david-avfc

Not worried about relegation, there are other teams between us and 18th and there’s a 8 point gap with just 6 & 7 games to go. Someone might go on a winning streak but not 2 or 3 teams all at once- they’re at the bottom for a reason. And we’re bound to pick up points at some point. The realistic worry is finishing 15th or 16th and struggling to attract targets to help us push on in the summer, or existing players like Martinez wanting to find the exit door

Yeah I’d like to see him at some point, even if it’s just off the bench, but there’s a fine line between throwing him into the deep end and risking a disaster and giving him a sensible taste of top flight football

Davis is an enigma, a lot of his attributes mark him out as a top player, but never really seemed to click with him for us. All players need games to develop, Davis has been unlucky with injuries and at times being considered too good to be sold/loaned but not good enough to start games. In most games for us when given reasonable minutes he’s been powerful but rusty in front of goal, if he’d played 100 games in his career by now maybe he’s be a completely different player. He’ll never be a 20 goal a season striker but if he can be a 10+ goal striker with everything else he adds he’d be a very useful player. If we do sell him it might be the best for all parties, I can’t see him pushing for regular starts in the PL for us, equally I hope there’s a reasonable fee as I can see him getting back into the PL one day

To be fair vs Watford he’d been out injured all preseason and was rushed back for the first game of the season with no preparation. It was a poor tactical decision rather than the player’s fault. Our whole preseason was shambolic to be fair for many reasons; injuries, late-returners, a bad transfer window, friendlies cancelled, senior coaches leaving. I know it’s a stretch to say it’s still costing us now, but it certainly set up what has followed

We will never progress trying to wheel and deal the squad like a pack of Pokémon cards We need to build a team and gradually bring in better players to improve it - sell this guy and buy that guy, then sell him and buy those two instead… great strategy on football manager, relegation strategy in real life

If we lose to next week to Leicester and then slip up vs Norwich then it could turn sour as the fan base is somewhat divided already. I think we will win at least 1 game and even just that will keep Gerrards place safe until the Autumn. I think even it does go down the pan Purslow will be reluctant to pull the trigger as Gerrard was obviously his man and we allegedly paid a lot of money to get him and his coaches down from Rangers

But who knows if Gerrard would have got more points out of the opening games of the season than under Smith? We were in complete disarray at the start of the season following the chaotic summer, and as the last 4 results have shown we are no less prone to losing streaks under Gerrard than we were under Smith.

That’s obviously in our benefit but I doubt Liverpool would agree on any significant portion of the fee being contingent on that amount of games. I’m not so concerned about his outright availability for matches, but more so on his actual quality as a player after such injuries and the long term damage they may have done. A fully fit Gomez is possibly better than Mings and Konsa but I’m not sure by a significant enough margin to fundamentally change the dynamics of our team. But if he has permanently lost peak fitness/ability then he might realistically be significantly worse than Mings / Konsa - and then on top of that there’s the risk he could get injured again and miss a season. It seems to me that the potential upside gain is quite limited but the downside risks are significant which is why I’d avoid, regardless of fee or payment structure. We already have a young-ish English centre back and although he’s been out of form recently, the fact Konsa has started 60 PL games in the last two seasons vs Gomez’s 8 would put our lad ahead in my opinion. Gomez has also never started more than 22 league games a season, Konsa has done more than that every season with us and at Brentford and Charlton - they are both the same age and one hasn’t shown signs of severe injury problems

Gomez is a no from me. Terrible injury record and in all honesty if Liverpool thought he had any potential they wouldn’t be selling him - nor would they have replaced him with the recent big money signing of Konate and he’d have simply played more games this season I would have taken him as back up, but we’ve already signed Chambers, and presumably he’d cost something stupid like 20m

Buendia is a little rough around the edges but has potential. We know he is a very creative player but also is prepared to do the dirty side by working hard, pressing and trying to genuinely win the ball. Once upon a time players were given a season to bed in before they were written off, but nowadays they’re lucky to get half a season and we’ve already made his place in the squad redundant with Coutinho

A decent manager surely has to be able to get the best out of whatever players they have available as a basic element of the job? We can’t go out and spend 200-300m every time we get a new manager in. If we had improved under Gerrard then of course we’d say let’s see how far we can progress after a few signings, but as we haven’t improved to me it just seems like the references to needing a transfer window are just an excuse for not getting it right on the pitch

Youngsters will always be a bit up and down. Hopefully he keeps progressing and in a few years he’ll be a top quality PL player.

Most of the time whenever Luiz been unavailable and Nakamba has come in we’ve looked a worse team, for exactly the reasons you’ve mentioned. Luiz calm and composed on the ball and helps to knit the team together, it’s just a shame he isn’t a ball-winner as otherwise he’d be the complete package. However we can’t jump from one extreme to another and go for a ball winner with no composure or ability with the ball.

