West Ham boss David Moyes has praised Steven Gerrard for starting his managerial career in the ‘right way’ and not jumping the gun early. The legendary Premier League midfielder took his first steps as a coach working within the junior ranks at Liverpool before taking his first full-time senior role as Rangers boss in 2018.
David Moyes said: “I’m extremely impressed [with Gerrard]. So many top-flight players quite often think that the best route to go is to go directly back into a top-flight club. But Steven Gerrard – I think it was the Under-18s and Under-23s at Liverpool where he had a couple of years of that. Then he took on a huge task at Glasgow Rangers, especially to try and stop Celtic from winning ten in a row. He took that one which itself was a monumental achievement for Rangers supporters. And also a really stressful job to manage Glasgow Rangers so he’s taken that one up there and now he’s gone and taken on a really big job in the Premier League at Aston Villa. I like the way he’s trying to develop himself and he’s not jumped in right away thinking this will be easy and he’ll do it all quick. I think he’s tried to train himself up, get some experience and learn on the job. He’s doing a really good job.”
Villa are currently ninth in the Premier League table but that only has them five points clear of 15th-placed Brentford. Looking upwards, they are nine points behind the Hammers in sixth but with a game in hand, leaving their season still very much in the balance in terms of their final league position. This, Moyes added, showed just how competitive the top-flight has been this season, with several sides capable of pulling off a big result in any given fixture.
David Moyes added: “I’ve always thought a lot of Aston Villa. I’ve said since last year that they’ve got good players and some really talented young players. They signed well in the transfer window. But the Premier League is full of good teams, not just Aston Villa. Everybody you play at the moment – there are a lot of really difficult, competitive games. They’ve had some really good results but I think the Premier League this year is so close. I think there’s very little between the teams, of course, there’s quite a bit between Manchester City, Liverpool and maybe Chelsea from the rest. But I think after that there is very little between the teams from top to bottom.”
