punkiller1981

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 

Just now, Villan_of_oz said:

pretty sure it will be 4231

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

I see a 442 formation here 

Just now, Adam2003 said:

Let’s see how the line up. As it stands all he’s done is swap out two midfielders for regular subs, right? Same defence, still Watkins and Ings, still Luiz seemingly at the base of midfield. I hope they are in a very different 4-2-3-1 but we will see.

Looks like an attacking 442 to me but we will see

6 minutes ago, Wurzel said:

Just watched Brendon Rogers post match interview supporting Steven Gerrard and he can f*ck the right off, Christ on a stick these managers are paid enormous sums of money to get grown men to play a ball game a couple of times a week and win a few games, and when they don't the get the sack and get enormous sums of money to get rid of them. So save me the bloody sob story, Gerrards job was to win games, he didn't because he is shit, and he was sacked. I don't want an apologist for that as our manager.

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 

5 minutes ago, Raymond said:

I'm sure allowing a clearly overmatched manager that has lost the dressing room to continue in the job through this run of winnable matches will not come back to haunt us at the end of the season. No way these points end up mattering. Thisisfine.gif

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

5 minutes ago, turvontour said:

That's right. We're going to need another 10 wins this season. No point wanting us to lose winnable games. Makes it even tougher, less attractive for the next manager.

The fact that Gerrard pretty much bang on averages us a point a game for the last year should be the clue the board need.

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 

8 hours ago, DevonIsAPlaceOnEarth said:

I’m genuinely not sure what gripe people have with Purslow apart from the Gerrard connection. Overall he’s always come across as a genuine guy who represents us well. 
My perception is that we are now a professionally ran outfit, light years away from his predecessors.

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.

3 minutes ago, DJBOB said:

Hahaha. 
 

First sub will be Archer for Bailey so the prophecy of all strikers will be complete.

Christ sake mate. 

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

29 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

I've said before, but I worry we're like a poker player who's put so many chips into the middle of the table, that we have no choice but to see it through. 

I'd hoped we had smarter people in charge than that, but the longer Gerrard stays in the job, the more you have to question it.

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.

10 hours ago, M_Afro said:

I don’t see what others see with Doug. I think he is sloppy, lazy, dumb and just a bit rubbish. Of all our annoying players, he annoys me the most. I just want to give him a shake. Liven the eff up Doug for goodness sake.

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. 

How does a manager with buendia, Phil luis, mcginn and Ramsey have do little quality. The movement is so poor it’s just people standing still. Why can’t one make an angle and have 2 players moving to take a lay off and get us moving between the lines.

so far this is more absolute shite as usual

Funny comment from hinchcliffe saying just need a bit more quality second half. We have none and Leeds are a championship side and not even a good one so no idea where that might come from. 
 

however if I had to pick one I’d say Leeds will shithouse a 1-0 from running around.

9 hours ago, Tom13 said:

Really are some gems coming out tonight. He actually said this on the CH4 coverage and it's not twisted or misquoted.

I like Declan Rice he seems like a decent lad and he certainly is a good player but that’s a very silly quote. The is zero evidence to suggest England will be good under Southgate of the back of no goals from 5 games and hardly a shot either 

On 25/06/2022 at 18:49, villaglint said:

A share the concern but the minute Pep leaves it’ll start to show signs of cracks I think. They still do well for sure but won’t be so dominant. As boring as they are to watch these days he’s an astonishingly good manager. 

I know this is the Phillips thread but i am glad someone else has said they find watching Man City boring! I hate watching city or any other side pass everybody to sleep it just doesn’t entertain me. The sky commentators will tell you it’s the greatest thing your eyes will ever see (I guess they don’t use pornhub) but for me it’s boring to watch even when they are 2-0 down because you know they will probably win 3-2

I really think what Southgate is doing in picking favourites just supports and ingrains the apathy a lot of people have for England. We know it’s a boys club and always has been so Southgate fits the bill perfectly, let’s be fair that’s how he got the job in the first place. 
 

Supporters are not stupid and picking maguire, shaw and Phillips is an absolute insult to the intelligence of any fan and you can also feel the press turning too with squads like this.

12 hours ago, MachoFantastico said:

Grealish in the England team despite being absolute crap for City, couldn't make it up.  He could take a dump on the pitch and they'd select him, he plays for City after all. 

To be fair the is a few like that. Harry maguire hasn’t played in a month at Utd because the new boss has realised very quickly he is at best very average yet not getting a game for your club is less important than being at a big club in Southgate eyes. Just look at jack, Phillips, maguire and shaw all players that have hardly kicked a ball this season because managers don’t think they are good enough yet the England manager had more or less given them all a ticket to the most elite completion in the world.

It is interesting how Southgate basically sold  him to Man City for us with his nonesense about needing to be involved  in the champions league and big games! I assume he meant watching from the bench and taking in the atmosphere (I know he started last night but won’t again after that performance). The same could also be said for Phillips as well who 8 weeks before the start of the World Cup has made zero starts since joining city and probably won’t make many because he is way down the pecking order. Good stuff Gareth these players really are improving at city.

I think most people thought it was the wrong move for jack given the managers style of play but it’s embarrassing how poor he looks in this team. He looks like a competition winner or that lad that comes for a trial and gets thrown in with all the established players.

Overall I’m pleased with the performance today. Interestingly  thought we improved with cash and Mcginn going off. I have been critical of gerrard for lack of a proper plan but credit today was a performance with a plan in my mind. Although we always seem to put in better performances albeit usually in a plucky defeat against the better sides. What we can’t tolerate is a poor set of performance in the next few games, back to having no plan again. We must use this as a spring board otherwise we will be back to gerrard out again 

Chris Sutton spotted Gerarrds shit tactics within 5 minutes