Aston Villa: Major problem 'falls on Gerrard's shoulders' at Villa Park

Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard has to shoulder some of the blame for his side’s lack of goals this season, says journalist Dean Jones.

The Villans currently sit 14th in the Premier League table and have one of the worst attacking records in the division.

Villa have a lot of attacking talent, including the likes of Philippe Coutinho, Ollie Watkins and Leon Bailey.

Even so, from the eight Premier League games they have played so far, Gerrard’s men have managed to score just six goals.

To put that into perspective, only West Ham (five) and Wolves (three) have registered fewer times (via WhoScored).

If Villa want to climb up the table and secure a top-half finish, then the above obviously needs to change.

Jones says Gerrard has to take some of the blame for Villa’s struggles in front of goal this season.

Speaking to GIVEMESPORT, the journalist said: “Whether it’s Coutinho, Leon Bailey, [Danny] Ings, Watkins, [Emiliano] Buendia, they have all these players and more queuing up for a spot and trying to compete, and yet they can’t score a goal. You have to say that does fall on Gerrard’s shoulders to a certain extent.”

He has to. There is too much talent in their squad for him not to. For example, as already mentioned, the Villa boss has both Watkins and Ings available for selection. Both strikers are capable of scoring goals and have shown as much in their careers.

In total, Watkins has found the back of the net 103 times in 306 appearances. Twenty nine of those strikes have come during his time at Villa Park.

As for Ings, he was really prolific during his spell at Southampton. For the Saints, the 30-year-old scored 46 goals in 100 outings. Looking at his senior career as a whole, Ings has netted 110 times in 324 outings.

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