Steven Gerrard

[Shay]

He needs to go. He still persists on with two upfront when it clearly doesn’t work. He doesnt even know his best eleven and how to get the best out of his players, he doesnt know how to put his best players in the same line up, he’s tactically inept and looks clueless most of the time. Its time to move on. A top manager is currently available. Stevie out. Pochettino in.

[delboy54]

If we wait until the break for the WC it will be

(a) too late we will be so far adrift at the bottom of the league to survive relegation 

And

(b) no new manager will want to join us because of (a)

Gerrard has to go, never wanted him, he is a fraud

[VillaParkAvenue]

14 minutes ago, Shay said:

He needs to go. He still persists on with two upfront when it clearly doesn’t work. He doesnt even know his best eleven and how to get the best out of his players, he doesnt know how to put his best players in the same line up, he’s tactically inept and looks clueless most of the time. Its time to move on. A top manager is currently available. Stevie out. Pochettino in.

Mostly agree of course. But for the record, here is our last 10 games where we've started with one striker instead of two.

Palace (L)

Bournemouth (L)

Man City (L)

Burnley (D)

Norwich (W)

Leicester (D)

Wolves (L)

Arsenal (L)

Watford (L)

Newcastle (L)

[PaulTheVillan]

28 minutes ago, Farlz said:

Horrible bloke, horrible manager, sooner he's gone the better. 

Unfortunately, I reckon the club will just expect the beating from the next 2 games and then hope he gets a win against one of Leicester or Saints. That's the big worry for me. Fluking a win out his arse that will just prolong the inevitable. 

That’s how I see it. They’ll write off the next 2 and then hope for a reaction after that. He’s got 4 more games then it’s over. 

[DCJonah]

4 minutes ago, PaulTheVillan said:

That’s how I see it. They’ll write off the next 2 and then hope for a reaction after that. He’s got 4 more games then it’s over. 

Which would be pointless. Even if he won the game after city would anyone see it as anything than a fluke?

He's showed no consistency here at all. 

 

[a-k]

[mrchnry]

Bout to board a flight. I hopes he's sacked by the time I land. 

[PaulTheVillan]

8 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Which would be pointless. Even if he won the game after city would anyone see it as anything than a fluke?

He's showed no consistency here at all. 

 

I’d be shocked if they sacked him before the next game 

[est1874]

Would be a disaster if they kept him any longer but I can't see him being sacked now either. Purslow's probably already been on the phone stroking his ego. "You've got this Stevie, we're all behind you, some figuratively, me literally. I'm behind you right now. Calling from up your arse, where my head is firmly lodged."

[WallisFrizz]

2 hours ago, TheAuthority said:

Fast forward to today when both of the co-owners were at the game. Tyrone Mings - a leader who has spent a fair amount of his career at Aston Villa and helped to drag the club up from the Championship and stay in the PL, approaches the owners and or Purslow earlier this week. He lays it out honestly, respectfully and clearly. Gerrard is not good. He has fractured the dressing room. The tactics are none existent. He may well say that he'll leave if Gerrard doesn't. 

Most of your post is a reasonable guess at what may have been going on behind the scenes but this bit is a complete work of fiction. 

[DCJonah]

17 minutes ago, PaulTheVillan said:

I’d be shocked if they sacked him before the next game 

Which would just confirm that Purslow jumped at the chance to sack Dean to get his wonder boy in. 

[Delphinho123]

He actually did something right yesterday. He partnered Luiz with Kamara and both played a little deeper which meant we controlled the game more and the opposition team couldn’t run straight through us. It was an obvious change we’ve all been crying out for all season. I think Luiz and Kamara work well together in that double pivot. 

That is the only thing he got right. The formation sucks, whether it be a 4231 or a 4321 and he has absolutely no idea why. I’m pretty sure he gets up in the morning on matchday and rolls a dice as to whether he’ll play two 10’s or two strikers. Neither system works really. Yesterday, when we’d lost control of the game after 60 mins and West Ham were getting a foothold in the game, he needed to keep Luiz and Kamara together and bring on either Ramsey, Nakamba or Irroegbunam in place of McGinn to sure up the central midfield area and then take off one of the strikers and bring either Bailey or Buendia on. This would have resulted in us playing a 4-3-3 with Buendia playing off the left and Bailey off the right. The Coutinho injury changed things a little but that’s not really an excuse. Instead, he takes Luiz off, an absolutely laughable decision and keeps McGinn on. Go and watch the goal back and look at McGinn standing off the player allowing him to shoot. It’s embarrassing. He’d already almost cost us a goal with that daft turn and slip, 

It’s these little things that cost teams matches. Sometimes they’re unfortunate but Gerrard consistently makes the wrong decisions both in the team selection and during the game. We have absolutely no identity or style of play, it’s just - push the full backs up as high as possible and hope for the best. 

