Gary Neville has branded suggestions that Steven Gerrard is desperate to help Liverpool win the title as ‘absolute nonsense’ and says ’s players would laugh at him if he tried to use his Anfield ties as motivation to beat .
The title is still very much in the hands of the reigning champions, with a win at home to Villa on the final day of the season enough to secure ’s side their fourth Premier League winners’ medal in the last five years.
Liverpool need to beat Southampton on Tuesday evening and Wolves on Sunday to capitalise on any slip up from City – who are currently four points ahead – and a narrative has been building that it could be Anfield legend Gerrard who helps his old club secure the title.
But Neville has rubbished suggestions that Gerrard will be able to motivate his Villa players more than normal for the match and feels his Liverpool affiliation will have zero bearing on the match against City.
‘I don’t buy into this Steven Gerrard thing at all, the fact that he’s going to go there and he’s going to get them fired up,’ said Neville during an Instagram Live chat with Jamie Carragher.
‘Trust me, the Villa players won’t give two hoots who they’re playing on Sunday. They’re not connected to the Liverpool emotion bit.
‘Steven Gerrard can’t go in and say, “I’m ex Liverpool, make sure you win this one for Liverpool” – the players will just laugh at him!
‘So this idea, this Gerrard thing, that he’ll go there and win for [Liverpool] is just an absolute nonsense. That is not going to happen.
‘The Villa players, none of them [care]. Coutinho, who else is there with connections to Liverpool? Coutinho that’s it. Danny Ings.
‘But those Villa players aren’t thinking about helping Liverpool at all. Not in any way, shape or form.
‘And Steven Gerrard has been giving the same messages to those players for the last few months.
‘I don’t buy into this Gerrard thing that’s going to happen on Sunday, I don’t at all. Stevie Gerrard will want to win the game just for his own professional reasons, so will the players.
‘But this idea that he’ll be able to get an unbelievable performance out of Villa just because of his emotion and feeling towards Liverpool, don’t get caught up in that crap, that is just pure media stuff that.’
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