Steven Gerrard

[bobzy]

3 hours ago, Tomaszk said:

Couple of things yes:

• We're less than the sum of our parts
• Changing the transfer policy to sign older players looked stupid at the time and will have been stupid if we don't get results before they all severely decline (Digne and Coutinho had already started when we signed them IMO). Handing out retirement contracts is always so risky.
• He never ever ever would have got the job without having been a good player - this is a silly way to appoint managers
• Any hope that Gerrard will turn it round is based on minimal evidence

He quite obviously got the job based on looking like a good upcoming manager during his time at Rangers rather than having once been an excellent midfielder.  I have no real issue with that - it just hasn't come to fruition (yet).

[Tom13]

21 minutes ago, bobzy said:

He quite obviously got the job based on looking like a good upcoming manager during his time at Rangers rather than having once been an excellent midfielder.  I have no real issue with that - it just hasn't come to fruition (yet).

Wouldn't have said quite obviously. His reputation (as a player) certainly helped him get the Villa job.

[Zatman]

30 minutes ago, bobzy said:

He quite obviously got the job based on looking like a good upcoming manager during his time at Rangers rather than having once been an excellent midfielder.  I have no real issue with that - it just hasn't come to fruition (yet).

1 trophy out of 9 managing against Neil Lennon who didnt even dominate the league

I would say he got the job on his name, his mate being Purslow and a half decent job he did in the 2 team sectarian league

[fightoffyour]

15 hours ago, heffoman said:

We the United Peoples front of Aston Villa.

Hang on, I thought we were the Aston Villa People’s United Front?

[Woody1000]

9 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Been ill for a few days ... Come back and what I can now gather is:

- We play the worst football known to man since the creation of football, which we kinda created.

- We have the most expensively assembled squad in the history of football.

- We probably will never get another point until Pochettino rides in on Falkor from the never ending story to unleash the Pele in all of our " Internationals ".

- This will be the worst season in history after having played 7 games, and we are destined for relegation.

- McGinn thinks the football is shit ( He wasn't speaking about that match in particular of course, but the Captain just thinks we are shit and the football is shit ) and it's a farce.

- If you don't wholeheartedly agree with all of the above, you're a " Gerrard fan " or " blind and know nothing about football " or " Don't care about the club enough ".

Am I missing anything else?

Oh, the players might be getting injured because the football is so shit they lose focus mid move and tweak or pull things they would normally

I did have a good laugh, unfortunately not everyone will see any humour in this.

[Didiersix]

This Gerrard/Kinahan link is very troubling I think. If I was the owners, I would be very concerned.

[dubliner]

23 minutes ago, Didiersix said:

This Gerrard/Kinahan link is very troubling I think. If I was the owners, I would be very concerned.

His daughter goes out with Byrne's son.. It's commonplace to meet your daughters boyfriends family at some stage.

I agree that he shouldn't have much to do with him but I wonder was Gerrard even aware of who exactly he was meeting.

[Keyblade]

1 hour ago, bobzy said:

He quite obviously got the job based on looking like a good upcoming manager during his time at Rangers rather than having once been an excellent midfielder.  I have no real issue with that - it just hasn't come to fruition (yet).

He was being courted by Purslow since 2020 before he even won anything. It's like signing Rooney after his short stint with Derby. You couldn't see either happening if it weren't for who they were. 

[DaveAV1]

24 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

He was being courted by Purslow since 2020 before he even won anything. It's like signing Rooney after his short stint with Derby. You couldn't see either happening if it weren't for who they were. 

Perhaps Purslow is a genius and way ahead of the curve? Let’s wait another 30 games so he can settle in and we can really see how clever Purslow is. It’s hard for us mere mortal fans to understand. 

[sheepyvillian]

1 hour ago, dubliner said:

His daughter goes out with Byrne's son.. It's commonplace to meet your daughters boyfriends family at some stage.

I agree that he shouldn't have much to do with him but I wonder was Gerrard even aware of who exactly he was meeting.

And the end of the day, kids are not responsible for the sins of their parents. 

I'm glad you brought some clarity to the subject. 

[Zatman]

13 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

And the end of the day, kids are not responsible for the sins of their parents. 

I'm glad you brought some clarity to the subject. 

Nobody has once blamed his daughter for his management skills

[TRO]

20 hours ago, DaveAV1 said:

The fans putting up with poor football and dropping lots of points shows fan loyalty not that the manager is doing a good job. People won’t continue to attend in large numbers if they don’t feel they’re getting value for their hard earned. Especially now that things are tight money wise for a lot of people. 
 

