Steven Gerrard

[the_sun_never_sets]

Has he gone yet? 

[MaVilla]

2 minutes ago, the_sun_never_sets said:

Has he gone yet? 

looks like the sun has set on your dream there friend.

[Villan_of_oz]

He doesn't care about the team or how we play, it's all self preservation at the moment. 

 

[MaVilla]

23 minutes ago, jacketspuds said:

It has nearly been a year and, if anything, we have gone backwards.

Feels like the expectation at the club is slowly being lowered and this is going to be another wasted season.

I doubt Gerrard is even under pressure to turn things around at the moment, especially given his ability to bullshit.

Everything just feels so pointless at the moment, and other teams have the opportunity to push on if they take the chance.

considering the money spent, i think its fair to say we have.

this is the last 4 seasons point tally, game by game:

 

We are currently on less points now, than at any time other than our first, and near relegation year.

If gain only 2 points from the next 3 games by game week 11, we would be on exactly the same points as when Deano was sacked.

in the PL, Deano's average PPG over 87 games was 1.18.

Gerrards PPG with Villa over 35 games is 1.23.

Considering the investment in the squad, and the squad quality difference over time, Gerrard is currently getting us 0.05 PPG more than deano, or 1.9 points more over an entire season, on average.

Considering that Gerrards PPG is actually decreasing over time, as it was 1.7 PPG in his first 17 games, it shows just how poor we have been for the last 15-20 games overall, especially considering that our squad, in theory, is of a much higher quality.

Basically, Gerrard is a fraud imo.

Edited October 3, 2022 by MaVilla

[picicata]

One thing Gerrard has definitely been successful at is sucking all the joy out of following the club.

[the_sun_never_sets]

7 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

looks like the sun has set on your dream there friend.

Since the start of the year it feels more like a total eclipse 

[mrchnry]

Time for someone to get the bedsheets out

[wilko154]

41 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

Fans who travel miles to away games are entitled to do what they want.  Like supporting the team regardless of what you think of the manager.

Gerrard still seems to get the majority of the home support. I think sometimes fan forums are in a little bubble sometimes.

I know, I was there...

Fan forums are in a bubble, but generally the mood online is the same as the mood of the fans at the games. A lot of fans applauded the players off the pitch yesterday, then moaned on the way out of the ground. The problem with this football club right now stems from the manager and the players, something needs to change.

[est1874]

He's still here?

NSWE are not the men I thought they were.

Purslow unfortunately is exactly the man I thought he was.

[DCJonah]

13 hours ago, MWARLEY2 said:

This isnt now a manager who is implementing a clear style of play on his squad. It is a manager holding on to his job by any means necessary. 

This is so true and the worst thing about it all. 

We've gone from sacking Smith because improvement wasn't enough to Gerrard grinding out a point a game with awful football to keep his job.

[Delphinho123]

1 hour ago, MaVilla said:

considering the money spent, i think its fair to say we have.

this is the last 4 seasons point tally, game by game:

 

We are currently on less points now, than at any time other than our first, and near relegation year.

If gain only 2 points from the next 3 games by game week 11, we would be on exactly the same points as when Deano was sacked.

in the PL, Deano's average PPG over 87 games was 1.18.

Gerrards PPG with Villa over 35 games is 1.23.

Considering the investment in the squad, and the squad quality difference over time, Gerrard is currently getting us 0.05 PPG more than deano, or 1.9 points more over an entire season, on average.

Considering that Gerrards PPG is actually decreasing over time, as it was 1.7 PPG in his first 17 games, it shows just how poor we have been for the last 15-20 games overall, especially considering that our squad, in theory, is of a much higher quality.

Basically, Gerrard is a fraud imo.

Avoiding relegation needs to be our aim this season. There is every chance we could drop. 

[foreveryoung]

13 hours ago, MWARLEY2 said:

This isnt now a manager who is implementing a clear style of play on his squad. It is a manager holding on to his job by any means necessary. 

True, but it's also a manager learning on the job, trying to implement a system which don't seem to be working. But with the lack of experience he has now run out of ideas, so just hoping it'll soon click into place, while hoping we don't conceded.

The lack of experience showed when he left Watkins on even though he couldn't seem to hit a barn door. He needs to be much more ruthless, Ings should have been on at 60 minutes max, no top manager would have continued to watch Watkins miss so many chances. 

[fightoffyour]

11 hours ago, Villa_Vids said:

He won't magically turn it around but he can definitely improve over time IMO, I think he has adapted well to our poor results this season. We have been okay since Arsenal, I know "okay" is not enough for our club - we have every right and reason to be challenging for Europe given our size and stature. I just don't think it is right to sack him now, while we are unbeaten and building a defensive foundation for better football. I would wait until after Brighton and make a calmer decision on his future. 

We don’t have any “right” to be challenging for Europe. What we do have is a squad, level of investment, wages, and apparent ambition that says we should be.

But we’re underachieving on that, we have been consistently since Gerard’s first run of games, and there are no signs of improvement - quite the opposite. The longer he stays, the more bereft of ideas we look and the worse the squad selections, substitutions, and alienating of players gets.

Edited October 3, 2022 by fightoffyour

[JoshVilla]

The sad thing is that I, as well as a large number of fans it seems, am feeling more and more emotionally disconnected from the club the longer he's here. If we'd have scored a winner yesterday, I don't think that it would have stirred much emotion in me, which is a really shit place to be.

The couple of reports that have come out recently regarding his lack of decency towards fans/a certain journalist are starting to change my opinion from "he's just not good enough" to me starting to actively dislike him.

