The Rémi Garde thread

[Neil]

I think that part in the PC, where the journo asked Garde if he had it in writing that he has the final say on transfers, was the journo having the same sense of dismay at how transfer dealings happen at Villa as other people. I didn't see any harm in that.

My biggest worry was that, when asked if he had it in writing that he would have final say on transfers, Garde's response was "that's the problem". Maybe he is accustomed to working with the same kind of set-up as he had at Lyon but, if he doesn't get it the same way here, how will he then react? For all we know, he could think he will get it his way and, if he doesn't, walk out on the club and who knows where we would be then. Before anyone shoots me down for suggesting that, did anyone foresee Martin O'Neil quitting the club on grounds of constructive dismissal just days before the start of a new season?

Didnt he say " that's my problem" and I interpreted that to be that it was between him and the board - not the journo.

[Neil]

What was painfully obvious was that Sherwood was being out thought tactically.  Other managers were spotting the glaringly obvious weaknesses in our setup and exploiting them to get the win.  Sherwood seemed oblivious to this and failed to counter with any changes.

If reme can spot these and act accordingly, being one step ahead of the other managers tactically then that could immediately be half the battle won

Exactly, but who is Reme?

Anti acids sister

[Stevo985]

I still can't believe that there are people who actually believe this squad is bad enough to be cut adrift at the bottom of the table.

Nobody is expecting miracles. All we want is the team to have a bit of direction and look like they're remotely playing to their potential.

Sherwood had us far far short of that,

No competent goalkeeper, dodgy error prone centre backs, weak central midfielders and no goalscorer. I think it's easy to see why people belive this squad is so bad

If you believe we are then you're doing the players a disservice.

The players have shown very little thus far so I disagree

Because they've been managed by a total moron. I fail to see how people are still dismissing Sherwood's performance.
We were underperforming under the previous manager

 

But the media told me that Tim Sherwood was doing a good job. I mean, he got us to an FA Cup final you know.

How many goals have we conceeded through bollocks defending and bollocks general play? You can be the best manager in the world but when your players are incaple of passing it to each other, attempting stupid balls in dangerous areas, being brushed off the ball like a child, not being able to track a runner or in Guzans case flapping around at balls in the area and even more shockingly for a professional footballer not having the capability to kick the bloody thing then your buggered.

Is the manager not responsible for organising his team so that mistakes like that don't happen as often, or play players who don't make those errors.

I find it genuinely laughable that you seem to be insinuating that Sherwood got the most out of this squad.

It is, frankly, total bollocks. IMO of course.

[hippo]

That fact that we weren't getting soundly beaten every single game suggests that it was down to management rather than a poor squad.

?????

Weve just lost 7 on the bounce. One of the reasons we haven't been hammered is that teams generally shut up shop after going a couple of goals ahead. Remember thje swansea game ? - As soon as they needed goals, they got them - spurs breached us after 3 minutes. Lets just say for some reason Man City needed 5 goals on Sunday, they would probably get them.

Under Lambert we had good players playing poorly - I'm not convinced that is the case now.

 

[hippo]

I still can't believe that there are people who actually believe this squad is bad enough to be cut adrift at the bottom of the table.

Nobody is expecting miracles. All we want is the team to have a bit of direction and look like they're remotely playing to their potential.

Sherwood had us far far short of that,

No competent goalkeeper, dodgy error prone centre backs, weak central midfielders and no goalscorer. I think it's easy to see why people belive this squad is so bad

If you believe we are then you're doing the players a disservice.

The players have shown very little thus far so I disagree

Because they've been managed by a total moron. I fail to see how people are still dismissing Sherwood's performance.
We were underperforming under the previous manager

 

But the media told me that Tim Sherwood was doing a good job. I mean, he got us to an FA Cup final you know.

How many goals have we conceeded through bollocks defending and bollocks general play? You can be the best manager in the world but when your players are incaple of passing it to each other, attempting stupid balls in dangerous areas, being brushed off the ball like a child, not being able to track a runner or in Guzans case flapping around at balls in the area and even more shockingly for a professional footballer not having the capability to kick the bloody thing then your buggered.

Is the manager not responsible for organising his team so that mistakes like that don't happen as often, or play players who don't make those errors.

I find it genuinely laughable that you seem to be insinuating that Sherwood got the most out of this squad.

It is, frankly, total bollocks. IMO of course.

Question is can Remi do any better ?  - and actually he needs to do significantly better. Sure he's an unknown quantity - but I wouldn't take it as given that he is going to be head and shoulders above any other manager since O Neil ..

