Delphinho123

8 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

Like I said, "food for thought". 

This cliche of having "lost the dressing room", for me, it's just another excuse for the players to hide behind. They don't represent Steven Gerrard, they represent Aston Villa. To give 90 minutes of unquestionable commitment is the minimum we ask of our players, if that's not forthcoming,  then I'm afraid,  they need to be held accountable. 

I think this is fanciful thinking. Of course, it SHOULD be that way but it just doesn’t work that way. 

There have been plenty of times where I probably should have put more effort in at work but when your boss is a c*** it affects your motivation and will to succeed for them. It just does. 

I doubt the players really care about Villa, not most of them anyway, they care about themselves and their paycheck. They’re also powerful enough nowadays to affect management and who gets to keep their job. In our case, I hope the players get Gerrard the sack because we’re going nowhere under this clown.

2 minutes ago, Morley_crosses_to_Withe said:

There are vague rumours floating around that we had someone at Porto v Sporting on Saturday. Whether we did, and who we were watching, is just rumour and guesswork. 

That’s not very Villatalk of you. We definitely had someone there and we were watching at least 4 players and we’ll sign two of them.

Discuss.

I’d be willing to bet big money the players dislike Gerrard. I can’t back that theory up but I bet they’re sick and tired of being set up to lose every week. 

Can’t imagine Gerrard is a nice bloke to play for. 

4 minutes ago, messi11 said:

I've heard Villa are moving hard for Otavio Edmilson da Silva Monteiro.

Voices inside your head or for real? 

You called the Sarr thing before anybody else.. I’ll credit you for that. I want to believe in you, Messi. 

Just now, tezzaleed said:

sarr would have been a quality signing and I'm gutted Gerard pulled the plug on it.  He really is a two Bob manager without a fecking clue.  I Hope he's gone by the World Cup. The pointless scouse clearing in the woods

 

Jeez, tell us what you really think, Tezza.

Lolz

2 minutes ago, ciggiesnbeer said:

This is a good idea.

Can Sanson and Doug play as fullbacks?

One of the strangest transfers we’ve made in a while. I was convinced we wouldn’t be signing any wingers in this window. It just doesn’t fit at all.

That said, if it means we move away from this suicidal 4-3-2-1 we’re playing, I’m all for it. 

4 minutes ago, Steero113 said:

Those voices inside your head getting louder champ? 

Made me laugh more than it should. Nice work. 

Just now, DCJonah said:

I'll give him some credit. But apart from Coutinho we haven't signed anyone who I think would be unimaginable if he wasn't here. 

 

My worry with Coutinho is what happens when Gerrard isn’t here in a few weeks. That’s a big old contract to run down..

You can absolutely forget it if this is the way we’re going to play this season. Just forget it. You could go and sign Modric, De Bruyne and Kante and it isn’t going to make the slighest bit of difference. If you set your team up to literally not play anybody in the middle of the pitch, you’re going to lose a helluva lot more matches than you win. This is staggering. 

13 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

What's Kamara doing wasting his time in no man's land? We don't do that here. Front or back, lad.

So true. I’m sure Gerrard must be giving him a rollicking for not playing out wide as close to the fullbacks as possible. 

21 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

He's asked to play Central where there is no space for him to exploit with his pace and dribbling. He also starts one game, then dropped, then back in. That's not how someone who basically missed a whole season of football is going to get up to speed. 

Nearly scored a wonder goal. 

Get him out wide with a similar player on the other side. 

Agreed. If we bring in Sarr, maybe have him one side and Bailey the other. 

Problem is, we both know we don’t play that system. 

Whole thing is a mess. 

Just now, AVFCforever1991 said:

yeah i agree with this, we can have a solid base and let Sarr, Bailey, Buendia, coutinho, ings and watkins concentrate on attacking, whatever the combination of these players are.

 

Personally, I didn’t think a 4-2-3-1 is the way to go yet. I think we need to sure things up a little and play a 4-3-3. Unfortunately, that means leaving some good attacking talent on the bench.

Id be inclined to play Luiz, Kamara and Irroegbunam/Ramsey. You can then take your pick of Coutinho, Bailey, Sarr, Buendia behind either Ings or Watkins. 

We absolutely have to get players playing in the middle of the pitch again. Or at least standing there. Novel idea, I know. 

2 minutes ago, M_Afro said:

That’s interesting. We had our best run of form under Gerrard when Nakamba was starting, before he got injured. Gerrard even said that he was an important player for us. Since then he hasn’t been given a sniff!

I actually don’t think that he is the answer. He is just not PL standard but he certainly offers more physicality, energy and passion into the middle of the park.

