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Aston Villa manager Dean Smith was part of the BBC's punditry squad for Leicester City's FA Cup clash against Brentford at Griffin Park on Saturday.

Keeping a close eye on proceedings ahead of the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against the Foxes in the week, Smith was welcomed onto the coverage due to his links with Brentford.

During half-time of the match, the attention switched towards Smith's Villa squad and numerous aspects of the club, including the relegation battle, the hunt for a striker and the excellence of Jack Grealish.

The questions were posed by Match of the Day host Gary Lineker and former Newcastle United striker Alan Shearer - and you can read every word on what Smith had to say below.

Lineker: Are you enjoying life in the Premier League?

"Yeah, I am. It's interesting every game, you have to work very hard to get points. I think the surprising thing when you come into it is the established clubs and the quality of the players that they have got."

Lineker: Is it a bigger jump from the Championship than you envisaged?

"No, it was probably what I expected to be honest. You look at games there and you think that you can go and get a good result. The hardest thing I've found with the Premier League is when you look at the fixture list and think 'where can we build consistency?'

"You're looking at games where you can possibly get results, then all of a sudden a Manchester City comes up or a Liverpool comes up, so it just makes it really tough.

"But it's really enjoyable and we've got some good, young players who are growing in it."

(Image: Getty Images)

Shearer: How good is Jack Grealish? He's just been incredible

"He's a delight to work with, he's an Aston Villa nut and, like myself, grew up a supporter. It's his work ethic and his attitude to training, to making himself better and he pushes us as coaches now, if a training session isn't good enough."

Lineker: Will he push himself into the England set-up?

"I believe so. He's doing it at the top table now, he's scoring goals and creating them as well, and he's a different type of player. He's got such good balance and strength."

Shearer: Is that what you've seen in him, he's now got an end product?

"Yeah, he's getting into areas of the pitch now where he can hurt teams with what he's got. Sometimes he'd receive the ball a little bit too deep off the centre-halves and if I'm the manager against him, I'd be happy with that. Now, he's sitting defenders down on their backside."

Lineker: The Watford win, that's huge, the classic six pointer

"Yeah, teams that are in and around you, they are really big games. We're all there for a reason. The team is getting better, I firmly believe that, we've changed the system, we lost the legs in our midfield with John McGinn, which was a big plus in the start of the season."

Lineker: Do you think you need to strengthen before the window closes, particularly with a striker?

Yeah, we're still looking. We've just brought in Mbwana Samatta from Genk and we're still looking to bring another one in as well. But this window is notoriously difficult."

Lineker: Do you think you will stay up?

"I've got great belief in the group that we've got. There's 14 games left, a lot of points to play for. I think we're growing and my teams normally get better in the second half of the season, so I'm hopeful that it will continue."