This season hasn’t exactly gone as planned for Aston Villa, and they find themselves marooned in the bottom half of the table, with their chances of making the Play-Offs dwindling week by week.

Roberto di Matteo was in charge at Villa Park for the opening embers of the season and a disastrous start saw Villa fighting to keep themselves out of the bottom three.

Results have somewhat picked up under Steve Bruce, though they still find themselves in a far lower position than they should be, given the finances they have thrown at getting an immediate return to the top flight.

Those at Villa Park were very active in the January window, adding most notably Henri Lansbury and Scott Hogan, with Conor Hourihane and Neil Taylor amongst others to sign for the Midlands.

However, there is more Bruce could have done to strengthen his Villa squad and he may come to regret some of his January dealings.

Here, we will look at 2 pieces of January business Villa should have done…

Sold: Libor Kozak

Libor Kozak has been with Villa for over three years now but his impact on the Villa team has decreased year on year, as has his involvement.

In his first season in English football, he netted four times in 14 appearances, which isn’t a bad return for your first Premier League campaign.

However, he has rarely been involved since his maiden Villa season and with Bruce having signed Scott Hogan and Jonathan Kodjia returning from the AFCON, surely the Czech should have been sold.

Bought: Daniel Ayala

The weakest area of the Villa side is arguably their defensive line, more specifically their centre-back partnership. Still, in January Bruce opted to merely strengthen the full-back berths.

James Chester has partnered Tommy Elphick and Nathan Baker this season, though Ayala would definitely have shored up the Villa defence, something that desperately needs doing at Villa Park.

Currently, out of favour at the Riverside and Bruce could well have been in a great position to attract Ayala, with first-team football more than likely on offer for the Spaniard.