Steven Gerrard

[Adam2003]

Reading the first few pages of this thread people were generally spot on. A few got excited, a few said they wanted him gone immediately, but most predicted things correctly with the majority saying “I hope he does well but it seems unlikely and is an underwhelming appointment.” Rare to see so much agreement but I guess it was always obvious.

[ozvilla28]

To much noise and chatter coming out of the dressing room for liking why it not kept in house ?. The Mings situation and Sanson and now Watkins  can't be healthy.

[Tomaszk]

49 minutes ago, Chindie said:

I can see why you'd sign Gerrard as manager as Aston Villa last year, more than just for his name. His Rangers team were decent when they won the league. His staff had good word of mouth. He was at the period of his career where he would be jumping to a job in England. And yes he still has some heft behind him in the game.

The problem was it was a gamble. It was a step up for him, a serious one. And he's utterly, utterly failed to take that step.

I simply cannot see how any rational person can't come to this position. The evidence is there in front of us.

Brexit.

[KMitch]

9 minutes ago, Adam2003 said:

Reading the first few pages of this thread people were generally spot on. A few got excited, a few said they wanted him gone immediately, but most predicted things correctly with the majority saying “I hope he does well but it seems unlikely and is an underwhelming appointment.” Rare to see so much agreement but I guess it was always obvious.

TBH, I was most concerned by the shortlist of managers Purslow apparently interviewed before extending an offer to Gerrard.  None of them are better than Smith.  

• Martinez
• Lampard
• Gerrard

Doesn't exactly fill me full of confidence that if we were to replace him Purslow would get the next one right either...  

As for the dressing room bust ups, where there is smoke there is fire.  Smith never had a reported fall out with the squad, even in our worst runs of form.  If they don't want to play for Gerrard anymore, he is done and his days are numbered.  McGrath help us if Everton score an early goal on Saturday.  Villa Park will turn on Gerrard in front of NSWE and he'll be on thin ice going forward.  

[Zatman]

Tomorrow is a big day, club has been on near media shutdown all week, no even leaks to club favoured journos. Gerrard should be doing his interview so has had a few days to prepare his now famous media soundbites

[Vive_La_Villa]

51 minutes ago, Adam2003 said:

Reading the first few pages of this thread people were generally spot on. A few got excited, a few said they wanted him gone immediately, but most predicted things correctly with the majority saying “I hope he does well but it seems unlikely and is an underwhelming appointment.” Rare to see so much agreement but I guess it was always obvious.

He hasn’t actually failed yet so all those celebrating and slapping each other on the back for calling it correctly may be proven wrong yet. 
 

It ain’t looking great though. 

[Delphinho123]

22 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Tomorrow is a big day, club has been on near media shutdown all week, no even leaks to club favoured journos. Gerrard should be doing his interview so has had a few days to prepare his now famous media soundbites

Nobody ever has the balls to ask proper questions in press conferences. Dour affairs.

I’d open up with,

’So then, Steven, big game tomorrow. I’ve noticed the club still haven’t fixed the midfield problem which has plagued the club since promotion. You’ve also alienated one of our better players and given the captaincy to somebody who probably shouldn’t be in the team. Your tactics see us get overrun in midfield time and time again and the stats suggest you’re a complete failure at the club. How do you plan on turning it around?’

We might finally see some honesty. 

[QldVilla]

1 hour ago, Keyblade said:

I agree with that. It wasn't terrible, it just felt bad because we had top 6 form beforehand (and to be fair the form started dipping a couple of games before he got injured). The wheels really only came off the following season, for various reasons. 

All this to say, I don't think this team have lacked in belief since the Bruce days, and that belief comes from the manager. I've seen us go toe to toe with City and Liverpool under Gerrard, so belief is certainly not the issue.

I agree as well.

But the fact is some athletes will say they believe but in fact aren’t prepared to do the 1%’s to achieve their full potential, not prepared to make sacrifices to achieve this goal.

I think Gerrard see’s this in a couple of players and is challenging them to be better, and these same players may not like being out of their comfort zone for too long.

