Steven Gerrard spoke to the media on Friday morning as he previewed Aston Villa's trip to Everton.
The head coach answered questions on a number of topics as he looked ahead to Saturday's visit to Goodison Park.
Here's what he had to say...
On team news...
“There’s nothing in terms of illness, assuming everyone comes through the testing process this morning.
“We’ve got a doubt with Ezri Konsa, which you’ll know from the previous game. He left the pitch with a severe whack on his hip, so we’ll make a late decision on that today.
“Besides that we’re in good health. We’ve still got a session and testing process to come through, so it’s just Ezri that we’re waiting for so we’ll make a late decision on that.”
On the signing of Robin Olsen…
“We want to make every position in the team as competitive as we can. Emi’s obviously a world class goalkeeper and we’re very happy with what we’ve seen from him.
“The competition was good when we arrived, but we wanted to make it more competitive – not just in this position, across the board.
“Having the opportunity to add Robin to it with his pedigree, in terms of big game experience, an international footballer, we believe that position’s in a nice place now.
“Hopefully they can all push Emi moving forward.”
On Kortney Hause penning a new deal…
“We had some real productive chats with Kortney and his agent, who was really professional throughout the talks.
“We, as a club, had the opportunity to make it clear to Kortney what we think of him and how important he is to the team and squad going forward.
“I think Kortney’s been really pleased with what he’s seen from us since we came in, in terms of the attention he’s had. Although he hasn’t had much game time, he can still feel the love from the staff for his game and development.
“There’s a plan for everyone here. We’ve managed to get it over the line on the back of what we’ve shown to Kortney from a staff point of view. There will be opportunities for him going forward.”
On going back to Goodison Park as a manager…
When asked what reception he’s expecting, Gerrard said: “Pretty similar to what I got at Old Trafford, I don’t think it will be much different.
“Loads of abuse, loads of banter, which is fine. It takes the heat off my players and they can focus on playing.
“My shoulders are broad enough and my skin’s thick enough to accept that warm welcome. I haven’t got a problem with it.”
On playing Everton…
“You can quite clearly see, listen to and read the noises that are coming from Everton at the moment, which is the caretaker manager demanding a reaction.
“I don’t think it’s difficult to predict what’s going to be coming our way. I think you’re going to see a real cauldron of an atmosphere at Goodison, I think they’ll be behind the team.
“The majority of them (the fans) wanted a changed in that position (manager). To have an iconic figure leading the team (Duncan Ferguson), it will be pretty similar to what happened when he took over previously.
“The atmosphere, noise and support behind the team changed and he got a big reaction out of the players. From our point of view, we need to be ready for that, we need to handle that and make sure we’re the best version of ourselves.”
