Steven Gerrard: Aston Villa didn't get rub of the green

Mo Salah scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot as Gerrard suffered defeat on his first return to Anfield as a manager.

But Gerrard felt the decision to penalise Tyrone Mings for a foul on Salah was harsh, while he also felt Villa should have been awarded a spot-kick of their own when Reds keeper Alisson tangled with substitute Danny Ings late on.

He said: “I thought we had a decent shout for (a penalty). There is certainly contact from Alisson on Danny Ings and if you follow it for a second or two there is a two-hand shove on Ollie Watkins.

“We certainly felt that deserved the referee and VAR to take a closer look. It looked like they wanted to move on very quickly from it.

“We have lost the game to a penalty shout in the other box which we believe was a foul on Tyrone first. It feels harsh on both incidents but penalty box to penalty box today Liverpool were the better team than us.”

Villa defended impressively for most of the 90 minutes but failed to register a shot on target and Gerrard admitted some frustration at how his team had been unable to deliver a consistent threat.

He explained: “We tried to get the balance right and I think we did a very good job of containing Liverpool for large periods of the game.

“I think you can be too gung-ho against these type of teams too early and hit for a scoreline which does not help anyone, especially at this time so early into a job.

“The plan was to try and take it to the latter stages and then throw more players on from the side, the likes of Danny Ings and Buendia and get more of our attacking players on the pitch.

“We will certainly analyse it moving forward and I will look at myself as to whether I should have done that earlier. The penalty incident was a setback. What we didn’t want to do was go too gung-ho too early and get hit for a big scoreline.”

Gerrard’s name was sung by supporters in the Kop after the final whistle. Describing his emotions on the return to the club where he made more than 700 appearances as a player, he said: “I understand there is a lot of emotion around it for me and my family.

“I had to accept that and try and deal with it in the best way I could. I tried to focus on Villa and make that priority.

“I am thankful of the reception I got and I think that is normal and natural because I spent so many years here as a player. The emotion is normal but I tried to deal with it in the best way I could.”