You’re playing for your futures
Furious Gerrard in stark warning to Villa flops after Wolves tear them apart
STEVEN GERRARD warned his Aston Villa stars they are playing for their futures after overseeing three straight defeats for the first time in his reign.
The former England captain was furious with his side’s first-half display at Wolves, accusing his players of lacking the required mentality for a derby.
Jonny’s early strike and an owngoal from Ashley Young meant Wolves were in control at half-time while Ollie Watkins’ late penalty could not inspire the comeback Villa fans craved.
‘We never turned up from the first whistle,’ said Gerrard. ‘You can’t turn up for a local derby at half-time. We were second best and gifted Wolves two goals.
‘We decided to have a war with Wolves after 70 minutes — 70 minutes too late. At the moment we are looking like a 45-minute team and that is on me. I’ve got to fix it and I will fix it. The players here have to help me now for the next eight games and if not, we’ll get players who will help me fix it.
‘We can’t give gifts. I don’t remember another team giving us a gift whereas we are giving away very poor goals.’
Gerrard handed a start to Leon Bailey after deciding not to select Danny Ings, whose partner gave birth in the early hours of Saturday. Wolves were without two key players in Ruben Neves and Raul Jimenez and, after the morale-shattering 3-2 home defeat by Leeds before the international break, they showed real mettle here to revive their European hopes by winning their 2,500th home fixture in league football.
Villa have spent close to £400million since winning promotion in 2019 and the grim truth for their billionaire owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens is that it may take a similar sum to fulfil their ambitions of cracking the Premier League elite.
Though Watkins scored a late penalty and missed two great chances in the second half, Wolves might have been out of sight by then, with their coach Bruno Lage leaping and bouncing his way through the game on the touchline.
The match threatened to spill over in the second half, with three episodes where numerous players confronted each other and had to be pulled apart.
Wolves scored from their first attack. Ezri Konsa slipped trying to cut out Joao Moutinho’s pass which let in Daniel Podence. John McGinn blocked his effort and Lucas Digne did the same with Fabio Silva’s follow-up, only for the loose ball to reach Jonny. The Spaniard’s volley was true and gave Emiliano Martinez no chance.
Digne, only just back after three weeks out with a hamstring injury, was replaced by Young after only 12 minutes, citing a stomach problem.
Nine minutes before half-time, Wolves doubled their lead in comical fashion. Moutinho released Fernando Marcal on the left and when Francisco Trincao could not convert the cross, Young did the job for him by heading in off his own bar. Villa were in disarray after that, with Gerrard slumped in the dug-out, and a more ruthless team would have punished them. They should have had at least one back before the hour mark. Max Kilman blocked a shot from Watkins and Willy Boly cleared the danger, before Watkins wasted a glorious opportunity in the 56th minute.
Young’s long ball from the back caught Boly napping and with Jose Sa in two minds, Watkins had a free run on goal. His effort beat Sa but slid wide.
Watkins then infuriated Wolves, who had kicked the ball out for a Villa player to receive treatment. When Young tried to return it to Sa, Watkins intercepted it and though the situation was never truly dangerous for the home side, opponents confronted him when the game stopped.
Throughout the second half, Wolves had been largely happy to play a waiting game, though they wasted the chance to wrap up the match when the outstanding Moutinho’s effort was blocked and substitute Hwang Hee-chan put the rebound a fraction wide.
Then at the other end, Sa made a reaction save to thwart Philippe Coutinho, who had a quiet game. Martinez did the same to push over Silva’s swerving strike and then Watkins — from a position virtually identical to his earlier miss — fired against the legs of Sa.
Watkins finally got on the scoresheet in the 86th minute when Sa was ruled to have upended him and he guided the penalty in off the post. In stoppage time, with tempers fraying, Matty Cash came desperately close to equalising with a far-post volley that was deflected wide.
Gerrard acknowledged that this result ended Villa’s hopes of overhauling Wolves, who are now 13 points clear with eight games remaining.
Lage said: ‘In the first half we dominated everything, with the ball, without the ball. We should have scored more goals and 2-0 is such a dangerous scoreline in this competition.
‘As we saw in our last game against Leeds, if you give a chance to the opponent they can turn it around and win the game, so this is an important win.’