david-avfc

I don’t agree with the comparisons to Arteta at all. “Villa should do this because a completely unrelated club with unrelated coaches in an unrelated situation have done something else”. I’ll stick to judging the reality of the situation for Aston Villa, which is we have a incompetent manager and after 10 games are 2 points off the relegation zone and one of the worst scoring records in the league 

19 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Well the away fans have turned. The only thing stopping an angrier fan base on Sunday is the kick off time

From the clips I saw online the Gerrard out chants weren’t that widespread, they were noticeable but not overwhelming

But the point is the seal has now been broken, unless there’s a very sharp unexpected uptick in performances and results the fan base from here will only head one way now that first threshold has been breached 

A bad game on Sunday could realistically be the breaking point for widespread dissent to break out, although I said that about the City game and it turned out to be our best performance, so we’ll see what happens in practice. Once the crowd turns en masse there is no hope for survival for any manager, certainly not after the rip off price hike the fans have been subject to this season as it will just turn too toxic if it’s allowed to fester 

17 minutes ago, nick76 said:

 

He was a crap manager but at least he had a degree of likability about him

At what point do the fans turn against Purslow if the Gerrard situation isn't resolved? The price hike over the summer, iffy recruitment last season, sacking Smith and replacing him with his underqualified mate, no improvement on the pitch in 18 months and now (potentially) hanging on to a manager past his sell by date

I watched his interviews last night and it is scary how devoid of tactical knowledge he appears to be, his response to the awful performance "we need players to step up with moments of magic." With tactical insights of that depth it's no wonder we aren't scoring, aren't creating and otherwise just look all-round clueless when in possession. Ultimately he's been found out now, he is out of his depth and doesn't have the required skills tactically or man-management either from the looks of it. The club needs to cut their losses immediately because best case scenario we scrape a result in the next game and so on and we just limp on and on until eventually enough is enough, if he is this devoid of tactical understanding after this amount of time he simply won't learn it now

I’d have thought Guilbert would be a useful member if the squad. I understand if he’s not first choice, or even second choice but if we’ve de-registered him when there’s space in the squad it’s just bizarre, we’re still paying his wages regardless so we might as well have the option of using if it was ever required. I don’t follow French football but his stats suggest he’s done a good job over there on loan and last season was a first choice for a side that finished 6th and had one of the best defensive records from when he signed in January for the rest of the season which suggests he must be at least a fairly competent player, which coincides with what I’ve seen from him in a villa shirt.

6 hours ago, Peter Griffin said:

After the first half of the first season that Fred was at Villa wasn't Cash first choice RB and Elmo backup to Cash and Fred further down the pecking order? 

Guilbert was mostly first choice in his first season at villa, but then didn’t play as much during “project restart” for unknown reasons. That summer we then bought Cash who became first choice RB, Guilbert fell out of favour at that point.

27 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said:

There are multiple elements of risk to keeping SG. Purslow needs to assess these and assess what risks are acceptable. Currently, there is no risk of relegation so that it not a concern. However, he now has to assess whether sacking SG now would result in a higher finish at the end of the season. This is not as straightforward an assessment as fans may like to suggest it is. 1) There is a risk with getting any new manager in and the new guy many not work out as planned. 2) The financial implications need to be considered 3) He needs to consider if SG is on the cusp of showing he can learn and improve and become the manager we are looking for.

As with the clouded judgement of many fans, many have the inability to not let bias influence their decision making. It would be naive to believe that a point to City at the weekend means everything is now smelling of roses. Yes, some fans are saying that he should be given a bit more time on the back of that result but that is a normal reaction. We played well, SG had a good performance as manager so he is showing the first glimpses of improvement. Surely, it would make sense to see can he continue to improve rather than just sack him now. It is very normal for a manager to take a bit of time to adapt to a new club and a new league

Currently out of the bottom 3 only on goals scored, three points off last place who we play next week, and longer term we’ve only picked up 13 points from the last 17 games which is relegation form across nearly half a season’s worth of fixtures. Maybe it’s a low probability but certainly saying “no risk” of relegation is not based on the reality of the current and recent situation 

9 minutes ago, MWARLEY2 said:

If we were creating loads of chances with his favoured formation i would understand him saying we needed to park the quality and get more power and energy on the pitch. 

But we are distinctly uncreative when we get everyone crowded on the left and push the full back up. 

Yesterday was so much better balanced. And playing that exact team ( maybe with dendoncker for  McGinn)would i am sure score more goals than we do currently. ) Luiz and Kamara can pass a ball. JJ , Watkins and Bailey can run with the ball. 

It wasnt a tweak of a system. It was a change of a system. And the players seemed so much more comfortable within it. 

Yes we were so much more balanced yesterday. Midfielders actually playing in midfield, full backs actually playing in defence, it looked far better. It sounds like pretty basic stuff…. and to be honest it is, which is why there’s this huge question mark over Gerrard in the first place.

The reason I’m not optimistic despite the great result and performance yesterday is my expectation is that we’ll revert to our previous set up in the next games and will run into the same problems as before. Maybe with a bit of confidence we’ll grab a result but I can’t see us progressing long term until that system is dead and buried.

Great result but playing Man City is basically just a one off in terms of their quality and how you have to approach the game. Hopefully the players can take confidence out of the game and start improving now, but I don’t think the game yesterday is any indication of Gerrard’s credentials as manager in the long term, unfortunately. 

