Gerrard admits to being worried about his position

Steven Gerrard admits he is “of course” concerned about his situation on the Aston Villa bench before champions Manchester City, who have had their last two games shattered by Erling Haaland hat tricks, visit Villa Park on Saturday.

Aston Villa is having a disappointing start to the season and, despite the fact that they stood up to the leader Arsenal on Wednesday at the Emirates (2-1), they are in the penultimate place in the Premier League with only 3 points in 5 games. They beat Everton (2-1) but the ‘villains’ lost the remaining games against Bournemouth (2-0), Crystal Palace (3-1), West Ham (0-1) and Arsenal (2-1 ).

“Of course”

After the defeat at the Emirates, Gerrard was asked in front of the BT Sport microphones if he was concerned about his position at the helm of Aston Villa. “Of course I do,” replied the English coach, who arrived at Villa Park in November 2021 to replace Dean Smith.

“I am very honest and self-critical of myself. I will do my job to the best of my ability, I will step up, I will take responsibility the best way I can. But if I stood here and told you I don’t care, I think you’d look at me like I’m from another planet.”

In his opinion, Aston Villa, suffering from Philippe Coutinho’s poor performance, needs to protect the attackers and play closer to them in the box. But he is also worried about the defensive facet in front of the threatening visit of Haaland, author of 9 goals in 5 games played. “If we continue to make these basic mistakes, it will be difficult for us to keep clean sheets,” he admitted.

Dendoncker (Wolves), signed

In fact today, on the last day of the market, Aston Villa signed Belgian international Leander Dendoncker from Wolverhampton for 15 million euros. His natural position is defensive midfielder but he can also move back into central defence.