Gerrard admits Villa fell into whirlwind Leeds trap and names major flaw; thrilling Coutinho claim

Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard admitted that his side needed “calm heads” instead of trying to match Leeds in the sides’ thrilling Premier League draw.

The two teams shared the spoils on Wednesday evening in a fantastic 3-3 draw at Villa Park. Leeds took the lead, but the hosts then blew the Whites away to make it 3-1.

Still, the first half produced more drama when Daniel James notched his second goal to make it 3-2. Meanwhile, Diego Llorente made it 3-3 in the second half, which was a step down in quality.

Speaking to BT Sport, Gerrard admitted that his side should have handled the game better, despite its thrills.

“We wanted to take the sting out of the game, it felt like a game of basketball in the first half,” the manager said. “It was end-to-end, 100mph and we bought into Leeds’ style.

“When we won it back, we wanted to go 100mph and we needed a few calm heads out there to make more passes, make more possession – so the game looked like our style.

“It would have been unfair to go in 3-1 up. Maybe Leeds deserved to pull one back, but we conceded at a poor time.

“It would have been nice to have a two-goal advantage. Second half, we took the sting out of Leeds’ style because they were going outside us and putting balls in behind us.

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“A lot of things we did at half time worked, but we didn’t manage to have the same creativity and the same danger ourselves going forwards. A draw is a fair result, it was a game for the fans but not for the coaches.”

Philippe Coutinho was the star of the show for Villa alongside Jacob Ramsey in the first half.

The Brazilian netted to make it 1-1, before supplying two equally sublime assists for Ramsey’s brace.

And Gerrard, a former Liverpool team-mate of Coutinho, insisted that the midfielder is nearing the sort of form he showed at the height of his Anfield career.

Gerrard lauds ‘vintage Coutinho’

“It was vintage Coutinho tonight. He’s certainly getting back close to where he was when the world was speaking about him,” Gerrard said.

“Some of his creativity, two assists, his finish tonight… how close he puts it to the post.”

Nevertheless, Gerrard added that his side’s defensive stability needs work.

“To score three goals, usually you win football matches so defensively you’ve got to improve,” he said.

“But listen, Leeds are a really unique team with big running power in the team and a lot of good players themselves.”

Villa return to action Sunday when travelling to Newcastle, who are buoyed after also scoring three goals to beat Everton.