Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa in-tray: Gel for new acquisitions, organize defense, promote youth and more | Football news

Steven Gerrard will be the boss of Aston Villa, so we’ll look at five areas he needs to prioritize in his first Premier League managerial job.

Rangers boss Gerrard is expected to sign a two-and-a-half-year deal at Villa Park with the Midlands in 16th place in the Premier League after five consecutive losses to Dean Smith.

When there are tough matches on the horizon, the former Liverpool midfielder has no time to lose. Here’s what comes to the tray when he arrives at Bodymoor Heath …

Contact the fans

Not every manager can be a lifelong supporter – in fact, Smith’s love for the club he led was a unique phenomenon in today’s game – but after Smith followed Jack Grealish out the door within three months, much of Villa’s soul went away. with it.

Now the soul is not as great as the results, but it will certainly help. It helps sell tickets, it helps to get players and it should increase patience for an even big project.

After a few years of hard work at the end of the Premier League days and the start of the championship, Smith and Grealish teamed up to bring the fan feeling back to Villa Park.

Villa fans want the Manager to show love and closeness to a club that they think, realistically or not, should be challenging for Europe. Gerrard’s biased perseverance in the Rangers suggests he gets in touch with supporters, but there is a legitimate feeling that Villa is just a useful springboard to Liverpool’s work. He must give all the right votes.

Gel new signatures

Smith’s LMA statement after the kick-off hinted he felt he had experienced it.

“I felt that when the important players return to full fitness soon, we would achieve a half-rank,” he said, no doubt referring to the fact that Leon Bailey, Emi Buendia and Danny Ings have played together in just 34 minutes in two games. . It took 22 minutes for Arsenal to move the dominant 2-0 lead to three and 12 minutes to a 3-0 loss against Watford. Not quite mature conditions to assess.

CEO Christian Purslow claimed that these three signatures, totaling nearly £ 100 million, were carefully measured to compensate for Grealish’s over-reliance. But their use, though not all at once, proved to be Smith’s destruction.

Due to injury, Bailey on and off the team has only started two top-tier matches, and while he looked devastating in the spur on the opponent’s half, he has yet to show the out-of-game discipline required in the top half. Premier League winger.

Buendia looks completely confident, marginalized in a central location, despite demanding a £ 38 million price tag to impress right from Norwich.

And Buendia’s ranking forced her to take Ings 3-5-2 into account, and while Ings is always involved in the goals, it was at the expense of last season’s scorer Ollie Watkins.

With so much potential on the front line, Gerrard calls it a welcome headache. Smith would disagree; switching from one to three – for Grealish’s Ings, Buendia and Bailey – has cast the shape of Villa, and Gerrard has difficult selection decisions.

Arrange the defense

After recording 15 clean goals last season, with only Manchester City and Chelsea improvements, Villa’s back lineup has conceded 20 goals in its 11 opening games. Only Newcastle and Norwich have leaked more.

It’s weird because the staff has remained consistent, but the change to the back trio left them very pregnant, especially in large areas.

Above all, Gerrard has to make it hard for Villa to win, and he has the players to do it. They have a regular Englishman in Tyrone Mings, while his assistant student Ezri Konsa has been in better shape for the past 18 months. Matty Cash is one of the few bright sparks during Villa’s gloomy season, while Matt Targett and Emi Martinez, who won the 2020/21 player and supporter, can’t become bad players overnight.

It’s hard to predict Gerrard’s defensive approach in the Premier League, given the Rangers ’possession of 10 of the 11 Scottish Premier League teams each year.

They have enjoyed most of the ball, with an impressive 63 percent possession of the ball. Villan claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them – possession being 4.6 percent.

The defense isn’t entirely to blame, as their shells have broken open in the last couple of games without Douglas Luiz, and his return can’t come soon enough; he will return to Brighton in Villa Park on 20 November.

Continue to promote youth

Whether Villa fans see it as good business or not, getting the British record £ 100 million for an academy graduate in Grealish was a testament to the club’s youth arrangements.

The Villa Academy will continue production – they won the FA Youth Cup last season – and Smith wasn’t shy about giving young people a chance.

Let’s take 20-year-old Jacob Ramsey, who is completely at home in the Premier League. He is now a permanent number one match, while 19-year-old Jaden Philogene-Bidace and Cameron Archer have been given minutes.

One player in the club’s hierarchy and Gerrard needs to focus is Carney Chukwuemeka, widely regarded as Villa’s best academic potential.

The 18-year-old midfielder, who already has five top matches, has only 18 months left in the contract, but negotiations are still pending. Top clubs are said to be touring, and alarm bells should ring at the Villa.

Over the next 18 months, fans will also be keeping an eye on midfielder Aaron Ramsey and Lamare Bogarde, as well as right-wing Kaine Kesler. Gerrard has a lot of choice.

Win one of the next two games

The fact that Villa has applied for a name like Gerrard should come as no surprise to many; Purslow wanted Thierry Henry to championship before Smith in 2018.

But looking at the position of the Villa, it is certainly a risk. There are coaches with Premier League experience available and Villa is hovering above the relegation zone, so to go with a man without a top manager, suggesting that the hierarchy finds the relegation battle unrealistic.

It’s a little naive.

Next up against Brighton (H) and Crystal Palace (A) – two teams that have each lost just twice this season – Villa needs a win to stop the rot. After that it is Man City (H), Leicester (H) and Liverpool (A). Villa could realistically have 10 games without a win by mid-December, at an overall speed well below the point in the game. Suddenly, the relegation match becomes a realistic possibility.

This is not the time to experiment. Gerrard needs results right away.

Upcoming matches for Aston Villa

November 20: Brighton (H)

November 27: Crystal Palace (A)

December 1: Man City (H)

December 5: Leicester (H) – live Sky Sports

December 11: Liverpool (A)

December 14: Norwich (A)