Steven Gerrard

[Demitri_C]

Im glad he is pissed off. I really am, it shows he cares and wont tolerate garbage like that 1st half performance 

My only complaint is the lack of changes.  Sticking with ollie who has been pants for weeks. Not freshening it up in cm. Or taking couts off who waa having a very poor game.

Edited March 19, 2022 by Demitri_C

[MaVilla]

I'm not sure what some ppl expect of Gerrard.

When Gerrard took over we were 16th, averaging 0.9 PPG (game weeks 1 to 11), and in the previous season, games 18 to 38, we averaged 1.2 PPG, so basically we were fairly poor for the last half of last season, and really, really terrible for the first 11 of this season.

Since Gerrard took over we have gone from 16th to 9th, with an average PPG of 1.5.

Now...i agree we are doing "amazing", but i think there is a limit to what any manager could get out of the current team, and that limit imo is probably somewhere between 9th and 12th.

We need a massive push in terms of squad improvement in the summer, if we really want to push for top 8, the current squad simply isnt good enough.

I know Gerrard isnt perfect, and there are some issues possibly in terms of formation and the picking of certain players, but......to say him taking us from 16th to 9th, averaging 1.5 PPG while doing it, isnt doing pretty decent.....what did u expect!?, top 6?!

[hippo]

6 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

I'm not sure what some ppl expect of Gerrard.

When Gerrard took over we were 16th, averaging 0.9 PPG (game weeks 1 to 11), and in the previous season, games 18 to 38, we averaged 1.2 PPG, so basically we were fairly poor for the last half of last season, and really, really terrible for the first 11 of this season.

Since Gerrard took over we have gone from 16th to 9th, with an average PPG of 1.5.

Now...i agree we are doing "amazing", but i think there is a limit to what any manager could get out of the current team, and that limit imo is probably somewhere between 9th and 12th.

We need a massive push in terms of squad improvement in the summer, if we really want to push for top 8, the current squad simply isnt good enough.

I know Gerrard isnt perfect, and there are some issues possibly in terms of formation and the picking of certain players, but......to say him taking us from 16th to 9th, averaging 1.5 PPG while doing it, isnt doing pretty decent.....what did u expect!?, top 6?!

No tbf his results aren't to bad considering he took over mid season.

My concern is his formation of choice appears to be full backs providing the width.

I do sense some of our promising kids won't get a look in with an influx of players to make a short term impact.

[Xela]

17 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

I'm not sure what some ppl expect of Gerrard.

When Gerrard took over we were 16th, averaging 0.9 PPG (game weeks 1 to 11), and in the previous season, games 18 to 38, we averaged 1.2 PPG, so basically we were fairly poor for the last half of last season, and really, really terrible for the first 11 of this season.

Since Gerrard took over we have gone from 16th to 9th, with an average PPG of 1.5.

You are right 

We are a mid table team doing mid table things. The step up to being a top 6 or 7 team is massive. We're not going to get there with this current squad. We need better players. Not a rebuild, but 2 or 3 quality acquisitions and also shipping out a fair few who aren't up to it. Mix quality additions with our top academy talents, and we'll head in the right direction. 

There is no doubt in my mind that we have improved under Gerrard compared to the previous 11-12 month before he joined, and the stats as you say, back it up. 

[USA_Villa]

Still not seeing an upgrade I'm afraid. I need to see an improvement against the better teams.

 

[HeyAnty]

3 hours ago, Spoony said:

He’s learning a bit on the job as well but I’m happy for him to do that here. Literally every other approach in my lifetime as a Villa fan has failed so I’m happy to let this experiment run it’s course. He might transform into a world beating managing. I certainly think he’s doing perfectly fine with a bang average squad. I don’t know how anyone can look at our team and think it’s anymore than a mid table team. 

I hope im wrong but I don’t think he will turn into a world class manager.  His tactics worry me, I don’t think the best squad in the world could play them well week in week out.  

[Keener window-cleaner]

22 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

I'm not sure what some ppl expect of Gerrard.

When Gerrard took over we were 16th, averaging 0.9 PPG (game weeks 1 to 11), and in the previous season, games 18 to 38, we averaged 1.2 PPG, so basically we were fairly poor for the last half of last season, and really, really terrible for the first 11 of this season.

Since Gerrard took over we have gone from 16th to 9th, with an average PPG of 1.5.

Now...i agree we are doing "amazing", but i think there is a limit to what any manager could get out of the current team, and that limit imo is probably somewhere between 9th and 12th.

We need a massive push in terms of squad improvement in the summer, if we really want to push for top 8, the current squad simply isnt good enough.

I know Gerrard isnt perfect, and there are some issues possibly in terms of formation and the picking of certain players, but......to say him taking us from 16th to 9th, averaging 1.5 PPG while doing it, isnt doing pretty decent.....what did u expect!?, top 6?!

