Ex-Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard was let down by his squad when he was in charge of the club.
That is the view of TalkSport pundit Darren Ambrose, who was speaking following the club’s 4-0 victory in the Premier League on Sunday.
Gerrard was relieved of his duties after his Villa side were beaten 3-0 at Fulham last week, with his side having only won two games all season.
However, Villa bounced back from the ex-Rangers manager’s sacking with an emphatic win over Brentford this weekend.
Whilst it was an extremely positive result for the West Midlands giants, former pro Ambrose believes that the performance was an insult to Gerrard and accused the squad of not playing for their former boss.
He said: “It looks like they just weren’t playing for Steven Gerrard, and to turn around and win 4-0 today – and not just win, comfortably demolish Brentford – I don’t know, I think they’ve let Steven Gerrard down, there.”
TIF Thoughts on Ambrose’s comments…
We think that this is a particularly tough situation to analyse, with interim Villa manager Aaron Danks starting a more attacking side than perhaps Gerrard would in starting Emi Buendía, Leon Bailey, Danny Ings and Ollie Watkins together.
However, we believe that with a squad of Villa’s quality, it was inexcusable for Gerrard to have only won two games with that side in the Premier League so far this season, and the players and manager should take collective responsibility for the side’s failings.
Therefore, we agree with Ambrose and believe that it is no coincidence that the Villa players came racing out of the blocks against Thomas Frank’s side at the weekend – though it could be argued this may point to more underlying issues than purely Gerrard’s managerial performance.