The gilded career of Steven Gerrard continues its upward arc. An all-time great as a player with Liverpool and England, Gerrard takes his next step in management after succeeding in his first. There are some in Scotland who believe Gerrard was far too hasty in leaving Rangers for Aston Villa, arguing that one pot, albeit the Scottish Premiership title, does not an Ibrox legacy make.
That misunderstands the speed at which the football world turns. Gerrard is impatient to push on. Denying Celtic a tenth successive championship with Rangers’ 55th represented year-on-year progress. Rangers boshed Celtic by 25 points. What’re a few Scottish Cups or a treble worth compared to the opportunity offered by a legacy club in the Premier League?
Gerrard’s one job in Scotland was to topple Celtic. Since the SPFL does not yield the broadcast revenues to make an impact in Europe, sustained success at Rangers could only ever mean Old Firm dominance. How long before that begins to feel like a plateau? Gerrard would never settle for that.
Rangers are a huge institution. The people of Scotland and the Rangers diaspora would argue a more significant footballing citadel than his new home. There is arguably a rivalry no fiercer than Rangers and Celtic, no city more intense than Glasgow. Villa is a step down in those terms but not in pedigree. Seven times English champions and European Cup winners 40 years ago, Villa are one of England’s marquee clubs, tracing their history to the origins of the old Football league.
Gerrard used his experience and authority derived from his playing career to manage the noise in Glasgow. He had only limited experience in the dugout, coaching the Liverpool U18s, but he understood the landscape having been at the centre of the news cycle for a decade as Liverpool and England captain. When the flashpoints erupted he used his big game nous to gain control, his features and flat Scouse delivery erecting an inscrutable wall hard to penetrate.
The attention goes up a notch at Villa Park. As much as this is about further establishing his credentials at a team in a state of flux, for everybody else, and Liverpool fans in particular, it is about what happens at Anfield after Jurgen Klopp. That’s the reality. Gerrard will not allow the narrative to be steered that way. Fair enough. But he cannot control the dreamscape inhabited by supporters and whether he likes it or not, they will view the Villa experience as an audition to replace Klopp when the moment comes.
So what might success look like at Villa? In the matter of football aesthetics, the standards are already set. Klopp and Pep Guardiola have put thrilling, attacking football at the top of the agenda. Not only is it entertaining, under the stewardship of Klopp and Guardiola it also thrillingly efficient proving the most effective way to win games. Winning at the same rate as Liverpool and Manchester City is cleary fanciful at this stage but establishing a creative template is not.
Exactly what kind of coach Gerrard aspires to be is hard to tell from the Rangers experience. Given the purse constraints at Ibrox, Gerrard trod a more pragmatic path, placing an emphasis on clean sheets as much as the goals for column. The 25 bagels Rangers clocked up last season equalled Celtic’s record, Gerrard’s pride in doing so a measure of his enthusiasm for the utilitarian approach.
Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea, David Moyes at West Ham and Atletico Madrid’s Diego Simeone are others who place a high value on keeping the opposition out. Considering Villa have lost five Premier League matches on the spin since winning at Old Trafford that is a sensible place for Gerrard to start. The more expansive thinking that governs the philosophies at City and Liverpool can wait for now.
Gerrard brings immediate heft to the piece, but as a coach he has still to prove himself at this altitude. Ultimately, what we are looking for and what he will need if he is to follow in the footsteps of Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness and return to Anfield as Ceasar, is a clear identity, to establish a recognisable style of play that produces the required results and excites the fans. Just as Rangers have done, Villa will accept success with them as the price of his leaving one day.
Gerrard was at Rangers three-and-a-half years. He has signed a two-and-a-half year deal at Villa, time enough to leave his mark on the place if not to coat it in silver.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3ciLKhD
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