Football
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Remi Garde says Aston Villa have improved fitness since he took over

Remi Garde claims his Aston Villa squad were not fit enough when he took charge, while also setting a target of 10 wins to stay in the Premier League.

The boss has made changes to training at Bodymoor Heath since replacing Tim Sherwood in November.

Villa parted company with two fitness coaches brought in under Sherwood soon after Garde's November arrival as ex-Villa fitness coach Robert Duverne, who worked under Gerard Houllier, returned.

Asked whether his new side were not fit enough, Garde said: "Yes, I felt that but I don't want to judge what happened before. It was just my feeling that we could improve a little bit more in this area of the game because it's very important in this country.

"You have a lot of duels and the rhythm and the pace is very high and I feel we have improved a lot. When I arrived someone told me that the team was last in terms of running on statistics.

"I am not very keen on statistics because they can say one thing and you can find another statistic to prove the opposite so I am very careful with stats. But nevertheless you have to look at it and I know that we have improved in this area.''

Garde believes Aston Villa must win almost half of their remaining matches to survive after outlining a 10-game winning target.

The boss believes the rock bottom side need at least 36 points to beat the drop from the Premier League. They are 10 points from safety after Saturday's 1-1 draw at Newcastle and host West Ham on Boxing Day having not won in 16 games.

Garde is still searching for his first win after six matches in charge and has stated what they need to stay up with 21 games left.

He said: "I think we need at least 10 victories. With 36 points you can be safe. Sometimes you go down, sometimes with more points you can go down. Step by step we need to concentrate on the first win, then the second. We need to start very quickly that is for sure.

"We have seen the Norwich and Bournemouth victories against teams you never would have expected. You never know, maybe this is a year when you can win or lose against any team.

"It would be the best gift I could find with my players [to beat West Ham]. I don't believe too much in gifts. As I told you many times we don't have to rely on anyone else but us.''

Garde is looking at new players he trusts to join Villa's survival fight in January and is keen on Bordeaux winger Wahbi Khazri.

"He's a player that I know well because before he left Bastia for Bordeaux I was interested in this player with Lyon," he added. "I know him quite well."

Gabby Agbonlahor is struggling to break into Garde's plans and Micah Richards is still suffering with a knee injury which has sidelined him for the last three games.

The players will train on Christmas morning before spending the rest of the day with their families and Garde hopes they will take inspiration from the time alone.

He added: "They will train in the morning and stay with families. They are adults, I'm OK for them to spend some Christmas time with family, you can find strength. Then the day after they can say, 'I had some lovely time now I want to win.'

"When you are low in confidence like we have been, it is difficult to take the game [from the off]. Where we are a situated, with nothing to lose, you forget you have no confidence, then play on. Starting from beginning we need more confidence, more sparks."

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