VillaHatesMe

I'm much more willing to accept mistakes when they're a matter of executing incorrectly than I am the mistake of not doing anything at all, which is what Luiz did. Go back and watch the highlight and watch how Luiz just looks at the ball and waits for it, allowing de Bruyne to swoop it up. Tyrone made a mistake. Douglas was just lazy.

Agreed. The third goal was a direct result of Luiz staring at the ball and watching the match happen in front of him instead of playing in it.

There will definitely be an adjustment period, but much smarter people than I have told me he's tactically ahead of the curve for most players his age. So it may just be adjusting to the speed of this league on a weekly basis compared to some of the lesser teams in France.

I like Schick a lot. His season was thrown off by a calf injury that kept him out a while, but he started to find his form again late in the season. Darwin Nunez seems destined for bigger things than us at the moment. Had Everton gone down, I was sure we'd have made a run after DCL.

Hey now, Bobby can score plenty of goals. He just doesn't have to.

Could Luis Suarez come on and score some goals for us in a super sub role and occasional 60-minute starter? Sure, he's Luis Suarez. Should a super sub who sometimes gives us 60 minutes be our target this summer? Not if our ambitions are truly to compete for Europe. I like Ollie and I like Ings. But they're essentially league average strikers. We need to upgrade there just like we need to upgrade a lot of areas, but we're also stronger there than other areas, so maybe Suarez is the best option for now. Or maybe we get Bobby Firmino.

He's good now. He has a chance to be very good. That said, put all the caveats of having never played in the Premier League etc here.

Champions League or bust.

Only because they don't have a choice.

If we play that way? The match, most likely.

Same, and his goal scoring has definitely dropped, but he was also asked to play a slightly different role under a new manager in a new system. I also think his numbers were impacted by Fiorentina selling Vlahovic to Juve. A lot of his passes that would've turned into "shot creating actions" or "goal creating actions" with Vlahovic disappeared with him because Vlahovic is such a freight train. Plus, Fiorentina qualified for the Conference League today, so we'd have to convince him to give up the glitz and glamor of weeknight trips to the Eastern bloc.

I mentioned him here yesterday, but it seems he's destined for Inter, and I can't see us winning that battle.

My questions are 1) As of today before the window opens (or just at the start of it) where do you think we should be aiming for league position wise next season? Top half. I know there will be plenty of talk about competing for Europe, and I think that would have been a realistic goal for next season had we not sold Grealish. That's a move that resets the counter a bit, as it takes more than two windows to restructure a team that was built around one player for the most part. I also think that we're too easily overlooking how many teams there are between us and those spots. City and Liverpool will still be City and Liverpool. Chelsea is a question mark, but it's hard to imagine it falls off a cliff. Spurs will improve if they hang onto Conte. Arsenal is improving. West Ham, Brighton, Palace and Wolverhampton are all formidable teams we need to be beating regularly to get to Europe, and while that's possible, it's still not likely. I think Leicester is going to continue slipping. So, long story short, without knowing who we're signing, Europe is likely a bridge too far. This could change by August. I'd also very much enjoy a cup run. Whether Carabao or FA. Don't have to win one, but at least tease me! 2) If not achieved what would be acceptable and what wouldn’t be acceptable? I can live with a bottom half finish if we finish with more points than we did this season. At least we'd see improvement. I can also live with it if the players we sign perform well, but we get unlucky with injuries. Another year in which our signings are more misses than hits and we continue dropping points to teams we shouldn't -- any team I didn't name above, mostly -- would be unacceptable, and I'd very much encourage not only the removal of Gerrard, but Purslow and Lange as well.

My friend, I'm not trying to diminish anything Smith did. I posted the numbers for his entire tenure, and was told by some they were meaningless. Then somebody asked what it would look like if we took his final 26 matches and compared them to Gerrard's first 26 since the squad level would be more even, so I did that. Nobody is trying to diminish anything Dean Smith did, or what the team did at the start of last season. I'm posting numbers, and it seems they're a Rorschach test. Everybody's seeing what they want to see in them and accusing me of doing something I'm not. I guess the lesson here is to stop posting.

An improvement, but not nearly enough of one to get where this club insists it's going. So, back to what I've said all along -- my hidden agenda! -- I'm firmly in the skeptical about Gerrard boat. But I'm also skeptical about Purslow and Lange, not just the manager.

It's a good idea in the sense that Dean's last 26 matches feature roughly the same squad as the one Gerrard has, with the most significant difference being Dean had Jack Grealish for a portion of those matches while Gerrard has had Buendia/Coutinho in that role.

He might be, but I don't see it being the biggest need for the team. I think if there's one area we have enough depth, it's inconsistent attacking mids. And, for what it's worth, in 2,675 minutes at Tottenham, Lo Celso averaged 0.13 goals and assists per 90 minutes. In 3,011 minutes in the Premier League with Villa, Ramsey is at 0.21 per 90. I don't know if sacrificing Jacob's minutes for Lo Celso would be for the benefit of the team.

That's a good idea, so I've done just that. Dean's L26: 1.12 Gerrard's F26: 1.35

No thanks on Lo Celso. We have numerous versions of him already. Can't even find ways to put Buendia and Coutinho together, I don't see how adding Lo Celso clears things up.

I've said numerous times on here that I didn't want them to hire Gerrard, nor am I confident that he's going to improve us going forward. I even said as much in the post when I posted the stats you then called shit. All I did was post some numbers that say, overall, the team has performed better under Gerrard in 26 Premier League matches than they did in the much larger sample size of Dean's time in the PL. I didn't make any proclamations about what the numbers meant, and even said that all that's going to matter is whether they improve next season. Then you quote me and tell me the numbers are meaningless and later claim I have an agenda. I'm not looking to start an argument here, but from my point of view, the person shouting down any stats somebody posts that they don't agree with to tell them they're meaningless looks more like the person with an agenda.

What's my agenda?

Well, if we're going to argue that it's not fair to compare results based on squad strength, it's just as fair to say we can't judge Gerrard because he's never had Grealish to work with. So I guess we'll never know!

Here ya go. Average points per match over the last 10 since joining the Premier League. The black line is when Gerrard took over.

Why is it the people on here who tell you the statistics you share don't matter never tell you which ones do? What statistic matters more than results? It's fine to have an opinion, but when somebody presents a statistic that doesn't support your opinion, it doesn't necessarily mean the statistic is flawed or "doesn't mean shit." It might just mean your opinion is off.

I don't know if Gerrard will take us where we want to go, but here are some facts that are hard to argue with. In 87 Premier League matches under Dean Smith: 1.15 points per match In 26 Premier League matches under Gerrard: 1.35 points per match The sample size is small, but the improvement is there. The question is how much more improvement we'll see.