“[The booing fans have] come here tonight and we’re playing a team who give a lot of chances up and goals up.

“We had a massive opportunity to go from 16th to ninth so the fans deserve for us to go and win that game. So of course I understand that [the booing].

“I don’t think we created enough to say we deserved to win. I wanted us to create more clear-cut chances. I don’t think there was too much wrong with the performance up to a certain point.

“It wasn’t a foul [for the free-kick leading up to the goal]. Tyrone Mings got a clear contact on the ball but saying that we still have to defend the set piece better.

“Ashley [Young] is leading by example for us at the moment and we are really pleased with him. It was a fantastic strike and it was one of a few moments of quality in the final third.

“We are grinding at the moment. We are close to turning draws into wins but to do that we need big players to step forward for us and give us a little more quality in the last bit of our play. In the last couple of games we are going away frustrated.

“I don’t think there was too much wrong with the performance up to a certain point.

“We have tried to change our system a bit to be a bit more bold. We finished with a really bold team out there to try and find that bit of magic and quality.

“The important thing is how I get this team to be more potent.

“[For] Effort and application a lot of our play is OK until you get to a certain point.

“But look around the dressing room and you see [Philippe] Coutinho, [Emiliano] Buendia, [Ollie] Watkins, [Danny] Ings and [Leon] Bailey will be back soon.

“I need these players to step up and provide big moments and go and be headline writers for us.

“I’ve challenged the players to give us more in that area on the pitch because up until that point there’s not much wrong.

“We finished with a really bold team out there to find that bit of quality and magic but there wasn’t enough of it tonight.

“We threw all of our attacking players on to change our system and score goals. We gave Danny Ings more game time and got Cameron Archer out there.”

Steven Gerrard.


“Gerrard has to be under pressure because they are not winning games, and they have a tough run of games. That is not good enough for a club like Aston Villa.”

Roy Keane.


“On paper Villa have four or five good attacking players. Coutinho is a shadow of his former self, he is a million miles from what he was. He [Coutinho] looks like a five-a-side player, the pitch looks too big for him. The game looks too quick, the other players too powerful.”

Jamie Carragher.


“Everyone will debate, have an opinion, I’m sure they will fly around in the next 24 to 48 hours. The key for me is that Phil [Coutinho] knows he can be better, he has been open and said that himself.”

“He’s not the only one, from an attacking point of view we are getting into really good areas of the pitch, we’ve got more than Phil in the final third who also need to give us more. Once we get that from the big players and the big names I’m sure we will move up the league.”

Steven Gerrard.


“I’m aware that we should have more points, more goals, I’m not stupid.

“I haven’t got my head buried under the sand.

“I know there’s pressure, there has been since the opening day when we never got the results we should have at Bournemouth so I’m very much aware of the external pressures and noise. I’m not soft.”

“I don’t want to sit here and talk about four games unbeaten because it’s not enough, the last two performances we need to be taking maximum points rather than just the one so there’s a lot of frustration there.

“It’s not just confidence, it might be a part, of course. Forward players want to be confident, but we are giving them a lot of freedom, we’ve put in a lot of work in this area, so we need to keep persevering and it will change.”

Steven Gerrard.