Source: Telegraph
'Aston Villa can't buy a win' as Everton prepare to take over in fifth place
Confidence, they said, had been rebuilt by a mini-break to Dubai. That was before their loss to Tottenham mid-March. Villa have taken two points from a possible 15 since.
Confidence is now a serious concern. Emile Heskey insists that the side are "trying to keep upbeat", but should Everton win at Stamford Bridge tomorrow, Villa will be demoted to sixth place, another body blow to the club's self esteem.
Having seen his side notch up just three points since 7 Feb (despite some impressive performances – which makes it even worse), O'Neill is apparently beginning to "bang his head against the wall."
It is not just the manager. Luke Young, the Villa defender, has admitted that the players are just as stumped at their failure to win a match, and have taken to poring over videos of their games, even analysing what they do with their kit after matches in their search for a cure. That he admits the team "can't buy a win" at present reveals a worrying lack of confidence. He understands, however, that it is exactly this mindset that is not doing the side any good.
"When you're winning games you don't watch too many videos, even when things are going wrong in the games," Young said. "But when you start to lose a few on the bounce then there's a few more inquests about why you're doing this and that. When you lose a few games, a 'let's get back to basics mentality' kicks in.
"Everything gets scrutinised a bit more, your timekeeping and putting your kit in the skips. We're just trying to look for the next win. I think if you go into a game and you're trying to do everything right and get into good habits then nine times out of ten you're going to come away and have done your job.
"You've just got to do the things that have got you this far and carry on with them. Nobody likes to lose the number of games that we had on the run. It's been frustrating because it's the same squad of players that had gone 13 games unbeaten just a couple of months ago and then you look at us now and we can't get a win.
"That's the manager's job, but he must be banging his head against the wall thinking we were unbeatable for two or three months and now we can't buy a win. I'm not sure what the reasons are but when you are losing games the confidence levels drop a little bit, maybe we're affected by that. I believe that when you're on a winning run the confidence just grows and you're going out on the pitch thinking we're going to win this game.
"Vice versa, if you've lost a few games on the bounce, you're thinking 'Don't lose today', instead of being a lot more positive and thinking 'Come on, we're going to win this game'."
Meanwhile, the club have not confirmed reports that Martin Laursen is set to be out for another nine months. The club captain held talks with O'Neill yesterday after returning from Denmark, but the outcome is as yet being kept behind closed doors.
