Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill believes Gareth Barry is equally adept at playing both a holding midfielder role and driving forward.

When playing for England the midfielder performs as a defensive midfielder while at Villa he is more attacking in his style of play.

The Villa boss does not think that is a problem for Barry.

O'Neill told the club's website: "Gareth is playing two different roles.

"Here, he is given a lot of licence to go forward and to play his own particular brand of football.

"Stiliyan is the one who plays in the more disciplined role.

"Saying that, you can't have four or five players doing what they want in a game. If you lose discipline, you lose shape and you can end up losing a game.

"His role for England looks, from a distance, to be a holding role. This allows other midfielders to get forward and do things. That's fine. He's more than capable of playing both roles.

"When you work seven or eight days in the build-up to an international match, with the manager advising you at each training session, you go out on the day of a game and you know exactly what you need to do.

"And his role for England hasn't varied that much since Capello took over. He knows exactly what's expected of him."