The main area Steven Gerrard should address at Aston Villa after picking up win over Brighton in opener
Steven Gerrard will be thankful for two late goals on Saturday that not only changed the outcome of the match with Brighton but could well transform his Aston Villa side’s confidence going forward.
A goalless draw, which was where the match was seemingly heading for 83 minutes, would have somewhat dulled the mood of Gerrard’s arrival, but instead a 2-0 win at a rocking Villa Park keeps that new manager bounce springing into another week.
“These are the buzzes, the highs you miss as a player,” Gerrard said, after goals from Ollie Watkins and Tyrone Mings ended Villa’s run of five straight defeats.
“That is the reason I wanted to stay in the game. It is my medicine if you like. I love winning, I love competing, I love seeing players happy, smiling, feeling good about themselves.”
That “medicine” will make training a little easier this week. Gerrard admitted “it wasn’t all perfect”, but he can at least draw on incidents from the Brighton game in a constructive light, and work on areas that need addressing with a happier set of players.
Top of the agenda could well be creativity. The 4-3-2-1 provided a solid base, with John McGinn in particular outstanding with his distribution and defensive work from central midfield, but the front three of Watkins, Danny Ings and Emiliano Buendia lacked a cohesion which in turn led to a lack of chances. Ings did not have a single shot and touched the ball just 18 times in 66 minutes, while Buendia was evidently frustrated with his own output when he too was substituted off.
Watkins remained on the pitch, meanwhile, and benefited from Gerrard’s positive changes, with the Villa boss evidently eager to chase victory when replacing Jacob Ramsey with Anwar El Ghazi in the 84th minute.
Seconds later, it was another substitute, Ashley Young, who ignited the counter attack which was expertly finished by Watkins, who showed a steely determination to ignore Leon Bailey and go for goal himself.
This goal will have Gerrard pondering his options going forward, and while the substitutions highlighted an impressive depth it is clear the Villa boss has the January transfer market at the forefront of his plans.
“We’ve still got a lot of work to do to move out of the area we are,” Gerrard said. “We need to keep focusing on the next match, until we get in a position where we can assess it come January.”
Tough period for Brighton
Brighton’s position defies their current situation. After four wins from their opening five Premier League games, they have now gone seven without a victory but remain ninth in the table thanks to that solid start.
Bar Newcastle, they are on the longest winless run in the top tier, and on a weekend where another Premier League manager lost his job this will slap as a mighty reality check for all involved at Brighton.
Graham Potter is not in danger of losing his role, but his recent comments alluded to the fickleness of football when asked about his ambitions of one day becoming England manager.
“In six months’ time the table might look a lot different and people might think, ‘No chance with this guy’. That’s how it is,” he said last Thursday, fully aware that one minute you are flavour of the month, the next you might be put to the back of the shelf.
Graham Potter’s Brighton have gone seven league games without a win (Photo: PA)
Potter must pick his Brighton side up. They left Villa Park wondering what might have been, and will soon head into a busy festive period knowing the table might indeed look very different after Christmas.
It is therefore a major test of Potter’s credentials. To maintain his reputation he must navigate Brighton through this rough patch and come out the other side, and while he has the backing for now, throw in a few more defeats and it will be intriguing to see if the mood does change.
In the meantime, this set of players must get Villa through a tricky set of fixtures, with a trip to Crystal Palace this Saturday followed by matches against Manchester City, Leicester City and Liverpool.
We learned on Saturday that Villa will be happy to play on the back foot. They only had 37 per cent possession but still came away with victory, and this approach will almost certainly be replicated in their upcoming matches against trickier opponents.
We also discovered Gerrard will likely lean on Mings and McGinn and expect them to lead by example, as they did against Brighton, while he will be there on the sidelines kicking every ball too.
“I want to be there on the side for my players,” Gerrard said. “I want to coach from the side. I want them to see me. I want to be visible. I want to help them, guide them, so they carry a game plan out. Inside me is what was inside me as a player. That will to win. That drive and the energy.”
It’s time to find out where that drive will take them.
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