mikeyjavfc

Love this guy. Seems so sure of himself and his methods. Knows that if he follows his process he WILL make us better and wants to use the World Cup break to gives us an identity. 

You have to feel for Phil. Followed his good mate Gerrard to an unfashionable club with the lure of playing every game only to see his form nose dive and his mate sacked within 3 months and an uncertain future under the new manager whose system does not seem to suit his style. I actually really like him as person and player so I hope he stays and fits into the new system but you have to say it is another calamitous move in his career so far.

Love that he has arrived in time to manage a push in one or both of the domestic cups. Seemingly cup competitions are his bread and butter so would be great to go long in the cups given we are at a big disadvantage in the league already due to our poor start. 

2 minutes ago, Johnnyp said:

I don’t think the spend is going to be as huge as people think. He is an elite coach but has worked with clubs who have found gems rather than spent crazy money. We’ve been guilty in the past of signing top players ( Abraham in the championship ) who weren’t been coached that well and left to their own devices. I’d even argue that Coutinho falling off the face of the earth is less to do with him being past it and more to do with how shite and mundane training was every day that **** him up a bit. He could play well now. 

I agree, It would be nice for our current squad to be coached reach their full potential for once before we bring in a load more signings. Towards the the end of the last window I really stopped caring about new signings (when Sarr was linked) because I just knew the manager couldn’t use our existing players properly let alone new signings. Hopefully those days are gone.

Looks like Emery favours a 4-2-3-1. I’m excited after the Danks masterclass using the formation that we actually have the players to play this! Famous last words but Seems a good fit.
 

1 hour ago, Mr_Dogg said:

He was a 100% a Gerrard hire, they were coaches together at Liverpool.

Wow, we really did give Gerrard the world on a plate and he served up garbage.

Still seems bizarre to me he was sacked with the rest of Gerrards staff. I know he knew Gerrard a bit from his Liverpool youth team coach days but he felt more like a Villa hire at the time than a Gerrard staffer, and even a potential successor if it came down to it given he was coaching well at championship level already. And in the end they didn’t even want to keep him on to bridge the gap till a new appointment or for continuity? What a bloody waste of money. I hope in the future we foster a structure where more coaches are club appointments, barring the 2 or 3 core management staff.

Looking forward to seeing what a proper coach can do with Phil. Like everything else recently I am willing to believe it was Gerrards coaching and tactics making him look horrible all season.

1 hour ago, AV82 said:

This is only a story because of Gerrards stubbornness to never drop McGinn.

Yeah this really is a non story. Last time I checked most teams are allowed to rotate or rest a player with it being front page news

8 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

And the best thing about Gerrard was supposedly his ability to bring players in...

The worst of it is that pre Gerrard you could see exactly what we were about, Harrison and lange have a very clear strategy that was flipped on its head

This is it really. People have a go at Lange for bad recruitment, but since Purslow appointed Gerrard the recruitment and strategy has clearly been led by Gerrard and any previous long term strategy has been ripped up. Just think about the Sarr deal that Gerrard supposedly torpedoed for example. We really did go all in on Gerrard when he rocked up with his 20 staff. Just too bad he has turned out to be a charlatan all along. I bet Lange has felt very marginalised during Gerrard reign.

Whose next for the managerial wasteland

Thank god, a mercy kill. I pray for a sensible appointment

The sad thing with Gerrard is that I don’t actually think he would get us relegated, due to the relative strength of the squad. I just think he would Squeak enough draws and the odd win to have us hovering around 15th place all season. And I’m worried that this would be enough to preserve his job on the basis that we are not in the bottom 3 and the faint hope we are always about to turn the corner, whilst being miles and miles off the top 8 which was the target this season. It’s clear to see that Gerrard is not the long term solution so it would be an utter waste of season to stick it out with him when we could let a new coach get to grips with the team ahead of a push next year.

There is a decent team in the villa squad that was clear today. But It’s painfully obvious that Steven Gerrard isn’t the man to bring this out regularly. Cannot wait for the change to happen so we can enjoy villa again.

My prediction is we won’t get smashed as we will defend well but we’ll lose by one goal and create almost no chances in the 90. The press will say that villa did well not to disgrace themselves against a good Chelsea side and Gerrard will limp on for another week sucking the life out of the club as he goes.

3 hours ago, His Name Is Death said:

Do our physios and fitness coaches need to be questioned, now that we've had two major early season injury crises two seasons running?

More like our shaman who continues to do nothing about this obvious voodoo curse!

Something I noticed: Looks like the top floor of Villa Live is designated comercial space with no purpose currently so I assume they are hoping to flog that out to A third party like Nando’s or such like.

Apparently he came specifically to work under Steven Gerrard for 3 more games. 

We need the back to basics approach that Gerrard brought in after he first joined. Clearly a lot of muddled thinking at the club with various things tried and failed and now no clear plan. Restrain the full backs, keep the midfield tight and packed, and defend as a unit. That would at least arrest the slide even if it is not how we want to play long term. Gerrard needs the get the basics right before he tries anything more ambitious than that. 

10 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

It's possibly already died....

Palace look like they could be in with a shot at Top Eight and good luck to them, Vieira has done well and they are already a team to watch.

But on the next manager, Pochettino won't come and wouldn't entertain the idea. He can take his pick of a genuine Top Six team.

Potter is the man I feel, but would he come? NSWE should give him and Brighton what they want.

I agree about Potter, he is the coach we are crying out for who can improve the existing squad. If we couldn’t get him immediately I would actually appoint an interim and wait until summer. This appointment needs to be for the next 3 to 5 years so it has to be right.

3 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

There's a big split coming.

Top 6 are already protected.

Clubs that operate with intelligence and make decisions based on evidence will succeed. Brighton, Brentford won't be yo-yoing any time soon. Combine it with the financial power of Newcastle and they will be title challengers before too long.

Clubs that are stupid like Everton will be left behind. We've acted like Everton for the last year and a bit. Ings, Gerrard for Smith, Coutinho, Digne.

Purslow out. Gerrard out. Lange, the owners need to decide if he's responsible for the silly decisions we've made. I know he wasn't recommending Gerrard, Coutinho and Digne.

We are not in Everton’s situation yet but we are well on our way. The appointment after Gerrard is absolutely vital to our future success. If we get to a situation where we are tied by FFP after too many crap signings and managerial sackings all hope of breaking the top 8 dies.

Teams with good coaches and good coaching play better than the sum of their parts. Newcastle, Brighton and Palace have equal or worse squads than us but frequently look better on the pitch. I am struggling to remember many or any matches when we have looked like this, barring the odd 45 minutes here and there. 

Welcome Sarr. I really wanted to sign Sarr under Smith when we player 2 wide players every week so I am happy with the player, but it seems like a really odd choice for our current set up. Does he replace / rotate with Bailey or will we start playing wingers again with Phil/Emi stepping back into midfield? Puzzling 🫤

It’s dangerous to sign any more players for Gerrard at this point. He needs to show he can get a tune out of a capable squad before we waste any more money. Otherwise we are better off saving this transfer fee for his pay off.