Aston Villa are well placed to challenge for the play-offs at the very least this season and their fans probably couldn't have wanted much more.

Of course, a runaway title win would be nice but that is next to impossible in the Championship and so Steve Bruce and his men should be fairly pleased with where they are.

Of course, though, fans will be expecting them to keep their form up and convert it into promotion and that is where the club could use the January window.

The Villans have the reputation and resource to attract some very good players to their club and we think that Steve Bruce and Dr. Tony Xia will already be discussing their transfer plans for the next window.

With that in mind, then, we think these three names need to be on the agenda...

Danny Ings

Villa need another striker.

Jonathan Kodjia is good, Scott Hogan is out of form and Keinan Davis is young and not always an option. Then the likes of Andre Green and Rushian Hepburn-Murphy also have improving to do and so we'd urge Villa to get in Ings. He's probably up for a loan with things not going great at Liverpool at the moment and he'd score a huge amount for the Villans.

Joe Bryan

Neil Taylor is a superb left-back but Villa need another player who is going to push him and be able to either take over or cover him.

Looking at the Championship, then, there's very few left-backs who are as good as Bryan with him proving to be a real tough opponent to get around this season. He's firm but fair in the challenge and has a rocket left-foot so we think he'd be great competition for the Welshman.

Michael Carrick

According to The Mirror, Villa are just one of the sides monitoring the situation Carrick finds himself in at Manchester United.

The Red Devils' veteran has fallen down the pecking order this season and he'll surely be wanting to move away if he is not going to get the minutes at the club. A move to Villa would surely interest him, then, and it'd be intriguing to see how he would perform trying to control the tempo of a Championship game.