Daily Star
Steven Gerrard is a winner and won’t be at all happy with Aston Villa’s present position in the table.
Nor will the Villa board and, possibly, most importantly, nor will the fans. They do not mess about at Villa Park as they showed by booing the team off last Sunday.
So you have to worry for Gerrard ahead of a home game against Manchester City on Saturday.
Villa stand no chance of getting anything. All they can hope is that they don’t get hit for five or six! That sort of result would be hard for Gerrard to survive. One win in five games to date – with Arsenal their only difficult fixture – is not a good return.
Brian Clough always used to say a manager should write down his best team at the start of a season and put it in the draw – and go to it when struggling, But I don’t think Stevie knows his best team and that’s a problem.
I don’t expect Villa to be relegated but then you don’t expect them to be sitting second from bottom either. At least they did keep Douglas Luiz in this transfer window despite Arsenal’s interest. Villa need the Brazilian badly.
They come up against in-form Erling Haaland, too. And forget next May, he could wrap up the Premier League Golden Boot race by the end of Boxing Day at this rate.
Nine goals in five league games, including two hat-tricks, before he gets stuck into Villa. If he plays that is. Manchester City face Sevilla in the Champions League this week and Pep Guardiloa may think it’s safe to rotate and rest.
But no striker likes taking a breather when on a scoring streak – and Haaland will be desperate to be involved.
Frankly, he’s unplayable and unstoppable. He’s so strong, defenders just bounce off him, and he’s a giant, who has incredible pace and exceptional movement.
To think the Norwegian will have the feet up in December while most of his Premier League rivals are running themselves ragged at the World Cup in Qatar is just another advantage for the ex-Borussia Dortmund striker…
