weedman

Bring back Hogan!

I've seen this written loads, and it makes sense but now I think about it, why would that affect his work permit? As long as he's not physically working in this country surely he can talk to whoever he wants without a work permit? I have to talk to people in America all the time regarding my business (mainly their stupid software playing up) and neither me or them need a work permit or permission to do so, what's stopping him having a conference call with the whole coaching team from abroad? I imagine he's got a lot to do with regards to moving countries and learning about the team and he's left this to Danks who's probably in a much better position to get the team ready for the game

This is a big difference between an unknown unproven manager and a known successful elite manager. With Gerrard we'd question everything because he had not shown that he knew what he was doing, and ultimately were proven right, whereas with Emery he could field a line up of only right backs (hello Southgate) and we'd probably see it and think "wow he must have some clever masterplan and if it doesn't work it must be the players fault" because he's proven he knows what he's doing over a long career

I was worried, but the game at the weekend and subsequently Emery has put a lot of that to bed - the biggest thing for me was what West Ham have just done. They were joint 17th and below us last night and 1 win with a couple of favourable var calls and they're suddenly 10th. The table is really tight and 1 win will make a huge difference, we've spent the first part of the season without a manager and now we've got a legitimately elite one, the only way is up (I hope!)

So, two? Tbh I missed the Forest game, but I'm just going to assume that you regard giving a free kick away as a mistake only if your name is Tyrone Mings. I can't remember the game but a few games ago Konsa passed the ball straight to the opposition striker and Mings came straight over and won the ball and nothing came of it, no-one even mentioned it post match solely because it didn't lead to anything. The biggest issue isn't that Tyrone Mings makes mistakes, he does, virtually all defenders do. The biggest issue is everyone else on the team has Tyrone Mings to cover for them so those mistakes don't often lead to anything, Mings has no-one so every single error, however minor, leads to a shot on goal. Put Van Dijk alongside Konsa/Chambers/Bednarek and I guarantee you'd be noticing his mistakes a lot more as well.

"a few", meaning one right, against Chelsea?

I'm pretty sure they said the same thing about interviews and lists of candidates etc when Smith was sacked then Gerrard was here a few days later

Its not much of a stretch to say we won't have a new manager by Sunday, it's basically Friday now! I reckon I could do this fake ITK nonsense

I've started wearing my Australia jersey to football on Monday nights now. Everyone I play with knows I'm Villa but the guys on the other pitches will never know!

Pretty sure that's nearly word for word what Liz Truss said the day before she quit

I've given up with virgin because of shit like this. I switched from sky and found that none of the sports channels were in HD, contacted them and they said I had to pay more than agreed, I was surprised but figured I'd made a mistake, later switched back to sky and when renewal time came around again virgin were cheaper so I went back to them. On the phone I confirmed about 8 times that all sports would be HD, they agreed every time until it all arrived and lo and behold nothings in HD. Ended up on the phone to them for 2 hours arguing about it before they gave me a credit to make up the difference because they wouldn't honour the price agreed. Never again, they lie through their teeth to get you to sign in the hope that their appalling customer service will put you off calling to complain about it. Sky have their faults for sure, but jesus at least you get what you pay for with them

He'd be silly to do that imo, given the average time a manager stays in post and the fact man Utd won't be shy with regards to compensation he could pretty easily join us, stabalise us in mid table and still leave for Utd next year (although let's hope not)

Poch just feels right, reminds me of when we got MON. Highly regarded manager out of work and linked to every available job suddenly rocking up at VP to replace an unpopular manager who was slowly circling us into relegation, and getting us into the top 6...lets just hope it ends better this time around!

It's not about one game in isolation though is it? We played well against City and drew, the next 3 matches we reverted back to our turgid self, we had a good half against Chelsea and still lost, we've had pretty much the easiest start to a season based on opposition and we've ballsed it up totally so there's no room for playing well but losing anymore, we need wins and he's proven that he just can't deliver them

Tbf he's always done it. He's made some incredible saves where a fk has beaten the wall and when you watch it back its because he moves over early. Since the middle of last year I've been hoping no one puts a fk on "his" side because it'll beat him and today it did - if memory serves he's nearly been beaten a few times this way but the shot ended up off target. Its a catch 22 really, since he's been with us he's saved a few that would have otherwise gone in by moving early, even some that look like really simple saves could have gone in if he hadn't moved early, today it went against him but its worked more often than it hasn't, just have to take the good with the bad sometimes I guess

If we'd played well or even average this season that would be true, but you can't go losing games to teams like Bournemouth and Crystal Palace and failing to beat the likes of Leeds and Forest then also write off games against top teams because we're quickly running out of games that we can actually get points from that way. The terrible start to the season means we need to actually beat some better teams now Tbf I think the pragmatic approach will work better against Chelsea and we'll scrape a draw or a close 1 goal defeat, can't see an embarrassment like some are expecting

