Steven Gerrard

[VillaFaninLondon]

7 hours ago, striker said:

That is of course if Villa stay up and that’s no where near a given yet.

I don't think Gerrard's remit is barely surviving - if we finish below where we are now (12th) I don't really know how they can back him. 

 

Then again Purslow wanted him so he might persevere with him at the expense of the club which would be a disaster. 

 

Even so, think your beloved Everton are more likely to go down than us. 

 

Let's be honest both of our teams have been the biggest underachievers in the league this season, should be on way more points with the players we have.

[allani]

This is my FB memory from exactly 1 year ago:

Struggling to understand why we spent €14 million on a midfielder in January. Midfield has been overrun for 4 out of the last 5 matches and yet Smith hasn't changed a thing. Didn't think we could play worse than we did against Brighton. Seems like I was wrong. Players are seemingly dead on their feet. No energy, no commitment. Thankfully we are (probably) safe from relegation. But Smith REALLY needs to identify a Plan B and start using the rest of the squad because at this rate we are going to struggle for the rest of the season. As Trump would say it is time to stop the count!!!

It is hard to believe that we are facing exactly the same issue 1 year later.  We failed to recruit in this area in the summer, persisting with McGinn and Luiz.  Whilst the arrival of JJ is fantastic - we can't rely on a young player at the start of his career to turn around our biggest issue.  Our failure to address this issue over the last 18/24 months continues to cause us problems.

[jacketspuds]

One of our biggest issues is how we spent our transfer budget in the summer. Bringing in all these shiny new attacking players when it was clear that one of the main reasons we looked so poor when Grealish was injured was because we haven’t improved the central midfield or centre back positions since our first window.

I still think back to that cringe fest of a zoom recording from Purslow about why we signed Ings, Buendia and Bailey. He then brings in a manager who probably won’t use 2 of them that much so we will sell them for a loss in the summer.

My major concern is that the fans won’t give Gerrard the time he needs to sort this mess out.

[Dale]

4 minutes ago, jacketspuds said:

My major concern is that the fans won’t give Gerrard the time he needs to sort this mess out.

My core concern is that he is not capable of sorting anything out. 

[VillaCas]

10 minutes ago, jacketspuds said:

My major concern is that the fans won’t give Gerrard the time he needs to sort this mess out.

Spot on. Our squad is a mess, some good players but no real strategy in mind. 

I don’t know if Gerrard will be the answer but without the points he’s delivered so far I think we could have been better in proper trouble this season - we still might be

I think he will be able to stabilise us this season and push on next but time will tell  

People are incredibly impatient - it will take time to get this right 

 

[VillaParkAvenue]

44 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Sherwood was interim. Hughes took city to champions league but they wanted to kick on, Lampard was given a year and a half. 

Gerrard has been here 3 months and took over a team that had the most defeats in 2021. 
 

Interim at first then permanent I think. ”On 23 December, Spurs named Sherwood as their new head coach, handing him an 18-month contract until the end of the 2014–15 season” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Sherwood

I don’t want Gerrard sacked now, but it’s difficult thing to know when to give more time and when it’s better to move on

[Vive_La_Villa]

6 minutes ago, VillaParkAvenue said:

Interim at first then permanent I think. ”On 23 December, Spurs named Sherwood as their new head coach, handing him an 18-month contract until the end of the 2014–15 season” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Sherwood

I don’t want Gerrard sacked now, but it’s difficult thing to know when to give more time and when it’s better to move on

True but I think we have to give him a pre season at least. It hasn’t been great last few games but I’m still confident we will improve again.

[Zatman]

6 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

True but I think we have to give him a pre season at least. It hasn’t been great last few games but I’m still confident we will improve again.

Depends how this season finishes. If we continue to crash and have no improvement he has to go. He has to show us something that isnt media soundbites 

[hippo]

1 hour ago, VillaCas said:

Spot on. Our squad is a mess, some good players but no real strategy in mind. 

I don’t know if Gerrard will be the answer but without the points he’s delivered so far I think we could have been better in proper trouble this season - we still might be

I think he will be able to stabilise us this season and push on next but time will tell  

People are incredibly impatient - it will take time to get this right 

 

I think people would be more patient if Gerrard had some track record of taking over a struggling PL club - stabilizing them an improving them.

But he doesn't. We are his first PL club as a manager. And the track record of rookies at PL clubs isn't great 

[The Fun Factory]

Looks like a Bryan Robson 2.0 at present

[VillaCas]

43 minutes ago, hippo said:

If it were that simple. Surely Stevie G would choose option 1 until the end of the season - or maybe even just  for the Brighton game.

 

 

I don’t believe it’s that simple - we probably need to change to be successful. I don’t see us cobbling something together for the rest of this season and then trying to make a massive change in the summer. I think SG will try and bed in his new system now (with minor adjustments) and bring reinforcements in the summer

Whatever, we can’t keep calling for a change of managers every dozen games we’ve got to bite the bullet and accept that progress is difficult 

[VillaCas]

13 minutes ago, hippo said:

I think people would be more patient if Gerrard had some track record of taking over a struggling PL club - stabilizing them an improving them.

But he doesn't. We are his first PL club as a manager. And the track record of rookies at PL clubs isn't great 

I think you’re right. He’s a gamble, but I’m not sure if we could have attracted anyone proven to take us to the next level. He does lack experience but new managers have to gain it somewhere. There is a chance he could be really successful and I’m sure his name will attract players that normally might give us a miss. We’ve got to give him until next season at least in my opinion. 

