Steven Gerrard

[USA_Villa]

3 hours ago, Peter Griffin said:

Nobody with any sense is worried Gerrard will relegate Villa. 

I'm really worried. We have less than 1 point per game.

[ozvillafan]

Our narrow style of play is perfect for a game vs Man City, where we rarely have the ball and, should we dispossess them, we are close enough to each other to break in numbers (see Watkins and Ramsey on Cancelo).

Luiz, Kamara and McGinn is a better midfield too - less gaps defensively.

I think if Gerrard moved away from being a possession based side, we might be alright.

[Zatman]

3 hours ago, Peter Griffin said:

Nobody with any sense is worried Gerrard will relegate Villa. 

What are you talking about. The worst manager in Villa history wont get us relegated? Seriously wtf

[Thug]

4 hours ago, Peter Griffin said:

Nobody with any sense isn't worried Gerrard might relegate Villa. 

 

FTFY.

 

Ranieri won the premier league and then almost relegated Leicester the very next season.  Don’t know why you think Gerrard is relegation-proof.

[Marka Ragnos]

Relegation never completely fades from my mind until we have 38 points or so. I don’t care if George Ramsey and Ron Saunders are co-piloting the Villa train.

[eholm]

8 hours ago, R.Bear said:

Some of the criticism in here is ridiculous. Ok you may not like Gerrard's tactics, team selection, signings whatever. That's your opinion. But these digs or saying he needs to **** off etc are well over the top. This stemming from his Liverpool days. Quite frankly, some people need to grow up.

Gerrard is a good man, he's trying his absolute best. He may not be the right man or turn it around but he's giving his all to the cause. I so want to him to do well here because I like him and how he comes across in interviews. I also think the players like him too and also want to turn it around. Today was very good, I expected a heavy loss like most people. We need to push on of course but today was a step in the right direction and we couldnt ask for more TODAY.

Really?? You genuinely believe that those of us who want him gone have reached this conclusion over the last 10 months because he played for Liverpool??

Absolutely nothing to do with it……he’s a very poor Manager who is simply not good enough for us. That’s it. 

[Blasterpocket68]

Well not what I was expecting yesterday , the crowd really stayed with the team , and the team fought and ran for each other . 
Man City will not  draw or loose many games so the set up yesterday was appropriate. . 
 

The test now is setting the team up for the games to follow . 

 

[allani]

4 hours ago, Keyblade said:

I'm not sure why I need to spell this out but when I say "we" it doesn't literally mean we Villa fans, it means we as in Aston Villa. Like when someone says "we scored a good goal", they mean Villa scored a good goal...it doesn't imply that they play for Villa. I'm referring to the owners/board there, the clue is in the fact that I'm talking about a decision to be made on the manager's employment. I don't believe us fans have the power to make such a decision.

In any case, if you weren't being deliberately obtuse, what I meant there was that we (the club) can't wait until the moment things become disastrously untenable as a result of taking things 1 game at a time. There is a clear macro-picture here. This was his 33rd game in charge I believe. It's not very proactive to wait 1,2,3...6 more games for that picture to become crystal clear 4K UHD, because by the time we reach that point it could very well be too late.

And I agree, as long as we're competing the manager will have our support during the game. Although I didn't see much evidence of any sort of progressive football, we showed a lot of fight and fought hard to keep the game close and took our chance very well. That's the bare minimum we can expect from the team, and we got it today. We've seen precious little of it this season, so that was encouraging. The problem is, we won't be playing do-or-die games against Man City every week.

Sorry but I am very confused here.  You talk about the risk of taking things one game at a time and then say that if we do that then in 1,2,3 or 6 games time the situation could be untenable. Surely if we are taking things one game at a time, the next loss would be the end point and each win / draw would just move the decision a bit further down the road?  In which case if it takes 6 matches to make a final decision - presumably as an absolute minimum we would have picked up 5 points (assuming a draw is sufficient to give the manager another chance) and more likely we would have picked up a few more?

I think that (unless we get hammered by Leicester) the Board will stick with Gerrard until the international break.  Personally I would be surprised if they didn't sack him if we had fewer than 8 points on the board by then - an average of a point a game (with the majority of those points coming in the last 3 matches {given that we need a win and a draw to get to those 8 points}) might be enough to give Gerrard a stay of execution on the basis that our points per game ratio continues to rise over the coming weeks.  If we were to win both of our next matches (and I am nowhere near confident that we will) then - unless we are already in very advanced talks with a replacement - then the pressure will have eased slightly.  But I do think that at any point until Christmas (unless we have a 5 or 6 match winning streak in the meantime) Gerrard will know that he is only 2 or 3 poor results away from the sack.  If he gets to Christmas then I would suggest that we would be comfortably outside the relegation battle and maybe the Board would have the "luxury" of making a more strategic decision based on what is best for the 2023 season. 

