Steven Gerrard

[Tom13]

59 minutes ago, Zatman said:

This goes under the radar. 2005 Champions League Final he was the reason they were 3 down as he left centre midfield exposed until Rafa moved him out of midfield at half time

Rafa really had Gerrard figured out as a player. I remember one Merseyside derby they were searching for a goal and Rafa brought Gerrard off. Gerrard looked amazed, but they went on to find the goal and win.

[PeterSw]

If there is no improvement by the WC break he should be sacked. Problem is, will Purslow sack his mate?

Hopefully the owners will step up and insist that he goes. They do appear to be quite ruthless 

[sne]

3 minutes ago, Tom13 said:

Wrong brother but the MLS and L.A .Galaxy might be a good step for Gerrard.

[SuffolkVillan]

54 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Problem is Gerrard management or lack of it is worse than his coaching

His man management is 30 years out of date from the Houllier approach to throwing people under the bus

 

Considering his recent comments, could he have already lost the dressing room? I normally advocate given new Managers time but in this case I think sack now and replace when the right fit becomes available. Gary Mac and Critchley should be able to continue without things getting even worse......hopefully!

[avfc1982am]

If he doesn't survive the season then what I will say is the club now have a squad whereby they cannot f*** about with a novice, up and coming manager or a has been. We need a Poch, Mourinho, Rogers or someone of that ilk to take this club to Europe. We are in a position as a club whereby these managers(if sold our/owners dream) will take on this squad with the talent on offer and all that comes with it. 

[danceoftheshamen]

Well i'm personally finding it extrememly hard to stay onboard with this Gerrard thing in all honesty. The football is horrid to watch which in some instances is necessary if effective. This turgid stuff is not even effective more often than not, so what are we doing exactly. That was abysmal yesterday, as it was for the most part last season. I just can't see how we are expecting to get results with the same midfield-forward line that was quite poor last season? It's like watching last seasons Villa with a couple of repair patches stuck on the edges....But then SG counterbalances it all with this change in captaincy and dropping our best (although of course occasionally error-prone) defender in Mings. I still can't fathom why you would start Konsa over the impressive Chambers either? Especially when we were playing a team with little else but physicality & height!? .........Bizarre to say the least.

I fear for us and am now 7/8 in the "need new manager" camp.

[Villarocker]

I didn't like Gerrard as a player. I thought he was a runt. I was - and still am - willing to give him chance as a manager for us. I felt that he may be able to attract bigger name players and that seems to be the case. But, does he really have Villa at heart or is it just a job to him? 

Sorry to harp on about Smith but I at least felt that with him he would never take us for granted and always do what he felt best for our club. It was part of his DNA and he brought the pride back for me. 

With Gerrard, we've opened the door to bigger wages and I fear that if it all goes pear-shaped we will be left with crippling wages again that holds us back. Have those wages affected the players already here? Has the team spirit been broken? The feel good factor certainly seems to not be as strong as when Smith was here. 

[avfc1982am]

What I will also say is after hearing his comments regarding Ming's yesterday, I think he's bang out of order. He took the captaincy off him. Demoted him and has called him out within the space of a week. I'm not Ming's biggest fan but even I feel Gerrard has taken the piss with that. 

[PeterSw]

3 minutes ago, SuffolkVillan said:

Considering his recent comments, could he have already lost the dressing room? I normally advocate given new Managers time but in this case I think sack now and replace when the right fit becomes available. Gary Mac and Critchley should be able to continue without things getting even worse......hopefully!

It wouldn't surprise me. I think Mings is a big big figure in that dressing room. Players probably would have been annoyed by stripping him of captaincy, but dropping him AND those comments after the game... might have pushed a lot over the edge. Next couple of games will tell us alot. 

