Battle for top half finish

[VillaParkAvenue]

Just now, Zatman said:

good coaching but apparently its pie in the sky for us to think our players could improve like Dan Burn, Matt Targett and Joelinton have

Coaching and general leadership I suppose, creating a strong collective where people are happy to work for each other and not afraid of making mistakes et c

[Demitri_C]

Just now, nick76 said:

Why didn’t Gerrard buy one in January? Yes it’s harder but Newcastle brought Bruno.

Your last three words are why we didnt sign him. They can afford to pay stupid money for him

[CVByrne]

What will sum us up is our inevitable limp performance on Thursday at home to Burnley. A draw or a loss is the same result for us. We end 14th

[VillaChris]

No way 13/14th can be spun as a good season at all.

Just have to hope for better in August as it's really not been enjoyable at all since January bar the Man. United second half and that  mini run v Brighton, Southampton and Leeds.

So many poor performances and losses to count.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

5 minutes ago, Zatman said:

good coaching but apparently its pie in the sky for us to think our players could improve like Dan Burn, Matt Targett and Joelinton have

So by default, this surely means all the other teams they have leap frogged and beaten also have shit coaches? Right?

[Demitri_C]

1 minute ago, Zatman said:

but we didnt

I praised him for giving Liverpool a game last week so no I wouldnt

But most of the time your absolutely destroying him.  You gave smith a chance, gerrard deserves thw same treatment. 

If next season we are likw this year then the criticism is justified

[Davkaus]

Just now, CVByrne said:

What will sum us up is our inevitable limp performance on Thursday at home to Burnley. A draw or a loss is the same result for us. We end 14th

Why is this inevitable when we battered them last week?

[Rustibrooks]

[nick76]

Just now, Demitri_C said:

Your last three words are why we didnt sign him. They can afford to pay stupid money for him

Is he the only DCM around? Why not pay Kamara’s club a small fee in January than wait until he’s free in the summer if we are desperate.  Why not buy Bissouma who we apparently bid for but didn’t go further.  He had a chance to buy in January but he kept his powder dry until the summer, which is fair enough.

Outside of DCM position I think we beat Newcastle in most positions on the pitch so it’s not solely down to missing that player why they have been brilliant and we have been mediocre.

[CVByrne]

4 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

Why is this inevitable when we battered them last week?

They'll want it more and we go through dips on form that last multiple games. That's our way.

Plus we're Aston Villa. Existing only to torture and disappoint supporters forever.

[Rustibrooks]

1 minute ago, nick76 said:

Is he the only DCM around? Why not pay Kamara’s club a small fee in January than wait until he’s free in the summer if we are desperate.  Why not buy Bissouma who we apparently bid for but didn’t go further.  He had a chance to buy in January but he kept his powder dry until the summer, which is fair enough.

Outside of DCM position I think we beat Newcastle in most positions on the pitch so it’s not solely down to missing that player why they have been brilliant and we have been mediocre.

Well the message about Kamara has been that he’ll rather wait till summer than move in Jan, Bissouma our bid got rejected they wanted 40ish mill at the time. I do get we could’ve got another DM but I’d rather wait than pay the Jan surge.

[Zatman]

6 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

But most of the time your absolutely destroying him.  You gave smith a chance, gerrard deserves thw same treatment. 

If next season we are likw this year then the criticism is justified

but he doesnt deserve a chance, he just got a job because his big name and his buddy as CEO. He is completely unqualified for the job and shouldnt be in this position. Would be same if we hired Frank Lampard

Hasnt done anything of note so far

If I am honest and probably not the right thread I dont like the current direction of the club and not just in league position

Edited May 16, 2022 by Zatman

[Demitri_C]

1 minute ago, nick76 said:

Is he the only DCM around? Why not pay Kamara’s club a small fee in January than wait until he’s free in the summer if we are desperate.  Why not buy Bissouma who we apparently bid for but didn’t go further.  He had a chance to buy in January but he kept his powder dry until the summer, which is fair enough.

Outside of DCM position I think we beat Newcastle in most positions on the pitch so it’s not solely down to missing that player why they have been brilliant and we have been mediocre.

Because we are not stupid. Paying 50m for bissouma would have been stupid. Also he was at the AFCON of nations so for me that move made no sense. Bettee ti try get him early in the summer where we can probably get him for 20m less.

I think maybe a loan would have been good for a top dm if wecould have. Clearly the recruitment team coulsmt find anyone available  that they thought was any better than what we had

[nick76]

Just now, Rustibrooks said:

Well the message about Kamara has been that he’ll rather wait till summer than move in Jan, Bissouma our bid got rejected they wanted 40ish mill at the time. I do get we could’ve got another DM but I’d rather wait than pay the Jan surge.

Yep I don’t disagree which led me to my second point about the rest of the squad.  The DCM could be a game changer for us but we still need to other 10 to do their bit and it’s not been convincing so far

[nick76]

Just now, Demitri_C said:

Because we are not stupid. Paying 50m for bissouma would have been stupid. Also he was at the AFCON of nations so for me that move made no sense. Bettee ti try get him early in the summer where we can probably get him for 20m less.

Wasn’t the consensus is that he would cost more in the summer because so many big teams need a DCM.  That if we wanted him we would have to get him in January otherwise we’d have no chance in the summer.  I remember reading for almost a month that line.  Most of those teams still need a DCM so what else has changed that suddenly we can get him for 20m cheaper?

