Steven Gerrard

[NeilS]

1 hour ago, Villan_of_oz said:

Right now what I'm watching is worse than under DS and a bit better than under SB, if this was forecast in our future that we would slowly keep regressing I'd rather have done it under Deano..... I backed Stevie G, liked what he did at Rangers and thought he had the goods. 

People keep saying it's only one match, but how many times are we going to get our pants pulled down buy a bang average team on opening day before we realise we gotta be prepared for high intensity we've got to move the ball quickly to expose any weaknesses in the structure. Put them on the back foot early and say welcome to the PL, you also don't play a short side against a team you know will look to do bits on set pieces.

The way we played, made it so easy for Bournemouth I was stunned. Anyone could see you couldn't just let them sit deep in slow build ups then hoof it long .... I don't even know what I'm talking about and I could see that.

In my opinion, this is the problem caused by conceding the first goal early in the match, something we seem to have done all too often in the last 12 months dating back to the beginning of last season versus Watford away. Most modern PL teams can organise a decent low block, which seems to have no problems keeping our blunt attack at bay. I do wonder what our team do pre match, but 12 games (5 under Deano before he was sacked) out of the last 39 PL games have seen us concede in the first twenty minutes of a match with the Leicester home match being the only one we have come back and won.

Now I am not sure if I am being harsh as I haven't compared to other teams, but 12 out of 39 matches seems like a lot to me! You would think the concentration of the players would be switched on, and they would be instructed to keep it tight for the first twenty minutes.

[Chindie]

21 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

As you say that, I was wondering if he would " crack " under pressure.

But I saw on one of the pods they pointed out that pressure at Rangers is immense, a draw or a loss is alarm bells, they also said he wasn't shy about calling players out when he was there either, so I guess it's not actually a new thing 

Does need to be able to control his emotions better though, but you can tell it's difficult for him, which isn't great.

On the one hand the positive passion is good, it's when things are bad it seems he can make them worse by default.

That pressure is different to this though, because in Scotland you could credibly say that in 99.9% of matches he had the best 11 players on the pitch at any one time. Here things are much more even and even 'weak' sides will give the very best a game. Every match he's being asked a question, and he rarely answers it successfully.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

19 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Covid didnt finish that season in Scotland, Covid break arguably saved his job

Sounds eerily familiar

[nick76]

3 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Sounds eerily familiar

Covid break also knocked the stuffing out of the tremendous 20/21 start under Smith and when we came back from that training ground shut down because of Covid mid season we finished the season poorly and Smith lost his job early next season.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

Just now, nick76 said:

Covid break also knocked the stuffing out of the tremendous 20/21 start under Smith and when we came back from that training ground shut down because of Covid mid season we finished the season poorly and Smith lost his job early next season.

To be fair, I've seen the " Covid break saved xxx " levelled even amongst the likes of Man United.

Fans of a few clubs feel that their teams were much better without the fans/pressure and/or away/home crowd advantages/disadvantages.

[Demitri_C]

My real concern is what gerrards recent actions does to the dressing room. Morale could take a massive hit and we know what can happen.

[VillaChris]

6 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

My real concern is what gerrards recent actions does to the dressing room. Morale could take a massive hit and we know what can happen.

I think Mings will be hugely respected in dressing room so it's a ridiculous decision from him that's going to backfire. I get the feelling a few will be saying to Mings to sit tight as he can easily outlast Gerrard this season.

[MaVilla]

1 hour ago, rodders0223 said:

They did fall out but Watkins looked him in the eyes this morning and now he's captain.

[VillaParkAvenue]

1 hour ago, TheMelvillan said:

Gerrard does have a bit of a chippy personality - he has been reactive and downright rude on a number of occasions to reporters when he thinks they have been rude/ disprespectful or if he simply didnt like the question.

I think we probably all know characters like Gerrard - bit arrogant, bit of a bully, cant always express himself the way he wants, sense of humour bypass

I imagine this trait carries over into the rest of his managerial style - i reckon all it would take would be for a player to give an eyeroll, sigh, funny look, not paying attention, ignoring the manager, not laugh at his joke or whatever for Gerrard to take it thick, take it personally and hold a grudge.

