Dion Dublin on Steven Gerrard’s future, Ollie Watkins and his Aston Villa highs and lows

Former Aston Villa favourite Dion Dublin says his former side are an “uncomfortable watch” at the moment as Steven Gerrard’s struggles continue. Villa have made their worst start to a 10-game Premier League season since their relegation year and remain the second-lowest scorers in the division having scored just seven goals in well over 900 minutes of football.

On Villa’s current plight, Dublin told BirminghamLive : “It’s uncomfortable for me at the moment to watch, if I’m being honest with you. Obviously, they’ve not been great and have been inconsistent as usual.

“Individual performances haven’t been great but what they are doing is they are creating chances, which is very frustrating. They created about 18 chances against Chelsea and, as we know, it’s about that end product which is so important and they just can’t seem to put the ball in the back of the net. Kepa was outstanding, let’s get it right, he was absolutely brilliant.

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“But I’d be more worried if they weren’t creating chances. I just don’t know. I’m possibly talking out of turn here but I’m not sure if Stevie knows who’s best to play at what time.

“I don’t know who’s best to play; do you play Buendia, Coutinho, Watkins, Ings, Bailey at the same time? Because they’re all good players. We just haven’t got the right blend yet, I don’t know why.”

BBC Sport pundit Dublin, 53, believes head coach Gerrard deserves more time to turn things around. “The blame lies in both camps in terms of the players and manager,” he added. “Stevie G will hold his hands up and will say, ‘Listen, I’m making my mistakes, I know I am.’

“But I want players to do that as well. They’re playing below par. Don’t talk about it, do it, or be brave enough to say, ‘Listen, I don’t think the gaffer should be taking all of the flak for this, to be fair. We’re the ones who go over that white line and aren’t performing at the moment.’

“I don’t think he should be sacked, not yet, and I believe in that, definitely.”

Villa’s problems lie in attack with £60million duo Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings managing just one goal each this season from their 10 Premier League games. Dublin, meanwhile, issued the following advice to Watkins who he believes is thinking too much when chances come his way.

“I think Ollie’s got everything you want as a centre-forward,” Dublin commented. “I just think when he has a chance to finish he has to make his mind up quicker and how he wants to finish.

“If you watch Ollie Watkins as a former centre-forward talking, he’s going through one-on-one and he’s still thinking about what he’s going to do as he’s running towards the goalkeeper. He needs to know what he’s going to do when the chance arises and how to finish it.

“He’s thinking about, ‘Shall I do this, shall I do that’, just forget about that Ollie, be natural, mate, do what you did when you were at Brentford, be natural, score goals, don’t think about it too much. He’s starting to analyse his finishing and when you do that, you try too hard.”

Dion Dublin’s first Aston Villa shirt number was No.14 and here’s 14 quickfire Aston Villa questions for the former striker who bagged 56 goals in 188 appearances in claret and blue between 1998 and 2004…

Favourite Aston Villa memory? Losing 2-0 at half-time and, unfortunately, a parachutist dressed as Santa Clause hit the roof. He was fine, we went in at half-time, had a few words with each other, a bit of fisty-cuffs were had with the players. Then we came out and beat Arsenal 3-2. That’s one of my favourite memories.

Worst memory? Breaking my neck against Sheffield Wednesday and thinking I was going to be paralysed for the rest of my life. If it wasn’t for Jim Walker, Dr Barry Smith and Andre Jackowski I’d be sitting in a wheelchair for the rest of my life so thank you very much, gents.

Best mate at Villa? I had a couple to be fair. Ian Taylor, I was very close to Ian. Georgie Boateng as well but I spent a lot of time with Mark Delaney. A lot of time. Good lad.

Best player at Villa? One of the most talented would have to be David Ginola. Paul Merson was outstanding too. There’s so many, my gosh. Talent-wise, Gareth Barry is right up there, isn’t he.

Best and worst trainer at Villa? If Paul Merson didn’t fancy it he’d just walk in. Erm, best trainer, probably Gareth Southgate and Ugo Ehiogu, God rest his soul.

Funny man? Merse didn’t mind a joke. Stan Collymore was always pi**ing about. Lee Hendrie liked a joke. There were a few in that dressing room. The silliest person was Ian Taylor by a million miles

Hardman, other than yourself… I was never a hardman, me, I’d shirk away from it but I’d never leave my boys in the lurch, I know that for sure. Hardman? Again, understated hardman, you’d never know it, but Ugo Ehiogu. He’s the kind of man who wouldn’t have shied away from any confrontation.

Best nickname? Ha! I think Lee Hendrie was called ‘Bush’ because of his hair!

Best dancer? You’re into dodgy territory now, by the way, because you’d have myself, Tayls, Darius Vassell, Jlloyd Samuel, God rest his soul, we were the ones on the dancefloor at the weddings when the lads were getting married. We had a bit, don’t you worry about that, mate!

Best dressing room prank at Villa? Put it this way I’m not going to mention any names but what would happen is if a new player or a new signing or a new young boy had made it upto the first team, maybe they got a bit cocky and a bit big for their boots, we’d get the groundsman to tip sand on their car. Literally cover the whole car in sand so they couldn’t find their car!

Best and worst dressed at Villa? Peter Enckleman had some awful gear, rubbish. As for best-dressed, Benito Carbone. Shirt and tie every day!

Most memorable team night out at Villa? I can’t hear you, sorry, interference! No, we went to Broad Street many, many times. What we did many times was go to a night called Wobble and the dancefloor actually wobbled when you went in. I think that’s why it was called Wobble. I got out of their sharpish!

Best Doug Ellis story? It’s probably the same as the rest of the boys. When I signed for Doug, he took me into his office and sat me down and proceeded to tell me that he invented the overhead kick! You’ve heard that before, haven’t you.

Your favourite goal for Villa? Probably my debut goal against Spurs. One-on-one, I think with Ian Walker, and I scored my first goal at the Holte End which was very, very memorable. Or, it would have to be my penalty against Bolton in the semi-final of the FA Cup!

Amazon Prime Video will be broadcasting 10 Premier League fixtures between 18th – 20th October, including Manchester United vs Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool vs West Ham.

Dion Dublin will be working as a pundit at the Fulham vs Aston Villa fixture on October 20th, with commentary from Guy Mowbray.