Steven Gerrard

[The_Rev]

6 hours ago, LondonLax said:

Though if Dean Smith had taken that attitude we would never had had the famous 7-3 game. Sometimes you don’t know what you could have achieved if you don’t give it a go. 

 

But it doesn't always translate.  Plenty of sides have rocked up against Liverpool and "had a go" only to get torn apart, just ask Manchester United (lost 5-0) or Arsenal (lost 4-0) who found out the hard way that fortune doesn't always favour the brave.    Sometimes you've got to be pragmatic and the plan yesterday was solid. We lost 1-0 to a relatively soft penalty, we could have had a penalty down the other end.  The midfield and defence would have learned a lot as yesterday was a serious test and they can take those experiences with them through the rest of the season.  Liverpool away is one of the hardest fixtures in world football right now, we lost but we can take a hell of a lot of positivity from it.  

[Jono62]

Where are we now with Gerrard? Is he still the best thing since sliced bread or is he the worst manager ever? I can't keep up.

Didn't watch the game, but sounds like it was a defence game from us.  Presume some are moaning that we weren't more expansive, however let's say we were and we lost 4-0. Confidence is low. We lost 1-0 to a dodgy penalty(?) and sounds like we should have had our own penalty. Gerrard can use this to motivate the players.

[nick76]

14 minutes ago, Jono62 said:

Where are we now with Gerrard? Is he still the best thing since sliced bread or is he the worst manager ever? I can't keep up.

Check hourly mate, it changes a lot!

[Rolta]

3 hours ago, villalad21 said:

That's funny because many people on here said west ham would fall off this season and that they overachieved last season. 

What evidence is that in favour of? And to which point? A while ago some people (how many—one person? Two? Three?) said West Ham would fall off in their subjective opinion, so now anyone else saying West Ham are good (it's a bit more objective now I'd say) somehow don't count?

West Ham are good now.

Edited December 12, 2021 by Rolta

[LondonLax]

44 minutes ago, The_Rev said:

 

But it doesn't always translate.  Plenty of sides have rocked up against Liverpool and "had a go" only to get torn apart, just ask Manchester United (lost 5-0) or Arsenal (lost 4-0) who found out the hard way that fortune doesn't always favour the brave.    Sometimes you've got to be pragmatic and the plan yesterday was solid. We lost 1-0 to a relatively soft penalty, we could have had a penalty down the other end.  The midfield and defence would have learned a lot as yesterday was a serious test and they can take those experiences with them through the rest of the season.  Liverpool away is one of the hardest fixtures in world football right now, we lost but we can take a hell of a lot of positivity from it.  

For me the question will be whether Gerrard player that way because of how much he respects his Liverpool or whether he would have done that if it was Man City or Chelsea. 

The evidence from the earlier City game is that we’d have a real go against anyone but then yesterday happened. 

Will be interesting to see how we play against Chelsea. 

[hippo]

30 minutes ago, Jono62 said:

Where are we now with Gerrard? Is he still the best thing since sliced bread or is he the worst manager ever? I can't keep up.

Didn't watch the game, but sounds like it was a defence game from us.  Presume some are moaning that we weren't more expansive, however let's say we were and we lost 4-0. Confidence is low. We lost 1-0 to a dodgy penalty(?) and sounds like we should have had our own penalty. Gerrard can use this to motivate the players.

He's a rookie manager learning his trade.hes done pretty well so far.

My observation though is that Gerrard the player was a dynamic exciting midfielder to some he replicating this with his team on the pitch.

For me he seems very safety first so far. Not a bad thing considering we were conceding goals at will before he arrived. 

Hopefully with a couple of windows he can retain the tight defence - but play on the front foot a bit more.

[HKP90]

2 hours ago, villalad21 said:

That's funny because many people on here said west ham would fall off this season and that they overachieved last season. 

So?

[StewieGriffin]

I think the difference in set up yesterday shows the potential he/we have,  if nothing else.

When we'd go with a defensive set up under Smith, we'd still get beaten by 2 or 3. Now that could easily have happened yesterday, but there was a difference in the tenacity of the defending, tenacity of the press, of the game management (stalling on dead balls etc). Ultimately, that is what sets teams apart from those at the middle and bottom, and we're now starting to incorporate those things.

We've lost to Man City and Liverpool, having played genuinely well for 45 minutes of that, and the other 135 have been tenacious and competitive - their players have come off the pitch knowing they've had to work for it. Thats more than most teams manage. How many times have we as fans been fuming that we've been too passive, too nice?

