Stephen Warnock has given his verdict on Dean Smith’s Aston Villa amid their recent poor run of form.

A former player at the Championship club between 2009 and 2013, the 37-year-old spoke to BBC 5 Live daily, reported via the Birmingham Mail regarding his old club’s current fortunes.

Smith’s side are nine points adrift of the play-off places and are sitting in tenth position currently having played up to two games more than their promotion rivals.

Stoke City are the next side looking to add more misery to the out-of-form Midlands side this weekend when Villa travel to the bet365 Stadium.

And Warnock has pinpointed the area that he feels is letting the club down as they look to achieve their aim of making it to the play-offs at least this season.

Villa have conceded the most goals from any side outside the bottom three and have the worst goal difference for teams inside the top ten.

The former England international explained: “Aston Villa are still in a position where they can make it, but they need a lot of things to go their way.

“The biggest concern for me is that with open, expansive football they are very similar to Chelsea as they can’t defend.

“There is never a game where they look comfortable.

"Defensively they are third worse in the country, only Ipswich and Rochdale who are worse at conceding goals.

“Their squad realistically should at least be in the play-offs. The goalkeeper isn’t covering himself in any glory either.

"They paid £6/7m for a Croatian goalkeeper, what’s he actually offering?

The verdict

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that Villa have been poor defensively, they have been all season.

Their goals against column says it all – conceded the most goals for a team outside the bottom three.

If Villa want to reach the play-offs, then they will need a defensive miracle in order to do so.

Moves have been made to sure up the leaky backline but so far not much has been able to help them.