View: Steven Gerrard must revert to his tried and tested formation to save Aston Villa Job
Aston Villa came into this campaign hoping to improve their standings compared to their previous efforts where they finished 14th in the Premier League.
But after just six weeks in the new season, things are already looking worse as the Villans have only managed to register four points and are currently placed in 17th in the league table.
Those results are raising doubts about the future of manager Steven Gerrard who is now under increasing pressure to turn things around.
Pressure.
Gerrard arrived at Villa Park with a lot of hype when he replaced Dean Smith on the bench after his impressive management in Scotland with Rangers.
However, things have remained extremely difficult for the former Liverpool midfielder who is finding it hard to succeed in arguably the toughest league in the world.
Under his management, Villa have remained mediocre to say the least where they have won 12 times, drawn six out of 35 played and suffered whopping 17 defeats.
During the same duration, his side scored 47 goals and conceded 46, thus showing that not only the attacking performances but also the defensive performances have remained sub-par.
What’s more interesting is that Gerrard used two formations during his time at Villa park, a traditional 4-2-3-1 (24 times) and a more attacking 4-3-3 (11 times).
Not surprisingly, this season, he has tried 4-2-3-1 four times and the other formation thrice already, showing that he is desperately trying to find solutions.
But it seems that Gerrard has forgotten the fact that in 10 out of the 12 wins under his belt at Villa, his formation was a more traditional one with two holding midfielders providing cover to the defensive line [Transfermarkt].
After already signing two defensive midfielders this season in Boubacar Kamara and Leander Dendoncker, it will make no sense if Gerrard does not go back to his tried and tested formation because as things stand, the time has just run out for the 42-year-old to do any more experiments, especially after winning just four matches out of the last 18 across all competitions and suffering 10 defeats in the process.
In other Aston Villa news, manager Steven Gerrard is very keen to bring Liverpool defender Joe Gomez to the club.