Aston Villa’s manager faces Leicester on Sunday before a daunting trip to Anfield
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, and 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.