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Former Aston Villa midfielder Stiliyan Petrov has hailed Steven Gerrard’s “winning mentality” and believes the Liverpool legend is an “exciting appointment” for his old club.
Gerrard, who led Rangers to their first Scottish Premiership title in a decade last season, left his post and replaced Dean Smith at Villa Park on Thursday, handed a reported three-and-a-half-year deal.
Petrov was a Villa player between 2006 and his retirement in 2013, having signed from Rangers’ rivals Celtic.
The 42-year-old had a keen eye on developments in Scotland and expects Gerrard to set a high bar at his new club in his unrelenting pursuit of success.
“[Gerrard brings a] winning mentality,” Petrov told Stats Perform. “I mean, you can see the way he manages, you can see the way he demands from the club.
“He made Glasgow Rangers a very solid, competitive, aggressive team, which was very hard to beat. Everybody they played against found it really difficult. So I’m sure he’s going to do that with Aston Villa.
“The way he manages, the demands he has through the work process, on the training ground and in the games, will set the high targets for not just for the club but for the players, because sometimes you need that kind of manager to demand and set up different targets, a different voice in the club.
“And he showed that he won’t stop until he succeeds, and his managerial journey has started very well so far.”
Petrov feels Gerrard’s character as a player is evident in his approach as a manager and that the 41-year-old’s stature and demanding nature can turn Villa’s fortunes around in the same way he transformed Rangers.
“It is an exciting appointment, I think,” Petrov said. “I think everybody knows Steven Gerrard as a player [and] what he achieved as a player in the Premier League. He became an icon for the Premier League as a player, and he started his coaching journey in a completely different way.
“He wanted to become the best. He took on an incredible project at Glasgow Rangers. I think he kind of succeeded.
“He managed to change the mentality and the way the club is thinking now is as a club, and he’s been given an opportunity to manage another huge team, which is a great opportunity to go back to the Premier League and show what he can do.”
Petrov added: “He was a leader. He was a captain. In every interview, he was talking about preparation. He wanted to be the best. He was going through a different mentality in training.
“He was there to compete, to push others to be the best. And I think all these values from being a player, he’s kind of implementing it into his coaching abilities because you can see he coaches the same way he was as a player.
“The demands are very high. He demands from himself first, for people that work with him and the players as well, and he makes sure he gets involved in a good project.
“He got involved in a project, Glasgow Rangers, they had a target. They have to stop [Celtic’s] 10 in a row. They have to change their mentality, and they have to become successful again.
“He managed to do that in the space of three years. So now we have a completely different task at Aston Villa and I believe that he analysed and he managed to understand what the club stands for and what the targets are.”
Gerrard’s first game as Villa boss comes after the international break against Brighton and Hove Albion on November 20.
