Sgl

1 minute ago, foreveryoung said:

Moura and a new manager sounds good.

Watching this, I’d take Moura as the new manager . . .

9 minutes ago, sne said:

Zaha vs Mings will be interesting again. Hopefully the red card goes to Palace this time.

This is a big worry for me. Zaha consistently seems to be able to get under Mings’ skin, and pair that with Kansa not showing great form means our defence could be particularly vulnerable today. Hope that Bouba can help keep the pressure off.

10 - 1 if not for Pope

Just scored a nice breakaway goal

1 minute ago, Peter Griffin said:

Shit play is not bad luck, it is shit play

Agreed. It’s just that Emi makes that save 999,999 times out of 1 million, but of course the mistake ones against Utd. 

If it wasn’t for the bad luck, we would have no luck 

1 minute ago, cb_82 said:

Summarising some of what's bene said above, im not sure that you realise the pressure goldfish bowl environment of being Rangers manager and in particular after the mess he took over the achievement in stopping ten in a row - In short its a huge pressure cooker with the focus constantly on.

Add to that the success in Europe, his Liverpool playing career and I think the myth of no top experience/my nan could manage in Scotland attitude is blown apart

Gerrard is the real deal as are the team around him

I think thats a fair point, i dont really watch much scottish football and so am mostly uninformed about his time up there and the pressures of getting Rangers back up and 'functioning' as a club.

His football career certainly has exposed him to world class managers and given him loads of experience.  

I was certainly skeptical on his appointment (less to do with him, and more to do with a general skepticism of appointing managers from the Scottish league, as its such a limited league and easier to look unbeatable by simply dominating one other club), but i have to say i am very pleased with how things are going. We looked superb last night in the first half (albeit against a very poor performance) and arguably should have been out of sight by half time.  We have performed very well (even in the nature of the losses to two world class teams) and it seems to be extending further than the usual 'new manager bounce'. There needs to be a level of realism in terms of expectations of game play, if you go gung ho and attack Liverpool or man city you end up with a result like leeds got last night, so im not overly concerned with him setting us up conservatively in the early days against the big teams, and i think in both of those games we were dangerous in spurts so signs for the future are positive. It will be interesting to see what happens if / when he has a full squad to choose from (Traore hasnt been seen, Bailey limited to cameos, losing nakamba,  ings just back and poor sanson, who i can only imagine is currently wandering into the path of a hurricane and about to be struck by lightning, is out just as he showed glimmers), and once he has gotten a transfer window or two under his belt to start to turn the team into his 'own'.

I think Dean has done a unbelievable job getting us here and changing the culture in the club (lets face it, we were a complete basket case when he took over) but he had deficiencies in in-game management etc that meant he has reached a natural end to his time here and i will always be thankful for getting us back to the premier league.  

Gerrard is the Villa Manager so he has my full support. I'm a little underwhelmed by the appointment (less to do with Gerrard than to do with any appointment from the Scottish league, i'm not sure how much of Rangers resurgence is down to Gerrard or down to Celtics utter collapse, but the league is so uncompetitive that i would have preferred someone from a more competitive league). Lets get in behind him now and hope we have a christmas period with some good results.  Gerrard is a winner simple as that, hopefully that mentality and experience will drive us on.

2 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I give Deano shite when it's deserved, however, i'm pretty surprised by some of the over the top reactions in here.

First game of the season, after a pretty soul ripping departure and a set of new players.

He probably got it wrong to start off with, but at least tried to rectify, relatively quickly.

Way too early to be calling for Deanos head.

I do suspect, he will be under immense pressure this season though.

If we don't try to address our midfield I might start to worry.

This.

One game and people calling for his head?  Madness IMO.

Crappy preseason, away to a newly promoted team with fans back in stadiums for the first time this year, a Villa team that hasn’t really played together, and a lot of upheaval in the last ten days between player and coaches exiting - none of this excuses a shocking performance and a really disappointing loss but one game is exactly that, one game. If a pattern emerges, fair enough the pressure will be on and rightly so, but we should be able to be disappointed at a losing a game in a poor manner without the needless over reaction of calling for the managers head less than 24 hours after the season has started. 

