Aston Villa star, Ollie Watkins, shared his experience during Steven Gerrard’s second season in charge.
The former England and Liverpool star, Steven Gerrard was once at the helm of the club before being replaced by Unai Emery. His stint was rather disappointing in the second season at the beginning of 2022/23.
However, there was always something more than meets the eye. Aston Villa star, Ollie Watkins recalled his experience during that turbulent time in the interview at Rio Ferdinand Presents Show, as reported by Birmingham mail.
“I felt really bad. I felt terrible when he got sacked, we found out on the coach. And I don’t know, I felt like I took a little bit of responsibility for that because he’s looking at me and all the other attackers to score and produce and we weren’t doing that. “
When the former Liverpool and Three Lions captain arrived, there was some optimism and excitement at the club. He had just had an impressive spell in Glasgow Rangers with one league title in hand, their first since returning to the top flight.
Watkins remembered that time quite well as he shared in the interview:
“Yeah, like when Gerrard came in, I was excited. I didn’t know how he was going to play, I’d seen Gerrard obviously play. Like the last time I saw him was when he was playing for Liverpool and then next thing he’s your manager. So I was really excited for just to see how he was. Obviously, he’s played at such a high level. “
“I thought he’s so relatable. He’s been in our position, he knows how we feel, he can talk to you on a level, whereas some managers, for example, like our boss now, he is the boss.
“You don’t really have many conversations with him. But I like it like that. It’s good. With Gerrard, it was really good at the start. I felt like we were playing some good football, there was a good feel around the club.”
On the pitch, the result began to improve after a series of defeats under Dean Smith in October 2021. Gerrard delivered the results quite well with three wins in his first five games.
Villa managed to finish 14th after only two points away from relegation when Dean Smith was still in charge. Some of their notable results under Gerrard was a 2-2 tie against Manchester United at home and a narrow 1-0 win on the road against Everton.
The change began when Gerrard’s assistant manager, Michael Beale, opted to leave Villa Park to join Queens Park Rangers. His successor, Neil Critchley, did not seem to be able to live up to the expectation. Watkins added how it changed.
“And then I think things changed a little bit when he had a new assistant that came in. I think things had changed and we just didn’t hit the ground running at the start of the season like we were before.”
The 2022/23 season did not work out as expected. Gerrard’s side was only able to pick up three wins in 13 games. Despite some notable matches, such as holding Manchester City in a 1-1 draw, Villa went winless in the last four games under the former Rangers’ boss. The 3-0 defeat against Fulham on October 20, 2022 put the nail in the coffin for his tenure in West Midlands.
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