VillaFaninLondon

5 hours ago, gurru991 said:

You are more than welcome to Brendan Rodgers !!

All smoke and mirrors with no substance !! He talks a big game but is tactically inept. You might just as well stick with Gerrard rather than put up with the Rodgers blame game.

Other than the PL title win under Ranieri which was a complete one-off, Rodgers is the most successful manager in your history. Two top 5 finishes and an FA Cup win, whilst playing attacking football. 

Yes things have gone a little stale but let's not act like Leicester are some huge club (no offence meant). I'd definitely take him here, he's a far better manager than Gerrard. Was my preferred choice over Smith when we were in the Championship but he obviously turned us down at that point.

A few reasons to be concerned with our transfer policy:

• Low net spend the last 2 summers
• Not investing in key positions to strengthen (e.g. CM)
• Buying predominantly players in their late 20s since Gerrard came in (same thing happened under MON)
• Failing to offload unwanted players (Trezeguet and Targett aside) 

I've praised the owners a lot but if they are going down the road of turning off the taps that will not be good for the club and reminds me a bit of the Lerner years. You'd think they haven't lost interest given the plans to increase Villa Park but if seasons tickets are going to sell out every summer at our new 50K+ ground then significant improvement will be needed on the pitch I'd have thought. Continuous investment is needed every year in this league just to stand still let alone progress to the positions we are aspiring to. 

1 minute ago, Zatman said:

Im happy he havent. No panic buys or quick fixes to cover the mess

Coaching can fix it

We have Steven Gerrard in charge, he can't fix anything. 

Even Neverton are signing players to help them and they're supposed to be skint!

Still no signings after Saturday's shambles, disgrace. 

5 hours ago, CVByrne said:

Surely needs to go 4 3 1 2 as we're most effective with split forwards and one 10. People don't get in each others way in that system. Coutinho Watkins Ings, Luiz Kamara McGinn, Digne Mings Carlos Cash.

So three changes to the line up. Watkins, Luiz and Mings for Bailey, JJ and Konsa.

He probably will as he's such a one-dimensional manager that the only two formations he can use are 4-3-2-1 and 4-3-1-2.

Even if it works against Everton we'll probably go back to being shite against Palace. 

13 hours ago, wict01 said:

Too early to call this a must win, but after the manner of yesterday's defeat I think it's certainly a must not lose.

Everton looked quite resilient against Chelsea yesterday, albeit lacking a cutting edge without a proper striker. If they get one in this week, I'd fear for us.

It's a must-not-lose if we just want to get to 17th in the league but clearly just avoiding relegation is not our remit with this squad of players, finishing top half is and according to Purslow our aim is actually 7th. So it's pretty much a must-win. Everton at home is a game we should be winning but we said the same about Bournemouth. I had us down for 6 points from the opening 2 and I think many others did, if we end up with 1 or 0 it's been a catastrophic start. It really is a game we have to win. 

He needs to drop McGinn and Ramsey, or at least one of them, bring Watkins in for Ings, and either brings Mings back in or at the very least Chambers for Konsa. He really needs to get rid of his system too because it just ain't working and hasn't since he's arrived. 

I'd probably line up like: Martinez, Cash, Carlos, Mings, Digne, Luiz, Kamara, Bailey, Buendia, Coutinho, Watkins

But the likelihood is that McGinn will play over Buendia probably. Coutinho is on very thin ice for me, if he doesn't start to improve his game and be more consistent he has to lose his place. Maybe give him once more chance against Everton but if he's awful again then he needs to sit on the bench for a while. 

2 minutes ago, ciggiesnbeer said:

Based off yesterday I would like three things:

A midfielder who can pass through the center and a forward who can score.

Also a coaching staff that can come up with a gameplan to beat what was literally a weakened Championship side.

 

Aouar is being linked with moves to everyone except us it seems, yet he'd probably be the perfect sort of midfielder for us to link defence and attack. Also available on the cheap.

