Steven Gerrard

[Rodders]

On 11/11/2021 at 10:28, TrentVilla said:

 

This appointment won't be universally popular (very few are) especially given many didn't want us to make a change in the first place but Gerrard is here and his staff will soon follow.

It is abundantly clear that this was a one man race, the other names in the media were little more than press specualtion. The club (or Purslow) identified who they wanted, probably quite some time ago and they went and got him, the merits or otherwise of that decision will become clear in the sand of time but once again the owners have acted to try and take the club forward...

I wouldn't have picked Gerrard and I know many others wouldn't have done but I think we have to back the judgement of those running the club who have got very little wrong so far in their tenure, we all certainly have to back him regardless of views on Smith or other candidates.

I think we also have to credit Purslow for going and getting the man they wanted, regardless of if we think it is the right man, Purslow and these guys get things done.

This is an ambitious appointment, it is a brave appointment with risk for both parties but with an equal amount of ambition from both....

Exciting times ahead I feel, one thing is for sure at least he will be able to sort out central midfield!!!!

 

 

 

 

Just going back to see the early thoughts when he arrived...

 

The one thing you'd think he'd have been able to sort by now

[Davkaus]

1 hour ago, The_Steve said:

Respect his comments about picking a strong side out of respect for those who made the trip and how important the cup and fans are to him. 

You believe him?  

[The_Steve]

1 minute ago, Davkaus said:

You believe him?  

Of course. Why wouldn’t I? That’s a really cynical perspective. He’s the manager. 

[Thug]

1 minute ago, The_Steve said:

Of course. Why wouldn’t I? That’s a really cynical perspective. He’s the manager. 

Lol.

so saving his own bacon wasn’t on his agenda at all?

[Davkaus]

Just now, The_Steve said:

Of course. Why wouldn’t I? That’s a really cynical perspective. He’s the manager. 

It suggests it'd be disrespectful to give a handful of younger squad players a go in the second round of the cup against opponents 2 divisions below us. I don't believe that for a moment, and if you truly believe we'd have played such a strong team if we'd not been incredibly poor this season, I have a bridge to sell you.

He's feeling the heat, and bullshitting about the reasons for his selection. Call me cynical, I call it realism.

[Thug]

7 minutes ago, Rodders said:

Just going back to see the early thoughts when he arrived...

 

The one thing you'd think he'd have been able to sort by now

Lovely post by @TrentVilla at the time.  Have a retrospective virtual like.

[Zatman]

1 minute ago, The_Steve said:

Of course. Why wouldn’t I? That’s a really cynical perspective. He’s the manager. 

He played his full team last night vs Bolton reserves to save his job

[duke313]

3 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

Of course. Why wouldn’t I? That’s a really cynical perspective. He’s the manager. 

He's hardly going to come out and say "we're playing crap at the minute because of my shit tactics, and I need a good result here because i'm under pressure"

[tinker]

I think Smith was sacked not only because of the results but because Gerrard was available and Purslow thought it was a good opportunity to improve us. Plenty of us novices saw the risk in this appointment and I truly believe Purslows judgement was distorted by his admiration for Gerrard as a player, some of our fans have also followed this line.

With all these stats flying around has any manager ever dramatically increased their PPG after 12 months?  Arteta's stint at Arsenal seems to be one but is this common?

I hope Gerrard can turn this around but I very much doubt he can from what we have seen so far. It's not just his ability it's the managers who he's up against, they seem to be able to read his game plan and devise styles to counteract it, we look very vunerable to the counter attack and look pretty clueless in a creativity, despite having some fantastic players. Defending set pieces is comical.

Fingers crossed we can beat West Ham, a good opportunity to build confidence, Moyes is the type of manager Gerrard may get the better of. 

If we have to pick another manager then I hope Purslow takes a long hard look at it this time. If wasn't for our owners Gerrard's appointment might have been catastrophic for the whole club. 

 

[Hobsons Choice]

4 minutes ago, tinker said:

I think Smith was sacked not only because of the results but because Gerrard was available and Purslow thought it was a good opportunity to improve us. Plenty of us novices saw the risk in this appointment and I truly believe Purslows judgement was distorted by his admiration for Gerrard as a player, some of our fans have also followed this line.

