Steven Gerrard has detailed how he charged up his Aston Villa players before their impressive 3-1 win against relegation-threatened Burnley. Danny Ings got the party started before goals from star man Emi Buendia and Ollie Watkins wrapped things up prior to Maxwel Cornet’s late consolation.
Steven Gerrard said: “Obviously, it was slightly frustrating we didn’t see it out and get that clean sheet because I thought our performance didn’t deserve that but I won’t let it spoil what was a fantastic performance across the board today. There were a lot of strong performances from the boys.”
In weeks gone by the 41-year-old has called on his attacking players to be more ruthless but, today, everything fell into place with Ings and Watkins now both scoring in back-to-back games.
Steven Gerrard added: “Yeah, they did (show ruthlessness). I put it on them before the game. I said, ‘Look, we’ve got a lot of people in the team that are going to fight and do the dirty work but it’s important, in our moments, that the front three go and win us the game’. They were ruthless and, again, it shows that Danny and Ollie can be a real threat together and I thought the service from little Emi was outstanding. John was the back up, if you like, with his cross and quality. The three goals we’ve scored were really outstanding in different ways. You have to remember that we’ve come up against a team here who were in a great place, 10 points out of 12 and on the back of that manager bounce. The boys have come to a tough place and put in a right top performance. I’m delighted with it and, before the game, the team talk was all about purpose. We knew Burnley had a big purpose today, we knew it was a really important game for them but I said to the players ours has got to mean more. That’s to try and finish as high as we can in the top-10. We’ve pushed closer to that and there’s always a purpose in football. It’s important we don’t let this season fizzle out – and that was my message to the players.”