Which games are you looking back on as the attractive football we can look forward to once we can stop being “pragmatic”. I don’t believe that the first few games under his leadership are anything like representative of anything else his team have produced or are capable of reproducing.
 

I understand the reasoning behind the pragmatic ie. defence minded, approach. But it’s generally the approach taken by newly promoted teams or sides who’s aim is basically to stay in the PL. Not a club of our often stated ambition with the infrastructure and financial power that our ownership and fan base demands. Are we a Fulham, Southampton or Forest now? 

No Dave, But I don't think we are as good as we think we are, either.....I think our leaders think we are better than we are, too.

Fulham and Forest have not had a full season to judge, but Fulham have a much more effective striker, than we have, which will help them......The financial power you talk about has bought Ings, Buendia and Bailey....all questionable effect on our team, it's ok spending, it has to be right...but that was not on SG's watch anyway.....He has not spent much in terms of Fee's.....last summers spend, was modest IMO, and not commensurate with the ambition, we claim.

I honestly thought we would be more on the front foot, but I  just don't think we have the pace or speed of thought, to execute much....most lose the ball too easily, to build anything, too.

I think Southampton and Leeds last season was attractive football....first half against Spurs was good as was the Man city away game, despite the defensive brain farts......But I appreciate the defensive side of the game, and the opposition, who have as much ambition as we do.I don't see many teams turn up at Villa Park with a white flag, they are fiesty, physical and intent on stopping us.....This league now is arduous, no bad teams, no easy points, you have to fight and scrap for them, teams don't stand off and let you play.

Look, We are not Arsenal or Spurs, they have better players, and better managers......so to expect to play attractive football, most of the time, with teams intent in stopping us is fanciful.

Edited September 28, 2022 by TRO

[DaveAV1]

15 minutes ago, TRO said:

No Dave, But I don't think we are as good as we think we are, either.....I think our leaders think we are better than we are, too.

Fulham and Forest have not had a full season to judge, but Fulham have a much more effective striker, than we have, which will help them......The financial power you talk about has bought Ings, Buendia and Bailey....all questionable effect on our team, it's ok spending, it has to be right...but that was not on SG's watch anyway.....He has not spent much in terms of Fee's.....last summers spend, was modest IMO, and not commensurate with the ambition, we claim.

I honestly though we would be more on the front foot, but I  just don't think we have the pace or speed of thought, to execute much....most lose the ball too easily, to build anything, too.

I think Southampton and Leeds last season was attractive football....first half against Spurs was good as was the Man city away game, despite the defensive brain farts......But I appreciate the defensive side of the game, and the opposition, who have as much ambition as we do.I don't see many teams turn up at Villa Park with a white flag, they are fiesty, physical and intent on stopping us.....This league now is arduous, no bad teams, no easy points, you have to fight and scrape for them, teams don't stand off and let you play.

Look, We are not Arsenal or Spurs, they have better players, and better managers......so to expect to play attractive football, most of the time, with teams intent in stopping us is fanciful.

As I said I appreciate the pragmatic approach and understand there are better teams with better managers. But whilst the clubs you mention have better players and managers but we are trying to catch them and there’s a big gap between them and the lower teams in the division. 
 

Thanks to our owners we have the set up and financial backing to punch way above where we are at the moment. I don’t think our recruitment has been great but the policy we had until SG arrived was decent, even if the actual players could have been better or better suited. However the squad overall is more than decent and perhaps a better and more experienced manager than we currently have could achieve much more with these players. We have a squad which is valued in the hundreds of millions, surely the answer shouldn’t be to batten down the hatches in order to get above mid table? 

[TRO]

14 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

As I said I appreciate the pragmatic approach and understand there are better teams with better managers. But whilst the clubs you mention have better players and managers but we are trying to catch them and there’s a big gap between them and the lower teams in the division. 
 

Thanks to our owners we have the set up and financial backing to punch way above where we are at the moment. I don’t think our recruitment has been great but the policy we had until SG arrived was decent, even if the actual players could have been better or better suited. However the squad overall is more than decent and perhaps a better and more experienced manager than we currently have could achieve much more with these players. We have a squad which is valued in the hundreds of millions, surely the answer shouldn’t be to batten down the hatches in order to get above mid table? 

Its coming back to that old chesnut again, is it the manager or is it the players?.....I think its a combination.

