Members of the media spoke to Aston Villa head coach Steven Gerrard on Friday afternoon.
Journalists quizzed Gerrard on team news for Saturday's game against Watford, the challenge posed by the Hornets, facing his former manager Roy Hodgson and much more.
Here's what he had to say...
On team news...
“Nothing’s changed from last week, so we’re still missing Bert Traore and Marvelous Nakamba. Besides that, they’re all available."
On the reaction from Newcastle loss…
“The most important thing for everyone to know is that we need to see a change in the level of performance. I’m not going to sit here and talk about what my decisions are, how many changes and what the changes are, in terms of personnel, but the key thing that needs to change is our level of performance.
“The players are honest with themselves and they know, collectively, we need to raise that if we’re to get a strong home win, and that’s certainly what we’re looking for.
“I’ve seen a strong week. Sometimes when you perform like that, and the performance level is like that, you want a game as quick as you can.
“There’s been enough time to reflect but also to reset a few things individually and collectively, and I’m hoping to see that reaction tomorrow.”
On Roy Hodgson…
“I know Roy better than most. He’s a joy to work with; he’s a fair man, he’s an honest man. He’s very diligent in terms of his organisation and he puts real clarity on how he wants his team to play.
“I really enjoyed my time with him at Liverpool, even though it was short, and more so with England. I’ve got nothing but admiration and respect for him.
“If I can have a small percentage of what he’s achieved in the game or the longevity he’s achieved in the game, that will be very satisfying for me.
“He’s someone who I look up to immensely.”
On what he wants to see from Villa’s performance…
“We’ve spoken to the group about the stage of the season that we’re at. We’ve got teams who are below us and maybe not in the best of form, but they’re going to fight for every single point.
“If we don’t hit a certain level when it comes to desire, commitment and grit, we’ll have some issues.
“I don’t think we were beaten last week by a Newcastle team that played fantastic football, I thought we were second best in certain areas which are fundamental to the game.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how we come out of the blocks tomorrow. We’ve told them there needs to be certain ingredients to our performance before our talent can come into the game.”
On playing Watford…
“We’ll have to be good, we’ll have to perform well. We’ll have to have the creation and invention to find a lot of outcomes in the game.
“We want to try and entertain when we get into the final third. We know we’re going to have to beat Roy’s organisation while also focussing on the threat they carry on the counter-attack.
“We’ve worked on it all, we’ve covered all the bases. I’ve got belief and confidence that we’ve got enough players within our system that can find breakthroughs, create and score.
“We’ve just got to go out and execute.”