I’m not sure on a double pivot with Kamara and Dendoncker as some are suggesting. Both are out and out ball winning defensive midfielders and putting them together they’d both probably want to occupy the same areas of the pitch at the same time, and it would be pretty negative in possession. More realistically a double pivot would work with Luiz who likes to drop deep but is more comfortable in possession and would provide a better link with the defensive units and the more advanced units. But we’ve seen enough of Gerrard now to know he isn’t going to play that way anyway.

11 minutes ago, AV82 said:

I guess Bednarek and Dendoncker are upgrades on Hause and Nakamba?

Yeah probably. Sometimes these boring signings are just what’s needed, ready made reasonable PL players. I’m not sure it’s what we need right now, though… but it seems like these guys or nothing 

8 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Yeah would have loved Gilmour here for that money, I don't see Anthony Gordon much better, 60 million for him, bonkers.

Wasn’t he shite at Norwich, even booed by his own fans which considering how crap Norwich are to be singled out by their fans takes some doing

6 minutes ago, kevpants said:

Remember when his legs went as a player and he was going to drop back into a quarterback type role and dictate the play? Remember how shit he was?

That was because he was tactically inept and couldn’t read the game.

He was a blood and thunder, driving run, 30 yard screamer player. He never understood the game. He was never going to be a top manager. 

Was thinking the same a few days ago, you are dead right when he played in a more tactically-aware position he was shite and was one of the reasons England ended up on the early plane back from Brazil in 2014 

Surely a bad idea to sell our best goal threats at this stage of the window

18 minutes ago, Made In Aston said:

Is Percy saying Gerrard has up to the Southampton game to keep his job?

Well if we lose the next two as expected that would be four on the bounce. If we then fail to beat Leicester or Southampton it's surely curtains for him at that point irregardless of what the current view in the board room is, it would just be untenable for him to continue. I don't think Villa fans would take it lightly if Gerrard was suddenly given all the benefit of the doubt and chances that Dean Smith wasn't afforded - it would quickly turn toxic not just against Gerrard but Purslow and the board too

14 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

I think people make way too much of that. Before those 5 games we lost, we beat man u at old Trafford and our reserves drew with Chelsea in the cup. Both excellent performances. 

Even during those 5 losses, that wolves game we were 5 minutes from being in the top 7 and who knows how holding on in that game changes things. 

We'd also lost major backroom staff, had big injuries and new signings were unable to play together for multiple reasons. 

It really shouldn't have been that difficult for Gerrard to pick us back up, especially when you consider the backing he got in January. Most pundits felt we had the best window. 

I think the idea that this was some difficult long term challenge to get us back around mid table is crazy. 

Smith was looking lost after losing Grealish and had started spiralling into strange tactical decisions and team selections, we needed to make a change but we just needed someone with a fresh set of eyes to assess the squad post-Grealish, to get us back to basics and add a bit of confidence to the players. It should have been a fairly easy job for a good manager. Just capturing the simple bounce back he'd have looked good, but he's made a total hash of all it all round.

A bit of a strange one to be honest, on paper Bednarek is only 26 and has played 130 Premier League starts so if he's available on the cheap then it fixes a whole in our squad. However, there's still of a sense of being underwhelmed as although Bednarek would probably do a job I don't see him pushing the quality of our squad higher. He's always struck me as one of those forgettable bottom half Premier League defenders. 

I guess we often get drawn in by the names of foreign players at exotic clubs abroad who often turn out to be nowhere as good as hoped, so a guy who has a reasonable record in the PL already might not be too bad, particularly is Diego does return by the end of the season

Alarm bells after that pathetic first half performance. We picked them off at the end, fair play but you’d hope for that to happen. In the end far more comfortable than it was looking at one point. Feel like we’ve avoided an absolute disaster tonight but the next game will quickly roll around and is what really counts 

I thought in this day and age it was all done through agents so we should have known the players demands in advance. I guess this type of thing happens to all clubs every now and again, but just adds to the feeling of the club being slightly in disarray at the moment

6 minutes ago, villabromsgrove said:

Three scenario' spring to mind:

1)  Gerrard has had a "road to Damascus" epiphany, and is changing to a 4-4-1-1.

2) Gerrard has been told to retire to his office, and front the club with the media side of things, while Critchley does the coaching and tactics.

3) There's a new manager search underway.

Unfortunately there's a fourth scenario....  Sarr has become available in what is perceived to be a cut-price deal, Gerrard and the club have decided to pounce on the deal but haven't actually worked out how it fits in

So serious question, 90% of fans on here voted to sack him (myself included), is that a reflection of the echo chamber on these types of forums, or has the tide now fully turned against Gerrard now? 
 

There were a few murmurs of discontent at villa park last weekend although ultimately we got the win so everyone left happy. A few of the more optimistic guys I know seem to be less supportive of him. It’s starting to feel a bit negative at the moment but are we at the stage of seeing the cabbages coming out or are there still pockets of support for him?

Cracking player and very exciting if true. However, it's been well stated that we don't really play with wingers so I don't see the logic unless there's a big change in system? It adds more congestion to the squad in an area which I don't think we really know how to proceed with. 

6 minutes ago, nick76 said:

What game did he watch? He has no clue

 

He says "the results on me", something he often says as a throwaway line when we lose, but never elaborates on it or genuinely owns any mistakes he's made in the set up of the team. I don't think he genuinely believes the result is his fault and the written quotes from his reported by Ashley Preece about players needing to find consistency seems to suggest who he really thinks is to blame

13 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

Got no confidence in you, GTFO!

 

The players' fault for not being consistent? Utter tosh