The Rémi Garde thread

[foreveryoung]

For me Garde is the man to take us forward, I have no doubt. My problem is, is he the man to keep us in the league which takes a far different approach.

[Neil]

16 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

For me Garde is the man to take us forward, I have no doubt. My problem is, is he the man to keep us in the league which takes a far different approach.

Is he the man to lead us to promotion from the championship is my concern.

[Lichfield Dean]

I like Garde. I think he can build us up for future. But it may take a season or two in the championship sadly. And hopefully some decent funding (which really is the key point).

(As an aside but slightly pertinent point, for all those who big up Leicester and Watford, don't forget both those clubs have been heavily bankrolled. We couldn't even keep hold of Albrighton because of wages and this shouldn't be forgotten.)

Persinally I think Remi could be our best manager in years given time and funds. Whether he will get either I am not sure.

[Dr_Pangloss]

1 hour ago, foreveryoung said:

For me Garde is the man to take us forward, I have no doubt. My problem is, is he the man to keep us in the league which takes a far different approach.

Taking us forward but potentially not keeping us in the league? Doesn't quite compute for me. If we go down then by definition he's (contributing toward) taking us backwards. I'm highly skeptical about the idea that we can go forward if we go down. 

[GENTLEMAN]

Just now, Lichfield Dean said:

I like Garde. I think he can build us up for future. But it may take a season or two in the championship sadly. And hopefully some decent funding (which really is the key point).

(As an aside but slightly pertinent point, for all those who big up Leicester and Watford, don't forget both those clubs have been heavily bankrolled. We couldn't even keep hold of Albrighton because of wages and this shouldn't be forgotten.)

Persinally I think Remi could be our best manager in years given time and funds. Whether he will get either I am not sure.

I doubt we could not afford Albrighton's wage demands, I perceived it as a matter of offering a contract which was deemed 'value', which mirrored his position within the squad, at the time. Now whether the decision made regarding the judgement of his ability and place within the squad was incorrect is another matter. 

[Butterfingers]

I always liked Albrighton and am pleased to see him doing well for the league leaders.

As an out and out winger, his chances were always going to be limited at Villa (as well as many PL clubs) This was obviously reflected in the offer we made him.

[Stevo985]

As I said before, my judgement of Garde starts yesterday.

And it wasn't a great start.

The first half was pathetic. The system clearly didn't work. The second half showed it could work, but the personnel were wrong in the first half. That change of Gestede for Sinclair seemed to work second half.

 

Second half was better. We played better and were the better team. I think we deserved the victory based on that.

BUT, we didn't win and we really should have. That game was there for the taking. We did look like we were going for the victory at 1-1 up until the last 5 minutes or so where we seemed to settle for the point. But I think Remi was scared of losing. With Gil, Grealish and Adama sat on the bench I was screaming out for him to bring someone on and finish Newcastle off. It was incredibly frustrating from that point of view. If he'd brought on Adama and he'd created something I'd be sat here saying "you know what, we started poorly but that was a great second half and his substitutions won us the game". But we kind of bottled it.

 

If I'm looking for positives, and I tend to do so, yesterday showed that we CAN play well. But it's the same old problem that we only do it for half an hour or 45 minutes here and there. IF we'd played the whole game yesterday in the same way we played the second half, we'd have won. But if we start every game as badly as we started that one we'll almost always be coming from behind, and for a team of our quality (or lack of) that's so difficult. 

I like Garde, and I'm certainly not turning on him yet. I think those already calling for him out are embarrassing. But he needs to somehow get us firing from the start and he needs to have some balls when it comes to winning games. When we were at 1-1 yesterday and had newcastle on the rocks we should have brought on another attacker and hammered home the result. 

Edited December 20, 2015 by Stevo985

[VillaCas]

None of this is Garde's fault. I'll wait until he has a few of his own players around before I judge him. The fact that there is any improvement at all is a minor miracle

[DCJonah]

6 minutes ago, VillaCas said:

None of this is Garde's fault. I'll wait until he has a few of his own players around before I judge him. The fact that there is any improvement at all is a minor miracle

Is it though? I think this team is shit and easily the worst in the league. I'm not sure its so bad that they should lose every single game. So I'm not sure 3, fairly fortunate, draws is a miracle improvement. 

[kurtsimonw]

26 minutes ago, VillaCas said:

None of this is Garde's fault. I'll wait until he has a few of his own players around before I judge him. The fact that there is any improvement at all is a minor miracle

A mark of a good manager is getting the best out of the players he inherits. It's not a great squad, but it's also better than both Sherwood and Garde have managed to do with it.

