Home Aston Villa Owen predicts ex-Liverpool teammate Gerrard to lose his first Villa game
Date published: Thursday 18th November 2021 8:52 – Lewis Oldham
Michael Owen has predicted his former Liverpool teammate Steven Gerrard to lose his first Premier League game in charge of Aston Villa.
After retiring from professional football, Gerrard took over at Rangers in 2018.
The Liverpool legend had over three years in charge. He had a successful tenure as they impressed in the Europa League under him.
Villa, Norwich and the illogical world of replacing a manager
Last season, Rangers won the Scottish Premiership title. Gerrard is now back in England as he has replaced Dean Smith at Aston Villa.
The Villans face Brighton in his first game in charge. As reported by the Mirror, Owen has backed Graham Potter’s side to beat Villa 3-1:
“A lot has changed since Villa’s last game and Steven Gerrard is now at the helm,” Owen said.
“I’m sure Stevie will be relishing his first job in the Premier League, but he’ll need to galvanise this Villa side fast.
“They’ve lost five in a row and the confidence isn’t there at the minute… I don’t think Steven Gerrard will have had enough time to turn things around.”
Liverpool face Arsenal at Anfield this weekend. Owen thinks Jurgen Klopp’s side will get the better of the Gunners:
“This will be a major test of where they [the Gunners] are,” Owen added. “I fancy Liverpool to get back to winning ways here. I can see Arsenal scoring but I don’t trust their defence, 3-1 Liverpool.”
Elsewhere, Jose Enrique believes Gerrard will “definitely” manage Liverpool one day:
“I think he will be (manager) hopefully in a very long time,” Enrique said.
“That means (Jurgen) Klopp is going to stay for a very long time.
“I know that the fans want to see Stevie as the coach of Liverpool, I want to see him as well. But listen, Klopp is on a different level at the moment to anyone else and I believe Klopp will stay for a long time, but definitely, he (Gerrard) will be a manager in the future, definitely.
“And obviously, it depends on how good he does for Aston Villa, maybe he might go to another club after that.
“Obviously, the future nobody holds but I believe one day, he will definitely be the manager of Liverpool.”