I'm not sure how much we can compare this season before and after Gerrard. Our whole pre season was chaotic, we had players returing late for the start of the season/injured or out of form. We had quite many new players to bed in and we had lost Jack who was pretty much the center of all our attacking play. Gerrard has only had a couple of injured players and have also got Coutinho and Digne on board.

Don't agree that the squad isn't good enough, we need another midfielder, but the squad is actually quite good in my opinion.

[HeyAnty]

1 hour ago, Tom13 said:

I was very much pro Gerrard but I'm starting to dislike him very quickly. He's too quick to pass the blame onto his players, not a trait I like at all.

Sure he was notorious for throwing the players under the bus at Rangers, every poor performance they had.  This isn’t new, check the posts at the start of the thread by people who weren’t sure or who didn’t want him.

 

[M_Afro]

18 minutes ago, Keener window-cleaner said:

I'm actually quite baffled about the decison to play 4-3-2-1 and not changing it until it was too late. Everyone knows that Arsenals main threat is their wide forwards/wingers in Saka and ESR with their fullbacks overlapping. To set up with just our full backs covering the wings was clearly not going to work.

To cover the wings we needed McGinn and Ramsey to sit back and help out wide, that meant they couldn't contribute in attack as we would get too exposed on the counter. The other unimpressive decision was to play two no 10's and with one out of form. Both Coutinho and Buendia dropped back and wanted to play short passes in the middle of the pitch, that left Watkins completely isolated up front. No wonder we didn't have a shot on goal during the whole first half.

Wasn't the management team meant to be smart? Beale the super coach? McAllister I have  alot of respect for, but this is not impressive at all. Moreover, at half time, they must have realized, but didn't do anything until the 70th minute or something like that, far too late.

Gerrard implying that the players are not good enough (the talk about the gap) is simply not true. Player for player we match them. But the system and tactics let us down. This would have been the perfect game to play 4-2-3-1, like we ended the game.

Martinez on par or better than Leno

Cash on par or better than Soares

Konsa/Mings not a huge difference to White/Gabriel

Tierny much better than Young

McGinn/Luiz not that much worse than the idiot Xhaka and Partey

Coutinho better than Odegaard

Buendia/Bailey as much of a threat as Saka/ESR

Watkins or Ings better than Lacazette

Being at home and fired up we should at least be able to compete with them. But we didn't, the 4-3-2-1 hampered us, made us static, exposed and gave us no attacking threat.

Bonkers. Utterly bonkers!

[MaVilla]

5 minutes ago, Keener window-cleaner said:

I'm not sure how much we can compare this season before and after Gerrard. Our whole pre season was chaotic, we had players returing late for the start of the season/injured or out of form. We had quite many new players to bed in and we had lost Jack who was pretty much the center of all our attacking play. Gerrard has only had a couple of injured players and have also got Coutinho and Digne on board.

Don't agree that the squad isn't good enough, we need another midfielder, but the squad is actually quite good in my opinion.

i wasnt just comparing this season mate, for the last 20 games of last season we averaged 1.2 PPG, 0.9 for the first 11 this season, then 1.5 PPG since Gerrard took over.

I agree the "whole" squad isnt poor, but i do think only 5-6 of our players are top 8 quality, i think if we really want to challenge top 8 next season, we need 4-5 quality players.

[HeyAnty]

2 hours ago, VillaParkAvenue said:

That’s possible, but he did say they seemed to lack belief and didn’t follow the game plan properly because of that.

Well he should maybe have picked Ings and Chambers who had decent games against west ham.  Maybe give Sanson a chance who has played well anytime he gets 10mins.  
 

I personally think he’s very arrogant and is reluctant to take blame.  Martin Keown even questioned how he wasn’t able to get to grips with Arsenal tactics live after the game.  Its far from being all on the players.  I just don’t think he’s very good 

[Villa_Vids]

No issue with the post match interview. I liked it. Gerrard was upset with the performance, he backs the players and felt let down today. Fair enough. He is learning more about the players game by game. He is still a  young manager too, so he will be experiencing the sore (helpless) feeling of expectations not being met. Come the end of the season, he will have enough knowledge to make informed decisions on the squad. If he is still saying the same stuff in 12 months time with more backing then that will be a cause for concern. The positive thing is he gradually got better at Rangers season-on-season , I still believe he will here. 

Currently there are question marks about the squad and their ability to fight for places in the top 8.  Gerrard wants the players to smash their current ceiling and he is not shying away from it. I like that he is demanding that. SG will win some over and/or he will have to replace those who will not buy into his management. You cannot change everybody. I think he treats his self with the same scrutiny too, so it is all fair.  I strongly oppose a white flag mentality and a handbrake on aspirations, we have had that for far too long at the club. Gerrard shares our feelings too, he is invested in the NSWE project. We need to stick by him at the moment, it is far too early to lose faith in him.

