Aston Villa right-back Matty Cash has opened up on why he believes Unai Emery is better than Steven Gerrard as manager of the club.
Under Unai Emery, Aston Villa have had a brilliant season with the club finishing in the Champions League places for the first time in the club’s Premier League history, which is some achievement from a squad who were previously battling relegation.
Steven Gerrard was briefly manager at Villa but the former Liverpool midfielder struggled to get a tune out of the squad. In came Emery, who guided the side to a superb European finish in his first season before a Champions League spot this campaign.
The Polish defender has attempted to explain the differences between the two managers.
Cash on Emery
Speaking on talkSPORT, the right-back was asked for his thoughts on Emery as well as how he compares to Gerrard, who is at Al-Ettifaq.
“There’s a lot detail that goes into it [his work]. We have so many individual and collective meetings on how you can improve,” he said.
“Obviously no disrespect to Gerrard – I think he was obviously a good manager – and he did well at Rangers. I just think Unai is another level really. Since he’s come in we’ve been nothing but brilliant.
“You’ve seen the stats and the results that we’ve had in the last year-and-a-half and it’s been incredible really. The main thing is little details that he does and he knows, just the experience helps massively.”
Emery was rewarded for his work at Villa with a new long-term contract at Villa Park and he is one of the best managers in the league, at this moment in time.
Villa’s progress
Few could have imagined that Emery, who was considered a failure at Arsenal, would have taken a Villa team, who were flirting with relegation, towards the top of the Premier League.
It would certainly not be surprising to see Villa do as well as they did last season next season, and potentially a decent run to the latter stages of the Champions League.
Emery guided Spanish side Villarreal to the semi-final of the competition before his side were eventually beaten by Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool. With the Villa Park atmopshere behind them, who knows how well they could do.
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