I felt at the time it was a massive error of judgement to not use some of the Grealish money on a top class dominant centre half last summer. I just thought at the time it would be to replace Mings, not Konsa. Chambers definitely deserves another run in the team and a new centre back has to be one of the top priorities in the summer, as it should have been last summer. Both centre backs look dodgy at the moment but Konsa has been the biggest disappointment for me

Tough game next week, if we lose again he’s matched Smith’s record for which he was sacked. I don’t think there much chance of Gerrard leaving so soon, but say we completely fall apart and then lose to Norwich the week after..?

I think I read he was played mostly out wide and there was a manager change mid season too Most young strikers struggle in their first loan spell, Barry and Young had terrible times earlier this season too. Harry Kane also had some very poor loan spells in his early days - a great example for young Archer because Kane was never really considered anything special until out of nowhere he just emerged on the scene and then kept getting better until he reached the top. I think it’s just about building experience and then hoping at some point all the pieces suddenly click together. For some players it does click and for other players it never does and that’s why so many promising prospects fall out of the game or end up at a very low level

I think yes and no, we did have a one-off good season but if you looked at our squad last season it should be at least 11th. We benefitted from Covid but equally we also would have finished several places higher if Grealish wasn’t injured for 3 months. We should have prioritised signing a leader to replace Grealish in the summer rather than just focusing replacing him with extra attackers. The Purslow idea that we would replace Grealish’s attributes with 3 separate players never made any sense as it never considered the limitation that we can only field 11 players at the same time.

Our whole midfield and defence was an embarrassment yesterday. Maybe it’s tactics as much as it is individuals? McGinn always puts in 100% and even when he isn’t on top form as per those stats he still wins tackles, works hard, gets all over the pitch, takes the ball on etc. McGinn is better when given licence to operate as a free box to box player. When he gets constrained that’s when his technical limitations stand out. Also not playing any recognised deep holding midfielder vs Wolves was a serious self inflicted shot in the foot tactically, hence why they all looked shit until Luiz came on.

I understand why Targett wanted to leave as Gerrard had clearly indicated he wanted to go in a different direction from Targett. It kind of looks like poor man management to me, Targett was a very solid player last season but was obviously struggling for confidence. Instead of building him back up the manager just went straight into the transfer window to splash the cash on a big money replacement of questionable long term value to the club. No wonder Targett didn’t want to hang around and the speed in which it unfolded suggests it couldn’t have been managed very well behind the scenes, and as you say, being unable to convince him to stay for 6 months doesn’t look very good either. So far I wouldn’t say Digne looks any better than an in-form Targett, and Digne also seems to miss more games than Targett our lack of cover appears even more exposed.

I can only assume he couldn’t settle in England and had to move back to France otherwise I’m at a loss as to why he’s been dumped off because he’s certainly good enough to be back up to Cash

We have more options than last season but replacing our best player with 3 or 4 lesser quality players who don’t really fit in doesn’t make a better squad. Even with Coutinho I’d say he has better technique and is better in individual moments, but he doesn’t have close to the same overall influence that our ex-captain had throughout the game in most instances, a very unique player in that regard. I think there’s a tough balancing act in the summer between getting new players in to fit Gerrards plans but without going overboard on making sideways signings, like switching Targett for Digne, otherwise it will be another “transition season” where we don’t really go anywhere

I think many will be in for a disappointment when it turns out a guy who’s mostly sat on the bench and was only ever deemed good enough to be back up for 3 years isn’t the silver bullet we’ve been hoping for I’ll give him credit for his performances earlier in the season, he was very good in that initial spell when Gerrard came in, but it was only for 4 or 5 games and all of the players looked better in that period. Other players including Luiz were largely unavailable in that spell too so we don’t actually know if Nakamba was actually ever considered genuine first choice by Gerrard anyway.

I think Watkins is better than his recent showings. I don’t think it’s about pushing him out the door but in the short term we at least have to see what Danny Ings can do if given a consistent run in the team without being shoehorned into a failed partnership with Watkins. I can’t see a team above us bidding on Watkins as he’s nowhere consistent enough, but if it were to happen and we did receive an offer of £30m+ it would have to be considered but then I understand the points about who would replace him… and that’s why we need to give Ings a proper run at it

But it’s a ruthless sport and “not missing by much” just doesn’t cut the mustard in those instances. If it was a 5 a side kick about you’d say to him unlucky that was close, but this is the Premier League, it’s cut throat, and his finishing just wasn’t good enough. Fair play to him for winning the penalty but by god it was lucky that when it hit the post it bounced in and not out

Personally I am yet to warm to Gerrard. I have a feeling he will turn out to be a decent manager and will win things, but we shouldn’t be the ones for him to practice on and make mistakes with. I didn’t particularly like his comments post-Wolves about if the players can’t fix it he will bring new players in who can fix it. To me that came across as he is running out of ideas and believes only buying new players will solve all his problems. But I actually think we already have a decent squad so if he is failing to get a tune out of them I think that reflects negatively on his credentials. Sometimes in management the naturally best players struggle to adapt when dealing with lesser quality players and in several interviews reading between the lines I get the impression that Gerrard doesn’t understand why the players aren’t doing what he expects… is that the players or is that his management?