Steven Gerrard

[Zatman]

9 minutes ago, Laughable Chimp said:

Do you honestly think our performance so far under Gerrard is comparable to us under Garde, Sherwood, Di Matteo and McLeish?

Sherwood yes, except maybe Sherwood had a better bounce with a shitter squad 

[Zatman]

4 minutes ago, duke313 said:

So what is your solution? Sack him now? End of season? You realize if Gerrard goes before start of next season, we aren't signing Coutinho?

If results and performances dont improve consider to sack him ast day of the season 

As for Coutinho he has had as many poor games as great games which is down to the mystery tactics of the manager. The only midfielder who supplies Coutinho was dropped last game

Edited April 6, 2022 by Zatman

[The_Steve]

The hyperbolic statements about Gerrard go far beyond reasonable criticism of poor performances and tactical failings. The goal is to finish as high as possible and recalibrate come the summer. 
 

Some blind hatred is because he’s Gerrard and not ‘one of our own’ Dean Smith. Both have big flaws, and Gerrard deserves time like Smith to turn it around. 

[Zatman]

7 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

The hyperbolic statements about Gerrard go far beyond reasonable criticism of poor performances and tactical failings. The goal is to finish as high as possible and recalibrate come the summer. 
 

Some blind hatred is because he’s Gerrard and not ‘one of our own’ Dean Smith. Both have big flaws, and Gerrard deserves time like Smith to turn it around. 

Has anybody ever said they wanted Smith back, its a common opinion it was time to go on here not by the media funny enough. 

Issue is we were promised a superior upgrade which we didnt get, we got Purslows unproven buddy. 

 

[jim]

1 minute ago, Zatman said:

Has anybody ever said they wanted Smith back, its a common opinion it was time to go on here not by the media funny enough. 

Issue is we were promised a superior upgrade which we didnt get, we got Purslows unproven buddy. 

 

Plenty of people have said we should have stuck with St. Dean.

 

Who promised a superior upgrade?

[VillaParkAvenue]

40 minutes ago, Laughable Chimp said:

Eddie Howe couldn't get a reaction out of his players until he spent 100m to get the players he wanted in. And Antonio Conte is a brilliant, world class manager. What is this comparison.

 

What Howe has done most of all is to improve the players who were already at the club. Joelinton, Shelvey, Willock and so on. Their most expensive signing only started playing recently.

Conte is world class but still comparable: he’s made a big difference without bringing ”his players” in.

If you can’t improve the squad you inherit, from whatever level they’re at, you’re probably not that good.

[og1874]

3 minutes ago, VillaParkAvenue said:

What Howe has done most of all is to improve the players who were already at the club. Joelinton, Shelvey, Willock and so on. Their most expensive signing only started playing recently.

Conte is world class but still comparable: he’s made a big difference without bringing ”his players” in.

If you can’t improve the squad you inherit, from whatever level they’re at, you’re probably not that good.

Was what Conte inherited as unbalanced as what Gerrard inherited though? Let's not kid ourselves, we are overstocked in positions we don't use, and understocked in positions we need. If that's the case in September, then questions need to be asked of not only Gerrard, but those above him, but arguing about what might or might not happen in the future is silly. We'll only know when we get there.

[HKP90]

Sack the manager without having a summer window to actually build a team and develop a playing philosophy? What a load of nonsense short termism. 

[VillaParkAvenue]

5 minutes ago, og1874 said:

Was what Conte inherited as unbalanced as what Gerrard inherited though? Let's not kid ourselves, we are overstocked in positions we don't use, and understocked in positions we need. If that's the case in September, then questions need to be asked of not only Gerrard, but those above him, but arguing about what might or might not happen in the future is silly. We'll only know when we get there.

Depends on who you ask, Spurs fans have been complaining about their awful squad for years. Their squad is obviously better than ours, but the interesting part imo is how much Conte has improved it.

No one would expect a manager to win the league with Villa’s squad but a great manager could possibly get more out of it.

[IrishVilla10]

1 hour ago, Zatman said:

For me the summer is a huge fear and why this should be stamped out now. I dont trust this guy spending hundreds of millions and be in a similar position next season 

He gives me Lambert vibes

He signed coutinho who’s been brilliant but inconsistent(sounds about right in our squad). Digne who’s been unlucky with injuries. And chambers on a free who’s played konsa out of a starting position for me. He’s made it clear he wants a holding midfielder, which is something we’ve been needing for 2/3 seasons. He’s done nothing in the one January window to suggest he can’t be trusted with a full summer window. 

[og1874]

1 minute ago, VillaParkAvenue said:

Depends on who you ask, Spurs fans have been complaining about their awful squad for years. Their squad is obviously better than ours, but the interesting part imo is how much Conte has improved it.

No one would expect a manager to win the league with Villa’s squad but a great manager could possibly get more out of it.

Spurs seem to have at least one natural player for each role they use though, we’re currently lacking that.

That does beg the question why we didn’t try to figure out a way to actually utilize what we have properly though, I will concede.

It does strike me as a bit odd that a manager would come into a club absolutely stacked with wingers and immediately abandon all width in the midfield.
 

The question then becomes is it better to immediately implement the desired system regardless of the personnel and draft in the necessary bits in the summer window with the team at least partly used to the way you want them to play moving forward, or do you utilize what you have and make the changes as you pick up the pieces that suit?

