Steven Gerrard said he had to tell his Aston Villa players a “few home truths” at half-time as they came from behind to beat Leicester and continue his fine start to life as a Premier League manager.
Having suffered defeat for the first time in Gerrard’s embryonic reign at home to Manchester City in midweek, Villa again fell behind to Harvey Barnes’ opener for the Foxes.
However, defender Ezri Konsa scored twice, touching home Emi Buendia’s header to level almost immediately and nodding in a second-half corner, to make it three wins from four since Gerrard took charge.
“I’m really pleased with the result but we still need to iron out some issues,” Gerrard, who will make an emotional return to old club Liverpool managing his new side on Saturday, told BBC Match of the Day.
“There’s loads of work still to do. It took a few home truths at half-time to sort our issues out, to rejig our shape and a few other things.
“All you can ask of your players is to perform, we did that. I thought we were outstanding in the second half. But can we do it for a full 90 minutes without me having to get on the players’ back at half-time?”
Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers dropped Jamie Vardy to hand Patson Daka a first Premier League start and the Zambia striker set up Barnes to coolly slot through Konsa’s legs and past Emi Martinez.
The advantage lasted just three minutes, Buendia craning his neck muscles to propel Matty Cash’s cushioned header towards the bottom corner, with Konsa poking home to make sure.
Villa thought they were ahead on the stroke of half-time as Kasper Schmeichel parried another Cash knockdown and Jacob Ramsey fired home but the keeper had one hand on the grounded ball and Michael Oliver correctly ruled the goal out after a check from the video assistant referee.
In the end, it mattered little as Konsa punished Leicester’s ongoing set-piece shortcomings by nodding home John McGinn’s corner to push Villa above the Foxes into 10th place.
Villa should have won by more as Ollie Watkins and Ramsey wasted glorious chances on the break although the hosts needed a fantastic fingertip save from Martinez to thwart a Barnes header and seal the points.
