Gerrard takes five staff to Aston Villa - and retains existing trio
Left to right: Jordan Milson, Michael Beale, Steven Gerrard, Gary McAllister and Tom Culshaw
Written by Simon Austin — November 13, 2021
STEVEN GERRARD has confirmed he has taken five of his Rangers staff with him to Aston Villa - but that he will also retain a trio who had worked under Dean Smith.
Gary McAllister (Assistant Head Coach), Michael Beale (Assistant Head Coach), Tom Culshaw (Technical Coach), Scott Mason (Lead Analyst) and Jordan Milsom (Head of Fitness and Conditioning) have all joined Gerrard’s backroom staff.
McAllister played with Gerrard at Liverpool and has extensive coaching and management experience, while Beale, Culshaw, Mason and Milsom all worked with him at Liverpool's Academy before moving to Scotland.
There had been doubts about the futures of Smith’s remaining staff, but Villa have confirmed that Austin MacPhee, Aaron Danks and Neil Cutler will stay on under the new boss.
Set pieces coach MacPhee was appointed in the summer, having previously worked with FC Midtjylland, Northern Ireland, Mexico, Hearts and St Mirren. Smith praised his impact earlier in the season.
First-team coach Danks joined in September from Belgian side Anderlecht. He was Head of Specialist Coaching and Under-21s assistant during five years with the Football Association, where former Head of Coaching Matt Crocker (now the Director of Football at Southampton), described him as an “innovative, forward-thinking leader.”
Cutler played one game for Villa in the 1999/2000 season during a career that spanned 15 years and more than 200 appearances. He joined the club as a coach from nearby West Brom under Smith in November 2018.
SECRETS OF GERRARD'S MANAGEMENT TEAM
Beale appeared on Episode #27 of the TGG Podcast and said Gerrard "makes it a management team, rather than about himself, and is willing to delegate, which shows real strong leadership."
McAllister was a former team-mate of Gerrard's at Liverpool and went on to become first-team coach at the club. He also has management experience, with Coventry City and Leeds United.
Milsom worked with Gerrard at Liverpool, when the Reds legend was U18s lead and he was a rehab fitness coach. Culshaw was Gerrard's assistant with the U18s and Mason the U18s analyst. Beale, who has had a wide and varied coaching career, was Head of Coaching for the Foundation Phase at Liverpool.
“Steven is very aware of what he is and what he wants to be and knows what he wants around him,” Beale told the TGG Podcast (which you can listen to above). “He gives the staff a lot of trust and with trust comes responsibility.
“He makes it a management team, rather than about himself, and is willing to delegate, which shows real strong leadership. Steven likes to stand back and observe people and step in and speak when it’s crucial to, rather than doing it all the time, and he gives me a lot of responsibility to coach the team, along with Tom (Culshaw) and Gary.
“To manage that you have to have coaching lieutenants. I plan maybe the team session content, liaising with everyone - from Jordan (Milsom) the sport scientist to Tom to Scott (Mason) the analyst to Gary to Steven - and I’ll get the rough template and then we’ll delegate who’s leading where.
“When the session is actually going on, Gary will be looking at the midfielders, I’ll be looking more at the forwards, Tom’s looking at the defenders and the manager is looking at the whole pie.
“We all have opportunities to work with players in different units to try and improve them. This is something I’ve been working on since I was U23s coach at Liverpool - different coaches overseeing the development of different players; every coach looking at five or six players.”
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