Gerrard will be bringing his Aston Villa team to L4 for an intriguing Premier League clash which fans have been eagerly waiting for since his appointment last month.
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Liverpool right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold will be keen to put his feelings aside when he aims to inflict defeat on Steven Gerrard-managed Aston Villa. For the first time, the Liverpool icon will return to Anfield as a manager on Saturday. He will be bringing his Villa team to L4 for an intriguing Premier League clash which fans have been eagerly waiting for since his appointment last month. Alexander-Arnold grew up closely following Gerrard before they both were based at the club’s Academy as budding talent and fledgling coach respectively. On Saturday, they will be on opposite sides, and Alexander-Arnold does not want to let their “feelings get involved”, as the title-chasing Reds aim for three points from that fixture.
The Standard Chartered Men’s Player of the Month for November was asked how strange is it going to be to see Steven Gerrard in the opposition dugout. He told Liverpoolfc.com: “It will be strange. The fans, it will obviously bring back a lot of memories for them. It will be good for him to return to where it all happened for him personally. As players and people who are so close to it, we can’t really let our feelings get involved.”
“For me, growing up him being such an influential person for me – watching him and admiring him so much – I need to try to put that to one side and focus on the game and it’s about winning that game, that’s all that matters. And then after the game we can focus on those feelings. Going into it, we want to win the game. We know we have the chance to, so it’s about coming away with the three points.”
Opening up about the memories of watching him, Alexander-Arnold said, “Just inspirational. Someone who made a lot happen. Someone I massively looked up to. The heart and soul of the club for many years, someone who embodied everything about the club. Someone it was really hard not to look up to; I think even opposition fans and people who wanted to hate him, you had to respect what he was doing on the pitch. Showed a level of consistency not many players can, over a long, long period of time. There was a lot for me, growing up, that I admired about him.”
Alexander-Arnold then spoke about how much he learned from Gerrard while playing at the Academy. “He was coming down now and then to do his coaching badges. It was good to get an insight into his way of life and obviously the way he saw the game. It was important for me to try to learn and study, and good to pick his brain from time to time and learn from him really. At a young age not many people get the chance to meet their heroes and effectively be trained and taught by them. It was massive for me, I was grateful for that,” he explained.
Speaking about their Saturday opponents – Aston Villa, Alexander-Arnold said, “Yeah, they are a good team. For us, it’s a must-win. We know we have the capability to win every game we go into, we know the expectation on ourselves is to win. We don’t go in trying to draw games or happy with a point. We want to win and we’ll fight to the last minute, like we showed last week. The three points mean the most to us; we’ll put our feelings aside and it’s important for us to go and get those three points because in this fixture schedule it’s essential to get them.”
