The Rémi Garde thread

[Stevo985]

1 hour ago, DCJonah said:

Yeah I read that report as well. I was kind of worried that Joey Barton could see these obvious issues yet our supposed progressive thinking manager can't do anything with them.

Probably the same reason Gary Neville was one of the best pundits around but is woefully out of his depth as a manager.

It's a lot easier to manage from a TV studio.

[NeilS]

1 hour ago, mykeyb said:

I agree totally on that point but Sherwood managed to get the team to score 10 goals in 10 games where Garde has only managed to get the team to score 12 in 19 with the pretty much the same staff available. Had we scored more goals under Garde we might be closer to Sunderland, Norwich & Newcastle...........................or we might not.

Yes goalscoring is one of our biggest problems, even 10 goals in 10 games is generally not enough to be succesful at this level though, especially when we specialise in gifting a goal or two to the opposition in most games. The early games were littered with defensive howlers, which have continued on into the season under Garde. Therefore I doubt we would be much better off if we had continued at that scoring rate, we would need to be hitting 1.5 - 2.0 goals a game . I guess we would need to look at how many clean sheets we have kept this season as well. Do we have the personel to keep it tight at the back? Sherwood said as much last season, he had the summer to tighten things up at the back, and didn't do a good job recruiting in that area, which has left us in pretty much the same boat defensively but lacking the Benteke goals up front which were never replaced satisfactorily.

This is all a mute point though as we will never know if Sherwood could have turned things around as he didn't get the chance, my personal opinion is that he probably wouldn't have. He was struggling to arrest a freefall that he had started at the tail end of last season. Garde has done no better at arresting this alarming lack of form. Garde has had the disadvantage over Sherwood in that he did not have a pre-season to work and build the squad he wanted. He has not had the luxury to bring in players who fit his philosophy of playing football and has had to come in and try and pick up the pieces of someone elses balls up.

I doubt Garde will be here next season now, he probably will be sacked when the season ends so we will be on to the next victim after that. I just hope that the new board members can bring someone in who can re-unite the club going forward, and clear out all of the bad eggs that have contributed so little in effort to this season. I suspect though that we will be stuck with some of them for a while longer though.

 

[DCJonah]

2 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Probably the same reason Gary Neville was one of the best pundits around but is woefully out of his depth as a manager.

It's a lot easier to manage from a TV studio.

Well that goes without saying. 

I still find it a concern that Garde can't do anything to solve issues that are very clear. He doesn't even look to be trying. It's just either 4 at the back or 5 at the back, give the armband to which ever word removed brother isn't on the bench and hope for the best. 

Garde has just become an expensive baby sitter for millionaire adults. 

[BOF]

No y'see I think you go too far there DC.  While we both seem to agree that he's not using enough youngsters, that doesn't mean it's open season on everything else.  The fact remains that he doesn't have the personnel in the senior squad and I think most will agree that you can't fill the first team with kids.  So therein lies the rock or the hard place.  He inherited a mess and while he briefly looked like getting results to improve, we ran out of games and managing a squad lacking in quality is easier at the start of a season when there are plenty of games and therefore plenty of hope left, than it is to manage them at the end when everyone knows their fate is sealed.

[Stevo985]

16 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Well that goes without saying. 

I still find it a concern that Garde can't do anything to solve issues that are very clear. He doesn't even look to be trying. It's just either 4 at the back or 5 at the back, give the armband to which ever word removed brother isn't on the bench and hope for the best. 

Garde has just become an expensive baby sitter for millionaire adults. 

Any manager in the world would be an expensive babysitter at this point.

We don't have the players. We have the worst squad in the league by a country mile.

I'm not saying Garde has done a good job. But AT THIS POINT all is lost. They've given up.

[screwdriver]

Garde doesn't help himself. I noticed we were watering the pitch before and after kick off yesturday. Why? to help spurs play keep ball with their slick passing?

 

[DCJonah]

I don't disagree. This squad of players is dreadful. And most of them are just complete clearings in the woods as well. 

But at the same time he's just done nothing. It's often said that no manager could do better but I'd say I doubt most managers could have done worse. 

Garde has shown no reason to believe he could have an impact at this club. I'd hoped he would because he's someone who you could get behind and his credentials suggested he was a good manager. 

[markavfc40]

I have a lot of sympathy for Garde. I think having been heavily involved with the protest group over the last 3 weeks or so I have been really thinking about how poorly the club has been run and Garde really inherited the culmination of over 5 years of neglect. He inherited a poor squad of players with the added issue of low confidence and in the main lacking a spine so what they lacked in quality they couldn't make up for in terms of effort and being strong characters and willing to dig in.

