Steven Gerrard's contradictory Aston Villa claim from ‘revealing’ talk

The Liverpool and England legend had a promising start at Villa Park but soon lost control of form and confidence, ultimately leading to an unexpected plummet into relegation contention. Down in the perilous reaches of the bottom three come October 2022, Gerrard was relieved of his duties and replaced by Unai Emery shortly after.

Not many would have foreseen the tremendous rise under Emery that followed as Villa remarkably finished seventh, even with very little January transfer business. Qualifying for the Europa Conference League was an insane feat from Emery and one that highlighted further just how much of a failure Gerrard’s reign had become.

But, despite the clear and obvious improvement Villa displayed when he departed, Gerrard reckons he did a great job. The iconic midfielder-turned-manager believes the players didn’t perform at the necessary level to match his tactics and ambitions.

“I actually felt my own performance at Villa was really good,” Gerrard exclusively told The Telegraph. “I actually felt I went to the next level in terms of what I had learnt from Rangers. I felt like I had grown.

“I think when top footballers are not performing at their level I am not going to pull any punches. We had players who weren’t giving what I felt they should have been giving at the time,” he said.

Gerrard contradicts own Villa claim

What the 43-year-old portrayed in the first part of his interview was contradicted by later comments as Gerrard shifted the blame from his former players to himself. “That’s my responsibility,” he said.

“I have to own that and take full responsibility for that. I have to learn from my mistakes. Maybe do things slightly differently and grow and evolve. That’s the only way you can move on from a set-back or a knock.

“It was tough. It hurt. I felt it. But what people need to understand is if I didn’t feel that, if I didn’t take that personally, if I didn’t take full responsibility for that, then I am not Steven Gerrard anymore because when it’s football and it’s professional and it’s something that I love, I will always own it.”

That learning curve continues as Gerrard has just finished his first full campaign in charge of Al-Ettifaq, the club Jordan Henderson controversially left Liverpool for. A sixth-placed finish is respectable given the immense financial power of Al-Hilal, Al-Nassr, Al-Ahli, Al-Taawoun and Al-Ittihad, but more will be desired from Gerrard - and the board that oversees him - next term.