 

it will be interesting to see if the events of the last week or so will prove to be a learning point for Gerrard or if it will just make him more defensive and immovable. There is a huge opportunity here for him to prove his humility, flexibility and adaptability because no one would blame him for mixing the team up for Saturday. Will he hold his hands up, admit he made some errors and change the team or will he stubbornly persevere with his selection? I reckon it will be a very telling microcosm of him as a person and his future in football management how he deals with it all. Genuinely cant remember anticipating a team sheet in ages as I am for Saturday

The worst thing imo is that player selection is only part of the problem. His whole team setup is badly flawed, we often seem to be lacking a game plan and what’s worse, we have no basic but functional way of playing to turn back to if/when things go wrong.

The players actually look lost, like they’re being sent out on the pitch to improvise with the sole instruction of ”go and win this one lads”.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

Was just thinking, I'd actually be interested to know where SG gets his " philosophy " from

Being the type of player he was, you'd think he'd be all for swashbuckling driving through the middle football, but he seems to setup more like a defender.

I feel if we ever get really " good " under him, I feel it will be more of an Atletico Madrid type of good ( Possibly boring ? ) than a Liverpool kind of " good ".

I could OBS be totally off.

Edited August 10, 2022 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[Zhan_Zhuang]

7 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Was just thinking, I'd actually be interested to know where SG gets his " philosophy " from

Being the type of player he was, you'd think he'd be all for swashbuckling driving through the middle football, but he seems to setup more like a defender.

I feel if we ever get really " good " under him, I feel it will be more of an Atletico Madrid type of good ( Possibly boring ? ) than a Liverpool kind of " good ".

I could OBS be totally off.

Gerrard is worried hence the defensive style..

Look at our performance against Bournemouth, Kamara was getting the ball in acres of space and launching it in the box when he could have played a simple pass. This is being taught to the players, demanded of them to launch it or cross the ball into the box. It's total "hit and hope" stuff. 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Zhan_Zhuang

[nick76]

13 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Was just thinking, I'd actually be interested to know where SG gets his " philosophy " from

Being the type of player he was, you'd think he'd be all for swashbuckling driving through the middle football, but he seems to setup more like a defender.

I feel if we ever get really " good " under him, I feel it will be more of an Atletico Madrid type of good ( Possibly boring ? ) than a Liverpool kind of " good ".

I could OBS be totally off.

From his interview a year or so ago I think with Carragher he was a fan of Benitez’s methods when he was Liverpool manager

[PussEKatt]

IMHO SG can certainly talk the talk but so far he has been unable to walk the walk.

[Zatman]

35 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Was just thinking, I'd actually be interested to know where SG gets his " philosophy " from

Being the type of player he was, you'd think he'd be all for swashbuckling driving through the middle football, but he seems to setup more like a defender.

I feel if we ever get really " good " under him, I feel it will be more of an Atletico Madrid type of good ( Possibly boring ? ) than a Liverpool kind of " good ".

I could OBS be totally off.

From the managers he has worked under his negative football is certainly based on Rafa Benitez

[NoelVilla]

19 minutes ago, nick76 said:

From his interview a year or so ago I think with Carragher he was a fan of Benitez’s methods when he was Liverpool manager

and from this post I found this video. Benitez speaks about Liverpool about 8:30. Two holding midfielders.

 

[PussEKatt]

I was right behind SG right from the start,I was even excited about him bieng our manager....but now,im beginning to wonder if he has all of his marbles ( as far as a manager ) is concerned.He just KEEPS ON making the same BASIC mistakes week after week.Playing Coutinho,not playng Buendia till the second half ( when we are behind already ) persisting with 2 strikers that have scored a grand total of 1 penalty  all through pre season and now into the regular season.Also,rather alarminghly apparently we have only won 2 of our last 13 games under SG ?!

[dont_do_it_doug.]

Gerrards win%

29 games, 10 wins = 34.4%

23 games, 6 wins = 26.1%

12 games, 2 wins = 16.7%

Progress.

[daft]

20 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

Gerrards win%

29 games, 10 wins = 34.4%

23 games, 6 wins = 26.1%

12 games, 2 wins = 16.7%

Progress.

1 game 0%.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

50 minutes ago, daft said:

1 game 0%.

5 games*

[Keyblade]

1 hour ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

Gerrards win%

29 games, 10 wins = 34.4%

23 games, 6 wins = 26.1%

12 games, 2 wins = 16.7%

Progress.

It's even worse when you think about how few games we draw (weird thing to say as a Villa fan, that's one thing that's certainly changed). If we're not winning, we're usually losing.