daniel chigunwe
Eddie Chikamhi-Senior Sports Reporter
THREE games, three starts and three great performances for Zimbabwe international midfielder Marvelous Nakamba, who seems to have reinvented himself under new Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard.
The 27-year-old exhibited another classy act on Wednesday evening at Villa Park but this time it was in a 1-2 defeat to English Premiership football title chasers, Manchester City.
The Warriors midfield kingpin played for 77 minutes and left the pitch with his head high after being replaced by Morgan Sanson. He has been receiving rave reviews and has rekindled the love with the Villa fans.
English Premiership defending champions Manchester City were always going to be tough opponents but Nakamba should have been proud of his match statistics which saw him completing the highest number of tackles (six) and winning seven of the 12 duels he was involved in.
He also completed 20 accurate passes and was rewarded with a 7/10 rating by the respected Birmingham Mail.
“Tackled well as Villa’s middle man in midfield once again. Nakamba was workmanlike in his approach once more here before he ran himself into the ground as (Morgan) Sanson injected some energy for the final 13 or so minutes. Another good effort from Nakamba,” wrote Birmingham Mail Correspondent, Ashley Preece, in his post-match verdict.
Nakamba has been outstanding since the arrival of Gerrard. The Liverpool legend has shown faith in the Zimbabwean midfielder and gave him every minute in his first two assignments in charge.
The midfielder grabbed the opportunity with both hands and was hailed for his role in the wins over Brighton & Hove Albion and Crystal Palace. He was also in good form against City.
Some of the Villa fans opined that the new manager, Gerrard, has instantly turned Nakamba into a new beast that is both important and “undroppable” in the team.
Nakamba saw little game-time under previous manager, Dean Smith, and the lack of minutes badly affected his form and confidence.
He was an unused substitute in three of Smith’s final six English Premier League games in charge at Villa Park. And he only saw out 90 minutes on one occasion.
“He’s been fantastic, he’s trained extremely well,” Gerrard revealed ahead of the game against Manchester City.
“He’s been really open; his two performances have been outstanding. We were aware of Marvelous before we came in, but he’s somebody who has really stood up and jumped out, he’s basically said in the past two weeks, “I’m here, I want to contribute, I want to be available’.
“He’s still young, he can get better. He’s around the right people for that to happen, he’s in the right environment for that. We’re really pleased to have him,” said Gerrard.
Villa have two crucial matches coming up against Leicester City and Liverpool in the coming days.
They remained rooted in 13th place with the defeat to City.
This was the 41-year-old Gerrard’s first loss as head coach after he began his reign with victories against Brighton and Crystal Palace.
Yet the former England international still felt they pushed Manchester City all the way. Pep Guardiola’s title chasers led 2-0 at half-time, thanks to goals from Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva.
But Villa rocked the reigning English Premier League champions with Ollie Watkins’ strike early in the second half before applying pressure in their pursuit of an equaliser.
And despite the result, Gerrard felt that a game against a team with the quality that City possess will only benefit Villa in the league marathon.
“We needed this game at this time two weeks in. We said before the game it was a real acid test for us.
“City, at times, looked a level above. At times it was an education for us, but we said to the players, let’s make it as difficult as we can, let’s take the game to the wire, let’s believe in ourselves.
“I thought it took us 10 or 15 minutes to have that belief and that courage. Once we did, I thought we were terrific at times.
“There’s obviously a gap in the levels, but we’ll keep trying to grow and evolve and close that gap,” said Gerrard after Wednesday night’s match at Villa Park.
Online Reporter