'Wake up fast' - Steven Gerrard rages at Aston Villa players after poor Watford showing

Steven Gerrard has ordered his Aston Villa players "to wake up, and wake up fast" after his side went down against relegation-threatened Watford.

Gerrard's side are now on a slump of just one win in their last eight games and followed up their shocking showing at Newcastle with another below-par one here at Villa Park.

Watford striker Emmanuel Dennis grabbed what proved to be the winner just 13 minutes from time, with Villa failing to score at home for the first time this season.

Speaking to , Gerrard said: "It's not too much different from my reaction last week. I'm really frustrated and disappointed with the result and the outcome of the game.

"We've lacked quality in the final third, that's for sure, and I've had a really honest conversation with the players.

"We need to wake up and wake up fast because our recent form and our recent performances are way short in order to move up this table."

Given Gerrard promised plenty of changes ahead of kick-off after last week's 1-0 loss against Newcastle, the head coach made just one here and drafted Danny Ings for Ollie Watkins.

On making just one change, Gerrard replied: "I made one change. I thought Danny looked lively but he tired a little as the game went on.

"He'll probably point towards needing more game time which I understand.

"I tried to make a few more changes and to be aggressive as the game went on because we were looking for a breakthrough.

"Listen, we've got in a lot of good areas today. We had a lot of the ball. The game panned out exactly as we thought.

"We knew it would be on us to force the breakthrough but we lacked quality in the final third and we had one shot on target out of 19 which isn't enough so, look, the responsibility falls on me and my staff