Steven Gerrard

[nick76]

2 hours ago, DaveAV1 said:

No you should have waited for the match to be played before spouting an opinion on the match. 

What the hell are you talking about? I actually said over a number of games and not look at an individual game.

Bizarre!

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

1 hour ago, PieFacE said:

Is it just me or does it feel like things are pretty close to completely falling apart already? Something about the players doesn't look right to me. I never really had this feeling about Smith.

Towards the end, I certainly did, and I'll admit, the last match gave me those vibes as well.

However if I stand back and take a breath, you realise SG has only been here for 13 games, and much of the squad is the same.

It's way too early, it will take him probably till the end of the season to have a full understanding of this lot.

Or a few more games at least.

Edited February 15, 2022 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[PerryBarrPet]

40 minutes ago, PieFacE said:

Is it just me or does it feel like things are pretty close to completely falling apart already? Something about the players doesn't look right to me. I never really had this feeling about Smith.

This isn't a Smith vs Gerrard comment cos i'm fully in the "Gerrard in" camp. It's just a mere observation. Something about the body language of the players doesn't seem right. 

Maybe the loss and performance against Newcastle is skewing my opinion, but we really need something from the next game. 

Perhaps it’s that players felt comfortable under Smith while under Gerrard they know that if they do not perform to the required level or are just not good enough full stop they will be shipped out?

[Vive_La_Villa]

I took a break from here for a couple of days I imagine it was pretty toxic. Sunday was pretty poor. 

[Zatman]

7 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I took a break from here for a couple of days I imagine it was pretty toxic. Sunday was pretty poor. 

Lot of constructive criticism. Nobody has still called for his head though I think some are starting to not be convinced 

[Vive_La_Villa]

8 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Lot of constructive criticism. Nobody has still called for his head though I think some are starting to not be convinced 

I’ll take your word for it

[nick76]

41 minutes ago, PerryBarrPet said:

Perhaps it’s that players felt comfortable under Smith while under Gerrard they know that if they do not perform to the required level or are just not good enough full stop they will be shipped out?

I’m not sure I’m completely with this.  In my career when I look back at my career, when I was the most comfortable under a manager is when I performed the best and vice versa.  I try and look at the players and we can see the same albeit under a just a few games, that Coutinho is performing under a manager he is comfortable with. The same with Ollie under Smith and arguably Jack under Smith compared to the pressure under Pep.

Edited February 15, 2022 by nick76

[Laughable Chimp]

Gerrard has now managed 12 league games for us and has gotten 1.4 points per game.

Smith in his last 12 games got 1.1 points per game.

 

Smith got us 1.1 points per game in his last 30 games and for me to consider Gerrard an improvement on Smith, he has to exceed that rate in the same amount of games.

Edited February 15, 2022 by Laughable Chimp

[AntrimBlack]

20 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I took a break from here for a couple of days I imagine it was pretty toxic. Sunday was pretty poor. 

Considering the performance, I think most of the posting was quite reasonable.

You missed some good debate.

[nick76]

3 minutes ago, Laughable Chimp said:

Gerrard has now managed 12 league games for us and has gotten 1.4 points per game.

Smith in his last 12 games got 1.1 points per game.

 

Smith got us 1.1 points per game in his last 30 games and for me to consider Gerrard an improvement on Smith, he has to exceed that rate in the same amount of games.

Is that all it really takes? Aside from being an arbitrary amount of games in 30, why not 20, why not 50 which obviously give very different answers.  So aside from that, just getting above that is improvement.  Technically yes it would be improvement because anything above 1.1 is better but is that really our benchmark to be considered it worthwhile?

[Mantis]

1 hour ago, PieFacE said:

Is it just me or does it feel like things are pretty close to completely falling apart already? Something about the players doesn't look right to me. I never really had this feeling about Smith.

This isn't a Smith vs Gerrard comment cos i'm fully in the "Gerrard in" camp. It's just a mere observation. Something about the body language of the players doesn't seem right. 

Maybe the loss and performance against Newcastle is skewing my opinion, but we really need something from the next game. 

Tbf there were multiple points under Smith where things felt just as bad if not worse among the players.

Sunday was awful but I think some are overreacting. Talk of him having lost the dressing room seems very very premature.

[Tayls]

24 minutes ago, Mantis said:

Talk of him having lost the dressing room seems very very premature.

If this were to be the case then this is one of those scenarios where I’d rather replace the players (concerned) rather than the manager. Gerrard has won more than any of our players have. 

[striker]

If Gerrard has lost the dressing room then in my opinion that is no bad thing at all.

For way too long there have been players in the Villa squad having a nice little pay day for little or no effort. Gerrard doesn’t strike me as the type of person to tolerate that so giving those players a few home truths with the risk of losing their so called effort and support is one way of getting them out of the club in the summer. I’d include Luiz, McGinn and Watkins in that.

I see some have criticised Gerrard’s lack of reaction during the Newcastle game to that turgid performance. I saw it more as taking a mental note of who is going to get their P45 in the summer. Once Gerrard gets his own players in only then will you see him react as one would expect.
 

