Steven Gerrard takes Aston Villa to the Amex Stadium on Saturday to face Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League.
And ahead of the journey to the South Coast, the club’s head coach spoke to the media to preview the game.
Here’s what he had to say in his press conference…
On bouncing back after two defeats...
“The character and the personality of the players after the last couple of results has been what I wanted to see.
“No one in this group likes to be beat, no one likes to see our recent results. They’re all positive in wanting to change that.
“We move forward, we have to persevere and we have to keep trying to improve these players. We knew coming into this job that this was going to take time to get right.
“What I will say about my players is that everyone’s trying to pull in the same direction to change the results.”
On the spirit in the squad…
“It’s my job, the staff’s job and everyone around the players to make sure the mood is lifted as quick as we can.
“We always analyse games, we always go over it and try to take the positives and look at areas that we need to improve.
“There’s a really good team spirit within the squad and the players have done a couple of social things together this week. You don’t have any time to feel sorry for yourself in this league – we all understand it’s really tough to get results.
“I don’t see anything in the players that says they’re feeling sorry for themselves; they’ve been upbeat, trained well and prepared well.
“We want to try and change our form tomorrow.”
On playing Brighton…
“Graham Potter will certainly be facing similar questions to myself because over the last five games we’re in similar form.
“They’ve had a terrific season and I’ve think they’ve been the surprise package, along with Wolves, who people didn’t expect to be operating in the top half of the league.
“They’ve got fantastic players, they’re coached extremely well. Similarly to ourselves, I’m sure he’s (Potter) facing some tough, honest questions this morning.
“They’ll want to change their form as well. It’s going to be a good game. The first game we came in was tough until a certain point when the breakthrough came.
“I’m sure both sets of players believe this is the game where they can turn their form around.”
On the reverse fixture…
“It was a performance where, across the board, we got a high level of performance individually from the players.
“There was a lot of grit, there was a lot of fighting spirit and we had to work extremely hard out of possession.
“When our moments came in the game we had to show incredible quality. Ollie scored an incredible goal and then we scored off a set-play.
“I know these players are capable of matching that result, but it’s no secret that we need everyone to come to the game. If we do get that, and we find that little bit of edge in the final third, I’m confident in my players.”
