Stephen Gerrard insists they deserve the clean sheet against Southampton as he hails his players for the incredible performance, meanwhile Southampton manager Hasenhüttl admits they had issues with Villa’s offensive players.
Aston Villa manager Stephen Gerrard claims his side deserve the clean sheet after they defeated Southampton 4-0 at Villa Park.
It was an awesome result for the former Rangers manager following his comment to end the Saint positive run in the League.
Speaking after the game Gerrard stated that they were difficult to play against as he hails his players for the incredible performance.
“I thought we were really together, compact, difficult to play against,” he said.
“I think when the game demanded that we needed to be physical and work hard, we stuck together, put our bodies on the line; the players gave that and more.
“We thoroughly deserve our clean sheet and, as a manager, that’s always your base.
“We know we’ve got top players and talented players.
“I felt if we would have scored against Watford first then it could have been a similar scenario.
“It’s important you get the first goal.
“And then we built on that from there and really hurt Southampton at the right times; really ruthless and major quality in all our four goals.”
Meanwhile, Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhüttl admitted they were not at their best in the game.
He added that the had problem with winning duels and also Aston Villa offensive players which led to their defeat.
“It was absolutely not enough what we showed today,” he said. “It was from the first moment not our best game. I think we had problems in the duel and in the last line we had some issues with their three offensive players.
“We tried to stay with the shape until the end of the first half but I think maybe I should’ve changed it earlier, but we had also some good moments in the first half so I thought ‘maybe we can handle it now’, but it wasn’t the case.
“Then in the end, after the second goal before half-time you need a good start to the second half, we changed the shape but conceded the next two goals and from this moment on the game was gone.
“You could feel they wanted it more, they have been very sharp and we had a lack of intensity in our game today and we are not this team that can only play football, we have to first fight to come into the game.”
