Martin O’Neill believes Villa fans are starting to see the ‘real’ Stiliyan Petrov - but has hinted the Bulgarian must maintain his recent high standards to win a new contract.
Petrov followed O’Neill south from Cetic for £6.5m two years ago but has struggled to find the form which made him one of the SPL’s most sought-after players.
However, the 29-year-old, who has two years left on his current deal, has finally started making his mark after being switched to an anchoring role - and now the Villa manager has suggested it will take more of the same to earn a new contract.
O’Neill said: “He was starting to do it towards the back end of last season and the performance that he put in on Sunday has to be the norm for him.
“He was strong, he was aggressive, he got to the ball first and when your confidence is up you will do that. I thought he did great.
“The chairman has made it clear he will definitely sort out players who are doing it. I don’t want them to do it for one or two games, they need to do it consistently. Stiliyan is getting to the level I would have expected to be normal for him after adjusting to the Premier League.
“It’s a different football to European football, he’s changed his game to adjust to the side at the moment.
“We had lots and lots of the ball at Celtic so he could get forward and not worry too much about what was happening. Here he has had to take on that defensive responsibility which was kind of alien to him. Now he’s doing it a bit more at international level so his role has changed a bit and I still believe he is able to get forward at times.
“But at the moment with Gareth going and getting more forward than he ever has in his career we do need someone sitting in and Stiliyan is currently doing that.”
And O’Neill is starting to see the same attitude in his team to that of his championship-winning Celtic team.
He added: “There was a good strong mentality about the Celtic side.”
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