[KHV]

I still can't believe that there are people who actually believe this squad is bad enough to be cut adrift at the bottom of the table.

Nobody is expecting miracles. All we want is the team to have a bit of direction and look like they're remotely playing to their potential.

Sherwood had us far far short of that,

No competent goalkeeper, dodgy error prone centre backs, weak central midfielders and no goalscorer. I think it's easy to see why people belive this squad is so bad

If you believe we are then you're doing the players a disservice.

The players have shown very little thus far so I disagree

Because they've been managed by a total moron. I fail to see how people are still dismissing Sherwood's performance.
We were underperforming under the previous manager

 

But the media told me that Tim Sherwood was doing a good job. I mean, he got us to an FA Cup final you know.

How many goals have we conceeded through bollocks defending and bollocks general play? You can be the best manager in the world but when your players are incaple of passing it to each other, attempting stupid balls in dangerous areas, being brushed off the ball like a child, not being able to track a runner or in Guzans case flapping around at balls in the area and even more shockingly for a professional footballer not having the capability to kick the bloody thing then your buggered.

Is the manager not responsible for organising his team so that mistakes like that don't happen as often, or play players who don't make those errors.

I find it genuinely laughable that you seem to be insinuating that Sherwood got the most out of this squad.

It is, frankly, total bollocks. IMO of course.

I never mentioned Sherwood, just pointing out the fact the players are incapable of getting the most basic things correct, maybe just maybe it's down to lack of quality. How many more managers are we going to blame for not getting the best out of the players? We have hardly been out of the bottom 5 for years now

[Stevo985]

I still can't believe that there are people who actually believe this squad is bad enough to be cut adrift at the bottom of the table.

Nobody is expecting miracles. All we want is the team to have a bit of direction and look like they're remotely playing to their potential.

Sherwood had us far far short of that,

Not picking on you but you made a concise point so I wanted to ask a simple question if this is your thinking. You say we have a good enough squad to survive and it just needs direction and them playing to their potential so, if we are relegated, does this mean Garde failed and was another bad manager?

My issue is I DO think this squad is bad enough to be cut a drift, I genuinely do, and take no pleasure from it (I have a season ticket a few rows from the dugout so have to exper8this pain every few weeks!) but have seen very little individual quality in the players even if you put aside the team aspect.

 

I'm not certain that the squad is good enough to survive. I believe they are. But am I certain? No

But what I am certain of is that the squad is better than results have suggested so far this season and that that is down to mismanagement.

So will Garde have failed if we still go down? That is impossible to say right now. He's landed in the job in a very tough position. Technically speaking yes, he will have failed, because I imagine his remit is to keep us up. However, from this position I'm not entirely sure that makes him a bad manager. That will be totally dependant on what we see from him from now until the end of the season.

The squad isn't great, but I cannot fathom anyone who believes our league position accurately reflects the quality of the squad. Again, I'm not trying to say it is MUCH better than our league position, but I think it's nigh on unarguable that the squad is not as bad as 4 points in mid november. 

There are so many things that Sherwood did that has proved detrimental to the team. To suggest that he has gotten as much out of the squad as possible is just ignoring all of those things. Things like not playing Gil, the decline of effectiveness of Grealish, the weird and constantly changing formations, the misuse of personnel like Ayew, the setup of the defence, the inability to respond to anything the opposition manager does (Stoke, Leicester, Sunderland etc)

All of those things have effected us negatively. Just ONE of them could have made a difference. if we hadn't tactically imploded vs Leicester, for example, and held onto the victory we'd be 18th. If we'd reacted to Advocaat's changes at half time in the Sunderland game and beaten them we'd be 19th.

The margins are incredibly fine. I cannot be convinced that, under a better manager, we would STILL be in this position, which appears to be what KHV and possibly yourself are suggesting. Just one victory would see us 18th and a point from safety. I can't believe that anybody really thinks that has been beyond us so far this season.

[Stevo985]

I still can't believe that there are people who actually believe this squad is bad enough to be cut adrift at the bottom of the table.

Nobody is expecting miracles. All we want is the team to have a bit of direction and look like they're remotely playing to their potential.

Sherwood had us far far short of that,

No competent goalkeeper, dodgy error prone centre backs, weak central midfielders and no goalscorer. I think it's easy to see why people belive this squad is so bad

If you believe we are then you're doing the players a disservice.

The players have shown very little thus far so I disagree

Because they've been managed by a total moron. I fail to see how people are still dismissing Sherwood's performance.
We were underperforming under the previous manager

 

But the media told me that Tim Sherwood was doing a good job. I mean, he got us to an FA Cup final you know.

