Gerrard is joined at Villa Park by several members of his Rangers backroom staff, including Gary McAllister - a former Aston Villa assistant manager - and Michael Beale as his assistant head coaches. The former world champion was perhaps fortunate to escape from Group E in top spot, and he ended Jose de Sousa's title defence in a laborious second-round tussle, before turning on the style against Fallon Sherrock. "Going into another league, that's something we'll adapt to. I've played many years in the league, and I've got an experienced group of coaches who are a real rock to me. We'll also use existing staff, so I look forward to building relationships." He added: "I want to discuss that [philosophy] with the players. If you watched my team at Rangers, it'll give you a good idea of that. I obviously want to be as entertaining and attractive on the eye as we can be, but one thing I'd like to improve is the structure of the team from a defensive point of view - our shape, what we do to regain the ball.