Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill has admitted midfielder Stilian Petrov is suffering from a crisis of confidence.
O'Neill has persevered with the Bulgarian international since his £6million move from Celtic 18 months ago despite only spasmodically showing his best form.
Petrove was substituted at half-time of Saturday's win over Newcastle after an ineffective opening 45 minutes and replaced by youngster Craig Gardner.O'Neill said: "Stilian is a very good player but I've seen little spells before where he was also lacking in confidence at Celtic. "He wants to do well but the early chance he had against Newcastle showed how he is feeling at present. "The Stilian Petrov I know, the fully confident one, when someone laid the ball back to him in the outside right position, would not have whipped in his shot first time and miscued it. "A Stilian Petrov with confidence wouldn't have done that. I know what he is capable of. He's scored goals for Celtic, including goals at European level.
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