Gerrard: I’ll fight pressure head on
NEW BOSS LOVES HUGE WEIGHT OF EXPECTATION
STEVEN GERRARD claims he thrives on pressure and insists he is ready to succeed in the Premier League as a manager.
The 41-year-old has been in the public eye since he was a teenager with Liverpool before developing into their iconic trophy-winning captain.
Now he is back in England’s top flight as a manager for the first time after three and a half years at Rangers, where he won the Scottish title last season.
Aston Villa have turned to Gerrard after five successive defeats cost Dean Smith his job.
The club’s billionaire owners, Nassef Sawiris, below and Wes Edens, are desperate for success after a net spend of more than £200million since buying Villa in 2018 and fans are anxious to see their team lift major silverware for the first time since 1996.
It is a challenge that leaves Gerrard enthused.
He said: “The excitement levels are really high. My stomach has been turning over and doing somersaults. I am very hungry and ambitious. The start can’t come quick enough. I like a challenge, I like a risk.
“This club will suit me because I know the fans are very passionate and there is a demand to win. That is something I have lived with since I was 17.
“It is about making everyone come together, and I believe we can do exciting things together.
“I have learnt an awful lot in the past three and a half years. I have lived under that pressure and demand to win and compete every single week.
“There are two ways to look at pressure. You can shy away from pressure and fear it or you can be really excited, put your shoulders back and confront it head on.” Villa kept 15 clean sheets last term but have already conceded 20 goals, including 13 in five games. It is one of the first tasks Gerrard is addressing ahead of Brighton’s visit on Saturday. He said: “We have a block of six weeks now where we have to focus on what is in the building to try to stamp our identity and how we want to play.
“We haven’t got much time so it is important the players listen and take the information on board. I want to be as entertaining and attractive on the eye as we can. But one thing I would like to improve is the structure of the team from a defensive point of view, out of position. Our distances, our shape and what we do to regain the ball. That is important to me.
“I have been lucky over the years when I have been a player to take some of that stuff from some world-class managers.
“The players need to be the best versions of themselves individually and collectively. Leave all the pressure to me, that is what I get paid for.”