No problems at Villa, says McAllister

Talk of player unrest and a training ground bust-up with defender Richard Dunne have been played down by Aston Villa coach Gary McAllister.

Villa host Sunderland in the English Premier League on Wednesday, but Gerard Houllier’s assistant dismissed reports of dissent in the ranks.

“There has been a lot of change, loads of different ideas, loads of training schedules, training times. The players have been asked to change,” he said.

“As far as the incident with Dunny and myself, I don’t have a problem with Dunny.”

“It is something that happens in every training ground, every day of the week.”

“I’ve had it my entire life as a footballer and as a young manager and now as an assistant manager.”

“Richard Dunne and I are perfectly fine and all the players, the staff, want to move forward and get results.”

Houllier and McAllister are pleased by the response of the Irishman, who has been recalled to the first-team fold.

“He has done exactly what we thought he would do,” former Liverpool midfielder McAllister said. “He was left out of the team, we were conceding goals and we had to make a change.”

“He came back into the team and he is a big player for this club and he will continue to be a big player.”

According to McAllister, everyone at the club was pulling together trying to climb away from the relegation zone.

“I look at it a different way. I know what a couple of wins can do. We can start looking at European spots and the top half of the table,” he said.

“We’ve had a tough run of games, a tough run of bad results, and now we are going into a little period where we feel we can pick up and gather some points. The manager has got to be given time. Everyone needs a bit of time.”

Two points above the drop zone, Villa are looking to build on the draw at Chelsea on Sunday by beating Sunderland at home.

“They will feel they did enough to beat us at their place but we feel we did enough to get something,” said McAllister. “It is a chance to reverse the result.”

“We need to go into the game very positive. There is a lot to build on from Stamford Bridge.”

“They are all big games. We follow that with a cracking cup tie and we follow that with a run of league matches. It is an opportunity to gather points.”