How many goals have we conceeded through bollocks defending and bollocks general play? You can be the best manager in the world but when your players are incaple of passing it to each other, attempting stupid balls in dangerous areas, being brushed off the ball like a child, not being able to track a runner or in Guzans case flapping around at balls in the area and even more shockingly for a professional footballer not having the capability to kick the bloody thing then your buggered.

Is the manager not responsible for organising his team so that mistakes like that don't happen as often, or play players who don't make those errors.

I find it genuinely laughable that you seem to be insinuating that Sherwood got the most out of this squad.

It is, frankly, total bollocks. IMO of course.

I never mentioned Sherwood, just pointing out the fact the players are incapable of getting the most basic things correct, maybe just maybe it's down to lack of quality. How many more managers are we going to blame for not getting the best out of the players? We have hardly been out of the bottom 5 for years now

You're moving the goalposts now. The discussion was quite clearly on the current position of the team relative to it's ability, i.e. it's mismanagement. That is obviously talking about sherwood.

Nobody is saying we have a GOOD squad. The argument is that the squad is better than 20th place with 4 points in November. There is a middle ground.

[sexbelowsound]

That fact that we weren't getting soundly beaten every single game suggests that it was down to management rather than a poor squad.

?????

Weve just lost 7 on the bounce. One of the reasons we haven't been hammered is that teams generally shut up shop after going a couple of goals ahead. Remember thje swansea game ? - As soon as they needed goals, they got them - spurs breached us after 3 minutes. Lets just say for some reason Man City needed 5 goals on Sunday, they would probably get them.

Under Lambert we had good players playing poorly - I'm not convinced that is the case now.

 

You think our squad was stronger under Lambert? I'm not so sure it was.

[Mantis]

That fact that we weren't getting soundly beaten every single game suggests that it was down to management rather than a poor squad.

?????

Weve just lost 7 on the bounce. One of the reasons we haven't been hammered is that teams generally shut up shop after going a couple of goals ahead. Remember thje swansea game ? - As soon as they needed goals, they got them - spurs breached us after 3 minutes. Lets just say for some reason Man City needed 5 goals on Sunday, they would probably get them.

Under Lambert we had good players playing poorly - I'm not convinced that is the case now.

 

The players have shown flashes of what they can do. As others have said, the biggest problem has been the fact that Sherwood just couldn't react to any sort of tactical change.

[hippo]

That fact that we weren't getting soundly beaten every single game suggests that it was down to management rather than a poor squad.

?????

Weve just lost 7 on the bounce. One of the reasons we haven't been hammered is that teams generally shut up shop after going a couple of goals ahead. Remember thje swansea game ? - As soon as they needed goals, they got them - spurs breached us after 3 minutes. Lets just say for some reason Man City needed 5 goals on Sunday, they would probably get them.

Under Lambert we had good players playing poorly - I'm not convinced that is the case now.

 

You think our squad was stronger under Lambert? I'm not so sure it was.

Wheres your Benteke, Delph, ? - and much maligned Guzan was ok for much of Lamberts time.......

[sexbelowsound]

That fact that we weren't getting soundly beaten every single game suggests that it was down to management rather than a poor squad.

?????

Weve just lost 7 on the bounce. One of the reasons we haven't been hammered is that teams generally shut up shop after going a couple of goals ahead. Remember thje swansea game ? - As soon as they needed goals, they got them - spurs breached us after 3 minutes. Lets just say for some reason Man City needed 5 goals on Sunday, they would probably get them.

Under Lambert we had good players playing poorly - I'm not convinced that is the case now.

 

The players have shown flashes of what they can do. As others have said, the biggest problem has been the fact that Sherwood just couldn't react to any sort of tactical change.

Or start off with any sort of tactic other than "LET EM FACKING AV IT".

[bobzy]

I might be going against the grain but...

 

...I don't actually think Sherwood did that badly.  It's the cliché fine line between success and failure.  Of course, some games we were terrible in and some decisions made were awful.  However, we haven't looked like a team that should be rock bottom this season (IMO).  Sunderland have looked far, far worse and we only managed a draw against them.  That wasn't Sherwood's fault (again, IMO) - the players let us down.

His crime was not sticking to a system.  Not ever allowing a consistency within the team this season.  Even if he's right about not 'wanting' the players we signed, he should've at least tried to get some cohesion.

I think Garde will achieve this.  And, therefore, we will look better as a unit.  I'm not sure whether we can be saved from relegation (if I was to bet one way or the other right now, I'd be betting on us going down) but I'm sure we'll be more organised and, thus, more able to hold on to leads.