I think we need a bigger, better version of Nakamba. I thought that this would be the first purchase we made in the summer and yet we still wait. I did wonder whether Tim had progressed so much in the summer that Gerrard thought he was ready and yet he isn’t even making the squad! It’s all a bit odd and very frustrating.

I will remain in hope up until the end of the window but if this is not properly addressed then Gerrard will be gone before he gets chance to address it again. 

This much is true.

If Gerrard has even an ounce of intelligence or footballing nous, he’ll be banging the door down for at least one new central midfielder before the window closes.

Unfortunately, I don’t just think it’s the players in central midfield that are the problem. It’s a big part because McGinn is f***** rubbish and Ramsey is young and out of form. It’s more the system. Playing central midfield in this system is akin to a fairground ride - f***** mental. You’re kind of asked to cover the fullback and support the attack whilst not actually doing anything in the middle of the pitch. I don’t envy any player that comes here and asked to play as a central midfielder in Gerrards system. 

We have an awful central midfield. We all know that, but it isn’t going to get any better until Gerrard leaves I fear. 

6 minutes ago, zab6359 said:

Our ‘system’ can change in a heart beat with a change of manager.

I completely agree we have more pressing issues until we sort our midfield out everything else is just bullshit!

 

That we can agree on!

1 minute ago, zab6359 said:

Look at the top 4 sides and tell me they don’t have a mish mash of players on massive money.

Backed up by CL revenue. They can afford it. We most definitely can’t and it will catch up with us sooner or later. Their players also justify their massive wages! 

We had Coutinho and Ings on the bench yesterday. Both earn 125k a week. That is inexcusable and down to poor management. 

4 minutes ago, zab6359 said:

Did you see him absolutely terrorise Matt Targett a year ago? Whilst he’s not absolute top draw he is very good

 

I’ve also seen Ryan Woods completely dominate us. Look, I don’t think Sarr is a poor player, I’m sure he has his qualities. 

The problem is he is a touchline winger. Someone who uses pace and likes to beat his fullback in a one on one situation - like he did with Targett.

Two things. We don’t play a system with wingers. Our full backs provide all the width and our forwards tuck in and play more as 10’s. We have Bailey who is almost a carbon copy. Wants to play wide right and likes to use his pace. 

We have far more pressing issues that need attending to than at right wing. In fact, if you asked me which position we absolutely do not need anybody else for, given the system we play and the players we have already, it would be wide right/left. 

2 minutes ago, zab6359 said:

He’s 24

Not commenting on Sarr’s age specifically. I know how old he is. I’m talking about ending up with a mish mash of players and several ageing players on massive money. Sarr is a pointless signing. 

12 hours ago, Rightdm00 said:

I see now that Bertrand has gone you have zeroed in on your new target.  Bagged an assist and cracked the crossbar completely off his skill alone.  Did more than anyone else on the pitch from an attacking perspective. Steven  playing him as a CF which also does him zero favors.

If Steven got Eze he would look just as bad. Probably have him at FB or somewhere else dumb. 

Just because I didn’t rate Traore, who you may have noticed has been loaned to a random club nobody has ever heard of, it doesn’t mean I should rate Bailey. 

Bailey has been a poor signing. He may turn it around, he may not, but let’s not kid ourselves into thinking it has worked out yet because it hasn’t. The only difference between him and Traore is that Bailey is hampered by a god awful system. In that regard, I feel for him. He’s not a no.10 and never will be. 

Will find himself on the bench again I imagine next week. 

1 minute ago, MWARLEY2 said:

This is just reminding me of Charles NZogbia

Eeerily similar. We’re putting together a bloated, ageing squad of players in a mish mash of positions and spending tens of millions doing so.

We’re going to end up like Everton. Give it 2 years. 

1 hour ago, Tomaszk said:

It's **** insane the tough spot we've put ourselves in now.

Someone I would have loved like Marco Rose becomes a much bigger risk because we've wasted our pre-season with Gerrard.

No head coach out in Aus and the **** PR manager wandering round the training ground with a clipboard, Jesus Christ.

Whoever we appoint it'll be a huge departure from the non-system we're currently deploying.

Leeds have just appointed Rose's main assistant and it's not ideal to get anyone without their preferred #2.

Gerrard will cling onto this. He gets sacked from Villa it's only stupid clubs like Everton and West Brom who will touch him for years. Well run middling clubs like Brighton, Brentford and Newcastle won't answer the phone to him. And of course, at said stupid clubs he won't be given tens and hundreds of millions to spend. This could actually be it for him.

Similar to O’Neill in that sense.