Steven Gerrard

[Zatman]

8 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Haha you're correct to be fair.

I'm just trying to remember when we had another manager so disliked by a section of fans?

Remi Garde, Sherwood, McLeish?

Basically, it never seems to end well to be fair.

If the majority of fans aren't onboard, it rarely ever works out, and in this day and age, fans are even more " visible " due to social media and so on.

The discontent can spread , even through squad etc and it's good for no one.

 

 

Thats on the club. They sacked a popular coach and replaced him with a big name unproven one. His win record at Rangers was lower than McLeish 

If the club appointed a proven manager or a manager who has shown signs of progress we would be happier. We have been generally poor in 2022 except the 3 games we went away from his system

[hippo]

5 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Haha you're correct to be fair.

I'm just trying to remember when we had another manager so disliked by a section of fans?

Remi Garde, Sherwood, McLeish?

Basically, it never seems to end well to be fair.

If the majority of fans aren't onboard, it rarely ever works out, and in this day and age, fans are even more " visible " due to social media and so on.

The discontent can spread , even through squad etc and it's good for no one.

 

 

Only McLeish.

And actually the results aren't dire under Stevie G. He shouldn't really be as unpopular as he is.

He wasn't liked from day 1 - he said so himself. As you say when the club starts pulling itself in different directions it rarely ends well.

I can't believe this vibe won't reach the club hierarchy.

 

 

 

[Villa_Vids]

48 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

The way some people keep bringing up the charity game for example.... sums it all up.

There is no winning for this bloke here.

If you realistically think he never worked on Wolves, because he played a charity game, I don't even know what to say.

The prick was at his daughters birthday party a few weeks before as well, and we lost that week.

As I've said a couple of times, at this point, I'd be ok with us getting another more " likeable " manager so that some balance and perspective could return to the fanbase.

There WILL never be any nuance in this thread. Sod it just rehire Dean ffs.

I feel the same. Just sell the club back to Lerner and Xia - let some people wallow in the misery of those days, they seem to base everything off it. We're at the point - where some people don't want us to invest into the squad, so Gerrard will certainly fail. That's very sad.

Do these people not realise we fail too? How is bigger investment in the team a bad thing? The club wants to be in Europe, it will require investment and some short term thinking in recruitment IMO. Far too much negativity on here. Some people can't enjoy being relatively optimistic and having some stability. 

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Villa_Vids

[Zatman]

1 minute ago, Villa_Vids said:

I feel the same. Just sell the club back to Lerner and Xia - let some people wallow in the misery of those days, they seem to base everything off it. We're at the point - where some people don't want us to invest into the squad, so Gerrard will certainly fail. That's very sad. Do these people not realise we fail too? How is bigger investment in the team a bad thing? The club wants to be in Europe, it will require investment and some short term thinking in recruitment IMO. Far too much negativity on here. Some people can't enjoy being relatively optimistic and having some stability. 

 

People want investment but you know we should not give this guy a blank cheque. Look at Everton signing over the hill duds and in a huge mess with Gerrard I can only see us signing similar 

He needs to coach and let Lange do the transfers 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

8 minutes ago, Villa_Vids said:

I feel the same. Just sell the club back to Lerner and Xia - let some people wallow in the misery of those days, they seem to base everything off it. We're at the point - where some people don't want us to invest into the squad, so Gerrard will certainly fail. That's very sad.

Do these people not realise we fail too? How is bigger investment in the team a bad thing? The club wants to be in Europe, it will require investment and some short term thinking in recruitment IMO. Far too much negativity on here. Some people can't enjoy being relatively optimistic and having some stability. 

 

" The board know best " unless they don't do what I want them to do.

All of a sudden they are useless/clueless. Obviously.

Edited April 3, 2022 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[Zatman]

1 minute ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

" The board know best " unless they don't do what I want them to do.

All of a sudden they are useless/clueless. Obviously.

