Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has no doubt that Steven Gerrard will continue to carve out a managerial career after being sacked by Aston Villa.
Gerrard was dismissed on Thursday night, following Villa's abject 3-0 defeat at Fulham. He left with Villa sitting 17th in the Premier League, having lost seven of their first 11 games of the season.
There was a toxic atmosphere in the Craven Cottage away end, with Villa fans vociferously chanting for Gerrard to get "get out of our club" – but Klopp has backed the Reds icon to come back stronger.
Klopp spoke to Gerrard on Friday morning, before addressing the media ahead of Liverpool's Saturday lunchtime trip to Nottingham Forest. The German said:
"We [Gerrard and I] had a little exchange this morning, but nothing too deep, not a long conversation... I can imagine that it's disappointing for him because of the the ambitions he had and the things he wanted to achieve with Aston Villa, and that's obviously not cool. But I don't think we have to worry now about Stevie...he said himself yesterday after the game, [he's been in] the game long enough and these kind of things can happen.
"Always in life, we all get knocks here and there; it's always about how we respond. You all know Stevie still better than I do; he always came back and he will come back from [being sacked], no doubt about that. Things like this can happen: a lot of great managers out there had to leave their previous clubs for different reasons; some of the best did that quite frequently during their career and showed up somewhere else; learned from it; found a better situation; whatever. He will back, 100%."
Gerrard succeeded Dean Smith as Villa head coach in November last year, having first stepped into the dugout with Rangers – who he guided to the 2020/21 Scottish Premiership title, the club's first since returning to the top flight in 2016.
The former Liverpool skipper – who famously captained his boyhood club to Champions League glory in 2005, scoring the goal which sparked the 'Miracle of Istanbul' – has been touted as a future Reds manager, but such talk will surely have died down given his struggles at Villa (he finished with a win percentage of 32.5%).
Villa are reportedly keen to talk to ex-Arsenal and current Villarreal boss Unai Emery about becoming their next head coach.
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