Martin O’Neill says he was not too perturbed by the alleged “crisis” affecting his players and his team prior to Monday night’s incredible victory over high-flying Liverpool at Anfield.

Indeed, as the Aston Villa manager prepares his side for the visit of Rapid Vienna in tonight’s second leg Europa League qualifier at Villa Park, he claims every week is a crisis in this business.

The Northern Irishman has had to deflect criticism from his young players in recent weeks after a poor start to the season and back-to-back defeats.

Statistics show Villa had won only two league matches in 18, going back to last season and prior to the Liverpool win.

Fans had been hugely critical with some writing off Villa’s season, claiming it was in crisis while a few even began calling for the manager’s head.

“There is a crisis every single week as we know in the game,” O’Neill said. “In this game you go from crisis to crisis.

“It was nice to win the match (at Liverpool) but now we are going to try to get through this game (tonight) and then the game against Fulham before the international break.

“You just try to take it in little games – game at a time is an old phrase but it’s the only way you can look at it.”

O’Neill used a 4-5-1 formation to great effect at Anfield with Nigel Reo-Coker and Steve Sidwell joining Stiliyan Petrov in midfield while Gabby Agbonlahor played as a lone striker.

The Villa manager recently said he would rotate players throughout the season but insisted he was not merely accommodating them to keep them all happy.

“I’m not here to make players happy,” O’Neill said.

“Players will be happy when they are in the team and playing well. That is for every side up and down the country. That’s the case for teams in the last 150 years. That’s not my job.

“My job is to try to win games and to try to get the side cohesively playing to give ourselves a better chance. Whatever players are available on the day we will try to use them to the best of our ability.”

The Villa boss says European football is a priorty this season after the debacle of Moscow last time round.

“I’d like to get through for all sorts of reasons,” he said.

“I’m hoping that we can make the squad sizeable enough to cope with a few things.

“There are still a lot of games to play but it would be great for these players to have another year’s experience of travelling in Europe, going out and playing.

“All these things are important.”

O’Neill added: “You can garner a wee bit of something from every game you play.

‘‘It teaches you something. If we can get the squad bolstered it would be good to be participating in some of these games.”