Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill is demanding greater goal power from skipper Gareth Barry and the rest of his midfield players.Villa are among the highest scorers in the Premier League and no-one has topped their away goal tally of 24 from 12 games.
But O'Neill is aware the goals have come mainly from his strikers plus defenders Martin Laursen and Olof Mellberg - and he wants a bigger contribution from the centre of the park.
Stiliyan Petrov was a free-scoring player at Celtic but has failed to break his duck this season, Nigel Reo-Coker has one to his name and Barry four - but none since his penalty equaliser in the 4-4 draw at Chelsea in December.
O'Neill, whose side visit struggling Reading on Sunday, said: "We're not getting enough goals from midfield from open play at the moment and yet we're the third or fourth leading scorers in the Premier League.
"John Carew and Gabriel Agbonlahor have got goals in attack while Martin Laursen has scored six as a central defender which is an excellent effort.
"But midfielders such as Gareth Barry and Stiliyan Petrov should be capable of scoring from open play, even though Stiliyan's confidence is down a bit right now."
Villa are bubbling with confidence after losing only one of their last 10 league games to keep themselves in strong contention for a place in Europe.
But O'Neill still believes Liverpool are the favourites to claim a Champions League spot via a top-four finish, despite their recent up-and-down form.
He said: "With confidence it can be game to game, half-hour to half-hour, and, in my case as a player about 100 years ago it was minute to minute!
"When you are playing with great confidence, you can show all the ability in the world. We certainly shouldn't be talking about a lack of confidence in a side which has been beaten only once in 10 matches.
"Is fourth place realistic? I think Liverpool are by a mile the strongest side contesting fourth place and the reason being they have got a squad to match.
"I know they are heavily involved in the Champions League but that would be my view and the other managers with clubs in and around us in the table would probably think the same.
"They have got the players. I thought myself they might challenge for the title this season so that is the esteem I hold that squad in, but we will just keep going and we have given ourselves a chance."
O'Neill is unlikely to make any major changes from the side which thumped Newcastle 4-1 a fortnight ago thanks to a Carew hat-trick.
But Petrov and Mellberg must wait to see if they will keep their places after being taken off at half-time against the Magpies in a tactical reshuffle.
Meanwhile Villa's home league clash with Middlesbrough will take place on March 12 - four days later than originally scheduled - if Gareth Southgate's side overcome Sheffield United in an FA Cup fifth-round replay.
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