I'd be tempted by Jonathan David if we were to go for a striker, he'd cost a lot but he's at an age where he will only improve drastically and he scored two goals today. We just need to offload Ings on someone, easier said than done. 

Wolves signing Guedes, Everton signing Coady and Onana. Forest after Gakpo. Even Bournemouth are signing Senesi. Everyone around us is strengthening and buying players that would probably improve us while we continue to do nothing despite getting a serious wake up call yesterday. 

It's really hard to be positive about anything at the moment. 

I was actually not expecting this thread to open at all this season, wasn't convinced we'd be top 7 but thought we'd be comfortably midtable all season at a minimum and at least start the season with a couple of wins. But never underestimate the capacity of this football club to make a c*ck up of everything, they've been doing it every season for the last 12 years so why stop now.

The fact is this squad should be nowhere near a relegation battle but we have in my opinion probably the worst manager in the league. I actually thought only Lampard was worse but I've actually changed my mind on that and at least Everton's players look like they give a sh*t. 

I never expected to see a Villa team with so much quality on paper be so poor. At least under Lambert and Sherwood we knew the team was shite, it was hard to expect anything good of them because the quality of that team was so poor, but it's really hard to accept this team being as bad as they are.

I will assess where we are after the Southampton game as to whether we are in a genuine relegation battle or not. I think we need to win at least three games up to then to ensure we aren't dragged into a relegation battle. Even then we may only be averaging slightly above a point a game which is pretty much relegation form. If we're anywhere near the bottom 3 at that stage I'd expect them to look to replace Gerrard unless they want to do even worse than last season which you would think is totally unacceptable to them. 

2 hours ago, AshVilla said:

I think we will struggle to get 12 - 15 points.

There's no way Gerrard would survive that. We play 16 games before the World Cup break. Anything less than 20 (and that's generous) and he'll surely be given his P45. Unless everything the owners and Purslow have said about our ambitions is a lie that is.

1 hour ago, Made In Aston said:

Dean Smith was the right man at the right time and he was instrumental in giving the fans something to cheer about after a really dark period in our history. Looking back,I would not have swapped Dean for anyone, as it was such a unique experience. 

I agree the Gerrard appointment was a big risk, but we didn't necessarily need a special manager. Rodgers, Moyes or Howe would have been good enough to get us into the European places. Then from there we could have gone for an elite manager to push us towards top 4. 

I can see that Gerrard isn't displaying the skills I would expect of a decent manager at the moment - certainly not one that is going to get us in the top 8. We can try and stick it out in the hope that he develops, but how long will that be?Long enough to lose all our best players? Relegation? I think it would be reckless to leave it a while before changing managers. It needs reviewing by the international break, to evaluate whether the board feel that he has shown enough over the best part of a year to warrant being kept on. My opinion is that he hasn't. 

Someone like Rodgers would be a good appointment for me, Leicester fans have been completely ungrateful for what he has achieved there, plus they're not backing him financially, if we couldn't get Pochettino then Rodgers would be a very smart and shrewd move. I think he'd have us top half at the minimum with this squad and maybe pushing top 7. 

Opinions on Smith are mixed I know that, at the time Rodgers was my preferred candidate but Smith was my 2nd choice, but my own personal view is he is overrated for his achievements here because he was a Villa fan. We can argue night and day about this but there is a reason he is now managing Norwich in the Championship. We played some good football under him at times and had some amazing results like the 7-2 against Liverpool, but ultimately he lost nearly half his games here and we were as much of a soft touch as we are under Gerrard. Averaging a point a game over the whole of 2021 wasn't good enough and then losing Grealish he looked lost. But that's the past.