[R.Bear]

1 hour ago, Zatman said:

This goes under the radar. 2005 Champions League Final he was the reason they were 3 down as he left centre midfield exposed until Rafa moved him out of midfield at half time

This is nonsense. They werent 3-0 down because of Gerrard, the first goal in particular had nothing to do with Gerrard. Milan were just a much better team and carved them apart. The reason Liverpool improved in the second half was because they brought on Didi Hamann at half-time to sure up the midfield. It was more damage limitation doing that. Milan outplayed Liverpool all game, they just had that crazy 8 minutes where they scores 3 goals. You could replay that match 100 times and Milan would win it 100 times.

Regardless, I know people are fed up but criticising Gerrard the player or belittling his achievements is desperate stuff.

[Sam3773]

I've always got the vibe that Gerrard has an air of arrogance about him. Revered for England and at the highest level with Liverpool. This arrogance was likely exacerbated with success at Rangers, and I wonder how this effects the chemistry. 

I don't think it's overstepping to say Gerrard could easily rub people up the wrong way with such arrogance. I find some questioning if there's a rift in the dressing room interesting. I don't see how there couldn't be. The public outing of Tyrone and removal of the armband. The players training with the U21s. I can't recall a time we had so many first team players training with the youth, hoping to ship them out, particularly players who, in public at least, have been nothing but professional (A la, no McCormacks). 

I also see some mileage in looking at the 'cling ons' as I call them. The players who come with the manager. Bruce and Elmohamady. Smith and Konsa. With a new manager, particularly one that's seen success, an element of taking the players you know and trust is often present. But not for Stevie. Not one player from that team left to join him (youth aside) and although there may be an element of Rangers blocking those moves, I do question how liked he was as a manager among the Rangers squad. 

I think these are worrying times for Villa. We have a manager who appears to be dividing the dressing room after losing the coach who was arguably the brains behind the operation with Gerrard being the face. We have a CEO who I believe has done well overall but this is his mate who we've backed tremendously financially. Does Purslow admit defeat or does he try and ride it out to save face? Does Gerrard walk before he's pushed to protect his own image? The most likely outcome I believe if he is indeed as arrogant as I see. 

What I will say is I have never, especially after such a relatively short amount of time, seen the fan base unite so broadly on questioning the manager (McLiesh maybe?). Gerrard's stock seems very low currently, although it never looked particularly high in the first place. Mings isn't the messiah, but currently on social media he's seen as some sort of 'anti-Gerrard' symbol. Interesting, albeit worrying times ahead. 

[daft]

18 minutes ago, PeterSw said:

If there is no improvement by the WC break he should be sacked. Problem is, will Purslow sack his mate?

Hopefully the owners will step up and insist that he goes. They do appear to be quite ruthless 

They allowed him to appoint a 'tactically inept' manager with very little experience.

We can't rely on them either. 

[bannedfromHandV]

I do worry there’s bad vibes in the camp at the moment, the Mings situation, Sanson declaring himself fit and ready on Instagram after being dropped from the squad, the 3 players we’ve relegated to the U23’s.

Maybe he just needs to trim down the squad and move all of those out but yesterday was extremely worrying.

[Zhan_Zhuang]

I'm still in the minority here in backing Gerrard but perhaps it is blind faith or hope...

Does not look good at all.

He has signed some good players and we have better players than we have had for a long time but perhaps he is too naïve, arrogant or just not intelligent enough. Maybe all three.

Last season it seemed like there was a rift appearing in the squad, Buendia seems on the periphery way too much. And now this season with Mings who I think is still Villa captain and our best defender as Carlos is still finding his feet.

I am starting to worry now, even if we beat Everton next game we will likely lose the next three or four. Palace look decent, West Ham have our number and Arsenal and Man. City are better than us.

If we are bottom three after six games then what?

The pre-season confidence has gone up in smoke!

[danceoftheshamen]

2 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

I'm still in the minority here in backing Gerrard but perhaps it is blind faith or hope...

Does not look good at all.

He has signed some good players and we have better players than we have had for a long time but perhaps he is too naïve, arrogant or just not intelligent enough. Maybe all three.