The issue really isn't what he came into now though. This season is done and we have to look forward. The problem I have with Garde is that I don't really know if he is a good or poor manager due to what he inherited. Does he deserve the chance to attempt to reshape the squad over the summer and start next season? probably. I think it is too much of a gamble though and I don't think I want us to take that gamble. I would rather we went with a safe pair of hands someone who knows what the Championship is all about and knows how to get out of it. Someone who could hit the ground running. I think Garde would potentially take time to adjust to that league and what is required to get out of it and I don't want to take that chance. You also have to wonder how much damage this last few months has done to Garde as he looks drained and a little lost at times.

If he does move on I'd wish Garde well though and put no blame at his door for relegation. Like others before him he has been a victim of the incompetent way the club has been run for many years. Arguably the biggest victim.

My choice for manager next season by the way. Bruce or Dyce. They are not exciting names but I would be confident as long as the club sorts itself out above the manager that they could get us back up.

[VillaChris]

Garde hasn't been interested since the transfer window shut really, a shame as we were picking up nicely under him, good draws v Leicester and WBA, wins v Norwich and Palace which gave us half a chance.

He knows with the mutiny on the terraces the club wouldn't dare sack him, he knows most of the British players in the squad (Jack, Gabby and Richards) can't stand him so that's another avenue of getting results gone out of the window.

I think he'll resign within a week of the season ending as he has said already he wants a competitive budget to get out of the championship and it's not going to happen is it?

[PaulC]

4 hours ago, NeilS said:

Why we gave him a new deal when his contract was almost up I will never know? We spent 3 years with him in the bomb squad, he plays a handful of games and is rewarded with a new deal. The guy has never been that great a player, and now he has a nice new deal he isn't probably motivated to give his best for a team that tried to freeze him out, when in his mind he was in his prime years of his career.

I remember my gut feeling when reading the news of the new deal along with Gabby's new deal, and it was not good and were truely staggering in my mind.Those two deals epitomise everything about the running of this club over the last few years.

Yes rediculous. He must be the worst right back in the Premier League,

[BOF]

36 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

I have a lot of sympathy for Garde. I think having been heavily involved with the protest group over the last 3 weeks or so I have been really thinking about how poorly the club has been run and Garde really inherited the culmination of over 5 years of neglect. He inherited a poor squad of players with the added issue of low confidence and in the main lacking a spine so what they lacked in quality they couldn't make up for in terms of effort and being strong characters and willing to dig in.

The issue really isn't what he came into now though. This season is done and we have to look forward. The problem I have with Garde is that I don't really know if he is a good or poor manager due to what he inherited. Does he deserve the chance to attempt to reshape the squad over the summer and start next season? probably. I think it is too much of a gamble though and I don't think I want us to take that gamble. I would rather we went with a safe pair of hands someone who knows what the Championship is all about and knows how to get out of it. Someone who could hit the ground running. I think Garde would potentially take time to adjust to that league and what is required to get out of it and I don't want to take that chance. You also have to wonder how much damage this last few months has done to Garde as he looks drained and a little lost at times.

If he does move on I'd wish Garde well though and put no blame at his door for relegation. Like others before him he has been a victim of the incompetent way the club has been run for many years. Arguably the biggest victim.

My choice for manager next season by the way. Bruce or Dyce. They are not exciting names but I would be confident as long as the club sorts itself out above the manager that they could get us back up.

I agree and I think Scott put it best in one of his post match reviews when he said that regardless of the amount of blame that can or can not be apportioned to Garde, this is not a survivable situation for him.

I think another thing going against him would be the atmosphere next season.  You'd worry that the players, having gone through a relegation with this manager, would almost be incapable of being motivated next season by the same man.  I don't know if that's being unfair, but it is another thing I'm not sure I'd want to risk.  I don't want to be proven right in November when we're struggling to get started.  I also wouldn't put any blame on him if he was to leave.  We were not relegated by the team from December on.  We've finally been relegated by the team from 2011 on.

[markavfc40]

15 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

 

I think he'll resign within a week of the season ending

I actually wouldn't be surprised to see him leave as soon as relegation is confirmed and we go through to the end of the season with Black/MacDonald/Parks taking charge.

[blandy]

53 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

My choice for manager next season by the way. Bruce or ... I would be confident as long as the club sorts itself out above the manager that they could get us back up.

I don't think appointing a former 'nose is ever a good idea. In the event that we were not to get off to a flyer (and we won't whoever is boss) the pressure on him as a former nose would mean it would all go wrong. Just don't ever do it. Ever. (Also I can't stand Steve Bruce, the big fat Geordie granny that he looks like).