[Rustibrooks]

Look at the end of the day we are all disappointed with how the season went, the writing was on the wall after the Euros… losing Grealish, not balancing out the squad, Smith getting sacked, Gerrard coming in etc. 
 

Both Smith and Gerrard had a lot to answer for this season, the latter will hopefully improve. As I’ve said before if some of you can give Smith a chance when we hit that bad patch in December 2018, why can’t you do the same with Gerrard now? 
 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

6 minutes ago, Rustibrooks said:

Look at the end of the day we are all disappointed with how the season went, the writing was on the wall after the Euros… losing Grealish, not balancing out the squad, Smith getting sacked, Gerrard coming in etc. 
 

Both Smith and Gerrard had a lot to answer for this season, the latter will hopefully improve. As I’ve said before if some of you can give Smith a chance when we hit that bad patch in December 2018, why can’t you do the same with Gerrard now? 
 

Or acknowledge the fact that when he came in, we had 10 points, from 11 games. As if this doesn't affect League placing in anyway... Ffs

I agree with you, but it's draining and pointless.

[Rustibrooks]

5 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Or acknowledge the fact that when he came in, we had 10 points, from 11 games. As if this doesn't affect League placing in anyway... Ffs

I agree with you, but it's draining and pointless.

It is draining, I know it’s not ideal but as you said our start impacted our season as much as our bad patches under Gerrard. It just comes across as personal with some people, as I said I’ll happily wait till next season to really judge him with anything definitive just like I did with Smith. I think Bruce and McLeish were the only two I didn’t give much of a chance, mainly because of the bigger sample size of how they play plus the connection with blues.

[nick76]

10 minutes ago, Rustibrooks said:

Look at the end of the day we are all disappointed with how the season went, the writing was on the wall after the Euros… losing Grealish, not balancing out the squad, Smith getting sacked, Gerrard coming in etc. 
 

Both Smith and Gerrard had a lot to answer for this season, the latter will hopefully improve. As I’ve said before if some of you can give Smith a chance when we hit that bad patch in December 2018, why can’t you do the same with Gerrard now? 
 

But you have it wrong! I’m in the stadium, chanting my heart out.  I deal with the transportation issues, the poor food/beverage services, the cramped smelly toilets and now apparently increasing season tickets prices 10% for some of us, my mom 32% increase for a 77 year old. I’m there supporting with all my heart and my wallet.

I therefore then have a right to come on here to discuss my thoughts.  I support 100% when it matters and then come on here to discuss.  I put my money where my mouth is, do the hours of journey, chant my little heart out. I’m giving him a damn chance like many others.  We are there in our masses, sell outs every game and thus we are allowed to raise concerns on this little forum outside of game time.  

This season has been poor from Smith to Gerrard both in terms of performances and points.  We’ve had little spells that have made the difference points wise but slogging 22 points out of the last 19 games just sucks.  Watching yesterday on a Sunday afternoon a poor performance.  Leaving home at 11.30am and getting back at 6pm, and that was a nice sunny day.  Some of the poor stuff we’ve seen this season from night games or poor weather, sometimes you think why bother but we turn up and support 100% like we’ve done for decades.  So a little concerning comments on this forum is the least we should be allowed to comment on.

[Rustibrooks]

34 minutes ago, nick76 said:

But you have it wrong! I’m in the stadium, chanting my heart out.  I deal with the transportation issues, the poor food/beverage services, the cramped smelly toilets and now apparently increasing season tickets prices 10% for some of us, my mom 32% increase for a 77 year old. I’m there supporting with all my heart and my wallet.

I therefore then have a right to come on here to discuss my thoughts.  I support 100% when it matters and then come on here to discuss.  I put my money where my mouth is, do the hours of journey, chant my little heart out. I’m giving him a damn chance like many others.  We are there in our masses, sell outs every game and thus we are allowed to raise concerns on this little forum outside of game time.  

This season has been poor from Smith to Gerrard both in terms of performances and points.  We’ve had little spells that have made the difference points wise but slogging 22 points out of the last 19 games just sucks.  Watching yesterday on a Sunday afternoon a poor performance.  Leaving home at 11.30am and getting back at 6pm, and that was a nice sunny day.  Some of the poor stuff we’ve seen this season from night games or poor weather, sometimes you think why bother but we turn up and support 100% like we’ve done for decades.  So a little concerning comments on this forum is the least we should be allowed to comment on.

Thing is Nick I’m no way invalidating your feelings or anyone for that matter, It’s a forum at the end of the day we all come here for the love of Villa. Like you I do go to games when I can it’s hard because I’ve been born and raised in London. So every now and then I’ll travel up to watch Villa. 
 

I’m in agreement for the most part that it’s been poor, however my point is there has been several Villa fans here and other places that pretty much never gave Gerrard a chance. It’s fair to say he deserves the same as smith in his first year no? I said exactly the same thing when it was 2018 and we got Smith and some people outside of this forum(I was a casual lurker) didn’t give him a chance either. For the record, I didn’t want Gerrard to be our manager I was more on the Favre/foreign appointment wave, but when Gerrard was announced I thought to give him a chance just like any other Manager we had outside of Bruce and McLeish. When I see your comments for the most part you give solid points, I might not always reply to but I do see what you see also. 
 

Not saying you don’t but I do also see the good and recognise that, like others have said I just feel like no matter what Gerrard does they will always secretly wait for his downfall. It’s the repeat of what was happening during the Smith years, I just think some people want to feel right all the time.

Edited May 16, 2022 by Rustibrooks