I think if we're in a poor position by the time of the next international break in mid-September they have to let Gerrard go. We cannot let these poor results linger and have another dreadful season like the last one. I think he needs a minimum of 10-12 points from the 8 games up to Southampton at home and so far we have 0 from 1 so he needs 10-12 from the next 7 at least I'd say. We have to beating Everton and Southampton and one other team, maybe Palace, then drawing with someone like West Ham and maybe getting a point at Leicester to put us on 11 points. It's not inconceivable that will happen, but if we perform like we did yesterday then no chance. 

7 minutes ago, daft said:

Obviously fans have turned on him. Any chance of him winning them back?

I don't see it. If he goes and wins the next two or three games, perhaps he brings them back. Fail to beat Everton, let alone lose, and I think things will escalate. 

I just hope if/when he does go, the owners and Purslow really go for a special manager. I'm fed up of all these mediocre managers managing this once great club. We just never get it right. Probably the last manager we appointed with a big reputation at his peak was O'Neill. Although that turned out to be a bit disappointing given the way he left, his poor performance in the transfer window, and the one dimensional style of play (and he  was a big factor why things went south after laving due to his short term thinking), he did at least get us into the top 6 three times in a row. He at least knew how to get players playing above their station which is in complete contrast to Gerrard. 

It's only one game into the new season but this team has to be up for every single game if we want to achieve our objectives this season and to not be ready for the opening day against a newly promoted club is unacceptable. There were just no excuses for yesterday's sh*tshow and we should have been beating Bournemouth comfortably. And these types of displays have been going on since March. 

19 minutes ago, AVFCforever1991 said:

looks like Eddie Howe is a better manager and someone we should have went for 

Stevie needs to buck his ideas up, because he hasnt got a clue

I personally thought Howe was a poor appointment from Newcastle at the time given what had happened at Bournemouth and he'd been out of work for a year, how wrong was I. Didn't start so well there given they didn't win a game for months, but he's been a fantastic appointment and is getting far more out of their squad than Gerrard is out of ours. 

I still actually think we're better on paper than Newcastle, given they have Targett at LB and Dan Burn at CB. It's actually a disgrace how much more Howe is getting from his squad of players than the fraud Gerrard.

It's worth going over our form since beating Southampton 4-0 in March (which had us in 9th), 2 wins in 12, and our run since then hasn't even been that difficult, we should easily have got 9-10 more points from those games:

West Ham (a) - lost 2-1: should have got a point from this game, West Ham were tired from their Thursday night game and it showed, Villa just allowed them to take 3 points by defending badly and being poor in front of goal as usual

Arsenal (h) - lost 1-0: personally felt we should have been aiming to take a point here too, Arsenal had again played less than 3 days earlier at home to Liverpool but came out much more energetic dominating the first half, we didn't turn up until the 2nd half, another fail by Gerrard

Wolves (a) - lost 2-1: should have won this game never mind not lose, Wolves were missing Jimenez and Neves and were in poor form, they didn't win another game after this, we also should have been seeking revenge for the 3-2 defeat at Villa Park, another fail by Gerrard

Spurs (h) - lost 4-0: expected to lose this but the scoreline was unacceptable, although we did actually play quite well

Leicester (a) - drew 0-0: decent result, although we were helped by Leicester also being tired from midweek European game, game was there to be won but a draw was ok

Norwich (h) - won 2--0: ok

Burnley (a) - won 3-1: decent result against a team battling to stay up, played well

Liverpool (h) - lost 2-1: expected to lose and we played well, could have got something, decent performance

Palace (h) - drew 1-1: poor result, we usually beat Palace at home, football from what I remember was dull and we should have put the game to bed after scoring first but let them back in, another fail by Gerrard

Burnley (h) - drew 1-1: should have been winning but I would probably have taken 4 points from 2 games against a team battling to stay up so ok

City (a) - lost 3-2: expected to lose but the capitulation was embarrassing even to a side of City's quality, we conceded 3 goals in 7 minutes, pathetic 