[Zatman]

5 minutes ago, VillaCas said:

I don’t believe it’s that simple - we probably need to change to be successful. I don’t see us cobbling something together for the rest of this season and then trying to make a massive change in the summer. I think SG will try and bed in his new system now (with minor adjustments) and bring reinforcements in the summer

Whatever, we can’t keep calling for a change of managers every dozen games we’ve got to bite the bullet and accept that progress is difficult 

Progress is difficult but if its not working we should not accept crap. Lage, Potter changed the styles quickly and got the message across

Even Rodgers and Hassnhuttl came in mid season and changed the style of play and got result

[duke313]

5 minutes ago, VillaCas said:

I think you’re right. He’s a gamble, but I’m not sure if we could have attracted anyone proven to take us to the next level. He does lack experience but new managers have to gain it somewhere. There is a chance he could be really successful and I’m sure his name will attract players that normally might give us a miss. We’ve got to give him until next season at least in my opinion. 

If results and performances continue as they have, it could turn sour very quickly.

[Dale]

3 minutes ago, VillaCas said:

He’s a gamble, but I’m not sure if we could have attracted anyone proven to take us to the next level

Favre spoke to Palace in the summer. Hassenhutl was apparently interested. Fonseca was interested. Every appointment is a gamble, but those three names inspire more confidence to me. Steve Cooper inspires more confidence. 

I think it's very clear that there was one name on Christian's list.

[CVByrne]

I do feel like he has to tweak something. I think he didn't want to change too much for home to Watford and that a reaction from the players might have sparked to life and we would win. 

Teams know two things about Villa which is highly effective. If you block the midfield and deny the ball getting to our two 10s you force us wide. This means you've gifted Cash the ball and he is a massive drop off in an attacking threat to Buendia. What you also do there is get Villa's full backs up the pitch so if you turn over the ball you can hit Villa on the counter. 

Digne on the left side is a threat so I think that side will be ok. He put in a few dangerous balls against Watford. What we need to do is make that right side a threat which is to have a dangerous player there, Bailey or Buendia or Traore for example. 

[PeterSw]

14 hours ago, markavfc40 said:

I am not sure if it is a case that the players we have can't play Gerrard's system or whether it is a case of Gerrard's system doesn't work, certainly against some sides.

For his first couple of months here I thought the players adapted to his system really well, performances were decent and we got some good results. In January we then added a very good player in Digne and a world class player in Coutinho to fit that system better. 

In the main though performances over the last couple of months have been poor. For me it isn't a lack of quality that is doing for us as we had better players on the pitch against Watford, Newcastle, Leeds, Brentford and took one point from those games. It isn't that the players can't play the system as they showed for Gerrard's first couple of months they could and we then added players more suited to that system. For me it is that other sides have now sussed out how to play against Gerrard's system and the weaker sides are quite happy to stifle their own game and adapt if it means they can stop the opposition. That may well be the reason why we have looked better against the better sides we have faced over the last few weeks - Man Utd twice and Leeds who play the same way regardless of opposition. 

Whether Gerrard will be willing to change his system I don't know. It may well be that he believes he needs to muddle through until the summer then bring in 3 or 4 players he thinks will better suit the way he plays. The pressure will certainly be on him then next season though if we aren't challenging top 8 and he is persisting with his system. 

Nice post.

The part about the players adapting well at the start for me is down to Nakamba. I feel that the CDM position is crucial to his tactic and Luiz just can't do it. I think if he went with a different option there (a more defensively minded player like Chambers for example) we might see the performances/results improve.

Gerrard showed a bit of naivety at the weekend. He said in the presser that Hodgson was experienced and he knew him well. Surely he knew that he would dig in for 70 odd mins, wait for us to make changes to go and try to win the game and look to pick us off. His plan worked perfectly. 

.. But on the other hand, Gerrard had to make changes to try and win the game and ultimately, he made the wrong changes for me. Young to Cash was poor. Bailey looked too short of match fitness to bring on and chase a game.

I think we'll get there eventually. I'll give him a pre-season and a transfer window but if things arn't looking better by Christmas, he could (and should) be in trouble

[striker]

2 hours ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

I don't think Gerrard's remit is barely surviving - if we finish below where we are now (12th) I don't really know how they can back him. 

 

Then again Purslow wanted him so he might persevere with him at the expense of the club which would be a disaster. 

 

Even so, think your beloved Everton are more likely to go down than us. 

 

Let's be honest both of our teams have been the biggest underachievers in the league this season, should be on way more points with the players we have.

Generally agree with everything you say. Both clubs have vastly underachieved considering money spent and both clubs could find themselves in serious trouble with remaining fixtures to play.

However, I do believe considering the squads around both teams Villa and Everton have enough about them to stay up if Gerrard and Lampard can get their respective teams firing.

Just as a side note, I follow both teams with Villa my main point of interest now, hence why I post here. Everton lost me when Rafa was appointed!

Edited February 21, 2022 by striker

[hippo]

56 minutes ago, VillaCas said:

I don’t believe it’s that simple - we probably need to change to be successful. I don’t see us cobbling something together for the rest of this season and then trying to make a massive change in the summer. I think SG will try and bed in his new system now (with minor adjustments) and bring reinforcements in the summer

Whatever, we can’t keep calling for a change of managers every dozen games we’ve got to bite the bullet and accept that progress is difficult 

Mad as it might sound - villa aren't big in the changing manager league.  Smith was here 3 years.

Gerrard felt wrong from the outset. I don't think it would be that damaging to make a change before the start of next season. However I have my doubts about those choosing the manager.!!!!

[bannedfromHandV]

I’m very worried right now.

The team look like strangers to one another, there’s no cohesion, no one seems to be fighting particularly hard. 

I hope he turns it around but it’s looking like another poor managerial appointment now that the new manager bounce has worn off.