Houllier is pleased, but wants more improvement

GERARD HOULLIER believes Aston Villa loanee Kyle Walker has the potential to play for England.

National head coach Fabio Capello has been full of praise for Walker who has made the temporary switch from Tottenham to Villa Park for the rest of the season, the right-back having spent the first part of the campaign on loan at Championship leaders QPR.

Walker’s forward runs caused all sorts of problems for Blackburn during Villa’s 3-1 FA Cup fourth round success on Saturday.

Houllier said: “I share Fabio’s view that Kyle is a possible England player. He’s not the finished article, but we’ve given him the chance to play in the Premier League and he’s taken it well.

“I think Kyle knows that he’s got a lot of areas where he can improve. But what I like about him is his attitude - he’s eager to improve and to progress.”

Houllier made six changes against Rovers but Villa’s recent improvement is such that they still won with ease through goals from Ciaran Clark, Robert Pires and Nathan Delfouneso.

“There is more joy, harmony, and confidence around the side. In previous games we used to concede goals at the end of games but now we score goals and we can hold on to results,” Houllier added.

“In the last seven games we only have lost one game – and that was a match where we were down to 10 men (against Sunderland). I very much want us to improve further.”

Blackburn have now been defeated by Villa four times in cup competitions in two seasons – twice in the Carling Cup and twice in the FA Cup.

To make matters worse, on loan Manchester City striker Roque Santa Cruz suffered a groin injury early in the game and looks set to miss the midweek clash against Tottenham.

“He has tweaked his groin. He went to spin away at the back post and felt something,” Rovers manager Steve Kean confirmed. “Rather than keep him on and try to run it off, we thought we would try and protect him a little bit. I think he will be doubtful for Tottenham. Hopefully he will be okay for Wigan if it settles down.”

Blackburn briefly threatened when Nikola Kalinic cancelled out Clark’s opener but they had shortcomings at both ends of the pitch.

Kean added: “We looked at the chances we had and we need to be a little bit more ruthless.”

Aston Villa: Friedel; Clark, Cuellar, Baker, Walker; Pires (Collins 68), Reo-Coker, Bannan; Agbonlahor (Downing 46), Delfouneso (Albrighton 72);

Heskey.Subs not used: Marshall, Young, Delph, Petrov. Sent off: Baker.

Blackburn: Robinson; Olsson Samba Salgado Hanley; Pedersen Nzonzi Andrews (Grella 70); Santa Cruz (Kalinic 10) Hoilett; Roberts (Mwaruwari 85). Subs not used: Bunn, J Jones, Lowe, Diouf.

Referee: L Probert.

Attendance: 26,067.