Steven Gerrard has called for a collective reaction from his Aston Villa players ahead of their trip to face Newcastle United on Sunday afternoon. In his pre-match press conference on Friday,
Steven Gerrard said: “In the debrief this morning I’ve made a point to them that I’m not someone who finger-points or blames – it’s more about how we can get better collectively because, inevitably, that will get us where we want to get to. Finger-pointing and people shifting the blame onto people is not the way forward in this day and age. It’s about being honest, open, taking accountability; if your DNA was around the goal, it’s about acknowledging that, why did it happen and where we can improve moving forward.”
The fixture congestion in the Premier League caused by the number of postponements in December and January has worsened the selection headaches for each of the 20 managers. Gerrard referred to the time between the games against Leeds and Newcastle as he fielded a question about how he was planning to prepare for the trip to Tyneside.
Steven Gerrard said: “Our recovery will be key to our performance against Newcastle. The rest of the players that didn’t play big minutes against Leeds have just done a normal session, if you like. The players that played a lot of minutes will have two very light recovery days. We’ll refuel them and get them re-energised to get them ready for the weekend.”