 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

1 hour ago, useless said:

I was the one who called it, and this is the way it will be until we appoint Pochettino or someone on his level, of course we may get lucky and a lesser regarded manager might turn out to be great for us, we had that to a degree with Smith, but if you want the best chance of success have to stop messing about and go for a top manager proven at the highest level, there's a good reason that more often than not that's the type that big six go for when they need a new manger.

Yeah.... Like Everton did with Ancelotti and Benitez

Who was garbage there, then has gone on to boss it again at Madrid.

Like I always say with football, literally NOTHING is as straightforward as just getting " names " which look good on paper 

That goes from top till bottom.

So many factors come into play to conspire for success, first and foremost it had to be the right fit etc .

I don't think anyone foresaw Eddie Howe of all people going to Newcastle and doing as well as he has.

Most fans on here wouldn't have wanted him either.

[Adam2003]

30 minutes ago, KMitch said:

TBH, I was most concerned by the shortlist of managers Purslow apparently interviewed before extending an offer to Gerrard.  None of them are better than Smith.  

• Martinez
• Lampard
• Gerrard

Doesn't exactly fill me full of confidence that if we were to replace him Purslow would get the next one right either...  

I’m more optimistic. It was obvious he was a bad choice but I think it was @TrentVilla who said in an early post on here that even though he thought it was a bad appointment, the new owners and Purslow had got pretty much everything else right. Clubs will always appoint some managers who fail. One bad appointment doesn’t overturn everything else in my view

 

3 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

He hasn’t actually failed yet so all those celebrating and slapping each other on the back for calling it correctly may be proven wrong yet. 
 

It ain’t looking great though. 

I certainly am not celebrating and slapping myself on the back. It’s exactly how I expected (in fact better because I worried he would take us down) but I wish he had been a phenomenal success. As you say maybe he’ll ride this out and despite no indications so far will go on to be a great manager for us. That’d be fantastic.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

1 hour ago, Zatman said:

not really but the only 2 games he has looked half fired up was United and Everton

Rest of the time he sits on the bench like this or with his shoulders shrugged and offering no tactical advice or encouragement

He must have been pretending to play Everton and United every week when he was at Rangers then?

[Ginko]

I’m surprised more people aren’t factoring in Beale leaving and Critchley only being here five minutes. It sounded like Beale contributed a lot in terms of tactics and he apparently was the main man in training, so perhaps it’s understandable that it might take some time for players to get used to Critchley and his methods.

Maybe the perceived lack of tactics we’ve been seeing lately are really just players failing to adapt to the new order; that they’re still learning and things haven’t quite clicked yet. Gerrard himself mentioned he was going to tinker with the playing style over preseason, so there may well be a lot of new ideas for the team to get their heads around.

That’s what I’m holding onto right now, anyway. It took a while for Arteta to get Arsenal up to speed, and now they play some decent stuff. Hopefully Gerrard and co. are in a similar position in that the style of play and tactics are actually correct, but the players aren’t interpreting those ideas properly on match day just yet.

I have to admit that it’s hard to think that when you see us doing the same stupid things over and over again, though. Aimlessly crossing balls into the box when our forward players are tiny, or our complete lack of pressing out of possession. You’d think that stuff would be obvious and relatively easy to remedy.

I wasn’t thrilled with Gerrard’s appointment initially, but I understood that we probably weren’t in a position to attract a top manager in his prime, and that Gerrard’s profile in the game would help us to sign better players. Maybe that was genuinely our best option at the time.

It’s all rather moot anyway, since Gerrard’s going nowhere for the time being. If we’re still in the same boat in a couple of month’s time, I think they’ll cut him loose. Hopefully he turns it around well before then.

[mykeyb]

9 hours ago, KMitch said:

TBH, I was most concerned by the shortlist of managers Purslow apparently interviewed before extending an offer to Gerrard.  None of them are better than Smith.  

• Martinez
• Lampard
• Gerrard

Doesn't exactly fill me full of confidence that if we were to replace him Purslow would get the next one right either...  

As for the dressing room bust ups, where there is smoke there is fire.  Smith never had a reported fall out with the squad, even in our worst runs of form.  If they don't want to play for Gerrard anymore, he is done and his days are numbered.  McGrath help us if Everton score an early goal on Saturday.  Villa Park will turn on Gerrard in front of NSWE and he'll be on thin ice going forward.  