His decision to take the captaincy off Mings and give it to McGinn was a sackable offence in its own right and all of the noises coming from the club point to an unhappy playing squad, which isn’t at all surprising given they’re thrown under a bus after each match.

He’s an absolute disaster of a manager and he needs to go. He’s embarrassing us and he’s embarrassing himself. If we don’t act, we’ll be relegated. 

[John]

10 hours ago, The_Rev said:

 

 

Endless rebuilding is no good, but citing Alex Ferguson is a really poor example too.  Ferguson had an exceptional pedigree coming into the Manchester United job, he'd managed to break the Old Firm domination of Scottish football and win the SPL three times with Aberdeen.  He'd beaten Real Madrid in the Cup Winners Cup final too. The guy was legit.  Gerrard is a man who won a two horse race at the third time of asking. 

You are 100% right that Fergie was much more experienced, but I cited him to show how close he came to being sacked, before they eventually had the success, that they had with him at the helm at Old Trafford. SG did well at Rangers in a comparatively short space of time and demonstrated ambition by taking our job when it arose, rather than staying up there, where as you say it had become a two horse race, albeit after having been a one horse race, before he took over at Ibrox. Our job was never going to be easy and it wasn't going to be a quick fix, as early results might have initially suggested, could have been the case. It is however, more than disappointing that we have had such a poor start to the season, although he hasn't quite had the rub of the green with the Carlos injury and has felt the loss of Michael Beale more, than probably even he had anticipated. He needs to add quality to the squad and to sort things out on the field, he needs time to do both, but time is a precious commodity, that seems to be fast running out for him to achieve both of those goals.  

[WallisFrizz]

Just now, DCJonah said:

Which would just confirm that Purslow jumped at the chance to sack Dean to get his wonder boy in. 

Tbf, I think they deliberately timed Deano’s sacking to coincide with the international break (though I’ve no doubt he’d already decided who he wanted and plans were in place). 
 There’s another international break in a few weeks. If I was Purslow, I’d be putting the feelers out now, letting Gerrard have the next two to seal his fate (I think the City game will be a high score thrashing), put Critchley in charge temporarily whilst they do a thorough process and then put someone in place permanently during the break. 

[DCJonah]

Just now, John said:

You are 100% right that Fergie was much more experienced, but I cited him to show how close he came to being sacked, before they eventually had the success, that they had with him at the helm at Old Trafford. SG did well at Rangers in a comparatively short space of time and demonstrated ambition by taking our job when it arose, rather than staying up there, where as you say it had become a two horse race, albeit after having been a one horse race, before he took over at Ibrox. Our job was never going to be easy and it wasn't going to be a quick fix, as early results might have initially suggested, could have been the case. It is however, more than disappointing that we have had such a poor start to the season, although he hasn't quite had the rub of the green with the Carlos injury and has felt the loss of Michael Beale more, than probably even he had anticipated. He needs to add quality to the squad and to sort things out on the field, he needs time to do both, but time is a precious commodity, that seems to be fast running out for him to achieve both of those goals.  

Why? 

Serious question. With the squad he inherited and the backing he recieved why was it not an easy job or a quick fix? What was so difficult? 

[John]

Just now, DCJonah said:

Why? 

Serious question. With the squad he inherited and the backing he recieved why was it not an easy job or a quick fix? What was so difficult? 

I think Dean Smith could probably answer that. 

[Tayls]

10 minutes ago, WallisFrizz said:

Tbf, I think they deliberately timed Deano’s sacking to coincide with the international break (though I’ve no doubt he’d already decided who he wanted and plans were in place). 
 There’s another international break in a few weeks. If I was Purslow, I’d be putting the feelers out now, letting Gerrard have the next two to seal his fate (I think the City game will be a high score thrashing), put Critchley in charge temporarily whilst they do a thorough process and then put someone in place permanently during the break. 

What’s the point in giving him the next two? Might as well get rid now and just let Critchley take them. We are going to lose either way. The players aren’t happy. That much is clear. So let’s just be done with him and move on. 

Edited August 29, 2022 by Tayls

[WallisFrizz]

5 minutes ago, Tayls said:

What’s the point in giving him the next two? Might as well get rid now and just let Critchley take them. We are going to lose either way. The players aren’t happy. That much is clear. So let’s just be done with him and move on now. 

It wouldn’t particularly bother me if they did it today but I think they will give him a bit more rope to hang himself. Also, I think they will want to show some tiny semblance of stability whilst the transfer window is still open as they will at least be planning to bring in an extra CB. 

[chrisvilla4]

I find this all very sad at the moment and it's so toxic. Why do we always snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. This appointment was supposed to take us to the next level. Sadly, it's the next level of despair. 

[Jas10]

I just can’t stand him any longer…

I’m with Emi here