I think Purslow has had a nightmare season. City spooked him with Jack and he wanted to act like the big man and has just made poor first team decisions

Starting by signing Ings randomly as no way that was a Smith/Lange idea

[og1874]

15 hours ago, Tomaszk said:

 

I would rather spend £0 this summer and see what Gerrard can do with this squad, than letting him buy five players then having to sack him because he can't get them to play.

The squad is hideously unbalanced though - we've got too many identikit players. Even if we played a role that accommodated every player we've got, we'd still be unbalanced because of what we don't have. A lot of it comes down to last summer's recruitment, whoever the manager is, that needs to be fixed in the summer window. Spending nothing would literally result in the exact same end product next season. There are holes that need filling... desperately.

[Villa_Vids]

5 minutes ago, Zatman said:

People want investment but you know we should not give this guy a blank cheque. Look at Everton signing over the hill duds and in a huge mess with Gerrard I can only see us signing similar 

He needs to coach and let Lange do the transfers 

Who's to say that isn't happening? And Lange has suggested and given the to all the players we have signed. It is a collective effort IMO, it was with Smith too. How do you break into the top 6 without investing? This is the hardest part IMO. We can't be dissuaded by other teams' failure IMO. 

[DCJonah]

26 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Thats on the club. They sacked a popular coach and replaced him with a big name unproven one. His win record at Rangers was lower than McLeish 

If the club appointed a proven manager or a manager who has shown signs of progress we would be happier. We have been generally poor in 2022 except the 3 games we went away from his system

I think there's something in this. Despite the views on here at time, Smith was a popular manager. Now that gets ignored if you bring in proven quality to improve but we didn't.

I think Gerrard needs the whole of next season with 2 more transfer windows to really see if he can push us up the table. But I can see why there's that disconnect there. 

And I know all managers would use us as a stepping stone but I think its so out there with Gerrard (no fault of his) that this also plays a part with the disconnect with the fans. 

 

[picicata]

17 minutes ago, Villa_Vids said:

I feel the same. Just sell the club back to Lerner and Xia - let some people wallow in the misery of those days, they seem to base everything off it. We're at the point - where some people don't want us to invest into the squad, so Gerrard will certainly fail. That's very sad.

Do these people not realise we fail too? How is bigger investment in the team a bad thing? The club wants to be in Europe, it will require investment and some short term thinking in recruitment IMO. Far too much negativity on here. Some people can't enjoy being relatively optimistic and having some stability. 

 

Everybody wants investment in the squad the worry is that we are going to go large with an inexperienced manager playing a system that only he believes in. As Villa fans we all want to see us succeed. I live in hope that Gerrard will be a success but I don't believe he will be. That's not negativity, that's simply taking all the things we have seen so far into account. 

Gerrard was the wrong choice, too unknown, too inexperienced. 

[Zatman]

1 minute ago, picicata said:

Everybody wants investment in the squad the worry is that we are going to go large with an inexperienced manager playing a system that only he believes in. As Villa fans we all want to see us succeed. I live in hope that Gerrard will be a success but I don't believe he will be. That's not negativity, that's simply taking all the things we have seen so far into account. 

Gerrard was the wrong choice, too unknown, too inexperienced. 

The system thing is also an issue because if we sell all our wide forwards then it fails we are in more trouble long term

Edited April 3, 2022 by Zatman

[PieFacE]

All new managers deserve a pre-season and a summer window. I'm very mixed on Gerrard's performance as a manager so far, but I really don't feel like it's fair to judge him this quickly. Let's not be Watford.

[QldVilla]

 For me a majority of our players were championship standard prior to joining the club and while some have improved, we are seeing others hit the ceiling in what they are capable of doing for the team.

Our midfield is lightweight and on a week to week basis is generally the reason why we are losing games.

Its easy to blame the manager, but he deserves the chance to fix the problems we have been seeing on the field for over 12 months.

[picicata]

6 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

I think there's something in this. Despite the views on here at time, Smith was a popular manager. Now that gets ignored if you bring in proven quality to improve but we didn't.