Last season it seemed like there was a rift appearing in the squad, Buendia seems on the periphery way too much. And now this season with Mings who I think is still Villa captain and our best defender as Carlos is still finding his feet.

I am starting to worry now, even if we beat Everton next game we will likely lose the next three or four. Palace look decent, West Ham have our number and Arsenal and Man. City are better than us.

If we are bottom three after six games then what?

The pre-season confidence has gone up in smoke!

Sadly I think it went up in smoke already after losing and creating zero against most likely the Worst team in the division.

[Xela]

I'm still in 'Gerrard In' camp but my fuse is getting shorter. 

Need big performances and results in the next 2 games for starters. 

[MWARLEY2]

Just now, Tomaszk said:

He's 500x the tactician Gerrard is. He's a coach as well. Don't really like him tbh, but he'd have a team this good playing football.

Watching some highlights of other teams yesterday. We absolutely played like the worst side in the league. Our middling 'rivals' Leeds, Newcastle, Wolves would have put 5 past us. God knows what the top teams would have done.

I've been fairly sure this isn't going to work because nothing has been shown, I didn't think we'd be quite that bad.

Thats what i was thinking.  Everyone playing with a style and identity,  other than us.

I am hoping there is a reaction but i cannot see it. A crap system even with good performances from our good players isnt enough to thrive in this league. Its full of tacticians and talented coaches who will easily negate us  . 

We only ever win when teams put in shite performances. Leeds A Southampton H Burnley A Brighton A . All of those were against teams who by all accounts played terribly in those games. And then Liverpool H and Man City A where we just couldnt hold on and their teams played much poorer than usual. 

It is a big concern that doesnt seem to have been improved upon

[Hiney]

14 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

He's 500x the tactician Gerrard is. He's a coach as well. Don't really like him tbh, but he'd have a team this good playing football.

Watching some highlights of other teams yesterday. We absolutely played like the worst side in the league. Our middling 'rivals' Leeds, Newcastle, Wolves would have put 5 past us. God knows what the top teams would have done.

I've been fairly sure this isn't going to work because nothing has been shown, I didn't think we'd be quite that bad.

I watched the Spurs Southampton rerun this morning and despite getting beat 4-1, Southampton looked miles more organised and better than what we did. 

[TRO]

20 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

I'm still in the minority here in backing Gerrard but perhaps it is blind faith or hope...

Does not look good at all.

He has signed some good players and we have better players than we have had for a long time but perhaps he is too naïve, arrogant or just not intelligent enough. Maybe all three.

Last season it seemed like there was a rift appearing in the squad, Buendia seems on the periphery way too much. And now this season with Mings who I think is still Villa captain and our best defender as Carlos is still finding his feet.

I am starting to worry now, even if we beat Everton next game we will likely lose the next three or four. Palace look decent, West Ham have our number and Arsenal and Man. City are better than us.

If we are bottom three after six games then what?

The pre-season confidence has gone up in smoke!

We are better than Bournemouth....but some teams manage to defy the odds.

There are some real concerns on here worth noting amongst the Drama Queens, who just want him gone anyway, because they didn't want him in the first place.

No one who supports Villa can condone that debacle and managers get big bucks to take responsibilty.

He won't go after that, we would be the laughing stock of football, should it happen.....but he can't preside over much of that.

I genuinely have no idea, where he will find a fix for it, in such a short time......but he must.

Its a big challenge for him now, because that 19 defeats last season, looks more like repeating itself, than not....I see the same traits, despite a slightly different style.

[rodders0223]

47 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

What I will also say is after hearing his comments regarding Ming's yesterday, I think he's bang out of order. He took the captaincy off him. Demoted him and has called him out within the space of a week. I'm not Ming's biggest fan but even I feel Gerrard has taken the piss with that. 

All whilst he's in the lowest position  of power he's ever had and he's making mistakes every week.

The ego on this guy is a joke. Should get his own house in order. Every manager decision he's made is wrong