​As the warring factions in the Villa Park boardroom draw up lines and prepare to do battle an even more desperate fight is about to start.

For while the smoke clears from the first off-the-field skirmishes it is clear that it is not only the directors who fail to see eye to eye.

On the field. however, it is not a question of clashing personalities, rather of clashing playing styles.

The problem, in a nutshell, is that manager Ron Saunders has to make his 11 players learn to harness each other's skills before Villa are in relegation trouble.

Certainly skipper Dennis Mortimer's plea to let the team's performances do the talking could not have been worse timed. For on the evidence of Saturday's 0-0 draw at Middlesbrough. Villa have all the right words, but are having problems fitting them together to make an articulate sentence.

Nowhere is this lack of communication more evident than in defence. On paper a back-four of Gidman, Evans, McNaught and Pejic looks as watertight as any in the First Division but at Ayresome Park there were misunderstandings that must have given Saunders nightmares over the weekend.

The very fact that Evans and Pejic were booked and McNaught was sent off is evidence enough of Villa's difficulties at the back.

Pejic in fact looks the best of Saunders recent signings. For 65 minutes he gave a near faultless display only to get involved in a feud with Boro's substitute Cochrane that appeared to have stemmed from earlier days.

Bremner, too, showed some intelligent touches but as Saunders conceded afterwards individual performances are adding up to nothing.