He has bought:

• Digne
• Kamara
• Carlos
• Coutinho
• Dendoncker

for £80 mill.....average £16 mill a piece.

second string

• Augustinson
• Olsen

I don't see much wrong with that policy....its maybe the ones earlier, that might need more scrutiny.

Edited September 28, 2022 by TRO

[bobzy]

2 hours ago, Keyblade said:

He was being courted by Purslow since 2020 before he even won anything. It's like signing Rooney after his short stint with Derby. You couldn't see either happening if it weren't for who they were. 

You say "since 2020" as if that's been a long time... 2020/21 was the season Rangers went unbeaten in the league and secured a first title in 10 years or whatever.  If that's the season he happened to follow Gerrard for, having presumably heard that he was doing decent things at Rangers, it's not exactly surprising that he made a move.

 

 

[Tom13]

2 hours ago, DaveAV1 said:

Perhaps Purslow is a genius and way ahead of the curve? Let’s wait another 30 games so he can settle in and we can really see how clever Purslow is. It’s hard for us mere mortal fans to understand. 

The guy he recruited thinks McGinn is a good midfielder at PL level. Definitely not ahead of the curve, in fact very far behind it.

[DaveAV1]

15 minutes ago, TRO said:

Its coming back to that old chesnut again, is it the manager or is it the players?.....I think its a combination.

He has bought:

• Digne
• Kamara
• Carlos
• Coutinho
• Dendoncker

for £80 mill.....average £16 mill a piece.

second string

• Augustinson
• Olsen

I don't see much wrong with that policy....its maybe the ones earlier, that might need more scrutiny.

I think you should look at the overall cost including wages, most of which we’re not privy to. The manager only has some influence over recruitment these days apparently but as I say we have a decent squad, but we’re trying to get into Europe and so far this season we’re average a point a game. Over the full length of the current managers time here I believe we average 1.25 ppg. Neither of which will achieve our aim of European football. 

[sharkyvilla]

19 hours ago, Zatman said:

for me thats a sackable offence as well, its not like he hasnt a clue who they are

 

In fairness he is offering them tickets to a Reds game  

Let's hope it's true as it would give Purslow an easier out than having to sack him for his performance.

[nick76]

14 minutes ago, TRO said:

Its coming back to that old chesnut again, is it the manager or is it the players?.....I think its a combination.

He has bought:

• Digne
• Kamara
• Carlos
• Coutinho
• Dendoncker

for £80 mill.....average £16 mill a piece.

second string

• Augustinson
• Olsen

I don't see much wrong with that policy....its maybe the ones earlier, that might need more scrutiny.

I don’t think the purchases before were any worse which seems to be what you are insinuating 

• Buendia we were delighted at
• Leon Bailey was seen as a inspired signing and a real coup
• Ings while some seem to think it was reactive signing there is no doubt in his pedigree and was been talked about being picked up by bigger teams than us and we signed him out of the blue.

before that was the like of Watkins, Martinez and Cash.

These can all be debated on merits but the list of Gerrard’s signings and Smith’s signings are roughly on par with each other.  

You can argue we could’ve brought different positions or types of players but arguing that pre Gerrard for that is unfair because Gerrard has had two windows to buy some different type of players but brought who he brought.  

It was a fairly quiet summer on the whole if he really thought the squad was really unbalanced yet he didn’t.  

You may want to argue the players weren’t available but maybe they weren’t for his predecessor either but still Gerrard has had time to adapt the squad, we’ve been linked with many players throughout the summer but after Carlos and Kamara we were fairly quiet apart from squad fillers like Augustinson and Dendoncker.

It’s just amazing even looking at that list of players that Gerrard can’t utilise that attacking talent.  You can’t have Buendia, Bailey, Coutinho, Watkins, Ings, Archer and look so impotent.

You say it’s a mix of players and manager, and if you are arguing league placing for Europe then I’d agree, if it’s being better than we have been for the last 10 months and looking competent and cohesive on the pitch then it’s the manager not being able to utilise the players at hand.  

All the players mentioned aren’t suddenly duds, we just have a manager that doesn’t know how to use them.

[DaveAV1]

3 minutes ago, Tom13 said:

The guy he recruited thinks McGinn is a good midfielder at PL level. Definitely not ahead of the curve, in fact very far behind it.

SJM joined us when we were a Championship club and was great. He still gets linked with a big move so perhaps other people rate him too. He’s nowhere near the level he needs to be at the moment but perhaps under a better coach he could be? 
 

My tongue was firmly in my cheek when I suggested that CP was a genius.