Steven Gerrard on Aston Villa's chaotic Leeds United clash and Ezri Konsa red card
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The Villa boss felt his side got caught up in the back-and-forth nature of the game and Leeds' all-out attacking style, when he wanted to see more composure.
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Hide Ad"We wanted to take the sting out of the game," he said after watching his team take a 3-1 first half lead only to be pegged back by Daniel James' second goal in stoppage time before the break, and Diego Llorente's second half strike.
"It was frantic, end-to-end and 100 mph. We almost brought into the Leeds style and we needed more calm heads out there so it looked more like our style. It would have been unfair to go in [at the break] 3-1 up I think. Leeds deserved that goal. They had a lot of movement and runners outside. We didn't have the same creativity ourselves going forward in the second half. A draw was the right result. A fun game for the fans tonight but not one for the coaches."
The big positive for Gerrard was the performance of January loan signing Philippe Coutinho. The Brazilian scored Villa's first and then put two on a plate for Jacob Ramsey.
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Hide Ad"It was vintage Philippe Coutinho tonight," said the Villains manager, who felt a point was a good result in the end having gone down to 10 men late on when Ezri Konsa was sent off.
"He's certainly getting back close to where he was when the whole world was speaking about him. There was a lot to be pleased about in terms of our forward-play. Defensively we have to improve but Leeds are really unique. It was a wonderful game, just not for me. We're still learning a lot about the players and they are about us. Leeds take you places you don't want to go. They have pace and talent. We will try and improve but sometimes you have to pay credit to the opposition as well.
"It was a fantastic advert for the league. It's why the Premier League is loved around the world. I'm not sure how Mr Bielsa summed it up. The first half was played at such a pace, Leeds caused us such problems with the movements. Having said that, we came in ahead. I'm looking at it as a good point. I wanted to go for it but we went down to 10 men so we couldn't turn the screw."
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Hide AdThe red card for Konsa came after he blocked off Leeds goalkeeper Illan Meslier to receive a second yellow from referee Jarred Gillett. Gerrard took no issue with the Australian's decision.
"I'm sure he'll be frustrated," Gerrard said of his centre-half.
"He's been terrific, he has enough in the bank. I don't think we'll have any complaints. There was eight minutes of injury time so we just had to take a point at that moment. I wanted to put Danny Ings on but it was taken away from us."