I think Gerrard needs the whole of next season with 2 more transfer windows to really see if he can push us up the table. But I can see why there's that disconnect there. 

And I know all managers would use us as a stepping stone but I think its so out there with Gerrard (no fault of his) that this also plays a part with the disconnect with the fans. 

 

Yes, it was never going to be easy replacing Smith. We went from having a captain, coming through the youth setup, brilliant footballer and manager with long fan based association, both of whom brought us success, to having neither within a few months of each other. I will admit I'm finding it very difficult to feel much connection to the club at the moment. 

[Villa_Vids]

30 minutes ago, Zatman said:

I think Purslow has had a nightmare season. City spooked him with Jack and he wanted to act like the big man and has just made poor first team decisions

Starting by signing Ings randomly as no way that was a Smith/Lange idea

That is poor by Smith/Lange if they didn't speak out on signing Ings. That could be deemed as negligent by those two -  IF they did not believe in the signing of Ings. But I still think it was a collective decision to develop our system without Grealish. It ultimately failed - the warning signs were there when Dean's record without Jack was poor. Dean took the hit for that and rightfully so. 

I think Lange should come under more scrutiny now too, especially if Gerrard does struggle from next season. I am fine with Purslow, I think he is desperate for the club to progress - I back him. He is by far the best football administrator I have seen at Villa in my lifetime. 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Villa_Vids

[markavfc40]

I don't think I have read this thread for a couple of months so am quite surprised at some of the posts and quite strong anti Gerrard feeling. 

The reason Smith was sacked is that the club felt with the squad he had we were underperforming and for me they were right. Now with that same squad and a world class player in Coutinho added and arguably one of the best left backs in the league we are still under performing given the ability we have in the squad. I don't think the issues are simply down to ability though. I think the issues are down to some players having the wrong attitude or not having enough players with the right attitude. 

Errors, lapses in concentration, hardly getting out of second gear for 45/60 mins of some games have all been season long traits. We have shown when we apply ourselves in the right way we are a match for most in this league. Trouble is we are too inconsistent and even within games we struggle to put two really good halves of football together. 

It is really frustrating and you can sense that Gerrard is feeling the same frustrations now that his predecessor did. Teams don't even have to play well to beat us. Looking at our defeats over the last few weeks Brentford, Newcastle, Watford, West Ham, Arsenal, Wolves none of them played really well to beat us. In fact Brentford, Newcastle and Watford were dire yet we didn't lay a glove on them. We had more than enough ability against those 3 sides in particular to win those games yet we put in half arsed performances. 

I think the way you change our problems is to bring in proven winners and retain those you think can be influenced by and feed off that winners mentality and who are week in week out able to maintain high standards and even when things are going against them individually and they may be slightly off it are still going to give 100% in terms of effort. Those who can't I imagine have already been identified by now and will be moved on.

I think there is going to be some big changes over the summer and a number of players with undoubted ability will be shipped out and there will be some surprises within that. 

In terms of the manager the time to judge him isn't now. The facts are he did inherit someone else's squad and his predecessor couldn't get a consistent tune from that squad. At best though that squad was a mid table 9th -14th placed squad. That wasn't going to be fixed or markedly improved on over 20 games, one transfer window and no pre season.

I am personally not too down about where we are now. Three seasons back in the prem and we are looking like getting to the end of the season looking back on two mid table finishes with a squad with plenty of ability and a number of really promising youngsters coming through. The challenge for Gerrard is to ship out some and add four or five others who not only have ability but the mental capability and winners mentality to take us from mid-table to the European places. Whether Gerrard is capable of that I am not sure. We know he will recognise that mental capability in others though as he is dripping with it. Lets see what he can do over the summer and then judge him mid way through next season.

Edited April 3, 2022 by markavfc40

[PerryBarrPet]

7 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

I don't think I have read this thread for a couple of months so am quite surprised at some of the posts and anti strong Gerrard feeling. 

