Jamie Carragher has defended his former teammate Steven Gerrard’s management of Aston Villa, saying the club must tolerate “bumps in the road” after hiring such an inexperienced head coach.
Villa have won only one of their opening five Premier League games this season and find themselves 19th in the table.
After a promising initial impact on the team when he arrived abruptly from Rangers in November last year, Gerrard oversaw only two wins in his final 11 league games of the 2021-22 campaign, and a top-half position slipped away as they finished 14th.
Pressure is growing on Gerrard to turn around such a poor run, and with Manchester City visiting Villa Park this weekend, his task gets no easier.
But his former Liverpool teammate and close friend Carragher believes struggles are to be expected from a manager learning as he goes, and that he deserves time to improve results.
“Now Gerrard is enduring his first wobble in management, a question is being asked more frequently: was it too soon for Gerrard to move from Scotland to Villa?,” posited Carragher in his column for the Daily Telegraph. “Obviously, I would say no.
“It felt like the right move for all parties last October even if the coach and board are fighting to keep their long-term plans on track. As a coach, Gerrard will be first to admit he is a work in progress. Including his time at Liverpool’s academy, he has only been in management for five years.
“Villa took a calculated gamble when making the appointment, investing in a coach whose peak is years ahead. The risk when giving so much responsibility to one so inexperienced is they have to learn on the job. That means mistakes are inevitable and the club has to be prepared to tolerate bumps in the road in the hope and expectation that short-term pain will bring long-term gain.”
Gerrard has faced questions over his handling of Tyrone Mings, the defender whom he stripped of the club captaincy this summer, as well as scrutiny over the performances of his flagship signing, Philippe Coutinho.
Philippe Coutinho’s form has dropped away
(Getty Images)
“When the Brazilian joined Villa on loan it was presented as the kind of coup only a manager with Gerrard’s kudos could have,” wrote Carrgher. “Now, because Coutinho has not delivered beyond his initial, encouraging promise, his signing is seen negatively, and one which had Gerrard’s fingerprints over it, especially as he is being picked ahead of Emi Buendía.
“What looked at the time to be a no-brainer deal will be remembered as a waste of the club’s resources unless Coutinho starts producing. It is too soon to completely dismiss that signing as a mistake, but he certainly needs to start justifying his salary.
“However, the other major issue of the summer – stripping Tyrone Mings of the captaincy – became much bigger than it needed to be. I suspect Gerrard picked up a valuable lesson in the fall-out to the Mings situation: do not create unnecessary headlines out of the factors you can control because there are enough of them to deal with from those you cannot.”
Carragher remains convinced Gerrard will be a success in the Premier League as he eventually learns from his mistakes.
“For his sake, Gerrard needs a shift in momentum to ensure it is Villa – not his next club – reaping the rewards of what he is learning during his current difficulties.”
