Aston Villa Star ‘Is Explosive’ Believes Loan Club Boss | OneFootball

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Preston North End boss Paul Heckingbottom is of the view that Aston Villa loan star Lewis Dobbin is an explosive player, but stressed the importance of managing his game time to help him continue playing at his best.

Dobbin joined Aston Villa from Everton in the summer of 2024 and after spending last season on loan with West Brom and Norwich City, this summer he joined another Championship club in Preston on a season-long loan.

The 22-year-old winger has made a good start to his career at Deepdale and he impressed his team-mate Alifie Devine with his performance against Derby County at the weekend.

The Preston boss has also previously praised Dobbin, stating that he has good pedigree, though he has yet to feature in a full game for them.

Heckingbottom stated that they want the Aston Villa star to work hard and show how fast he is on the pitch and to do that, he believes Preston need to manage Dobbin’s game time so that he can fulfil the team’s requirements when he is playing.

He also pointed out that Dobbin is an explosive player and admitted that during his own playing days he was nowhere near as explosive as the Aston Villa star is right now.

When talking about managing young players’ game time, Heckingbottom told Preston’s in-house media (2:10): “Someone like Lewis, for example, his game is different; he is explosive.

“His numbers against Derby once again [were good].

“When he is on the pitch, we want him to be explosive, we want him to work hard, we want him to show how much high-speed running he can do and off the back of that, because we want to see him play that way, it will be difficult for him to play 90 minutes.

“We have to manage that to get the best out of him.

“He is a different player.

“When I played, I was nowhere as explosive as Lewis; I just churned the games out, whereas we want to use Lewis’ strength and keep him fit, keep him available and when he is on the pitch, have him produce those moments for us.”

The 22-year-old has so far featured in four games in all competitions for Preston and has two goals and one assist, which came in the Derby game, to show for his efforts.