Steven Gerrard has sent Aston Villa players rallying call ahead of Brighton showdown

Steven Gerrard has attempted to ignite a reaction from his players ahead of their clash with Brighton as the Aston Villa boss aims to avoid three defeats on the bounce.

Speaking on what his side need to do ahead of Saturday's Premier League clash at the Amex Stadium, Gerrard said: “We need to keep believing ourselves and stick together."

Whilst also going into further details on the current issues within the squad by adding: "We need to have more quality in the final third, I think that is clear.

"The results and form are not good enough. I need to take that on my shoulders, the players do as well and we need to stick together.”

The game against Brighton offers this Villa team an opportunity to go back to the basics that made them so tough to beat at the beginning of the Gerrard era. Brighton will likely dominate possession, meaning Villa will need to be organised and switched on for the entire 90 minutes, a theme that in most recent weeks, has eluded them as a team.

outlined five issues that Gerrard needed to address ahead of this fixture in their most recent Claret & Blue podcast. The five issues highlighted by Dan Rolinson and Patrick Rowe in the current side were the organisation of the defence, the full backs positioning, the role of Douglas Luiz in the holding role, the lack of a clinical edge in front of goal and finally the unforced errors costing the side.

Whilst all five are unlikely to be solved in one game, Villa can eradicate the simple errors that have cost them in their most recent games, such as Manchester United and Leeds United. If lapses of concentration hadn't occurred in these two fixtures, Villa could have walked away from six points from these games.

Their issues against Newcastle United