Overall I agree with you - indecision could hurt us badly and what we don't want is to be in a situation where we get two decent results, decide that is enough to give things a little longer and then have another 2 or 3 bad results on the other side - giving any new manager 4 or 5 fewer matches to make a difference (or potentially giving other teams 4 or 5 more weeks to hire /  renew our preferred candidate).  If the decision is on a match by match basis then that would suggest it is already too late.  I'd expect that our Board will have a target for the International Break, then another target for the next month and if Gerrard keeps hitting those then (unless we have a much better candidate lined up) then he gets extended until the point when we can revert back to our original mid-season / end of season target.  If he doesn't hit the target (or it becomes clear that hitting the next target is not feasible) then he'd be out.  I think (that like Smith before) those targets will be taking into consideration the underwhelming performance over the last x months and that Gerrard has already used some of his lives that might have been available to offset a couple of bad performances. 

At the end of the day Gerrard needs some big points and he needs them quickly.  Three or four wins on the bounce probably gives him some breathing space but until then every result is going to be under to microscope and potentially his last. 

[ciggiesnbeer]

3 hours ago, USA_Villa said:

I'm really worried. We have less than 1 point per game.

Same here. You cant really tell till 10 games in, but we seem on a relegation scrap trajectory right now. We need a run of wins before we can start breathing easy. There are lots of positives from today, not least Gerrard improving and making changes but its fair to note Newcastle achieved the same just a few weeks ago.

Edited September 4, 2022 by ciggiesnbeer

[Keyblade]

9 hours ago, R.Bear said:

Some of the criticism in here is ridiculous. Ok you may not like Gerrard's tactics, team selection, signings whatever. That's your opinion. But these digs or saying he needs to **** off etc are well over the top. This stemming from his Liverpool days. Quite frankly, some people need to grow up.

Gerrard is a good man, he's trying his absolute best. He may not be the right man or turn it around but he's giving his all to the cause. I so want to him to do well here because I like him and how he comes across in interviews. I also think the players like him too and also want to turn it around. Today was very good, I expected a heavy loss like most people. We need to push on of course but today was a step in the right direction and we couldnt ask for more TODAY.

Man, I know you of all people are not talking about being vitriolic on VT towards Villa staff 

"nooo leave Stevie G alone he's a good man"

[jacketspuds]

The one thing I would say is that Gerrard did seem a bit more humble yesterday. Yes there was still a moment in his post match interview where I thought that’s good, now stop talking before you put your foot in it, but I wonder if someone has had a word and told him to ease off the stern, 90’s manager attitude a bit.

Still interested to see what happens against Leicester. If they lose today and we do a Villa and gift them 3 points I think it will be pretty difficult to justify keeping him, regardless of us pulling off a draw against Man City.

Edited September 4, 2022 by jacketspuds

[a m ole]

10 hours ago, R.Bear said:

Some of the criticism in here is ridiculous. Ok you may not like Gerrard's tactics, team selection, signings whatever. That's your opinion. But these digs or saying he needs to **** off etc are well over the top. This stemming from his Liverpool days. Quite frankly, some people need to grow up.

Gerrard is a good man, he's trying his absolute best. He may not be the right man or turn it around but he's giving his all to the cause. I so want to him to do well here because I like him and how he comes across in interviews. I also think the players like him too and also want to turn it around. Today was very good, I expected a heavy loss like most people. We need to push on of course but today was a step in the right direction and we couldnt ask for more TODAY.

[Anything11]

Good quotes in the mail just now.

Talks about leaving some of the flair on the bench and being more pragmatic. Hints at putting the longer term plan somewhat on hold the build a stronger base in the short term. Much of what people on here have been saying.

[one_ian_taylor]

1 hour ago, Blasterpocket68 said:

Well not what I was expecting yesterday , the crowd really stayed with the team , and the team fought and ran for each other . 
Man City will not  draw or loose many games so the set up yesterday was appropriate. . 
 

The test now is setting the team up for the games to follow . 

 

Indeed - didn't seem like he has lost the dressing room, so it's not terminal yet. A few positives to take into the next game and a bit of confidence. 

I was all for getting rid, and it was a game that could easily have gone against us, but as it is, he won't be going just yet. In the unlikely  event that he can manage a complete about turn in form, brilliant - who wouldn't  want that. Just highly sceptical he's capable of that  and the risk is we get a result here and there to keep him in post and limp to the end of the season with another  year wasted and worse, a lot of our  best players looking elsewhere 

[Pinebro]

So he is basically saying he relies on individual brilliance to get goals

 

[viivvaa66]

If we include the next two games, the league position of the team we have/going to play is as follows:

13, 16, 15, 18, 1, 2, 20, 12.

