Players' day off cancelled as Aston Villa seek answers to alarming slide
Villa’s players had their day off cancelled as boss Steve Bruce urgently searches for a halt his team’s alarming slump.
A run of five games without a win has seen Villa fall outside the Championship’s top six and ramped up the pressure on both players and management ahead of Saturday’s trip to Tony Pulis’s Middlesbrough.
Chief executive Keith Wyness yesterday took to social media to acknowledge the concerns of a fanbase which has become increasingly frustrated.
In a message posted on Twitter, Wyness also made a plea for unity, writing: “Everyone doing all we can to get things back on track, all leave cancelled and every hard question being asked, together we must turn it round, everyone knows the reality.”
Bruce was left fuming at Villa’s performance in their 2-1 Boxing Day defeat at Brentford and planned time off for players and coaching staff on Thursday was subsequently axed. The manager has promised a much improved performance when his team visit the Riverside to face Boro, who sit above them on goal difference.
“It’s all to play for,” said Bruce. “It’s a difficult game at the weekend (at Middlesbrough) but the one thing for sure is we will be better. I don’t think we could be any worse.
“That is the only thing we have to focus on.”