[MrSmirch]

I don't think his personality, philosophy, values match with where we are or what we need at all.

[VillaParkAvenue]

1 hour ago, WallisFrizz said:
 

However, there are teams out there that overperform collectively the individual ability of their players because they have a good system where people know their roles inside out, work hard, are coached well, have self belief and determination, grit and a little bit of luck. West Ham and Wolves aren’t filled with an array of outstanding talent. A few exceptional players and the rest is what I outlined above.

This is exactly it. Being 9th we’re not far from top 8, and clubs just above us like Wolves and West Ham don’t have more great players than we have. They also have loads of average players but are probably slightly better coached.

Another thing is that being top 8 doesn’t get you anywhere, so we have to improve a bit more.

[Tomaszk]

The amount of money we're going to spend over the next few years it's going to be unlikely we'll be in the bottom 6 much.

Something doesn't sit right with me on the quality of manager we've acquired to use the outlay on offer. If it's all through the club's recruitment department, I'll be far less worried. Doubt they suggested Coutinho, Gomez and Suarez though.

So many errors with probably the best squad we've had in 25 years.

I agree that our players were better than Arsenal's yesterday. Not in the match. The overall level of player. And we were stuffed.

Don't mind that interview. Bit moany, but the words read worse than the way he said them.

[Demitri_C]

8 hours ago, USA_Villa said:

Still not seeing an upgrade I'm afraid. I need to see an improvement against the better teams.

 

How are you not seeing a upgrade? We were 16th before he came and in top half?

[CVByrne]

I don't know if this 4 3 2 1 is really the way to go. Gerrard will stick with it though and the style of football he wants to play. It's very exposed when we play superior passing and pressing teams like we did yesterday. My main issue is where do the goals come from in the formation? 

The 4 4 2 diamond formation in midfield, I can see there with the two centre forwards where goals come from. That however is the formation least suited to our squad, we have lots of attacking players who have no place there. 

I just don't see what is so "wrong" with 4 3 3 or 4 2 3 1 that Gerrard is so 100% focussed on his own formation nobody in the League plays. Ever. 

Arsenal and West Ham seem to be doing very well with a 4 2 3 1. Why not go with that and ditch the 4 3 2 1 for good. We could get Coutinho Buendia Bailey and Watkins onto the pitch. 

I know Gerrard wants the quick short passing and interplay in congested areas in midfield. That's how he wants us to create chances. He does need to accept we probably don't have the players capable of doing that. 

[CVByrne]

44 minutes ago, WallisFrizz said:

Totally agree with your post particularly with the last part. 
I think it’s a failure of several transfer windows that we haven’t addressed our midfield weakness as it’s been glaringly obvious since we were promoted. Actually surprised that it took Gerrard so long to mention the physicality aspect as we’ve been banging on about that for ages too. 

Yes the midfield should have be addressed. But Gerrard coming in and ditching the system for which we have spent a lot of money on in terms of wide forwards means we won't get the best out of the squad we have. It was built for 4 3 3

[Dale]

7 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

I don't know if this 4 3 2 1 is really the way to go. Gerrard will stick with it though and the style of football he wants to play. It's very exposed when we play superior passing and pressing teams like we did yesterday. My main issue is where do the goals come from in the formation? 

The 4 4 2 diamond formation in midfield, I can see there with the two centre forwards where goals come from. That however is the formation least suited to our squad, we have lots of attacking players who have no place there. 

I just don't see what is so "wrong" with 4 3 3 or 4 2 3 1 that Gerrard is so 100% focussed on his own formation nobody in the League plays. Ever. 

Arsenal and West Ham seem to be doing very well with a 4 2 3 1. Why not go with that and ditch the 4 3 2 1 for good. We could get Coutinho Buendia Bailey and Watkins onto the pitch. 

I know Gerrard wants the quick short passing and interplay in congested areas in midfield. That's how he wants us to create chances. He does need to accept we probably don't have the players capable of doing that. 

When a system is unique, you're either a visionary and others will follow, or it's unique for a reason. I don't think Gerrard is a visionary. 

He should switch it up to suit personnel and the league we're in. 

[hippo]

3 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

Yes the midfield should have be addressed. But Gerrard coming in and ditching the system for which we have spent a lot of money on in terms of wide forwards means we won't get the best out of the squad we have. It was built for 4 3 3

Yep we assembled a squad with arguably too many wide players.....then recruited a manager who doesn't want to play with any wide players.! Madness.

Let's hope Stevie Gs narrow formation yields results because we look set to invest a huge amount of money in it.