I mean it's not *just* about being a willing runner, that's just one part. It's, well it's all the other things I also said. If you think Archer is going to get a lot of success challenging 6 ft 5 burley premier league defenders for hopeful long punts forward then you must have been watching a different player to me. Its not that he's not a good player, I really like him, but he plays on the shoulder most of the time. He can do other things too, but what makes him a potential PL player is that ability to get in behind and finish chances, a bit like Owen was. He could probably put in OK performances in our current team, but for all his faults Watkins isn't just a runner, his touch is off and his finishing is poor at the moment but he is capable of standing up to and almost bullying much bigger players. When he does that the ball can fall to our other players, when he holds up the ball it allows other players to make the 80 yard run forward to actually try and attack. Watkins at the moment can't beat a man, his touch is off and his finishing is poor, no argument from me, and if I were in charge I'd like to play Ings or Archer and set the team up to service them (runners off Ings, so the likes of Buendia Ramsey and Bailey, with a creative, defence minded base behind them in midfield, like Luiz and Kamara or McGinn, or quick movement and creative players behind Archer, so Coutinho, Buendia, McGinn with at least 1 runner behind them to pull the ball forward like Ramsey), but the fact is that Gerrard does not play that way. He needs someone up top who can do what Watkins does and hold the ball up because we just do not provide any service to whoever plays up front There's no point being an excellent finisher if you never get the ball in dangerous positions in the first place, I'd like to see Archer play as much as anyone, but he'll just be bullied in our set up and we'll turn over possession more than we already do, although it could work if he were to play up front with Ings or Watkins, but that would mean changing our set up again which, let's be honest, Gerrard just isn't going to do

We can all see his limitations but honestly he's being set up for failure by our "system". Gerrard clearly sees Ings as the better player hence him starting first game but Ings needs runners, he drops deep and plays one twos and little bits of pass and move football, Archer relies on service, through balls etc for him to get on the end of. Our only method of attack is to have Mings or Emi lump the ball forward for the striker to either 1) challenge in the air against 2 or 3 much bigger and more physical defenders or 2) chase the ball down the line and hope to do something as there'll be no-one else in the opposition half by the time they get the ball. Ollie is good at holding the ball up under pressure, he's tenacious and hard working and if you're the only player in the opposition half up against 5 or 6 defenders that's the only way he's even getting a sniff of a chance. When Ings plays, for all his instincts, for all his history of goalscoring, for all his being in the right place at the right time how often do we say afterwards that we "barely realised he was on the pitch". He virtually never sees the ball because we have absolutely no plan on how to get it to him. As long as Gerrard is here Watkins simply has to start I'm afraid, Archer or Ings would just get marked out of the game and we'd just constantly turn over possession

Moments definitely change games, but that's really cherry picking the "what if" argument isn't it? I mean we had better chances against Leeds than Man City had against us, and we could have been out of sight against Everton before their 10 minute "maximum effort" at the end. The Everton game wasn't pretty but we deserved the win. The Man City game we were under pressure and although we could have lost on another day a draw was probably mostly fair, and it's the opposite against Leeds in that we'd have won on another day but a draw was probably fair. Those three games in isolation are OK, not swashbuckling, but OK. You could argue we "deserved" 3 points between Leeds and City and got 2, but that's football. Its all the other games that's ruining us. Southampton was a win but awful, games like Bournemouth, Palace, West Ham and even Arsenal (where we were terrible but they were absolutely flying) are what's killing us. We absolutely have to beat Forest, 4 points from Leeds and Forest is probably acceptable, and 8 points from Southampton, City, Leeds and Forest isn't terrible as a run, even if the football is bad. It keeps us ticking over at least. We have some tougher games after that though and Gerrard is going to have to pick up a decent points haul from them to undo some of the terrible results so far. I don't think the board will sack him while on a "decent" run, even if the football is boring. There's a chance they might if they see attendance waning, but that would be pretty kneejerk considering they probably don't closely follow all the games to know how boring the football is In saying that I've always thought the owners have been pretty switched on since they arrived so I'd be disappointed if they hadn't at least sounded out Poch to see if he's interested. Hell, they may have done and he said no chance so they're sticking with Gerrard until someone proven becomes available to us, we'll never know I guess, so we've not really got much choice but to keep our fingers crosses that he either gets it right eventually or NSWE prove they are the savvy switched on owners that we all hope they are

Thanks mate that's really helpful to know. Hopefully we start playing some actual football again at some point and demand goes up again!

Completely off topic but when I had a ST in the past I never sold games I just had to suck it up when I couldn't go, but is it easy to sell tickets normally? I know atm we're playing horrendously for an unpopular manager so demand is down but assuming we either improve or sack him by next season would it be straightforward to sell games you can't make? I only ask as I put myself on the waiting list but think I could probably only make 40/50% of games due to work so it would help make a decision as to whether it's worth it or not. Apologies for off topic, to keep it relevant I really hope the board are looking at alternatives to Gerrard. It's a risk that looks like it's backfired and if our form against good teams is anything to go by we could be in real trouble after Forest unless there's a change ready

He's a player that works in a counter attacking sense, he harries and presses and can hold the ball up under pressure. He absolutely cannot play against a defence minded team. With time and space he's terrible and against these teams you need quick clever movement and good finishing, 2 things he doesn't have. The issue we have is our tactic is to lump the ball forward at every opportunity and he's the only striker that can do anything with that setup. Ings relies on build up play and runners behind him and Archer is a poacher who relies on good service. The only other striker who could possibly play the role that Watkins does is probably Davis. With a proper setup we could play Ings or Archer, with Gerrard the only striker that "works" is Watkins

We're a high budget Burnley without the players to make it work. I mean, our tactic consists of lumping the ball upfield and hoping Watkins can do something, and crossing at every opportunity for the likes of Buendia Coutinho and Bailey to "challenge" for in the air. Our most successful method of scoring goals has been to shoot directly from a corner

I'm pretty sure the poster wasn't even supporting Gerrard, he saw just pointing out that there's a middle ground between "I think we should replace Gerrard" and "everything at the club is terrible and it's the worst football we've ever played in our entire history". Most people are at the former now (not all, but most), the latter is clearly OTT

Rumours of mcl but its all just guesswork at this point, the club probably doesn't even have the test results yet