[jacketspuds]

7 minutes ago, JoshVilla said:

The sad thing is that I, as well as a large number of fans it seems, am feeling more and more emotionally disconnected from the club the longer he's here. If we'd have scored a winner yesterday, I don't think that it would have stirred much emotion in me, which is a really shit place to be.

The couple of reports that have come out recently regarding his lack of decency towards fans/a certain journalist are starting to change my opinion from "he's just not good enough" to me starting to actively dislike him.

There certainly seems to be more and more coming out that makes me feel like he has this air of untouchable arrogance about him.

Even the story around his affiliation with a certain Irish drug boss just seems like a billy big bollocks attitude towards everything.

Once again it feels like we are so vanilla that nobody really gives 2 shits about what's going on at our club.

[RichW]

In an ideal world the owners would be sounding out assurances from Pochettino/an alternative so they can sack him but realistically Purslow doesn’t want to sack his mate. 

[CVByrne]

The system he's trying to play is too complicated for the players when the opposition know how to counter it also. All of the system is so interconnected you can't develop it piece by piece. Especially now the two key pieces signed in summer are injured in Carlos / Kamara

The system requires a narrow 3 in attack so when we lose possession in central areas we have lots of players there to press and try win it back / block off attacks. This works because we have ultra attacking wing backs who provide the width. To cover for that we have defensive 8s who are to cover the space behind those wing backs. We do this with 2 CBs as opposed to 3. The reason is because we intend to be a passing team with slow build up play from the back and we can do that better with 3 men in midfield as opposed to 2.

All of the above are fundamentally linked. If we went to a wide front three and 8s that attack the spaces inbetween we leave our central midfield exposed as we don't have narrow 10s and we have 8s getting into box. We would then need full backs as defenders primarily so doing a 180 on their primary role. Also we only have one winger in the squad in Bailey.

So the only path I see is if we revert to the 4 3 1 2 as this gives more attacking threat and allows the full backs to attack or like everyone here would likely agree on. Move to a 4 2 3 1 and allow the full backs attack alternatively and get 4 proper attacking players on pitch as opposed to 3.

But it's clear what Gerrard is doing is going back to his first 5 games in charge and being hard to beat to stop the rot. Then begin to try add the attacking structures again. Complain all we want about Leeds the team still created chances and xG of 2 it was just the poor finishing letting us down. I think he'll go with the same team against Forest (but with Cash hopefully back in and Young moving to LB). 

People want him fired, but he's clearly going to be given time as long as there is no danger of being dragged into a relegation fight and his future will be decided near end of the season.

 

[penguin]

10 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

The system he's trying to play is too complicated for the players when the opposition know how to counter it also. All of the system is so interconnected you can't develop it piece by piece. Especially now the two key pieces signed in summer are injured in Carlos / Kamara

The system requires a narrow 3 in attack so when we lose possession in central areas we have lots of players there to press and try win it back / block off attacks. This works because we have ultra attacking wing backs who provide the width. To cover for that we have defensive 8s who are to cover the space behind those wing backs. We do this with 2 CBs as opposed to 3. The reason is because we intend to be a passing team with slow build up play from the back and we can do that better with 3 men in midfield as opposed to 2.

All of the above are fundamentally linked. If we went to a wide front three and 8s that attack the spaces inbetween we leave our central midfield exposed as we don't have narrow 10s and we have 8s getting into box. We would then need full backs as defenders primarily so doing a 180 on their primary role. Also we only have one winger in the squad in Bailey.

So the only path I see is if we revert to the 4 3 1 2 as this gives more attacking threat and allows the full backs to attack or like everyone here would likely agree on. Move to a 4 2 3 1 and allow the full backs attack alternatively and get 4 proper attacking players on pitch as opposed to 3.

But it's clear what Gerrard is doing is going back to his first 5 games in charge and being hard to beat to stop the rot. Then begin to try add the attacking structures again. Complain all we want about Leeds the team still created chances and xG of 2 it was just the poor finishing letting us down. I think he'll go with the same team against Forest (but with Cash hopefully back in and Young moving to LB). 

People want him fired, but he's clearly going to be given time as long as there is no danger of being dragged into a relegation fight and his future will be decided near end of the season.

 

In what way is this clear?

When were the goalposts moved so drastically?

[AV82]

What doesn't help is having absolutely no transparency with regards to setup and who does what. Perhaps that's to avoid blame and scapegoating but it's hard not to wonder what the **** is going on. Fans are pulling at their hair trying to understand the decisions that we're making and when journalists ask fair questions all we get back are snotty, sarcastic responses. This bloke is a **** a-hole who's managing to outdo himself every single week. Surely the aura has worn off now and the players are getting tired of this bellend. Without his playing career he'd be lucky to be managing in League Two.

[CVByrne]

10 minutes ago, penguin said:

In what way is this clear?

When were the goalposts moved so drastically?

Changing manager requires new commitments to player signings, you need to pay off the staff also. 

We're 3 points off 7th. The season is everyone beating eachother and the table is compressed right now as long as points are picked up keeping us closer to top 10 than bottom three it makes sense to give more time. This is especially the case as the players are playing for him, they've put in a lot of effort in last 3 games. 

So from a Purslow perspective you reassess once the World Cup comes, see if there has been enough points picked up and performances picking up to believe that the team might kick on in new year. Potter at Brighton took time, Arteta took time. 

I'm sure Gerrard will have to have shown progression, so if we are not at least seeing the improved football and results in the final 10 games of the season to believe next season will be further progress then I'm sure there will be a change made. 

So far Gerrard hasn't been good enough, nobody himself included would say otherwise. There is time for it all to improve though