1 hour ago, PieFacE said:

My only expectation is to improve on last season in terms of league position. 

Though, our pre-season has sucked and I feel like this could be a bit of a wacky season due to covid yet again. However, an improvement on 11th is the goal even with the aforementioned issues. 

I totally agree with this. I do have an unsettling feeling around the first couple of games though, less to do with the Loss of Grealish and more to do with the number of incomings (not withstanding the fact that the incomings are IMO outstanding purchases). This is a bit of a rebuild, new players who will take time to go together and get to know each other’s styles, runs etc, probably a bit of a formation change and definitely a change to attacking philosophy (I.e. no more “just give it to Jack” as option A) - all without a decent run of preseason games with the starting team playing together. I hope it comes together quickly, I believe we will be better at the end of the season than we were last season, but I think it could be a bumpy start.

16 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

He was inconsistent earlier in his career (shock horror young winger is inconsistent) but now to label him as such is unfair. He is a lot more consistent now. He'll probably need until January to get used to the pace of the Premier League after that he'll start to dominate defences.

Obviously we'll want success 4 minutes into his debut.

4 minutes ? This isn’t league one. We don’t have that kind of time. If he doesn’t score with his first touch, Bailey out!

1 hour ago, Pissflaps said:

Give their keeper an award. Perhaps an........Emi.

4 minutes ago, TRO said:

I think the issue is a gap between the 18's and the first team 25's.

Ashley will buy us some time, and raise the bar of winners around BMH, I think that is the essence of this deal.....The kids can learn from him.

This is exactly how I feel. Regardless of anything else, Ashley is clearly a pro, has played at the highest levels across a few teams and his attitude and professionalism alone will be something that the younger guys can learn from and be inspired by. He is a winner, pure and simple, you cant teach that but you can lead by example. He will also be a good squad player who we can rely on as the younger prospects gain experience and fill the gap until we can grow our own to bridge the gap between the prospects and the first team. He is not the same player he was when he left and thats the point - we would be recruiting him for a totally different reason this time around. 

I trust the recruitment team on this - whether he arrives or not.

59 minutes ago, Panto_Villan said:

It's hilarious. And for that reason, I'm in.

7-9th for me, assuming 1or 2 incomings in addition to Buendia to improve us and we don't lose Jack  

Maybe a small run in a cup with the younger lads and fringe players getting a good run out.

Id love a consistent season with no dip due to injuries etc and I'd like to see us beat Utd, for the love of god I want to see us beat Utd.

2 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Size is doesn't matter. As I always tell the wife. 

27 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

if we want to get better then its not bertie that we replace, we replace trez as the 2nd choice with a player who is good enough to demote bertie to 2nd choice and lay down the challenge to him to make sure he gets better next season (which i think will happen)

Its exactly this. If we are to improve the squad sustainably, incremental progress is the way to go. Pick a position, replace the backup (or third choice) with someone good enough to go straight into the first team, demoting the current incumbent to 2nd choice. If the (now) second choice raises his game and gets back in the team - happy days!, if not we have someone as backup who is an improvement on our current back up. The balance and atmosphere of the squad is so important, I'm sure Dean and the backroom team will be trying to pick players not just on ability and track record but on work rate and attitude as well, so a few incremental improvements will ensure steady sustainable progress. We don't ever want to be in a position where we have to basically buy a full new squad again.

5 minutes ago, TheAuthority said:

I am better than Ross Barkley

Depends what you mean. Better at football? Almost certainly - I believe most of the population of the earth are. Better at getting paid huge amounts to play football while delivering Almost nothing on the pitch? No way, he’s got you well beat there. 

Looks like he has plenty of promise but for me, I’d like to see what he looks like next season. We are often too quick to pass judgement on players who haven’t adapted to the league, language, new teammates, new surroundings etc, I’ve seen enough to think he could be a great signing but let’s see what he’s like in august before he’s labelled either a “squad player” or “world beater”. 

1 minute ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

I wonder how many subs he'll use today?  

It’s 3.27 and he hasn’t made a single sub yet today. National disgrace.