The last time Steven Gerrard had to swallow four successive defeats was eight years ago, a time when he was still playing, patrolling the Liverpool midfield, dovetailing with Philippe Coutinho and his manager was Brendan Rodgers. That same autumn, an Aston Villa team led by Paul Lambert featuring Philippe Senderos, Carlos Sánchez and Kieran Richardson had just lost six Premier League games on the spin. On Saturday Coutinho will be on the pitch at Leicester’s King Power Stadium, where Gerrard will share the touchline with Rodgers as his Villa side seek to reverse a slide that has hampered their hopes of a top-half finish.
A fifth straight league loss would represent uncharted territory for Gerrard, whose Rangers side won the Scottish Premiership title unbeaten last year. He is wise enough to acknowledge that pressure and stick from pundits is probably “in the post”. The obvious caveat is that Villa’s defeats came against clubs chasing European football (West Ham, Arsenal, Wolves and Tottenham). Gerrard recognises that such context softens the focus somewhat, but given that is a stage to which they wish to return, the way they have slipped to 15th, eight points above the relegation zone, does not sit well. “Whether it be out there now if we were playing you lot [the media] in an eight v eight game, I don’t like losing,” says Gerrard, looking towards the training pavilion at Bodymoor Heath.
“I hope my players echo that and share that feeling. They are the feelings that drive you to change your current form and your current position in the table. I don’t like losing football matches. That’s how I am. I have been at clubs where normally you are not in this position. But I’m even more determined to prove that I can work in these situations. It wasn’t always rosy at Liverpool. We went through some real tough spells that I had to lead from the front to change those feelings and where we were. At Rangers we suffered at times. We had some bumps and runs of form that didn’t sit well with the supporters and with myself. I had to lead and change that. I knew it was going to be no different at Aston Villa.”
It was only last month that Villa won three in a row, scoring nine goals without reply, and even in a 4-0 defeat by Tottenham last time out, a promising first half offered encouragement before they wilted. Gerrard, with his right hand, mimics a plane taking off. “I never turned up here thinking all of a sudden we were just going to rise up and challenge the top four and the top six within five or six months,” he says. “I took over a team that was on the back of a run of five defeats. I knew it wouldn’t work overnight. But my attitude and my drive hasn’t changed to what I want to do and what I believe I can do here, in terms of leading the club where I want to lead it.”
Gerrard’s primary remit upon succeeding Dean Smith in November was to secure their top-flight status but there is a bigger picture. Leicester, who have won the Premier League and FA Cup in recent years and face Roma next week in the last four of the Europa Conference League, and another Midlands neighbour, Wolves, provide inspiration when it comes to disrupting the normal order. “In the medium and long term, we want to go and prove we can follow in the footsteps of a West Ham, Leicester or Wolves who have upset the top six, or gone and done ever so well in a cup competition where you can reward your supporters with some success.”
For now, Villa and Gerrard cannot think too far down the line. “With the right decisions and the right support over the next couple of months I believe we’ll be a different and a better team when we attack next season,” he says. “At the moment we have to prove we’re still a good team now and that we’ve got real talent in the building that is capable of stringing wins together. We have proved it and we’ve got to prove it in the next seven games to put ourselves in a place where everyone around Aston Villa will be in a better mood.”
