'Not ideal' - Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard on Jesse Marsch and Leeds United's 'best version'

A long-time admirer of the American, going back to his time in charge of New York Red Bulls, Gerrard is relishing the chance to pit his wits against Marsch. He said: “I used to really admire his style in the MLS, he was a manager that had an identity and a way of playing.

“You could see clearly he was a good coach, he implemented the style really well with New York Red Bulls, they were probably the best footballing team on the eye in the MLS.

“Obviously he’s got big jobs on the back of that style and the job he did with the MLS, as a manager. I’ve got a lot of respect for him and I’m looking forward to going toe to toe with him. But it’s very much about the players on what they bring to the game.”

The players will decide the result but it’s Gerrard who must decide how they go about trying to get it and, to that end with just one solitary Leeds match to analyse, he and his staff have had to trawl through Marsch’s back catalogue.

“I think we need to analyse the Leicester game a lot and we have and we’ll continue to do that from now until kick-off,” he said. “But, obviously, we need to tap into previous games that the new manager has been involved in to really see if there’s any similarities in terms of style - whether he prefers a certain formation or a style.”

The former Rangers manager isn’t expecting too much in the way of differences from how Marsch set up to face Leicester and believes he has a sufficient idea of what Villa will be up against. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were quite similar to the Leicester game,” he said.

“They were quite front-foot aggressive in terms of the press. They played a 4-4-2 but it looked like a 4-2-4 at certain times because the wide men are very aggressive.

“We’ve prepared for certain situations going off the Leicester game but also tried to tap into previous jobs and teams he’s coached previously.

“So, not ideal when you face a new manager so soon but I’d like to think we’ve got enough knowledge and enough information to know what to expect from Leeds.”

Away from the tactical side of the game, Gerrard is taking Leeds’ mood fully into consideration and preparing for their best.

“There’s been a lot of positivity from a Leeds point of view even though they lost the game against Leicester in terms of how it looked, maybe they felt harshly that they never took anything out of the game,” he said.

“We’re going into the match in a good place but with big respect to the opposition. In this league, when a new manager comes in, you have to be ready for that bounce. I think we should see the best version of Leeds tomorrow.”