Midfielder Stiliyan Petrov has urged Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner to appoint a permanent manager.
Kevin MacDonald has been in temporary charge since Martin O’Neill quit just before the season opener, and after a fine start to life in charge Villa have now slumped to two big defeats.
The Midlands club were thumped 6-0 by Newcastle last weekend and crashed out of the Europa League on Thursday night, squandering a 2-1 lead as they lost to Rapid Vienna.
And midfielder Petrov insists the uncertainty over who will be manager is “making life very difficult” for the players.
He said: “It would be nice to know who will take charge and it would be nice to know as soon as possible.”
But Petrov, who had a penalty saved during the 3-2 defeat to Vienna, admitted there were no excuses for the loss, which saw the Austrians net twice in three minutes late in the game to advance to the group stage at Villa’s expense.
“We had enough chances to win,” he conceded.
“Going out at the first hurdle again is such a huge disappointment after we worked so hard to qualify.”