Steven Gerrard has detailed how he expects new signing Philippe Coutinho to make his Aston Villa debut against Manchester United in the Premier League on Saturday. The Brazilian is due to fly into the UK on Tuesday having completed his medical after signing terms on loan from Barcelona until the end of the season. Coutinho was absent from Villa’s 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford in the FA Cup and, providing an update on his exciting new addition, Gerrard said he’ll analyse his former Liverpool teammate this week.
Steven Gerrard revealed: “Philippe, he’ll be with us tomorrow (Tuesday) in terms of arrival. The key to Coutinho is to get him smiling and enjoying his football. If he’s coming to work and enjoying the environment, we need to release the talent. He’s wanting to come to Aston Villa to enjoy his football and to play, to try and find his form and, if we get that and we unlock it, we’ve got a player on our hands. But we’ll analyse him Wednesday morning to see where he’s at in terms of a physical point of view but, all being well in terms of how he’s feeling and what return we get with the physical data, will depend on how much he plays at the weekend. I’m looking forward to having him involved, yes!”
Gerrard, 41, was asked about whether the deal to bring the Champions League winner was too good an opportunity to turn down – or one that he needed to make in an attacking area.
Steven Gerrard added: “We knew we’ve got an injury with Leon Bailey in that area, and we knew we were going to lose two to the African Cup of Nations. We knew we would have been short in that area – and yes we’ve got some bright academy players but they’re still developing. It’s not fair to throw them in at the deep end at this level of competition and we’re still deciding on whether some of them will go out on loan. I’m still waiting to find out what Carney’s going to do in terms of his future – so there’s a lot going on in that No.10 area that we’re discussing and analysing at the moment. We felt it was right that we needed another body but, not just a body to add to the numbers, one who can make a difference.”
On the narrow FA Cup defeat to United which was marred by a controversial 49th-minute VAR decision as referee Michael Oliver chalked off Danny Ings’ goal for a foul by Jacob Ramsey on Edinson Cavani, Gerrard was left unhappy with the near-four minutes it took to make that decision.
Steven Gerrard said: “The officials took three and a half minutes to settle that one. They have looked at two or three things in it. When VAR is there and they make a decision you have to accept it. There is nothing you can do to change it. The easy way out is to blame luck and the officials, we won’t do that. But we are out of the FA Cup and coming into this job I saw this competition as an opportunity to have a good run in it. The lads gave a lot in terms of performance but we need to learn and close the gap from a performance that was nearly good enough. We dominated for large parts but we were not ruthless enough. I’ve seen enough tonight in terms of the performance to know that I can get to where I want to get to but we need to learn and learn quickly. We need to be more ruthless moving forward, defending crosses we need to be tighter. We cannot be having people with free headers in our six-yard box. It is quite clear what we need to iron out and we will do it in the short term.”
