Aston Villa captain Vlaar says the team must learn from their mistakes as they finished only 6 points clear of relegation. The youth side of Villa only managed 15th place this season, battling to avoid relegation for much of the season. The Dutch defender believes Villa has a bright future with all their young talent in the team.
It was Vlaar's first season at Villa Park
"We have to learn from the mistakes we made. The basics are good, and we have to build on that," he told BBC WM
"If you look at the first XI, Gabby [Agbonlahor] is the only player who has played in the Premier League much before, for most it was our first season."
Villa's highlight of the season came in April when they were able to defeat Stoke away from home 3-1 which pushed them out of the relegation zone for good. Their captain, Vlaar, was pleased with the way the team responded towards the end of the season as they won 17 points out of a possible 30.
Aston Villa were pleased they managed to avoid relegation
"In the end, we all played better and scored a lot more goals," the 28-year-old said. "There's still a lot to work on, but we can be very satisfied by the way we played the last three months.
"We got good results against teams around us, which gave us a lot of confidence.
"I always believed in survival. In the first half of the season we were unlucky with decisions or deflected shots, but second half we earned the right for some luck because we played better."
This was the 2nd straight season in which Aston Villa was close to the drop zone but it was also a minor improvement as they collected three more points as compared to last season and finished a place above as well.
