"Thomas is doing things on the training pitch that are very good and I said to him he had to take those out into matches," said the Villa boss after the 1-0 win.
"I see Thomas in training, driving forward to the edge of opponents' penalty areas and his ability with his left foot to get shots in.
"The shot he produced to beat Leicester was a tremendous finish.
"It was a wonderful goal and was a help because we have a problem with scoring goals.
"I have said all along that we will be taking this competition seriously - we can't afford to be arrogant and do anything else.
"It does represent a route into Europe and we are now only three or four games away from that possibility."