His lack of willing to use Adama is getting beyond frustrating at this point.

[Butterfingers]

I listened to numerous experts predictions this week. Not one tipped a draw, let alone a Villa win.

We need to start somewhere and this game could be the starting point.

To stand any chance of survival, people have to believe in the team & the manager. Simply throwing the towel in is an insult to people like Jordan Aweye, Alan Hutton, Jores Okore etc, who are busting a gut to survive in this league.

[The Fun Factory]

Garde might get Villa playing well this season but it is likely to be too late to stay up. Managing in the championship with pressure for a immediate return is a different matter. But I think we need to stick with him for next season either way.

[Stevo985]

5 minutes ago, Butterfingers said:

I listened to numerous experts predictions this week. Not one tipped a draw, let alone a Villa win.

We need to start somewhere and this game could be the starting point.

To stand any chance of survival, people have to believe in the team & the manager. Simply throwing the towel in is an insult to people like Jordan Aweye, Alan Hutton, Jores Okore etc, who are busting a gut to survive in this league.

If we go and win the next two games then this result won't seem so bad.

But given how the game was there for the taking, and without the benefit of seeing the next couple of results, it was an opportunity wasted in my opinion.

[Stevo985]

In fairness to Garde, having just read his post match comments, he does seem to realise the weaknesses yesterday. Hopefully he can learn from that.

[VillaChris]

Be interesting to see how he approaches West Ham.

Obviously we need a win but they showed today they've very difficult to break down. They played a very physically strong midfield of Antonio, Song and Kouyate, think Veretout will struggle against that and they could nick one from a set piece.

Logic would suggest Gestede has played himself back into the starting 11 but that's surely what James Collins wants. I would suggest Grealish and Traore with pace and trickery would trouble the West Ham back 4 a little bit more.

We'll be playing a West Ham team without Sakho, Payet, Victor Moses, Winston Reid and possibly Lanzini, that's 5 key first choice players out for them.

Yet it shows how well they've built their squad that what they put out today didn't look that bad an 11. A reserve forward like Jelavic has scored a few past us in the last 3 years.

Tricky but we need to win Remi, a quick start for once would be good.

[Butterfingers]

12 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

If we go and win the next two games then this result won't seem so bad.

But given how the game was there for the taking, and without the benefit of seeing the next couple of results, it was an opportunity wasted in my opinion.

I thought we did enough to win.

That said, many people on here are claiming we were lucky.

 

[Stevo985]

2 minutes ago, Butterfingers said:

I thought we did enough to win.

That said, many people on here are claiming we were lucky.

 

I thought we did enough as well. 

But we didn't. And I think Garde had an opportunity, at 1-1 and us clearly the better side, to make a bold change or two and make sure we won it.

But no, we certainly weren't lucky yesterday in my opinion. A draw was probably a fair result based on the play. I just think it was there for the taking.

[Lichfield Dean]

2 hours ago, GENTLEMAN said:

I doubt we could not afford Albrighton's wage demands, I perceived it as a matter of offering a contract which was deemed 'value', which mirrored his position within the squad, at the time. Now whether the decision made regarding the judgement of his ability and place within the squad was incorrect is another matter. 

Fair point, the exact reasons why Albrighton went are obviously a matter between him and the club. He would have stayed given the right financial conditions and I think Leicester were prepared to meet those where we weren't. I think we were wrong and I thought that at the time. With more money available would the same call have been made? We will never know.

[Butterfingers]

4 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

I thought we did enough as well. 

But we didn't. And I think Garde had an opportunity, at 1-1 and us clearly the better side, to make a bold change or two and make sure we won it.

But no, we certainly weren't lucky yesterday in my opinion. A draw was probably a fair result based on the play. I just think it was there for the taking.

This is where we disagree

At 0-1, I would have bought Traore/Grealish/Gil on. At 1-1, with us creating chances, there was no guarantee that a change in personnel & indeed system would have guaranteed anything. We are not quite at the stage where we need to gamble to that extent.

[terrytini]

12 hours ago, DCJonah said:

What improvements did Houllier make from the season before? 

I love the idea that if you don't see improvements there's something wrong with you. Such arrogance. 

 

He doesn't say that.

If you look at the points return it is rubbish, who would say different ?

It's up to you if that's how you want to view it.

I gave an example or two of what I meant by OK, there are others, but those who want to find them will have, those who don't, or can't, won't have. Simple enough. The converse is also true, in that those who want to see certain negatives will, and those who don't want to, or can't, won't.

I think he's doing OK.