Since the arrival of Steve Bruce at Villa Park, Aston Villa have moved ominously towards the Play-Offs but a blip at Elland Road last time out halted their progress.

Villa are currently six points off the Play-Off places, which is a far cry from where they were when Bruce took over.

Roberto Di Matteo left Villa in the lurch, loitering dangerously close to the relegation zone, something that was nearly unimaginable for Villa fans.

Bruce has come in and steadied the ship and Villa had been on a seven game unbeaten run with Bruce at the helm, but that run came to halt at Elland Road on Saturday.

Leeds inflicted a 2-0 defeat on Villa which seriously damaged their promotion bid, pushing them further away from the Play-Off places, leaving Bruce with plenty of work to do in the second half of the season.

There is no doubt that Bruce isn’t content with his squad yet, so he will definitely be looking to add in January.

Here, FLW's Chris Wilson will look at THREE players who Bruce should ask Tony Xia to secure a deal for in January…

 

Abel Hernandez

 

Hernandez is currently sitting in the stands at the KCOM Stadium due to injury but Bruce is still likely to pursue a deal for the Uruguayan striker.

Bruce has worked with Hernandez at Hull and is clearly a big fan of him, so a deal to bring him to Villa Park would be ideal for Bruce.

With summer signing Ross McCormack seemingly not in Bruce’s plans, he is likely to be sold in January to help fund a move for the Uruguayan.

Hernandez knows where the net is at Championship level and his pace and power frightens defenders; he could be the difference for Villa this season.

Jordan Rhodes

Rhodes isn’t featuring for Middlesbrough much so a January move away looks to be on the cards.

It has only been a year since Rhodes arrived at The Riverside, but his time in red and white looks to be up, thanks to the arrival of Alvaro Negredo, who has pushed him down the pecking order.

Similar to Hernandez, Rhodes is a clinical goal scorer in the Championship and he has more than proved that over the last few years, scoring around 20 goals in each.

In what would be around half a season with Villa, if Rhodes could score 10 goals, that would be huge in Villas push for promotion.

Tendayi Darikwa

 Like Rhodes, Darikwa is out of favour at his club.

He is third in line for the starting right back shirt at Burnley, and with The Clarets looking for a right back in January, Darikwa could leave.

He has been at Burnley for around 18 months now but only featured for six of them.

Villa are currently going with Alan Hutton at right back, but he definitely isn’t the long term answer.

What Darikwa would provide that Hutton doesn’t, is the energy up and down the right side.

He is willing to get forward and deliver balls into the box and get back and defend too.