[Stevo985]

I still can't believe that there are people who actually believe this squad is bad enough to be cut adrift at the bottom of the table.

Nobody is expecting miracles. All we want is the team to have a bit of direction and look like they're remotely playing to their potential.

Sherwood had us far far short of that,

No competent goalkeeper, dodgy error prone centre backs, weak central midfielders and no goalscorer. I think it's easy to see why people belive this squad is so bad

If you believe we are then you're doing the players a disservice.

The players have shown very little thus far so I disagree

Because they've been managed by a total moron. I fail to see how people are still dismissing Sherwood's performance.
We were underperforming under the previous manager

 

But the media told me that Tim Sherwood was doing a good job. I mean, he got us to an FA Cup final you know.

How many goals have we conceeded through bollocks defending and bollocks general play? You can be the best manager in the world but when your players are incaple of passing it to each other, attempting stupid balls in dangerous areas, being brushed off the ball like a child, not being able to track a runner or in Guzans case flapping around at balls in the area and even more shockingly for a professional footballer not having the capability to kick the bloody thing then your buggered.

Is the manager not responsible for organising his team so that mistakes like that don't happen as often, or play players who don't make those errors.

I find it genuinely laughable that you seem to be insinuating that Sherwood got the most out of this squad.

It is, frankly, total bollocks. IMO of course.

 

Question is can Remi do any better ?  - and actually he needs to do significantly better. Sure he's an unknown quantity - but I wouldn't take it as given that he is going to be head and shoulders above any other manager since O Neil ..

I don't think anybody is taking anything as a given under Garde.

However, what I am certain of, is that Tim Sherwood is a crap manager and has us underperforming this season. Therefore I don't think it's a huge ask for Garde to be an improvement.

Whether that improvement is enough to keep us up remains to be seen.

[hippo]

I still can't believe that there are people who actually believe this squad is bad enough to be cut adrift at the bottom of the table.

Nobody is expecting miracles. All we want is the team to have a bit of direction and look like they're remotely playing to their potential.

Sherwood had us far far short of that,

No competent goalkeeper, dodgy error prone centre backs, weak central midfielders and no goalscorer. I think it's easy to see why people belive this squad is so bad

If you believe we are then you're doing the players a disservice.

The players have shown very little thus far so I disagree

Because they've been managed by a total moron. I fail to see how people are still dismissing Sherwood's performance.
We were underperforming under the previous manager

 

But the media told me that Tim Sherwood was doing a good job. I mean, he got us to an FA Cup final you know.

How many goals have we conceeded through bollocks defending and bollocks general play? You can be the best manager in the world but when your players are incaple of passing it to each other, attempting stupid balls in dangerous areas, being brushed off the ball like a child, not being able to track a runner or in Guzans case flapping around at balls in the area and even more shockingly for a professional footballer not having the capability to kick the bloody thing then your buggered.

Is the manager not responsible for organising his team so that mistakes like that don't happen as often, or play players who don't make those errors.

I find it genuinely laughable that you seem to be insinuating that Sherwood got the most out of this squad.

It is, frankly, total bollocks. IMO of course.

I never mentioned Sherwood, just pointing out the fact the players are incapable of getting the most basic things correct, maybe just maybe it's down to lack of quality. How many more managers are we going to blame for not getting the best out of the players? We have hardly been out of the bottom 5 for years now

You're moving the goalposts now. The discussion was quite clearly on the current position of the team relative to it's ability, i.e. it's mismanagement. That is obviously talking about sherwood.

Nobody is saying we have a GOOD squad. The argument is that the squad is better than 20th place with 4 points in November. There is a middle ground.

Would you be totally surprised if this squad of players finished the season bottom of the league - ??? - Hope to god that doesn't happen - but we look the part at the moment.

[sexbelowsound]

I might be going against the grain but...

 

...I don't actually think Sherwood did that badly.  It's the cliché fine line between success and failure.  Of course, some games we were terrible in and some decisions made were awful.  However, we haven't looked like a team that should be rock bottom this season (IMO).  Sunderland have looked far, far worse and we only managed a draw against them.  That wasn't Sherwood's fault (again, IMO) - the players let us down.

His crime was not sticking to a system.  Not ever allowing a consistency within the team this season.  Even if he's right about not 'wanting' the players we signed, he should've at least tried to get some cohesion.

I think Garde will achieve this.  And, therefore, we will look better as a unit.  I'm not sure whether we can be saved from relegation (if I was to bet one way or the other right now, I'd be betting on us going down) but I'm sure we'll be more organised and, thus, more able to hold on to leads.

