Steven Gerrard has made an instant impact at Aston Villa since joining from Rangers, leading his new club to three wins out of four in the Premier League ahead of Saturday’s reunion with Liverpool.
The 41-year-old is one of the pre-eminent figures in the competition’s 29-year history having made 504 appearances in the competition, scoring 120 goals and providing 92 assists, all in the colours of his beloved Liverpool where he was a first-team player for 17 years. Gerrard was also named the PFA Player of the Year in 2005-06 and named in the Premier League Team of the Year for a record eight times.
Unfortunately, for Gerrard, Liverpool’s one and only Premier League title win to date came five years after he had left the club as a player in 2020, although he did get his hands on two FA Cups, three League Cups, a Uefa Cup and, most memorably, the Champions League in 2005 during his time as a Red. In total, he played 710 times for the club, a total only bettered by Ian Callaghan and former team-mate Jamie Carragher.
It is that distinguished history with Liverpool that has seen Gerrard earmarked as a future manager of the club, potentially as Jurgen Klopp’s successor with the German’s contract set to expire at the end of the 2023-24 season. However, Gerrard has been adamant that there will be no sentimentality on his part when he returns to Anfield on Saturday.
“I just want to go there and try to win and take what we can. For us, we’re not competing with Liverpool, in terms of the level we’re both at, at the moment, but we’ll certainly go there and give it everything we’ve got,” he said after Sunday’s 2-1 win over Leicester.
“We took City to the wire and I believe we should have taken something out of the game with our second-half performance. So we go there with confidence and belief, with three wins out of four, and we’ll try and make it as difficult as we can.”
How to watch Liverpool vs Aston Villa
- Date: Saturday 11 December
- Kick-off-time: 3pm
- TV: The game will not be shown on live TV, but the full game will be shown on Sky Sports’ Game of the Day after full-time
- Highlights: Game of the Day on Sky Sports Premier League at 8.30pm OR Match of the Day on BBC One at 10.30pm
Gerrard began his coaching career with Liverpool after seeing out his playing career with LA Galaxy, taking charge of the U18 team in the 2017-18 campaign, prior to becoming Rangers manager. He enjoyed a successful spell north of the border, leading Rangers to an unbeaten league season as they won the Scottish Premiership title last term, ending Celtic’s nine-year dominance of the competition in the process.
When Gerrard succeeded Dean Smith, the big question mark was whether or not he could transfer his success from Scotland over to England and the early signs are certainly positive. Only title challengers Liverpool and Manchester City have taken more points (12) than Villa’s nine over the past four matches in which Gerrard has been in charge.
Since their promotion to the Premier League in 2019, Villa have lost three of their four league meetings against Liverpool, although they memorably beat them 7-2 at Villa Park in October last year, with Ollie Watkins scoring a hat-trick.
Those hoping to catch Gerrard’s homecoming on UK television will be left disappointed, however, as none of Sky Sports, BT Sport or Amazon Prime, has live broadcasting rights for the game, which is scheduled to kick-off at 3pm.
Analysis: Steven Gerrard has given Villa fans exactly what they wanted to see
By Daniel Storey, i chief football writer
There is a recipe for making yourself popular as a new manager, and Steven Gerrard is nailing it at Villa Park. First comes the wins; you have been appointed because the last guy couldn’t get enough and, for all the talk of long-term visions, there’s nothing better than some quick steps in the right direction.
But it’s about more than good results. The difference between Villa in Gerrard’s early weeks and Dean Smith’s last is night and day. There is an intensity in central midfield, a desire to press forward and create chances even when they have the lead and a hunger to deal with mid-game adversity and come back stronger that match-going supporters feed off.
This is exactly what fans wanted to see from their new manager, a team that they could feasibly believe wanted to win half as much as them and understood the power of hard work and high energy. Given Gerrard was replacing a boyhood supporter who had such a deep connection with those fans, he should be warmly congratulated for such rapid progress.
This is an extract of The Score, Daniel Storey’s weekly verdict on all 20 Premier League teams’ performances. Sign up to receive the newsletter on Monday mornings here
The 3pm blackout, introduced in the 1960s as a means to protect attendances lower down the English football pyramid, means that fans not in attendance will be unable to watch the game live. There was a similar instance earlier in the season when Cristiano Ronaldo’s second debut for Manchester United against Newcastle was not shown on live television.
Supporters without a ticket Anfield will have to wait until later in the evening to watch the full game back on Sky Sports’ Game of the Day programme or else catch highlights on BBC One’s Match of the Day.
The live games on Saturday 11 December are Manchester City vs Wolves on BT Sport in the lunchtime kick-off and Norwich City vs Manchester United on Sky Sports in the evening.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3wDCyNY
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