Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard claimed that he made a tactical switch in last night’s game against Norwich City to try limit the influence of Chelsea youngster Billy Gilmour.
Gilmour, 20, is on a season-long loan at Norwich this season and has been back in the starting line-up since Dean Smith took charge at Carrow Road.
The central midfielder has shown he can operate at the top level with his composure and quality on the ball, but it’s not been plain sailing so far during his loan.
Unfortunately, Norwich are sat bottom of the Premier League table in the thick of a relegation fight and last night’s 2-0 home defeat to Aston Villa hasn’t helped.
Villa boss Gerrard revealed in post-match comments that he made a late substitution to try nullify Norwich’s Gilmour when they were pressing for an equaliser. Carney Chukwuemeka entered the action in the 83rd minute to carry out the manager’s instruction, plus he even assisted Villa’s second goal late on.
“We asked him (Chukwuemeka) to get around Gilmour because he was getting too many touches of the ball. He did that job very well,” Gerrard said.
Gilmour has Chelsea future
In fairness, Gilmour’s underwhelmed slightly during his loan so far this campaign.
The midfield playmaker was a little sloppy at times Tuesday’s defeat to Villa, taking some of the blame for each of the goals his team conceded.
Chelsea fans shouldn’t be giving up on him, though.
It’s been a steep learning curve for the Scotland international by joining a side operating on a completely different level to what he’s been used to at Stamford Bridge. Hopefully, this experience will hope curve the player he becomes later down the line.
He’s still a massive talent that Jack Wilshere previously called “unreal for age”.
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