The reason Smith was sacked is that the club felt with the squad he had we were underperforming and for me they were right. Now with that same squad and a world class player in Coutinho added and arguably one of the best left backs in the league we are still under performing given the ability we have in the squad. I don't think the issues are simply down to ability though. I think the issues are down to some players having the wrong attitude or not having enough players with the right attitude. 

Errors, lapses in concentration, hardly getting out of second gear for 45/60 mins of some games have all been season long traits. We have shown when we apply ourselves in the right way we are a match for most in this league. Trouble is we are too inconsistent and even within games we struggle to put two really good halves of football together. 

It is really frustrating and you can sense that Gerrard is feeling the same frustrations now that his predecessor did. Teams don't even have to play well to beat us. Looking at our defeats over the last few weeks Brentford, Newcastle, Watford, West Ham, Arsenal, Wolves none of them played really well to beat us. In fact Brentford, Newcastle and Watford were dire yet we didn't lay a glove on them. We had more than enough ability against those 3 sides in particular to win those games yet we put in half arsed performances. 

I think the way you change our problems is to bring in proven winners and retain those you think can be influenced by and feed off that winners mentality and who are week in week out able to maintain high standards and even when things are going against them individually and they may be slightly off it are still going to give 100% in terms of effort. Those who can't I imagine have already been identified by now and will be moved on.

I think there is going to be some big changes over the summer and a number of players with undoubted ability will be shipped out and there will be some surprises within that. 

In terms of the manager the time to judge him isn't now. The facts are he did inherit someone else's squad and his predecessor couldn't get a consistent tune from that squad. At best though that squad was a mid table 9th -14th placed squad. That wasn't going to be fixed or markedly improved on over 20 games, one transfer window and no pre season.

I am personally not too down about where we are now. Three seasons back in the prem and we are looking like getting to the end of the season looking back on two mid table finishes with a squad with plenty of ability and a number of really promising youngsters coming through. The challenge for Gerrard is to ship out some and add four or five others who not only have ability but the mental capability and winners mentality to take us from mid-table to the European places. Whether Gerrard is capable of that I am not sure. We know he will recognise that mental capability in others though as he is dripping with it. Lets see what he can do over the summer and then judge him mid way through next season.

Top, top post - thank you. For me mental capacity/attitude is a must for any player expecting to play at the top level. Sadly we have too few exhibiting this capability so must be replaced however popular they may be with fans.

[NoelVilla]

So that makes me wonder. Are Bissouma a proven winner? Brighton are really shit.

[foreveryoung]

22 minutes ago, QldVilla said:

 For me a majority of our players were championship standard prior to joining the club and while some have improved, we are seeing others hit the ceiling in what they are capable of doing for the team.

Our midfield is lightweight and on a week to week basis is generally the reason why we are losing games.

Its easy to blame the manager, but he deserves the chance to fix the problems we have been seeing on the field for over 12 months.

I'm not 100% sure Gerrard is gonna be the man, but this is where I am too.

Luiz: Just don't do enough, not sure he is good enough

Watkin's: Not scoring, poor performances, agreed by most fans

McGinn: Not good enough lately, he would be one I would sell bring some money back in

Ming's: Not sure he is as good as everyone thinks, but would probably keep him

Ramsey: To inconsistant, just not there yet.

There's five reasons Gerrard needs time. I hate West ham with a passion, but name 5 who you believe are truely not performing it their squad, or choose 5 in the Wolves squad yesterday?

[DCJonah]

29 minutes ago, picicata said:

Yes, it was never going to be easy replacing Smith. We went from having a captain, coming through the youth setup, brilliant footballer and manager with long fan based association, both of whom brought us success, to having neither within a few months of each other. I will admit I'm finding it very difficult to feel much connection to the club at the moment. 

Yeah, I'm quite surprised how much i don't give a shit right now. I was excited when Gerrard came in but I've got a real 'meh' attitude towards us at the moment. 

I think losing Grealish and Smith has done that.