Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard has urged his players and management to match his ambitions after Saturday's defeat at Liverpool.

Villa, in his honest opinion were "second best", but they certainly made Liverpool work and there were some standout performances, not least from Ezri Konsa, Matty Cash and the relentless John McGinn, who pestered Liverpool's midfield.

"Of course I want the players and people at the club to be as ambitious as myself," said Gerrard. "I am not saying my ambitions are different to theirs, we have a lot of ambitious players at the club, a lot of ambitious coaches, the people above us the board and the owners are ambitious.

"But what we won't do is settle for anything except trying to improve, trying to grow. It is still really early days, but we have seen enough to believe that we can take this club forward, finish the season in a positive position and then obviously recruit and build and add to this. Take it forward.

"There is nothing wrong with being as ambitious as you can and I will never stop doing that. We have had some decent training time now, our principles and the way we want to play are over to the players now."