Dont believe the timescales mentioned by Purslow and Gerrard. He was pretty much offered the job on the Monday (day after Smith got sacked) it was left to Gerrard to decide if he wanted it or not. So anyone being interviewed was just for show and nothing more.

[Lichfield Dean]

8 hours ago, Ginko said:

I’m surprised more people aren’t factoring in Beale leaving and Critchley only being here five minutes. It sounded like Beale contributed a lot in terms of tactics and he apparently was the main man in training, so perhaps it’s understandable that it might take some time for players to get used to Critchley and his methods.

Maybe the perceived lack of tactics we’ve been seeing lately are really just players failing to adapt to the new order; that they’re still learning and things haven’t quite clicked yet. Gerrard himself mentioned he was going to tinker with the playing style over preseason, so there may well be a lot of new ideas for the team to get their heads around.

That’s what I’m holding onto right now, anyway. It took a while for Arteta to get Arsenal up to speed, and now they play some decent stuff. Hopefully Gerrard and co. are in a similar position in that the style of play and tactics are actually correct, but the players aren’t interpreting those ideas properly on match day just yet.

I have to admit that it’s hard to think that when you see us doing the same stupid things over and over again, though. Aimlessly crossing balls into the box when our forward players are tiny, or our complete lack of pressing out of possession. You’d think that stuff would be obvious and relatively easy to remedy.

I wasn’t thrilled with Gerrard’s appointment initially, but I understood that we probably weren’t in a position to attract a top manager in his prime, and that Gerrard’s profile in the game would help us to sign better players. Maybe that was genuinely our best option at the time.

It’s all rather moot anyway, since Gerrard’s going nowhere for the time being. If we’re still in the same boat in a couple of month’s time, I think they’ll cut him loose. Hopefully he turns it around well before then.

Possibly because we were just the same last season when Beale was here. I don't see why people think him leaving has been an issue at all.

[Ginko]

1 hour ago, Lichfield Dean said:

Possibly because we were just the same last season when Beale was here. I don't see why people think him leaving has been an issue at all.

I think that’s a massive oversimplification. Arguably we were a bit better when they first came in, but even so, you seem to have ignored the part where I went on to say that Gerrard admitted we’d be changing things up over preseason with regards to tactics.

It’s possible that prior to Beale’s exit, his methods had eventually been starting to sink in, but him leaving, Gerrard’s tinkering and Critchley coming in with methods and ideas of his own have caused disruption and confusion.

As I said, Gerrard’s going nowhere right now, so the best we can hope for is that the players are taking time to adjust and we’ll see improvement in the coming weeks.

Edited August 12, 2022 by Ginko

[nick76]

9 minutes ago, ender4 said:

What if we beat Everton 5-0 with a masterclass display and Lampard resigns at the final whistle as he realises he can’t compete tactically with Gerrard?

I will be delighted, I would like to see the quality displayed repeated over more than one game to be excited that Gerrard has turned it around.  We don’t even have to win many of the games, I just want to see improvement in performances, cohesion and all that and then I will onboard and results will follow.

As for Lampard, I’ll be surprised if he isn’t sacked before the WC break anyway

[Don_Simon]

1 hour ago, nick76 said:

I thought you were because you honestly don’t believe that do you?  If you do, wow, but I guess the proof will be in the pudding on Saturday if we win.  I’m on fairly safe ground with my prediction.

I can't believe that any VT'er would see one win and then say all is good. 

I guess I just have more faith in the VT Humanity than you! (Being optimistic has always been my downfall).

[TRO]

17 hours ago, Dale said:

That is a massive disservice to the progress the club has made under his predecessor. We were in poor form, but very very well set at the time Gerrard was gifted a role he'd done nothing to earn. The trajectory of the club was upwards not down. This isn't Lambert or Garde's landing point. 

Club on its arse, see Eddie Howe. 

I was talking about Rangers....not Villa.I even mentioned Scotland........ I was offering rationale to his appointment.

[VillanousOne]

Watkins appears in training pics, so the bust up couldn't have been that bid, if it actually happened...

No Mings though, presume he is injured then???

[Dale]

11 minutes ago, VillanousOne said:

No Mings though, presume he is injured then???

Steven is avoiding eye contact by banishing him...