Bournemouth (a) - lost 2-0: the worst result of the lot, it's only one game but I already fear for the season ahead, Bournemouth are a team of Championship players with a manager who has failed at this level before and they completely mugged us off, McGinn as captain over Martinez was a stupid decision and it showed as he did nothing to help us get back in the game, dropped Mings for Konsa when it should have been for Chambers or not at all (especially as Mings would have dealt with their set pieces much better), did nothing for most of the game accept pass sideways and backwards and aim crosses into absolutely nobody time and time again, we'd had a much better preseason than B'Muff and a fully fit team with much better players all over the park than them on paper, embarrassing

So that's 9 points from 12 games, the only 2 wins against sides relegated and includes defeats against a terrible Wolves team who are in freefall and newly promoted Bournemouth who Parker even said himself are weaker than the team that finished 2nd in the Championship last season. I'm not even sure Gerrard could get this team into the playoffs of the Championship given how easily Bournemouth beat us.

It's clear time is running out. Even if we beat Everton which is the only acceptable result, we then have a run of five games where we could feasibly not win any of them and maybe not even pick up many points (Palace, West Ham, Arsenal, City and Leicester). I would say get rid now but that obviously won't happen - however, if we have 5 points or less from our first seven games up to Leicester (which is actually very generous because that is less than a point a game), then he has to go and there is no point in waiting until October/November time particularly when managers like Pochettino are currently out of work.

This fraud of a manager is already under pressure and this will only be the 2nd game in. Anything other than 3 points after what was an embarrassing defeat today and time will be running out for him because after Everton and Palace we have West Ham, Arsenal, City and Leicester and we all know Gerrard is incapable of masterminding victories against any decent teams. 

Everton are one of the few clubs this mediocre Villa squad has got the better of in recent seasons so perhaps that good run will continue but being at home at Villa Park isn't an advantage because we won fewer games at home last season than we did away, coming to Villa Park just isn't difficult for opposition teams.

Hoping for a win, expectations are getting lower and lower with each passing week though as the manager gives no confidence that he can the best out of this talented squad. Almost turning to apathy now just like I was towards the end of Smith's reign.

Just now, CVByrne said:

Hilarious overreacting

Didn't Arsenal get hammered by Brentford last season on opening day and should have had 4th wrapped up come the end of the season

People need to chill out. Seriously 

Sorry mr Steven Gerrard’s secret lover.

9 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Howe signed a new deal yesterday so he's safe for this season unless Newcastle are bottom 6 but today's win suggest they'll be much higher.

Rodgers may become available at some point this season so that depends on timing. I rate Rodgers but Pochettinho has a higher ceiling.

Could always appoint Bielsa I guess for the popcorn debates....

I like Rodgers too and think he gets unfair stick from Leicester fans. Bielsa I’m not so sure but I think all of them far better and more proven than Gerrard!

It's only a matter of time but of course we will delay the inevitable until the season is over for us. You would think this team would be too good to go down but with this shower managed by Gerrard I'm not so sure. Still I don't see anything better than 14th place finish after today and really just what is the point in that. 

Compare our team to f***ing Bournemouth's and it's night and day in quality. Scott bloody Parker tactically outwitted Gerrard and got his shite team more up for it than ours. 

Once again weekend ruined thanks to Gerrard and this team.

Just now, Villatillidie95 said:

Liverpool up next tommorow, exciting times

What a pointless friendly that will be. Probably get 3 injuries or something.

Maybe it's time we just had no expectations with Villa. We're a shambles of a football club given what we spend and aim for and we're actually a small club in today's game and no longer relevant. Sorry to have to say it. 

Just now, jacketspuds said:

I think this is worse.

Bournemouth have a weaker squad than the one that got promoted. We have a squad littered with very good players.

Plus we've had no excuses with disrupted preseason, injuries, etc. This is all because we have a dreadful manager.

Everytime we shoot we just hit a f***ing Bournemouth player. Aim for the goal you t*ts!