Richard Dunne admits Aston Villa are finding life hard without several of their more experienced players.
Defender feels absentees are hampering Villa
Defender Richard Dunne admits Aston Villa are finding life hard with several of their more experienced players on the sidelines.
Gerard Houllier's side has been hit by fitness problems in recent weeks, with established midfield duo Stiliyan Petrov and Nigel Reo-Coker and senior pros Emile Heskey and John Carew among those ruled out.
Dunne, who has been named temporary captain in the absence of regular skipper Petrov and deputy Reo-Coker, has been heartened by Houllier's youngsters as his side attempt to combat their injury woes.
But the 31-year-old stopper admits Villa are being hampered by the loss of senior squad members, with their latest defeat at Blackburn on Sunday condemning them to 13th place in the Premier League standings.
Disappointing
"It's very disappointing," Dunne told the
Birmingham Mail. "We want to get our season going and we just can't at the moment.
"Sometimes you just need that added bit of experience that would help us, especially away from home when things aren't going so well.
"Maybe having the likes of Stiliyan and Nigel would help us a little bit more.
"It's just a case of trying to get people back and hopefully Emile and John and Stan and Nigel will get back in to add more experience to the squad.
"If you look around and can see players who have played hundreds of Premier League games sitting on the bench or being involved it will help the younger lads even more."
He added: "Every week when the manager names a team someone has to pull out.
"That's the way it is, we can't do anything about it until January. We've just got to dig in and wait for the senior players to come back.
"We've tried our best and we've fought but it comes to the stage where it does become obvious that we're down to the bare bones."
Dunne was disappointed to see in-form winger Marc Albrighton's name added to the casualty list last week, adding: "Unfortunately on Sunday Marc missed out which was tough with the way he's been playing."
Threadbare
Centre-half Dunne admits Villa's squad is currently so threadbare that youngsters are being rushed back from injury to bolster numbers.
"Chris Herd's come on and he's only been back training for a week, the same with Isaiah Osbourne," added Dunne.
"It's hard for the players who are coming into the team, because some of them aren't even match fit, but they're all trying to make a name for themselves and they're all giving 100 per cent."
