Remi Garde plea to the Villa fans

Remi Garde has called on the Villa supporters to get behind the team in their battle for Premier League survival.

Although the French boss understands why there is an air of frustration around Villa Park at the moment, he has called for unity from the fans. Garde wants the Villa faithful to support their team, as he feels their backing could be crucial for the club to get out of trouble in the second half of the campaign.

"With our fans, I totally understand their frustration because we are bottom of the league and we don't win games," he said.

"But without this support it's more difficult for the players, the club and all the team.

"During the game you never know. Even if you are one goal down, maybe you can score two at the end of the game before the final whistle.

"We need to be altogether – the fans, the players – because the situation requires that. You cannot afford to behave differently."

Villa have been forced to improve their fitness under Garde – and the new boss is hoping it pays dividends over the club's crucial festive fixture list.

The basement club, who Garde says need 10 wins from their remaining 21 Premier League games to have any chance of survival, have seen changes in training since the Frenchman took over from Tim Sherwood last month.

Villa parted company with two fitness coaches brought in under Sherwood soon after Garde's November arrival as ex-Villa fitness coach Robert Duverne, who worked under Gerard Houllier, returned.

Asked whether his new side were not fit enough he said: "Yes, I felt that but I don't want to judge what happened before.

"It was just my feeling that we could improve a little bit more in this area of the game because it's very important in this country.

"You have a lot of duels and the rhythm and the pace is very high and I feel we have improved a lot.

"When I arrived someone told me that the team was last in terms of running on statistics.

"I am not very keen on statistics because they can say one thing and you can find another statistic to prove the opposite, so I am very careful with stats.

"But nevertheless you have to look at it and I know that we have improved in this area."

Villa have sold out of their ticket allocation for the away derby with Albion.

Garde's men will be backed by 2,700 supporters at The Hawthorns on January 23 (3pm).

Albion won the first clash between the sides this season 1-0 at Villa Park in September.