Kevin MacDonald: Aston Villa players need to improve

MacDonald took charge of Saturday’s game at Millwall following Steve Bruce’s midweek sacking and watched as individual errors again condemned Villa to defeat.

For the second time in five days, they failed to hold a lead, with the hosts fighting back to win 2-1 after Tammy Abraham had opened the scoring.

Goals from Shane Ferguson and Tom Elliott extended Villa’s miserable run to just one victory in ten Championship games.

Villa are expected to appoint Bruce’s successor during the forthcoming international break and MacDonald said: “I think there are lots of things the new manager will need to address. All the players, individually, need to tidy themselves up.

“The team as a group need to tidy themselves up. There are individual mistakes from a different player each game.

“I'm sure it will get tidied up very quickly. If it does, this team will go up the table very quickly.”

Villa have now conceded 20 goals in just 12 games and MacDonald was not helped by being without both skipper James Chester (suspension) and Mile Jedinak (hamstring).

But their fragility and lack of organisation at the back was again evident, with both Millwall goals coming from set pieces.

“You can't legislate for international players making fundamental mistakes, as most of them are,” continued MacDonald.

“If I knew the secret I would be taking it to a lot of football clubs. They need to try and get back to where they were at the best time of their career.”

To cap a miserable day, Villa also lost midfielder John McGinn in the second half due to an ankle injury.

MacDonald said: “He has done his ankle. I am not sure how badly. It's quite swollen.

“I would like to say he will go with Scotland and be OK. But the most important thing for this club is that he is fit to play the next game.”