Gerrard isnt a magician, he isnt going to turn us into Liverpool/Man City/Bayern Munich overnight, but he's done all the right things so far for me.

[villalad21]

Just now, HKP90 said:

So?

I see the goal post keep changing to keep the excuse culture going. 

Oh no. Big bad scary Liverpool so we have to set up not to lose big. 

I'd rather try to win thank you very much. If that means we'll concede 3 or 4 so be it. 

 

[Jono62]

Yes, that's the best way to instill confidence in a team, getting thrashed.

[HKP90]

7 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

I see the goal post keep changing to keep the excuse culture going. 

Oh no. Big bad scary Liverpool so we have to set up not to lose big. 

I'd rather try to win thank you very much. If that means we'll concede 3 or 4 so be it. 

 

No you wouldn’t. If we’d have got beat 4 you’d have been on here giving the team a round of you-know-whats.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

1 hour ago, Jono62 said:

Where are we now with Gerrard? Is he still the best thing since sliced bread or is he the worst manager ever? I can't keep up.

Didn't watch the game, but sounds like it was a defence game from us.  Presume some are moaning that we weren't more expansive, however let's say we were and we lost 4-0. Confidence is low. We lost 1-0 to a dodgy penalty(?) and sounds like we should have had our own penalty. Gerrard can use this to motivate the players.

We are at suggestions that he was ok with losing the game because it's Liverpool...

That's where. lol

[Jono62]

38 minutes ago, LondonLax said:

For me the question will be whether Gerrard player that way because of how much he respects his Liverpool or whether he would have done that if it was Man City or Chelsea. 

The evidence from the earlier City game is that we’d have a real go against anyone but then yesterday happened. 

Will be interesting to see how we play against Chelsea. 

Against City, we were totally outplayed in the first half, getting nowhere near them and they were deservedly 2-0 up. Second half was much better because City dropped off.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

22 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

I see the goal post keep changing to keep the excuse culture going. 

Oh no. Big bad scary Liverpool so we have to set up not to lose big. 

I'd rather try to win thank you very much. If that means we'll concede 3 or 4 so be it. 

 

The man straight up said what the plan was.

He even publicly asked himself the question, if he should have thrown more at it, earlier.

Did you see alot more attack towards the end of the game?

If they didn't score a penalty, the " plan " would/could have potentially been a successful one.

[Mantis]

If we'd have ground out a 0-0 draw yesterday (or 1-1 had the refereeing been even) people would rightly be lauding Gerrard for an astute gameplan. The fact that we ended up going down 1-0 in no small part due to unbalanced refereeing doesn't change the fact that the approach yesterday was fair.

[hippo]

26 minutes ago, Mantis said:

If we'd have ground out a 0-0 draw yesterday (or 1-1 had the refereeing been even) people would rightly be lauding Gerrard for an astute gameplan. The fact that we ended up going down 1-0 in no small part due to unbalanced refereeing doesn't change the fact that the approach yesterday was fair.

Fine margins in the prem though. 

It didn't work yesterday and always looked unlikely too IMO. 

That doesn't make Stevie G a bad manager or undermine his good start. 

[MotoMkali]

28 minutes ago, hippo said:

Fine margins in the prem though. 

It didn't work yesterday and always looked unlikely too IMO. 

That doesn't make Stevie G a bad manager or undermine his good start. 

Losing to fine margins is fine though it shows areas where we can improve and if we are consistently challenging the elite of the league right now think about in 2-3 years with more investment our youth players coming through and development from players like Konsa, Cash, Bailey, Buendia and Luiz. 

[Zhan_Zhuang]

Just watched Gerrard's Match of the Day interview...

Loved the way he answered yet again the question about the Liverplop support and reception: "I thought the Villa fans support  was really good"!

 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

5 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

Just watched Gerrard's Match of the Day interview...

Loved the way he answered yet again the question about the Liverplop support and reception: "I thought the Villa fans support  was really good"!

 

He often makes them look stupid.

Which isn't hard to be fair.

These journalists seriously lack creativity.

[hippo]

1 hour ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Fine margins against the other 16 teams. The top 3 are miles ahead. It’s the reality.

The point I was responding to - was that we nearly got a result yesterday so the plan was correct.

IMO defending deep for 90 mins was never going to work. It took about 3 stunning Emi saves to keep the score down. Again IMO we weren't close to getting a point yesterday.