So far we have picked up 4 points, if we somehow manage an other 4 points from the next 2, we end up with 1 point per game.

This is no where near what could be considered good enough. If we only can manage 1 point per game against 6 bottom half team and 2 top half team, we are a bound to be in a relegation battle.

This should be considered an easy run of fixture, that should give us some breathing space when we have a run of harder fixtures.

To be honest with the squad we have and the investment made, I would have expected us to have at least 12-14 points after those first 8 games.

I would give the start of the season the grad: Failure!

[one_ian_taylor]

3 hours ago, ozvillafan said:

Our narrow style of play is perfect for a game vs Man City, where we rarely have the ball and, should we dispossess them, we are close enough to each other to break in numbers (see Watkins and Ramsey on Cancelo).

Luiz, Kamara and McGinn is a better midfield too - less gaps defensively.

I think if Gerrard moved away from being a possession based side, we might be alright.

Good point on the narrow shape.

And setting the team up to counter might work better. That all depends on having Watkins fit and in form though as a counter attacking with Ings as the striker wouldn't  work

[MWARLEY2]

For me he is still a dead man walking. But i say that with respect that he did do well last night. 

If he bins the set up he has been constantly failing with then we and indeed him have a chance. If he doesnt then the same will happen again. 

The difference between the full backs performance last night versus against Arsenal was easy to see. They werent knackered running up and down the wing all night  

The difference between the midfielders performance being allowed to occupy the central midfield was incredible. 

But i still do not trust him to not go back to that system. I just don't think he actually realises how shit it is. Or he would have given up on it by about March last season. 

[Keyblade]

1 hour ago, allani said:

Sorry but I am very confused here.  You talk about the risk of taking things one game at a time and then say that if we do that then in 1,2,3 or 6 games time the situation could be untenable. Surely if we are taking things one game at a time, the next loss would be the end point and each win / draw would just move the decision a bit further down the road?  In which case if it takes 6 matches to make a final decision - presumably as an absolute minimum we would have picked up 5 points (assuming a draw is sufficient to give the manager another chance) and more likely we would have picked up a few more?

I think that (unless we get hammered by Leicester) the Board will stick with Gerrard until the international break.  Personally I would be surprised if they didn't sack him if we had fewer than 8 points on the board by then - an average of a point a game (with the majority of those points coming in the last 3 matches {given that we need a win and a draw to get to those 8 points}) might be enough to give Gerrard a stay of execution on the basis that our points per game ratio continues to rise over the coming weeks.  If we were to win both of our next matches (and I am nowhere near confident that we will) then - unless we are already in very advanced talks with a replacement - then the pressure will have eased slightly.  But I do think that at any point until Christmas (unless we have a 5 or 6 match winning streak in the meantime) Gerrard will know that he is only 2 or 3 poor results away from the sack.  If he gets to Christmas then I would suggest that we would be comfortably outside the relegation battle and maybe the Board would have the "luxury" of making a more strategic decision based on what is best for the 2023 season. 

Overall I agree with you - indecision could hurt us badly and what we don't want is to be in a situation where we get two decent results, decide that is enough to give things a little longer and then have another 2 or 3 bad results on the other side - giving any new manager 4 or 5 fewer matches to make a difference (or potentially giving other teams 4 or 5 more weeks to hire /  renew our preferred candidate).  If the decision is on a match by match basis then that would suggest it is already too late.  I'd expect that our Board will have a target for the International Break, then another target for the next month and if Gerrard keeps hitting those then (unless we have a much better candidate lined up) then he gets extended until the point when we can revert back to our original mid-season / end of season target.  If he doesn't hit the target (or it becomes clear that hitting the next target is not feasible) then he'd be out.  I think (that like Smith before) those targets will be taking into consideration the underwhelming performance over the last x months and that Gerrard has already used some of his lives that might have been available to offset a couple of bad performances. 

At the end of the day Gerrard needs some big points and he needs them quickly.  Three or four wins on the bounce probably gives him some breathing space but until then every result is going to be under to microscope and potentially his last. 

I'm with you. I don't subscribe to the notion of taking it a game at a time, I'm just trying to map out how it would play out of we were to take that route. I would love for him to drastically change our fortunes over the next couple of games but given our overall steady decline in points per game during his tenure, I feel like hope at this point is just foolish. Overall he's trending towards that 1ppg mark, which is really far from where we hope to be. This is without even getting into the performances which bar yesterday's have all been well below par.

 

[Tom13]

I was as much Gerrard out as I possibly could be, but last night has made me realise I'd like him to have a little more time.

Was absolutely buzzing last night btw, what a game!