punkiller1981

If maguire goes (which he will) ahead of mings then that is a sackable offence in its own right. I would have loved Southgate to have been at the game to watch his 2 choices for centre back battle it out to realise one is an absolute beast who dominated a man with 498 league goals to his name. The other got to kick a few balls around at half time so Gareth can see what a good distributer of the ball he is. how can we possibly take a player who is probably 4th or 5th choice for his club? We would be a laughing stock.

Fantastic all over the pitch in terms of set up, application, work rate, mentality, attitude and skill. Other than 10 minutes or so before half time I felt we controlled the game completely and felt comfortable as soon as that third goal went in. I also have faith that this won’t be a one off performance, I really think this is that standard being set under the gaffer. Also I think worth noting the quality of the finishing for all three goals and yes digne free kick was superb but a word for me on Baileys finish on the run and JJ picking out the top corner first time. Lost count of the times I’ve seen us have a ball pulled back to the Penalty spot area and is not be clinical so I was delighted with that finish. last point and I don’t really want to pick holes in how bad Utd were because I actually think we just outplayed them no more to it than that but. Ronaldo really is finished at premier league level, I have not seen many strikers look less threatening than he did today. It’s almost sad to see a once decent player looking so poor and past it but as it’s him I’m not going to shed to many tears

I am fully aware that he won’t come here even with emery as manager but in the mings thread the were suggestions of trying to replace him with Pau Torres. Just looking online it appears he only has 18 months left on his contract, it expires summer 2024

I think it’s not that people think they are all shit although some are far from good enough at present (mcginn and Watkins) but I think it’s the attitude or mindset some of the players have that people can’t stomach and makes us want to get rid of them. The new managerial set up will be the best some of these players will ever have so if they can’t be motivated to work for this guy then they need to go.

I think it’s clear emery needs to ship a lot of from this team. olsen mingd konsa mcginn young bailey watkins for starters

So much of what I have seen today makes me worry about the the mentality of a lot of our players. The work rate and desire isn’t there with our players it’s so lazy

**** that in form or not you put a shift in. Newcastle are and that’s why they are in form. We can’t run, the are no legs in this team. The female commentator picked it up they look so much fitter than we di

Completely agree the record and pedigree speaks for its self but he does seem like a really nice down to earth human Which is by no means a must have criteria for a manager but after gerrard and his lack of any attempt to make people warm to him I think this guy will have us all loving him instantly. I think most of us already do

Great performances all over with the exception of Phil when he came on and slightly average from mcginn too. buendia, Ings, Watkins all excellent back 5 solid and extra credit to ash with an incredible performance today. Voted dougie mom but he was helped I thought by how good dendoncker was today. Also said if in the match thread but I have been wanting Bailey on the left for ages and it today showed me why, because he doesn’t have to slow down he can keep driving then deliver on his left foot

Been wondering why Bailey with his left foot wasn’t played on the left. Looks so much better whipping early crosses in rather than stopping and having to cut back onto his left

I would prefer that but I just had a feeling he might go for solid back to basics

I see a 442 formation here

Looks like an attacking 442 to me but we will see

I agree it’s ridiculous saying he should have got more time. That’s the one thing clubs don’t have on positions like ours. What would Rodger’s say when gerrard got this very expensive under performing squad relegated ? More time still or he is the right man to get us back up. More time is for when clear plans are developing but perhaps slower than anticipated. Shambolic clueless regressive football gets you sacked quickly. I do think Rodger’s was probably aiming that at his own board as much as ours though given that he is up market version of Bruce, does the merry go round always gets a job somewhere despite performances suggesting he shouldn’t

I wanted him gone at the end of last season and I say this as someone that would like to see stability but watching us sat up in the holte end against Palace even though we didn’t lose the pattern of play was so bad. I remember watching us pass around the centre backs out to cash and him looking up and all of our players moved inside essentially marking each other rather than one at least offering an option out wide. This happened numerous times so I concluded that this was tactical and it was awful and led to us losing the ball or giving it away cheaply. the biggest mistake though for me is the captaincy issue. Creating a problem where the wasn’t one causing disharmony in the squad for no reason. If he didn’t rate mings that’s fine move him in, players can accept that but to embarrass him like he did then give the armband to mcginn essentially just made this moment inevitable and I think without his mate as ceo it would have happened much quicker.

Just out of curiosity does anyone know why we don’t mark people on the edge of the area ? We let them have I don’t know how many efforts from the edge of the box

I agree what are they waiting for. We only play 38 games, tossing to of them off to see if something different happens in them to what has happened for the last year is unforgivable. today is what I knew would happen and said last week put an effort in defeat against Chelsea then this woeful effort. john mcginn and Bailey need sacking after that half

What is actually going on here. This is so bad how to Fulham have 2 player overlaps down both sides

But it’s not the clue the board need. there will be an idea somewhere that he can turn it around which he probably can’t

My grip with him at the moment is this idea of giving him Fulham and Brentford which it looks like we are. These are must win games and if we are looking at them and going ok let’s see how we go as if they might deliver something different to the forest or Leeds games. Either you have decided he isn’t the man (which I agree with) then let’s just get rid now be decisive with action. Alternatively come out and say he is going to be manager until the end of the season at least and back him completely. I don’t think we or any club should be going on game by game.

The big worry for me with gerrard is the perslow seems to have gone all in with him moved away from the recruitment model we had been working too bringing in players like Phil and digne. I can honestly see a situation where some of our better young players get frozen out and move on elsewhere and go on to have careers better than they would staying at Villa. I have a feel over Martin o neill with this one going for expensive experience that offers little, players the same 11 week in week out despite bloating the squad looking for the quick fix. Albeit the MON disaster did at least come with some ok results and league finishes

Perspective needs to come into play here. We have played reasonably well, kepa has made 2 great saves and we have created a few chances. But… this is against a top side and inevitably they come on to us more so we don’t need to break them down we just need to nick the ball every so often. Where we struggle and will continue to struggling us against sides that we need to break down and I don’t believe that will change with Gerrard. All very well playing well and being valiant losers against good sides but following it up with piss poor performances against a ten man Leeds or bottom of the league Forrest are what we need to judge.

It won’t archer isn’t on the bench. Maybe he has pulled a sicky after seeing the same shit again from this manager

I think we have very smart people owning us but I do wonder about the people below them. Purslow is seemingly doing some good stuff but his unreserved commitment to gerrard is undoing all the good work. I can accept the gerrard appointment because it’s a risk appointing any manager but good leaders are able to work out when they need to let things ride and when they need to act decisively based on the evidence before them and the time is now or a few weeks ago. Although for me it was actually at the end of last season for me from what I saw.

I agree completely with this but the other thing I would add is slow on the ball too. We needed to get the ball moving quickly against forest and by the time we did get moving they were back in shape and we went side to side between luis mings and konsa without ever looking like finding a gap, it was painful and very boring to watch. also he is so predictable in the giving away of stupid free kicks in potentially dangerous areas.