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Steven Gerrard: Lack of aggression cost Aston Villa

Steven Gerrard bemoaned Villa’s lack of aggression in defence after they fell to defeat at Brentford.

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The boss described Mads Roerslev’s 83rd minute winner as a “catalogue of errors” from his team’s point of view as the Bees completed an unlikely comeback to snatch victory.

Villa had looked in command after Danny Ings fired them into a 16th minute lead but were pegged back on the stroke of half-time by a superb strike from Yoane Wissa.

The visitors then had the best of the second half but were undone when Roerslev drilled home at the second attempt.

Gerrard said: “I am really disappointed how we conceded the second goal. It was a catalogue of errors from our point of view and is the reason we have not taken anything from the game.

“We have not defended two or three situations well enough as a team.

“When I first came into this job we were positive and strong when defending. There was an aggression and people were willing to put their bodies on the line.

“I didn’t see any of that with the second goal we conceded. Inevitably we will go away disappointed and frustrated but we only have ourselves to blame.

“If you lose those key ingredients when it comes to defending teams will score at this level.

“They have had two or three good attacks today and scored two goals. That is not good enough from our point of view.”

Villa, already without skipper Tyrone Mings through suspension, lost striker Ollie Watkins to a positive Covid-19 test.

Gerrard continued: “We had four or five people not available today for whatever reason. You are going to miss those players because they are big players for the club.

“But the reality is we have available what we have. I felt we had enough quality in the team we picked.

“Even looking back now I feel we should never have lost the game. The worst case for me was we should have drawn the game.

I said to the players this was an opportunity to show we have a strong squad. It won’t feel like that now on the back of a 2-1 defeat but in terms of what we gave to the game, we gave a lot.

“It was a bit of a head-scratcher at half-time to be level. In the second half we again had a lot of possession but weren’t able to create chances or execute when around the box.”