Jacob aims to follow in boss’s footsteps after goal
ASTON Villa midfielder Jacob Ramsey is eager to keep following in the footsteps of his manager after scoring in Tuesday’s 2-0 win at Norwich.
The academy graduate struck for just the second time for his boyhood club in Norfolk, playing a one-two with Ollie Watkins near the halfway line before he ran at the Canaries defence and rifled into the top corner after 34 minutes.
It was a goal boss Steven Gerrard would have been proud of and the 20-year-old admitted he has been watching clips of the ex-Liverpool captain.
Ramsey told BT Sport: “I have seen Ollie lay it off to me in space and I looked around and saw no one there, so I thought ‘go on then, why not have a shot?’ and luckily it went in. It was a good goal.
“Obviously, I have been watching clips growing up and the gaffer was probably one of the best at that, being a goalscoring midfielder and that is what I want to be.”
Gerrard praised the England Under21 ace after the victory, with Ramsey starting five of the six games since the former Rangers manager took over at Villa Park.
Norwich chief Dean Smith gave the youngster his first opportunity in the Villa side and was acknowledged by his successor at the midlands club.
“Jacob has been outstanding. Obviously he is a big talent and that is the reason why Dean gave him his chance before I came in,” Gerrard added.
“I was aware of Jacob from afar and his consistency levels in the games so far have been top. His standards have been set high but there is room to grow and that is the exciting thing. If he keeps performing to that level, it is very exciting for Aston Villa fans.
“I never watch my stuff back unless people put it on the television, but he should watch as much football as he can and learn off as many people as he can.”
Next up for Villa is a home clash with Burnley where Gerrard is eager to claim a fifth win out of seven games, but he will be without Marvelous Nakamba for the foreseeable future with a decision due to be made this week over whether the midfielder requires surgery on a knee injury.
The 41-year-old said: “We are very pleased with our points total. We ran Manchester City close and to the wire, we lost to Liverpool on a penalty albeit they were better than us on the night.
“We want to win as many games as we can and the focus now turns to Burnley. I am sure Villa Park will be full of voice but the focus is on us and we need to take as many points as we can.”
n Dean Smith has admitted there should be a “magic number” for the amount of Covid-19 cases a club needs for a Premier League fixture to be called off after his depleted Norwich side lost at home to Aston Villa.
The Canaries were without Lukas Rupp, Pierre Lees-Melou, Christos Tzolis and Josh Sargent due to coronavirus concerns in addition to several other squad members being absent with injuries.
Manchester United saw their scheduled
fixture at Brentford on Tuesday postponed due to Covid-19 cases in their camp and Tottenham were also able to call off last weekend’s match at Brighton, but the likes of Norwich, Leicester and Brighton have played recently with players unavailable due to the virus.
“Our sporting director Stuart Webber spoke to the Premier League on guidance when we have symptomatic players around us,” Smith explained after defeat to the club that sacked him last month. “We played Tottenham, they had an outbreak. We played Man United, they had outbreak. We wanted guidance over would it be fair on Villa if we had symptomatic players around us?”
He continued: “I am not saying all our players are symptomatic and have Covid because some are injured.
“Grant (Hanley) did his shoulder on Saturday and Ozan Kabak went down, so we have injured players, but we probably need a magic number telling us how many is enough.”
Smith conceded he had “no idea” if there was a specific amount of cases which saw a fixture called off, but the PA news agency understands there is no official threshold for the number of positive cases that would cause a game to be postponed.
Rival bosses at Brentford and Arsenal in Thomas Frank and Mikel Arteta made similar calls for clarity earlier this week while the Premier League has brought in daily lateral flow testing for top-flight clubs and PCR testing will increase to twice a week.