Dan Bardell: Steven Gerrard Rangers tactics not for Aston Villa, relegation battle on the cards
We’re delighted to welcome The Athletic’s Dan Bardell as our exclusive Aston Villa columnist each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the club…
Steven Gerrard’s tactics from Rangers don’t work for Aston Villa as the 4-3-3 system that he has trying to play doesn’t suit any of the players, says Dan Bardell.
Ahead of the 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest on Monday, Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher analysed his former Liverpool teammate’s successful set up in Scotland for Monday Night Football.
He had highlighted the importance of full-backs James Tavernier and Borna Barisic as Rangers won the Scottish title, but Bardell doesn’t think the likes of Matty Cash and Lucas Digne can be blamed for the Villans’ slide because nobody is thriving in this set up.
“I feel for them a little bit. I feel for everyone, but I don’t think you can point the finger at the full-backs either,” he said, speaking exclusively to Villa News.
“I just think collectively it’s not going well, and nobody is playing well, they’ve been affected by the way Villa are set up.
“The way Gerrard had Rangers playing in the Scottish Premiership, which is very different to the Premier League, teams are going to set up against Rangers with a low block and defend narrow, which opens up space for the full backs, which in Scotland worked very effectively for him and Rangers got goals from it agains teams you’d expect them to beat.
“Villa aren’t playing teams who set up against them like that, although Forest actually did and Villa couldn’t break them down, and I just think the set up doesn’t suit any of Villa’s players and the 4-3-3 isn’t working for anyone.
“When your top scorer is seven players on one goal it tells you everything you need to know, but they aren’t missing a load of chances, with the exception of the Leeds game (2 October), clear chances aren’t really being created, and that one was against 10 men.
“Cash came back against Forest and had a couple of nice moments but overall Villa just don’t look like they have an identity.
“I thought Carragher’s analysis was good, but the stuff he was talking about isn’t going to work for Villa in the Premier League, and it hasn’t worked largely for 12 months. In 2022 Villa have been rotten.
“The statistics of Villa going forward are bottom three statistics are bottom three while defensively they are top half.
“So we’ve not improved in 12 months. If anything we’ve regressed, now we’ve got this new stable defensive set up we’re even worse going forward.
“We’ve scored seven goals so far, and against the sort of opposition we’ve played against that’s going to see us in a relegation battle because I think the fixtures at the start have been relatively kind.
“If you look at the teams we’ve still got to play, if they carry on the way they are they’re really going to be in trouble.
“A relegation dog fight is not what we expected this season. They’ve said so themselves, but at the moment I would confidently say they are more likely to be scrapping against relegation than finishing in the top half.”
Gerrard should have had long enough by now to realise that his tactics aren’t working and to change it sufficiently to solve some of his players’ problems.
That nothing seems to be improving significantly over a period of several months, and with a decent amount of money spent on players who have been highly effective elsewhere makes it difficult to point the finger of blame too far past the manager.
If only a few players were struggling or he had signings he didn’t want imposed on him it might be another matter, but while injuries haven’t helped, the man in charge of a group that is devoid of form and belief has to ultimately be held responsible.
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