I actually think you've summed up quite well why Sherwood was doing so badly.

[Stevo985]

I might be going against the grain but...

 

...I don't actually think Sherwood did that badly.  It's the cliché fine line between success and failure.  Of course, some games we were terrible in and some decisions made were awful.  However, we haven't looked like a team that should be rock bottom this season (IMO).  Sunderland have looked far, far worse and we only managed a draw against them.  That wasn't Sherwood's fault (again, IMO) - the players let us down.

His crime was not sticking to a system.  Not ever allowing a consistency within the team this season.  Even if he's right about not 'wanting' the players we signed, he should've at least tried to get some cohesion.

I think Garde will achieve this.  And, therefore, we will look better as a unit.  I'm not sure whether we can be saved from relegation (if I was to bet one way or the other right now, I'd be betting on us going down) but I'm sure we'll be more organised and, thus, more able to hold on to leads.

I disagree with the bolded.

Advocaat changed Sunderland at half time. They came back into the game then. That's how they got the result.

Sherwood changed nothing.

[mjmooney]

I still can't believe that there are people who actually believe this squad is bad enough to be cut adrift at the bottom of the table.

Nobody is expecting miracles. All we want is the team to have a bit of direction and look like they're remotely playing to their potential.

Sherwood had us far far short of that,

No competent goalkeeper, dodgy error prone centre backs, weak central midfielders and no goalscorer. I think it's easy to see why people belive this squad is so bad

I don't believe any of those (including Lescott) are actually bad players. They are (mostly) good players, who for some reason have been playing VERY badly. That to me suggests poor management, something that CAN be put right. Over to you Rémi, mon choux.

[sexbelowsound]

That fact that we weren't getting soundly beaten every single game suggests that it was down to management rather than a poor squad.

?????

Weve just lost 7 on the bounce. One of the reasons we haven't been hammered is that teams generally shut up shop after going a couple of goals ahead. Remember thje swansea game ? - As soon as they needed goals, they got them - spurs breached us after 3 minutes. Lets just say for some reason Man City needed 5 goals on Sunday, they would probably get them.

Under Lambert we had good players playing poorly - I'm not convinced that is the case now.

 

You think our squad was stronger under Lambert? I'm not so sure it was.

Wheres your Benteke, Delph, ? - and much maligned Guzan was ok for much of Lamberts time.......

Yes, we're missing two quality players and two good players in Vlaar and Cleverley but I don't think the squad as a whole right now is poorer. I think we've added well this Summer.

Think about some of the players we had whilst Lambert was here. The shopping really was bargain basement.

[Stevo985]

I still can't believe that there are people who actually believe this squad is bad enough to be cut adrift at the bottom of the table.

Nobody is expecting miracles. All we want is the team to have a bit of direction and look like they're remotely playing to their potential.

Sherwood had us far far short of that,

No competent goalkeeper, dodgy error prone centre backs, weak central midfielders and no goalscorer. I think it's easy to see why people belive this squad is so bad

If you believe we are then you're doing the players a disservice.

The players have shown very little thus far so I disagree

Because they've been managed by a total moron. I fail to see how people are still dismissing Sherwood's performance.
We were underperforming under the previous manager

 

But the media told me that Tim Sherwood was doing a good job. I mean, he got us to an FA Cup final you know.

How many goals have we conceeded through bollocks defending and bollocks general play? You can be the best manager in the world but when your players are incaple of passing it to each other, attempting stupid balls in dangerous areas, being brushed off the ball like a child, not being able to track a runner or in Guzans case flapping around at balls in the area and even more shockingly for a professional footballer not having the capability to kick the bloody thing then your buggered.

Is the manager not responsible for organising his team so that mistakes like that don't happen as often, or play players who don't make those errors.

I find it genuinely laughable that you seem to be insinuating that Sherwood got the most out of this squad.

It is, frankly, total bollocks. IMO of course.

I never mentioned Sherwood, just pointing out the fact the players are incapable of getting the most basic things correct, maybe just maybe it's down to lack of quality. How many more managers are we going to blame for not getting the best out of the players? We have hardly been out of the bottom 5 for years now

You're moving the goalposts now. The discussion was quite clearly on the current position of the team relative to it's ability, i.e. it's mismanagement. That is obviously talking about sherwood.

Nobody is saying we have a GOOD squad. The argument is that the squad is better than 20th place with 4 points in November. There is a middle ground.

Would you be totally surprised if this squad of players finished the season bottom of the league - ??? - Hope to god that doesn't happen - but we look the part at the moment.

We look the part at the moment because of poor management. That's the whole point.

Ask the question again in a month.