Steven Gerrard

[og1874]

2 minutes ago, TRO said:

But tell me where the wingers have delivered and got around the back of defences for Ollie and Danny to capitalise......In fact under Dean, Matty Targett was instrumental in getting a few crosses in ably assisted by Jacks hold up play....and the common view is Digne is better at that.

I never said they did, just that I'm not sure why we use (both under Dean and Gerrard) a system that doesn't really make the most of wingers, particularly when it seems like all we bought were wingers for window after window. I don't think we have the midfield to solely rely on the full backs/wing backs for width, it drags the middle apart and makes us very easy to play through.

[duke313]

4 minutes ago, TRO said:

I am not trying to promote SG's system or Deans......because I see similar things happening against us with both systems, I see so many issues with both, like giving the ball away and not staying on it, systems haven't changed that......I don't think its just a system problem and I have done that to death.

But tell me where the wingers have delivered and got around the back of defences for Ollie and Danny to capitalise......In fact under Dean, Matty Targett was instrumental in getting a few crosses in ably assisted by Jacks hold up play....and the common view is Digne is better at that.

Every club, plays different systems, if one was the best, they would all play it.....It varies to suit the playing staff you have, unfortunately this squad, is not SG's.......yet.

What I have seen under Dean and SG.....is poor play, from players who lack any kind of consistency, they have days, sure.....but results don't lie.

 

 

Again, that was mainly down to having a player like Grealish.  Jack was nearly always double marked when he played, allowing Targett to receive the ball and get to the byline for a cross.  Arguably Digne is a better player than Targett, if he had played for us when we had Grealish, we would have seen an even better number of corsses. 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

Good to see we are finally all on the same page...

 

By that I mean 432.

Edited April 4, 2022 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[sne]

2 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Good to see we are finally all on the same page...

 

By that I mean 432.

Stupid narrow Christmas tree page

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

8 minutes ago, sne said:

Stupid narrow Christmas tree page

FFS, I didn't even do that on purpose.

Walked right into that one by default.

Well played man, well played haha.

[Steero113]

56 minutes ago, hippo said:

Can't we just appoint a fat , bald shaven headed bloke, who wears a sheepskin coat and drinks in the dog and partridge in Stirchley ?

Two secs, I'll call my uncle Kev. 

[Keyblade]

I think I'm finally starting to understand the feeling of when people say things like "x/y/z killed my love for Villa". Except, x/y/z is usually one of the poor saps who coached under Lerner and didn't have such a talented squad spearheaded by Philippe **** Coutinho. I don't put the blame entirely on him either, it's just that since the turn of the year, I'm really struggling to get excited to watch Villa. You don't know which Villa will turn up. There's no general trend to get behind. It's all a bit too haphazard. I was really excited when he first came in and we were playing some great football against the likes of United, and it looked like he was working towards something. What happened to that? I'd be lying if I said I'm not worried about giving him a "warchest" in the summer.

[AvonVillain]

3 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

I'd be lying if I said I'm not worried about giving him a "warchest" in the summer.

Hopefully the owners are just as concerned.

[Tom13]

"I have to have a look at Morgan Sanson at some point." Yes you do.

[VillaParkAvenue]

3 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

They usually get more than 20 games to have caused the future impending doom and financial ruin of a well run club though.

Most managers get more than five months yes.

But they usually don’t get the luxury of hand-picking their own team before being evaluated. New managers are expected to improve the team they inherit, no matter if it’s Chelsea, Spurs or Leeds.

”I haven’t brought in my own players yet” is rarely accepted as an excuse.

[AV82]

2 hours ago, og1874 said:

Gerrard, like Smith before him, has suffered the Villa curse of almost every random individual error (a slip, a soft pass, a mis-control, an attempted clearance or whatever) ending up with a goal for the opposition. You make good luck through hard work, that's definitely true, but Christ on a bike I've never seen a team get undone by lapses in player concentration, or bad footwear choices, like we do. It happens to everyone every week, but other teams seem to be able to get away with it for weeks on end - with us it's almost a given that at least half the goals we concede on a given day are down to something like this.

