Steven Gerrard spoke to VillaTV at Aston Villa’s pre-season training base in Australia this week.
The head coach discussed the importance of the team’s time down under, the addition of Ludwig Augustinsson and much more.
Read every word from Gerrard’s interview below…
How have your first few days been here in Australia?
“Really good, really positive. I’ve really liked and enjoyed what I’ve seen on the training pitch, which is the most important thing. Facilities are top and the majority of us are just getting over a bit of jet lag but we’re all in a good place and ready to push on from here. I’m really excited to be here and ready for a strong couple of weeks.”
How important is this tour going to be for building relationships and chemistry, on and off the pitch?
“When you take over a job mid-season it’s always a challenge to get your philosophy across as quick as you can. Without that luxury of the five or six weeks of a pre-season to prepare properly, it’s almost like you’re thrown into the deep end and the games are hitting you pretty fast. To have this opportunity to work in this environment and live together for a couple of weeks, it gives you the opportunity to not only prepare from a football and technical point of view but it gives you the opportunity to bond and become a stronger group as staff and players. That’s what we’re looking for in the next couple of weeks.”
You’ve spoken many times about how crucial pre-season would be in making this team stronger, mentally and physically. It’s early days but are you pleased with what you’ve seen so far?
“Really pleased. When you’re a manager, you want time, you want pitch time. You want the luxury of being able to do double sessions. You also have four or five games in pre-season to try different things, to tweak certain things. You have a period of time to really put your philosophy and your style across to the players. Then it’s up to them to adapt, take all the information on board and become a stronger group from that information.”
You’ve now had the chance to see Boubacar Kamara up close in training. What are your first impressions of him?
“He’s shown his quality. We’ve only had two or three sessions from a football point of view, but straight away you can see he’s got really impressive football IQ. You can see he knows the game, he has an impressive game understanding. Technically, he’s a wonderful passer of a ball. It’s really early at the moment and he’s still settling in, getting used to his teammates and getting used to us as a staff. I’m very confident that in time he’ll settle well and be a real good player for Aston Villa.”
Ludwig Augustinsson has become the latest addition to the squad. What qualities will he bring?
“Experience. I’ve said on many occasions that I want as much experience as I can in this group in the dressing room. If we’re to get to where we want to, to achieve our internal targets that we’ve set out, we need experienced players. We need players that have got experience not just on the domestic stage but internationally and in Europe too. We’re bringing in a player who’s a fantastic professional, a good character and he will also push for game time. It’s a real shrewd signing for the Club. I’m looking forward to getting him here, getting him settled and I’m sure he’ll help us over the course of the season.”
There are a few players not out here with us, could you explain the reasons why?
“Kortney Hause has had a small operation in the knee area and he can’t do much from a pitch-based point of view, so we thought the sensible decision was to leave him at Bodymoor. We’ve got fantastic medical facilities at Bodymoor, so we felt it was the sensible decision to leave Kortney back. Hopefully he can join us in the coming weeks once he starts getting back on the pitch. We wish him a speedy recovery. Anwar El Ghazi’s partner is about to give birth at any given moment. They’re going to have their first child together, so it didn’t make sense for him to be so far away from his family. We did the sensible thing for him. The other one is Carney (Chukwuemeka). Carney’s yet to sign a contract offer that’s been in place for some time now, so I’ve decided that the best thing for him would be to continue his training programme back at Bodymoor.”
We begin our Queensland Champions Cup campaign against Leeds United on Sunday. What do you want to see from the team in this tournament?
“I’d like to see them go out and replicate all the work we’ve done so far in pre-season. We’ve done a mixture of stuff: out of possession, in possession and we’ve given quite a bit of information so far. There’s more to come before the weekend, but it’s a really juicy friendly against Leeds, Premier League opposition. I’m sure it’s going to be a good challenge for us and the majority of the players will play 45 minutes each. They’re only at that stage where they can play 45 minutes each. We want to make sure they get through pre-season as healthy as they can. I want us to see them go out and replicate our style and mirror what we’ve been doing in training. That’s what you want to see as a manager that people are taking on information and are prepared to go out and perform on the main stage.”
You’ve said previously that you want players who are obsessed with winning. Do you expect that mentality to be on display in this competition?
“It’s not so important at the moment, but it should be in your DNA. Whether you’re playing a game in training, whether you’re playing a friendly match, whether you’re playing a very important game, it should be in your DNA that you want to win. That’s what football’s about and we’ll be going into the weekend trying to win the game. But it’s important that we see stuff that we’ve been working on, it’s important that players take their opportunity. We’re only a few weeks away from the season beginning against Bournemouth, so we’ll give people an opportunity to shine and show us that they’re worthy of starting slots once the season gets underway.”
