JPJCB

Controversial opinion but I still preferred watching Jack play in full flow than coutinho. The first half of last season he was absolutely phenomenal and you just wanted him on the ball at all times. Seriously, watch the YouTube highlight reels from those games to jog the memory. that said, I don’t necessarily think he was a better player then than coutinho is now. The difference is that coutinho is far more effective and can have less influence on the overall play while still being incisive at the key points and notching up goals and assists. Jack was wasteful despite being so brilliant

I still think konsa is better defensively. I don’t think chambers is quite tall enough to be honest. but he’s undoubtedly better on the ball. None of our centre backs and potentially not many of our CMs would have even attempted that pass let alone executed perfectly. Adds further weight that he could play a role as a CDM

He’s the best player I’ve ever seen at playing on the turn. He picks the ball up with his back to goal, you blink and before you know it he’s turned on a six pence

Is Delano’s treatment of him one of his biggest mistakes? He barely got a sniff under him and largely stagnated as a result… I get that he had niggly injuries/confidence issues but we played absolute dross like Wesley for months on end even when keinan was fit

Thanks.…. I’ve now got “gives it away to Iroegbunam…takes a touch and feeds it down the line to Sanson” stuck in my head

Somethings gone wrong with how the system is being deployed at the moment. The whole point of it in Michael beale’s words is to “defend the centre of the pitch” but that graphic, albeit an exaggeration, shows the opposite happening with one lone DM in the middle. we’ve got to revert to the way it worked in SG’s first few games with the fullbacks starting much deeper and the two number 8s much narrower. That would solidify us

Can we place a ban on him going on holiday? He always comes back overweight

Didn’t he start the first few games under gerrard which we won? So it can work. That said I’m not sure who you’d drop out of buendia and coutinho to get him in the team

I remember terry saying about smith when he left that one of smith’s strengths was that he never got carried away with a win and he never got too downbeat with a loss. Gerrard seems to lack that stoicism to be fair

I agree with this. I’m a believer in the system gerrard wants to play having seen how it solidified us in his first few games. I think since signing digne and coutinho we’ve tried to play a more attacking version of it though which has made us more vulnerable. The full backs’ starting positions are too high and so we’re constantly exposed on the break. That’s a stark contrast with the first few games where we always looked difficult to break down. he needs to go back to basics for the next game. I’d make two changes to solidify us- tell the fullbacks to start deeper with more of an onus on McGinn/Ramsey to be involved in the attacking play; swap luiz for chambers so that we shore up the centre of the park

I’d add to that that Ings has at least looked like he’s trying to form a partnership with Watkins- passes to him frequently, tries to get involved in linking things up. If anything Watkins has looked even more selfish (if that’s possible) when Ings plays so that he can get the glory. The number of times you saw Ings in a better position but Watkins would still run down a blind alley was infuriating

Exactly this there was a period of time earlier in the season where some on here were talking about him as if he was top 4 quality after a couple of good games. But then he has games like Newcastle where he genuinely looks championship level. The inconsistency is infuriating

My picks- very much biased based on players I’ve seen in my lifetime: 1. Martinez 2. l young 3. Bouma 4. southgate 5. Laursen 6. barry 7. young 8. milner 9. dublin 10. grealish (v close with Yorke) 11. Petrov (weird list)

All of this is true but this (and other posts in this thread) imply that we should build our entire midfield around Luiz when his talent simply doesn’t warrant it. If we were to play a destroyer DM next to luiz with Ramsey/someone else ahead of them more advanced then we’d be playing an entirely different system to what gerrard wants to play. We’d either need to play coutinho as the 10 (in which case drop Ramsey who’s been our best CM this season) or play coutinho much wider on the left than he likes to play to accommodate the changed midfield shape. Buendia would have also have to play wider which he’s not suited to. Now don’t get me wrong, this might be worth it if Luiz were genuinely one of our best players and worth building the team around. But I’ve seen no evidence to suggest he’s anywhere near that level. With gerrards system which inherently tries to get the best out of two narrow tens (incidentally coutinho and buendia are very very well suited to these roles) you need one destroyer DM and two very energetic number 8s to cover the fullbacks when they go wide and generally hustle the opposition. Luiz isn’t strong enough defensively to be the destroyer and he’s not got enough energy/pace to be a top number 8. He’s surplus to requirements if my view. I’m sure some posters are right that he’ll probs do better somewhere else. But I’ve not seen any evidence to suggest he’ll be one of the top deep lying playmakers in the PL. he’s probs best off moving abroad to a slower/less physical league tbh

There are only three certainties in life: death, taxes…and Matty cash struggling to get the ball out of his feet

I’m confused by folks who think he was amazing last season. He’s been worse this season for sure but its a marginal deterioration from an all round average player. He’s always been crap at hold up play, he’s always had a habit of running down blind alleys, he’s always been a poor finisher- these traits were all there last season. The difference is he had a player in grealish who created 10 chances a game for him

Genuine disgrace of a poor performance and I'm afraid to say a real knock to my belief in Gerrard to take us forward - for him to be slumped sulking like a child when we still had time to get something is just pathetic. January business not good enough - we needed a DM desperately and yet spunked that money on Digne who we didn't need. Targett must be delighted at the way its played out for him - wouldn't surprise me if Newcastle overtake us at this rate. We should consider selling the following players in the summer as they aren't good enough: Cash, Luiz, McGinn, Watkins, Bailey - all pretenders as far as I'm concerned

Has there ever been a villa player who you want the team to pass to less than Watkins? Every.single.time he gets the ball the play breaks down

What’s the record for number of managers sacked in a PL season by a single club? Have they already broken it? Surely they will if they get rid of Hodgson….

I don’t think he’s good with egos at all- he alienated ibrahimovic and eto’o and ended up selling them while they were at the top of their game. That’s not to say it was the wrong decision. But pep works best with much more reserved characters- all his best players have been that mould: messi (at least when he was younger), iniesta, xavi, lewandowski, lahm, de bruyne. It’s one of the reasons grealish’s lack of success under pep isn’t that surprising- pep prefers managing players who are less up themselves

I’d definitely say this is all pure speculation and folks aren’t reacting to any genuine proof re the drug rumours and grealish so of course there’s a chance they’re wrong. but two facts spring to mind. 1.) drug use is rife in football according to everything we hear; 2.) jack gets up to more off field antics than most players. It’s really not that much of a leap to infer 3.) that jack probably uses

The “shin injury” returns. Strangely it always coincides with media stories picking up around his off field issues

Fwiw, konsa was more at fault for the first goal in my view. James still has lots to do once he gets the ball and you wouldn’t bet on him to score from that position. But konsa stands far too far off him and gives him the time and space- plus the finish was decent to be fair

We already know that he has a good footballing relationship with buendia as well (see the Brentford goal as the perfect example). I’ve not seen Watkins click with either buendia or coutinho yet

Agreed. When jack first broke into the team you could see his talent and natural ability were a step above any other youth player and he proved that with some of his early appearances (hull at home where they repeatedly tried to kick him; Liverpool fa cup semi). But then he arguably stagnated for the next 2-3 years. With his ability he should have ripped up the championship but he didn’t really hit his stride till deano came in. With Ramsey (so far) it’s arguably been the opposite. He came into the team and was quite ordinary and didn’t really stand out. But his progression since then has been astonishingly rapid. Suggests a good mentality