[Vive_La_Villa]

The performances reminded me a lot of what I saw under Smith many time. They were just stronger to everything.  All we can really do is give Gerrard time and hope his the right man for the job.  We can’t exactly replace the whole team. 

 We really need a reaction on Saturday though.

Edited February 15, 2022 by Vive_La_Villa

[Bazmonkey]

2 hours ago, duke313 said:

Doesn't bode well if this is true, has SG lost the dressing room already?

In response to this and a couple of comments similar.

I dont think SG has the lost the dressing room.

IMO...From what I originally said...i think after the 1st half against Newcastle, add in a coupe of other performances a few players have called each other out, which I think they should!

[PhilGibson]

It feels to me a little bit of a cross roads moment. Gerrard has a defined way of playing with the number 8s covering full back positions, this is then supposed to allow the full backs to be our attacking outlets. 

At present teams have worked out how to counter act this formation which leaves us really open through the middle and leaves players like mcginn covering for cash in an unnatural position. This seems to me like a case of a system not fitting the players, or the system not working with a lower quality players unlike Liverpool.

There is no easy answer does he change the system to get the best out of the players or keep persevering hoping it clicks. Lots of people asking the questions about how open it leaves us, players like luiz although not world beaters will struggle when exposed to a 3 on 1 through the middle. 

It will be interesting to see the reaction come the weekend.

 

 

Edited February 15, 2022 by PhilGibson
Wrong words

[duke313]

2 minutes ago, PhilGibson said:

It feels to me a little bit of a cross roads moment. Gerrard has a defined way of playing with the number 8s covering full back positions, this is then supposed to allow the full backs to be our attacking outlets. 

At present teams have worked out how to counter act this formation which leaves us really open through the middle and leaves players like mcginn covering for cash in an unnatural position. This seems to me like a case of a system not fitting the players, or the system not working with a lower quality players unlike Liverpool.

There is no easy answer does he change the system to get the best out of the players or keep persevering hoping it clicks. Lots of people asking the questions about how open it leaves us, players like luiz although not world beaters will struggle when exposed to a 3 on 1 through the middle. 

It will be interesting to see the reaction come the weekend.

 

 

I think he needs to modify the system, at least until he is able to get the players in that he wants.

[david-avfc]

Let’s see what Gerrard does in the next couple of games with the set up and player selection.

 

I don’t think his “2 number 10’s” formation has worked too well, it leaves us a bit too exposed in midfield and hasn’t resulted in an overload of chances created either. To be fair it was worth a chance and I think most liked the idea of multiple playmakers and aggressive full back bombing forward at every opportunity.
 

Will be interesting to see if he perseveres or if he changes things up. Obviously with Smith he kept the same failing system for too long until all confidence was shot. There’s a balancing act of not reacting to poor performances but not under reacting to poor team structure, either. He’s still finding his feet at this level and with this group of players. Hopefully by the end of the season he will have us flying again

[VillaParkAvenue]

49 minutes ago, Tayls said:

If this were to be the case then this is one of those scenarios where I’d rather replace the players (concerned) rather than the manager. Gerrard has won more than any of our players have. 

 

25 minutes ago, striker said:

If Gerrard has lost the dressing room then in my opinion that is no bad thing at all.

For way too long there have been players in the Villa squad having a nice little pay day for little or no effort. Gerrard doesn’t strike me as the type of person to tolerate that so giving those players a few home truths with the risk of losing their so called effort and support is one way of getting them out of the club in the summer. I’d include Luiz, McGinn and Watkins in that.

I see some have criticised Gerrard’s lack of reaction during the Newcastle game to that turgid performance. I saw it more as taking a mental note of who is going to get their P45 in the summer. Once Gerrard gets his own players in only then will you see him react as one would expect.
 

Creating chaos is the easiest thing, my five year old son can do that. Gerrard will be judged on whether he can create harmony and results.

[hippo]

33 minutes ago, striker said:

If Gerrard has lost the dressing room then in my opinion that is no bad thing at all.

For way too long there have been players in the Villa squad having a nice little pay day for little or no effort. Gerrard doesn’t strike me as the type of person to tolerate that so giving those players a few home truths with the risk of losing their so called effort and support is one way of getting them out of the club in the summer. I’d include Luiz, McGinn and Watkins in that.

I see some have criticised Gerrard’s lack of reaction during the Newcastle game to that turgid performance. I saw it more as taking a mental note of who is going to get their P45 in the summer. Once Gerrard gets his own players in only then will you see him react as one would expect.
 

Sorry but that's niave in the extreme and the sort of thinking that damages our club.

Sure Stevie G will read the riot act now and again - as will every head coach at this level. But there is a lot more management at the very elite levels than kicking players up the backside and drumming players that don't respond out of the door - we really don't need to pay a bloke £150k PW to do that.

Personally I don't think Stevie G has lost the dressing room or come anywhere near that to be honest. It's far to early for that talk.