You make your own luck. Using McGinn as a 6 was suicide.

[OutByEaster?]

Three home games in nine days in May gives him a chance to leave a positivity at Villa Park for the summer.

First one is Liverpool so that'll be difficult, but win against Palace and Burnley and I think he'll get to carry a good feeling into the summer - that could be valuable.

 

[AntrimBlack]

55 minutes ago, Tom13 said:

"I have to have a look at Morgan Sanson at some point." Yes you do.

Have a look at McGinn while you're at it, maybe.

[ciggiesnbeer]

Feels like he is marking time now till he can buy replacement players in the summer.

Interesting times. Something has to change. Some of these players have been patchy under different managers and systems. Gerrard's point is top teams dont get to be patchy, which is fair.

Gonna be an interesting summer. I am excited.

[HalfTimePost]

6 minutes ago, ciggiesnbeer said:

Feels like he is marking time now till he can buy replacement players in the summer.

Interesting times. Something has to change. Some of these players have been patchy under different managers and systems. Gerrard's point is top teams dont get to be patchy, which is fair.

Gonna be an interesting summer. I am excited.

I'd believe this if he was giving games to Iroegbunam, Chukweumeka or even bringing on Chrisene during one of Dignes injuries. If he's made his mind up on players he may as well play the youth if he's just treading water until the summer

[nick76]

32 minutes ago, HalfTimePost said:

I'd believe this if he was giving games to Iroegbunam, Chukweumeka or even bringing on Chrisene during one of Dignes injuries. If he's made his mind up on players he may as well play the youth if he's just treading water until the summer

Keeping their values up

Dont think the kids are ready and doesn’t want them to thrown into the deep end when we are playing so poorly that it might hit their confidence.

Trying different systems to see if the players click in one system

Undecided on some players so wants to keep playing them to assess

Thinks the players are better than the kids and wants to finish as high as possible as he’s said for both the extra cash and the optics of finishing top half.

Loads of reasons, I never thought he’d play, test with the kids this season, he’s still learning the first team himself plus the likes of Sanson, Bailey, Traore, Digne, Chambers and even Coutinho have only had a few games under him.

Plus I’m still not sure the obsession with wanting to play the kids, they will play when they are ready.  Not going to play them because the first teamers are playing poorly.  Playing kids is about developing them at the right times rather than when the team needs them.

Edited April 4, 2022 by nick76

[Tom13]

Players values are going down if anything

[nick76]

1 minute ago, Tom13 said:

Players values are going down if anything

Haha I thought that but they still play thus get picked for their country, play well for their country and score…people think “wow we want them” .  What last week…Mings, Ollie, Bailey, McGinn, JJ scored, maybe others that I can’t think of.

[a m ole]

No manager gets their own team now, managers do well to last 3 years in the legaue, it’s sink or swim. You have to perform with what you have. He absolutely should be judged on what we’ve seen so far. That is, pretty good with lots of room for improvement.

Big issue with some of our best young players not suiting the Beale system, Ramsey and Chuk are tailor made to be 8’s the way smith used them but tucking in behind the full backs it’s not ideal. The club aren’t going to ship them out so we can buy 2 new really good all action centre mids to hold the fort and let the full backs do all the work.

I do have faith and think they need time though, the 2 up top with a 10 and less attacking fullbacks helped the balance but there needs to be a plan C now, looking to the future. It’s not going to be easy, it’s not going to be ‘sign Bissouma and Gomez and they’ll transform us’, we’ll have to win games and lose games.

Short term there are some clear issues and although he’s making the mistakes, the noises are always positive and addressing what most people saw. Same quality Smith had, and he did a cracking job from where we were.

[rodders0223]

Palace pressing Arsenal to death at 3-0 up whilst Gerrard sets his stall out for a 0-0 at home.