I agree with the aim of having a manager who knows what he's doing in the Endsleigh League (or whatever its' called). I think Garde if he stayed would need a major clear out of players, as they're not playing for him currently. If the club can't or won't clean out the bad apples, then a disciplinarian type manager is necessary.

I suppose as well that if there were a big player clear out, then the rebuilding of the squad would need to be done by people with good knowledge of Endsleigh league players - which rules out Garde, Reilly, Almstadt etc.

[TRO]

2 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

Any manager in the world would be an expensive babysitter at this point.

We don't have the players. We have the worst squad in the league by a country mile.

I'm not saying Garde has done a good job. But AT THIS POINT all is lost. They've given up.

I thought they had given up..... way before it is reported they had given up.

I thought they gave up at Southampton last season & Wembley

This is one of the most lilly livered squads at villa i have ever seen.

I have seen worst technically, but not for desire.

Edited March 15, 2016 by TRO

[ferguson1]

3 hours ago, srsmithusa said:

Although that is partly true because high pressure is much more effective when the opposition lacks vision, skill, awareness, confidence, or quickness of thought. 

If you pressurize and hunt a really good, really confident player "in packs," and his teammates have awareness and quickness of thought to move to space, he confidently and skillfully plays a simple pass that places the whole pack behind the play.  Your best option against those players may be to have one man contain them and the rest mark the runners he may play in to effect.

So, If I was managing Tottenham (for example) I would pressure the ball and hunt in packs while playing Villa.  I would contain and mark the runners when playing just about anyone else in the league (only a slight exaggeration.)  

Basically, our weak, fearful, tactically unaware team encourages high pressure from our opponents by rewarding it, rather than punishing it.

You could be right here also. I just worry that if we are failing to do the basics right at present, will it change next season if we have the same man in charge, regardless of new players?  I am just so on the fence with Garde right now, as am failing to see any real improvements since Sherwood.

[TRO]

1 hour ago, markavfc40 said:

I have a lot of sympathy for Garde. I think having been heavily involved with the protest group over the last 3 weeks or so I have been really thinking about how poorly the club has been run and Garde really inherited the culmination of over 5 years of neglect. He inherited a poor squad of players with the added issue of low confidence and in the main lacking a spine so what they lacked in quality they couldn't make up for in terms of effort and being strong characters and willing to dig in.

The issue really isn't what he came into now though. This season is done and we have to look forward. The problem I have with Garde is that I don't really know if he is a good or poor manager due to what he inherited. Does he deserve the chance to attempt to reshape the squad over the summer and start next season? probably. I think it is too much of a gamble though and I don't think I want us to take that gamble. I would rather we went with a safe pair of hands someone who knows what the Championship is all about and knows how to get out of it. Someone who could hit the ground running. I think Garde would potentially take time to adjust to that league and what is required to get out of it and I don't want to take that chance. You also have to wonder how much damage this last few months has done to Garde as he looks drained and a little lost at times.

If he does move on I'd wish Garde well though and put no blame at his door for relegation. Like others before him he has been a victim of the incompetent way the club has been run for many years. Arguably the biggest victim.

My choice for manager next season by the way. Bruce or Dyce. They are not exciting names but I would be confident as long as the club sorts itself out above the manager that they could get us back up.

Its not exciting names we need Mark in our position.....Its durable names and as you say managers who know their way around the division.

Equally we are not going to attract the players, exciting names would want.

[sharkyvilla]

I'm intrigued as to whether the axe falling on those above Remi makes him more or less likely to stay next season.

[jon_c]

24 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said:

I'm intrigued as to whether the axe falling on those above Remi makes him more or less likely to stay next season.

More, we're just holding out to get Wenger in as DoF next season, when Arsenal finally listen to their stupid fans and sack him. 

[HAL]

People who are saying they arent playing for garde must not remember how they played before he got the job

Just as bad so they dont play for anyone not even themselves since who is going to buy them other than another terrible club

[sharkyvilla]

20 minutes ago, HAL said:

People who are saying they arent playing for garde must not remember how they played before he got the job

Just as bad so they dont play for anyone not even themselves since who is going to buy them other than another terrible club

The thing is there were signs in January that things were working out and the performances were half decent.  We started well at West Ham before Ayew elbowed Cresswell.  I'd put that moment up there with the subs at Leicester in the brainfarts of the season contest, as well as not capitalising on our form in January by giving Remi a couple of new players to work with.  Then Liverpool happened, and I'll be surprised if we get another point this season.  We are utterly defeated as a club.