Steven Gerrard wants a more ruthless Aston Villa

Steven Gerrard wants more “killers” in his Aston Villa side and has challenged his players to prove they can match his ambitions after watching them struggle to put away Championship-bound Norwich in a 2-0 win on Saturday.

A stoppage-time strike from Danny Ings did eventually finish off former Villa boss Dean Smith’s side, confirming their relegation after Burnley came from behind to beat Watford, but for too long Villa allowed Norwich hope with only Ollie Watkins’ first-half strike between them.

After the match Gerrard said he had been happy with how Watkins and Ings combined – Ings having replaced the injured Leon Bailey and then set up Watkins just moments later – but said he needed to see more.

Asked if he had the right calibre of players available to him, Gerrard said: “Good question. We’re always looking to improve.

I’d like to have more killers in the team, we had too many opportunities and only scored a couple of goals- Steven Gerrard

“We want to be as ambitious as we can and I think it’s a collective responsibility to make sure they bring their talent and best version of themselves for us to be more ruthless and score more goals, which I think we can.

“We missed too many opportunities. When we had two against one or three against two I would like us to be a bit more ruthless but with more work and more time around these players I’m sure we will.”

The enforced introduction of Ings that gave Villa another dimension – his long ball released Watkins moments later to open the scoring, and Ings would get his own reward at the end.

“I get the question a lot if they can play together and I thought we looked a lot better with both of them on the pitch,” Gerrard said of Watkins and Ings. “Ollie’s finish was ruthless.

“In