Steven Gerrard has opened up on his time at Aston Villa following his dismissal in October 2022, with the former Liverpool midfielder winning just 13 of his 40 matches in charge
Steven Gerrard has slammed the Aston Villa players for "not performing at their level" during his time in charge - but took responsibility for their drab form near the end of his tenure.
Villa appointed Gerrard to replace Dean Smith in November 2021 and he made an excellent start, winning four of his opening six matches in charge. However, Villa were inconsistent for the remainder of the season, showing signs of promise but also having dreadful periods of form which saw them finish 14th.
Having secured a couple of big-money arrivals, there was optimism that Gerrard could take Villa to the next level and properly adopt his style of football with a full pre-season. Villa picked up just three points from their first 15 available, and although there was a mini uptick in form in September, that soon dropped off as Gerrard was sacked following a 3-0 defeat against Fulham in mid-October.
That result left Villa in 17th with two victories from their first 10 matches. Unai Emery was confirmed as his replacement and the former Arsenal and Sevilla boss drastically transformed their fortunes from battling relegation to fighting for Europe, somehow guiding them to a seventh-placed finish.
Reflecting on his time at Villa, Gerrard told The Telegraph: "I think when top footballers are not performing at their level I am not going to pull any punches. We had players who weren’t giving what I felt they should have been giving at the time and that’s my responsibility.
"Villa is a fantastic club. It was an incredible opportunity at the time and I have nothing bad to say. The owners gave me a fantastic chance. The initial period, our form was top eight in the Premier League and obviously the opinion of me now from a lot of people will be that I failed, if you like, but I know there was a period there where we got an awful lot of things right. We had the team doing okay."
His dismissal from Villa hit Gerrard hard. He had started his managerial career on an upward trajectory following an impressive spell in charge of Rangers and was touted as a future successor to Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool.
"It was tough, Gerrard said. "It hurt. I felt it. But what people need to understand is if I didn’t feel that, if I didn’t take that personally, if I didn’t take full responsibility for that, then I am not Steven Gerrard anymore because when it’s football and it’s professional and it’s something that I love I will always own it.
"I am not one of those people who looks to blame, who looks to point fingers. It’s not my style and that’s the reason why I needed a period of time to process that hard toughness. It knocked my confidence a little bit. It does. I spoke to a lot of managers around it. I went to see Alex Ferguson for a couple of hours and he said ‘take your time, don’t jump into anything. Take your time and process it, analyse it’.
"And that is what I have done. But it has not affected my ambition. I didn’t have any targets when I set out on this different journey. I didn’t have a plan to go to Glasgow Rangers. I didn’t have a plan to go to the Premier League after three and a half years. I didn’t have Aston Villa on my resume. I am going along trying to be the best version of myself and have a career in coaching because I am passionate about it."
Villa are now preparing to play in the Champions League after Emery remarkably guided them to a top-four finish, while Gerrard is currently managing in the Saudi Pro League with Al-Ettifaq.
Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
