Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard on Morgan Sanson’s reaction following his substitution

Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard says there’s ‘absolutely no issue’ with Morgan Sanson after his angry reaction to being substituted in the 2-2 draw with Manchester United.

Sanson was visibly annoyed when replaced by Philippe Coutinho on 68 minutes and was caught on camera kicking the team’s drinks bottles - one of which landed in among the Villa faithful.

The Frenchman’s last action on the pitch was to play a loose pass which resulted in United going 2-0 in front so he was clearly upset with himself.

But whilst that may well have been the case - it’s not something you want to see on the regular, especially when things start flying into the crowd.

Gerrard claims that he sat the midfielder down one-to-one post-match to get an explanation for his reaction and to ensure it wasn’t down to the decision to take him off.

“I asked Morgan the question after the game - ‘was the frustration at me or was the frustration at you making an individual error,’” explained the boss.

“He assures me it was over the individual error. I’m OK with that.

“I’m OK with mistakes in my team because the players are trying to do the right things.

“We have all made them throughout our career so I will never point a finger at a player for making a mistake trying to do the right thing.

“I would have had an issue with Morgan if the reaction was on the back of the decision because you need to respect the person replacing you coming on from the side and he assured me it was nothing to do with that so there’s absolutely no issue.”

Sanson himself has since taken to social media to reiterate what Gerrard said and apologised for his actions.

But considering his replacement came on and bagged himself a goal and assist to give Villa an unlikely draw - I’m sure he’ll be forgiven.

A message from the editor:

Thank you for reading. BirminghamWorld is Birmingham’s latest news website, championing everything that is great about our city - reporting on news, lifestyle and sport. We want to start a community among our readers, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and keep the conversation going.