Definitely a case to be made for both approaches, but we won’t know which was the right option until about 10 games into next season IMO.

Villa being Villa, whichever we choose will be wrong though.

[Mantis]

1 hour ago, Zatman said:

Like we did with Garde, Sherwood, Di Matteo and McLeish? 

Why does Gerrard get an exemption still from criticism

Nobody thinks this.

[IrishVilla10]

6 minutes ago, VillaParkAvenue said:

Depends on who you ask, Spurs fans have been complaining about their awful squad for years. Their squad is obviously better than ours, but the interesting part imo is how much Conte has improved it.

No one would expect a manager to win the league with Villa’s squad but a great manager could possibly get more out of it.

The Conte at spurs comparison should not be used as an example imo. Eddie Howe is a better comparison and he’s done a good job. The chat of a great manager getting more out of our squad sounds great in theory, but in reality try finding a great manager to come take over a mid table team. 

[IrishVilla10]

13 hours ago, Zatman said:

Nope but its not the improvement we were expecting. When Smith got sacked it felt Purslow expected us to be challenging top 8

Truth is we would probably be in or around the same position with a fully fit squad under Smith 

I don’t agree with this. Nothing was working. It may have been the case, something might have clicked. But it was one bad spell too many for Smith. 

[PerryBarrPet]

28 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Sack the manager without having a summer window to actually build a team and develop a playing philosophy? What a load of nonsense short termism. 

So very, very true. Unfortunately there are those who think our whole existence involves a series of knee-jerk reactions to every problem. Carry out some forward planning by thinking beyond the end of their nose? Try thinking strategically and not by cobbling together short term tactics? I think we expect too much. 

[IrishVilla10]

7 minutes ago, Zatman said:

He is about to bring his 3rd different team into the Champions League and was top of the same class as Nagelsmann. He is 35 as well so has a lot to work with but plays attacking football. Has cleaned up the mess Marsch left at Leipzig

Had a look at him on transfermarkt impressive yeah, would he have wanted a job here though that’s the question. We know the ambitions of the club but to join a PL team sat in ?17th. 

[MrSmirch]

We’re back to being a one man team who’s **** if he doesn’t turn up or is adequately controlled by the opposition with a manager who can’t influence a game once it’s started. 

The writings on the wall, it’s not going to work. A few more losses and he’ll be wondering if the players have any bollocks rather than looking at what he’s asking them to do.

[TRO]

18 hours ago, VillanousOne said:

Problems

1) Inability for any one player to play well for more than 20 minutes*
2) Formation
3) Tactics - we play slow possession football, like the big boys, but we aren't one of the big boys and any excitement we used to get from our fast counter attacking play which could occasionally upset some teams is now gone
4) Lack of defensive midfielder / total inbalance in midfield
5) Most of the squad lacks physical presence (as Gerrard would say 'eeeeee soft as shite them lads')
6) We haven't worked out how to play without Gresford
7) We signed Coutinho, Ings, Digne when none have solved any problems (appreciate Coutinho has been brilliant at times I just don't feel we needed a much more expensive Buendia)
8 ) McGinn whilst not the worst player is inconsistent yet somehow undroppable
9) Buendia, Chuk, Tim, Sanson, Traore are under utilised (despite one recent start so is Bailey)
10) When Gerrard started the players walked through walls for him, we started pressing and competing for every ball, that has gone already.

Only positive is occasionally we play creative attacking possession football that is a joy to watch, but I swear teams have already worked out how to nullify us and so many teams are killing us on the counter. I want to list more positives but this season has been a complete and utter waste of time, we've not barely progressed at all despite the millions spent.
 

1) That applies to some, but not others

2) We have tried every fromation know to man, under 2 managers.

3)Tactics are driven by trying to find solutions, for above

4) This chesnut is nearly as old as the Bible

5) This is true, but amazing overlooked, for seasons now..... Gerrards imaginery quote is " The wrong side of the pennines"

6) Jack did things like hold the ball up, and stay on it, we have not signed players to master this yet.

7) The problems we have, were never going to be solved by those type of players, it was like barking up the wrong tree.....despite their undoubted talent.

8  Mcginn is sadly played in the wrong position, due to squad imbalance.

9) players have to give the manager, confidence they can be trusted, they are suffering due to squad imbalance, once again.

10) Manager bounce is a phenomenon, few experts have managed to explain, it could be many things, even Gerrards inexperience or even fixtures that don't suit what we have in the team, in terms of attributes or lack of them.

I think until the Summer comes and the balance of the squad is addressed, we will continue to speculate.....until some of the suspicions are ruled out.

I think one area of issue centre Midfield, is having a knock on effect to so many other things.....fix that properly and many of the other issues will go away.....but there is a caveat, if we don't address it properly, the status quo, could exist.

Its fine signing a CDM....Sign a duff/dubious one, and its "as is"

 

[hippo]

2 hours ago, og1874 said:

If it's still the same 20 games after a pre-season and summer window then I think the criticism is fair, until then it's a guy who came in mid-season with someone else's unbalanced squad who's had to make do.

We'll get a better idea after the summer.

Countinho + Digne is hardly making do !  - thats close on £70M worth of talent. 

[Tom13]

It is early days for a manager, but many of Gerrard's decisions are baffling. My confidence in him is very little at the mo.