but the only thing I can do is keep going."
