Steven Gerrard was in front of the cameras on Wednesday afternoon for his pre-match press conference.
Aston Villa’s head coach spoke to members of the national and local media as he previewed the club’s Premier League game against Fulham.
Here’s what he had to say…
On team news…
“We are as we were. We had a couple of bumps, bruises, kicks and tightness from the last game but no one is going to miss out on the back of it.
“We’ll also have Cameron Archer back into the frame because he’s over the little bug that he had which ruled him out of the weekend.”
On Lucas Digne, Gerrard said: “Lucas could be on the grass today for the first time, which is a big step.
“He’s come out of a boot and done some running on a machine that takes a certain amount of your weight away and now the process will be to try and build him up.
“There’s an outside chance that he could be around the Newcastle game. That’s where Lucas is.”
On the mood in the squad…
“If you play for Aston Villa it (confidence and desire) should be in your DNA. You should make the most of your opportunity; you’re at a top club with top people, facilities and resources. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t want to improve the current situation.”
He added: “The players are giving me everything they’ve got. They’re just as determined as myself to change our results. We all understand where we’re at.
“We’ve got an honest group. Everyone around me is totally focused and working as hard as they can to change our results.
“The reason we’re doing that is because we know there’s frustration for our supporters and we want to change that.”
On coming through tough times…
“I’ve had tough days, but tough days are ok because you need to use tough days as motivation for when better days come.
“I’m a young manager, I get that, and this is a tough period but it’s a great challenge for me from a personal point of view.
“I want to prove to everyone that I can improve our situation. I’m here to fight every single minute of every day and I’ve got every belief and confidence in myself that I can change this situation.”
On Fulham…
"They’re a team that like to cross the ball; they’ve scored goals on the counter-attack as well this season. They’re recruited well and spent money to strengthen since they’ve come up.
“You can’t judge them like a newly promoted team because they’ve gone and strengthened in key areas; they’ve got an experienced manager.
“The big change and the fascinating thing for me in this league is there are no gimmes. Years ago when I played in this league, with all due respect, there were certain gimmes in the league. If you turned up and played to your level, there was gimmes.
“Every team has a punch, every team has quality and everyone can take points off each other. That’s the reason why if we have a big week – a week where we execute – this league will look different.”
