
Now is no time for nostalgia. On Sunday, Steven Gerrard hosts one of the managers under whom he played at Liverpool, as Brendan Rodgers takes Leicester to Villa Park. Next Saturday he will return to Anfield as an opposing manager. But the point of moving into management after playing is to avoid being defined by the past and Gerrard’s focus will be on showing who he is as a manager and what his Aston Villa team could become.
Which is not to say history should be denied. Gerrard’s experiences inevitably influence his approach. It was interesting on Friday to hear him acknowledge learning from Rodgers. “I tried to take a lot of things away from Brendan,” said Gerrard. “He was a really good man-manager with the way he spoke to players and dealt with them. That was really impressive.
“More importantly, on the training pitch his delivery was really slick. There was good organisation about his sessions and the way he used to set his team up. I was really impressed with his player-to-coach relationship.”
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Gerrard also spoke about how his year in charge of Liverpool’s under-18s gave him the confidence to pursue a managerial career at senior level, as well as the time to build the support staff he took to Rangers and Villa. That includes not just his assistants, Garry McAllister and Michael Beale, but also Tom Culshaw (technical coach), Scott Mason (lead analyst) and Jordan Milsom (head of fitness and conditioning).
“I decided to go in as a coach at Liverpool’s academy as I knew I would need pitch confidence,” Gerrard said. “I needed to put the hours in in terms of leading a team, setting sessions up, finding a way of playing, a philosophy and identify that I wanted. To do what away from the cameras where I could make mistakes and grow.
“That was the key and important time for me to get to the position I am in now. I also needed time to find staff members I wanted to come on the journey with me.”