Source: Team_Talk
Petrov enjoying central Villa role
O'Neill has regularly used several players out of position during the club's march into the Premier League top four this season.
Luke Young has deputised at left-back and centre-half Carlos Cuellar at right-back with most of the midfielders filling in at full-back.
But while Gareth Barry, Nigel Reo-Coker, Craig Gardner and James Milner have played out of position, Petrov has been stuck in the middle.
And the 29-year-old prefers to be a master of midfield rather than a jack of all trades after a nightmare experience at Celtic.
Petrov was made to run through hoops during an introduction to British football under John Barnes.
The former Liverpool and England winger's woeful managerial stint at Parkhead included playing Petrov as a makeshift right-back.
A mistake in one of his first Celtic appearances resulted in the then teenage Petrov mistakenly gifting Motherwell a winning goal.
And, although Petrov is now fluent in English, back then in Glasgow he could barely understand, let alone speak the language.
As if playing in a foreign land was not tough enough, he was forced to play in a foreign position, unable to communicate with his team-mates. It is not surprising that Petrov hated the number two role and reckons he was the slowest full-back in the Scottish Premier League.
And the Bulgarian international still cringes when recalling his defensive disasters, telling the Sunday Mercury: "I played at right-back and I was awful.
"It was a poor start to my Celtic career playing at right-back. It was awful. Very bad. It wasn't very pleasant.
"I think because I was a new signing they wanted to play me but other midfielders like Eyal Berkovic and Lubomir Moravcik were doing well.
"John Barnes saw something in me that made him think I could do well at right-back. He was wrong.
"I was probably the slowest right-back in the Scottish Premier League! So it didn't work for me and I'm glad that I moved away from that position."
