Aston Villa's players will benefit from Gerard Houllier's guidance in the long term, says Andy Gray.
Judge Houllier's Villa in the summer, says Andy
When Gerard Houllier looks back at his time at Liverpool his biggest regret will be his inability to deliver a league title.
I'm sure he remembers his time at Anfield fondly and is looking forward to returning there with Villa on Monday but that failure to win the Premier League will still jar with him.
He came close, finishing second to Arsenal in 2001-02, turning Liverpool into consistent league performers in the process while he also oversaw some decent cup runs too, the 2001 'treble' of FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup being the pinnacle.
I'm sure there are some fans out there who would love to have those days back again after some of the results over the last four years.
While Houllier's successor, Rafael Benitez, went on to win the Champions League of course I've always felt that he hasn't received enough credit for laying the foundation for that achievement.
Difficult
Houllier now finds himself at another great club with a bunch of good young players who I think will similarly benefit from his guidance.
It's been a difficult start to the season for Villa following the awkward timing of Martin O'Neill's departure, which meant that any new manager coming in had no time to prepare; in the circumstances, Kevin MacDonald did a decent job.
Gerard knew when he first stepped into the role that his hands would be tied, that he couldn't make any additions to the squad until January; even then there's no guarantee that he will be given much leeway to make changes.
Personally I don't think he'll bring much in during the transfer window; instead he will probably be given a year to assess what's going on and decide who he wants to keep. Only once that process is complete can we judge whether he and his management team are doing a good job.
Hamstrung
While it's true that results have been disappointing so far - Villa have drawn way too many games - there are clearly extenuating circumstances.
At different stages of the season Gerard's lost any number of experienced and talented players to injury, which has effectively hamstrung the team.
Villa went into the game against Manchester United with a midfield that included Marc Albrighton, Barry Bannan and Jonathan Hogg who - for all their potential - have only a handful of Premier League appearances between them.
Each put in a decent shift but Villa couldn't finish off the job - something that is becoming the story of the club's season.
In the short-term I think Robert Pires is a good acquisition; he'll certainly add a lot on the training ground where the younger players can watch and learn from him.
He can also make an important contribution on the field although Gerard has to think carefully about where he plays him.
Unless you are totally exceptional and you have the right players around you, it is extremely difficult to influence a Premier League game from the centre of midfield at the age of 37.
Pires looked a little lost against Arsenal playing off the front; he couldn't really get enough of the ball to influence the game. Instead, he might be more effective playing as one of three in the middle behind one up top - a position where he could hurt Liverpool.
Excellent
That said, I still feel Liverpool should have enough on Monday even with Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher - two players who have been pretty much the heartbeat of their side in recent years - missing with injury.
I saw Liverpool play without Gerrard at Tottenham at the weekend and I thought they were excellent. But for some wayward, sloppy finishing they might have beaten Spurs comfortably.
Instead those misses came pack to haunt them and they eventually paid the price for a lack of concentration.
They've got Sotirios Kyrgiakos to come in at the back and I expect the rest of the side to be pretty similar to that which came unstuck against Spurs; they'll want to set the record straight now that they've secured their place in the next round of the Europa League.
Even though Pepe Reina was at fault for Steaua's equaliser on Thursday I still rate him as one of the top two or three goalkeepers in this league and Villa will have their work cut out to deprive him of that 100th clean sheet of his Liverpool career.