With all these stats flying around has any manager ever dramatically increased their PPG after 12 months?  Arteta's stint at Arsenal seems to be one but is this common?

I hope Gerrard can turn this around but I very much doubt he can from what we have seen so far. It's not just his ability it's the managers who he's up against, they seem to be able to read his game plan and devise styles to counteract it, we look very vunerable to the counter attack and look pretty clueless in a creativity, despite having some fantastic players. Defending set pieces is comical.

Fingers crossed we can beat West Ham, a good opportunity to build confidence, Moyes is the type of manager Gerrard may get the better of. 

If we have to pick another manager then I hope Purslow takes a long hard look at it this time. If wasn't for our owners Gerrard's appointment might have been catastrophic for the whole club. 

 

Well I would say that no statistician ever asked for fewer data points, which for me at least is why I'd say I want more time to see what happens before getting rid. A win at west ham and the table would look very much more positive, and statistically at least would provide some evidence of progress. But realistically, I'd want to see where we are at the end of September. 

 

 

[The_Steve]

13 minutes ago, Zatman said:

He played his full team last night vs Bolton reserves to save his job

Rubbish. As I and others pointed out that wasn’t the case. Lads needed a confidence boost and they take the cup seriously. Take those tinted shades off mate. 

[The_Steve]

25 minutes ago, duke313 said:

He's hardly going to come out and say "we're playing crap at the minute because of my shit tactics, and I need a good result here because i'm under pressure"

Well duh. This is just picking holes for the sack of it.

[CVByrne]

Last 10 PL games - Draw Won Won Lost Draw Draw Lost - Lost Won Lost

That 10 game form has us on course for a 46 point season. 1 Point better than last season.

[useless]

Gerrard has mentioned on numerous occasions that we need to do better in the cups, it seems it's something he's taking very seriously, so I think it was always likely that we would name a strong team, to put a marker down and show we mean business, away to Bolton a team doing well, could have been potential banana skin, that's why it was chosen for TV, you don't really want to be taking too many risks, as it happens Bolton named a weakend team, but we weren't to know they would do that.

Also when you look at it I'm not sure he had much choice in terms of options, I'm pretty sure that Archer and Iroegbunam didn't start because either they're going out on loan or it's a strong possibility, as Gerrard himself hinted at before the game, so not sure why there was surprise that they didn't start, other than Feeney all our other youngsters are either already out on loan, injured, or not yet ready for first team football.

Beyond not playing some of the youngsters for which there were sound logical reasons, not sure what else he could have done, other than maybe give Olsen and Feeney a game, Augustinsson was injured so he couldn't play, maybe Konsa instead of Mings to try and help with his confidence, he made five changes to the team that played Palace.I'm frankly glad the likes of Guilbert, Sanson, and El Ghazi didn't play, it's obvious that for whatever the reasons, rightly or wrong that they're not part of the plans, so would rather give game time to the players that are going to play a part this season.

It was a strong team because we have a strong squad, whereas in previous seasons making changes for cups meant we would bring in the likes of Trezeguet, Hourihane and El Ghazi, now we can bring in the likes of Coutinho, Luiz and Ings.

I'm not even trying to defend Gerrard I doubt last night's result has any bearings on his future whatsoever, only way it will make a difference is if the good result gives the players some confidence and they now go and turn the league form around, but as it is we're still in the midst of a bad run of form league wise, so there's still going to be pressure on him for the West ham game, lose that and it could be the beginning of the end for him.

Edited August 24, 2022 by useless

[Villan_of_oz]

2 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

Last 10 PL games - Draw Won Won Lost Draw Draw Lost - Lost Won Lost

That 10 game form has us on course for a 46 point season. 1 Point better than last season.

Make it the last 7 pl games and we're on track for about 28 points....

 

 

[duke313]

2 minutes ago, useless said:

Gerrard has mentioned on numerous occasions that we need to do better in the cups, it seems it's something he's taking very seriously, so I think it was always likely that we would name a strong team, to put a marker down and show we mean business, away to Bolton a team doing well, could have been potential banana skin, that's why it was chosen for TV, you don't really want to be taking too many risks, as it happens Bolton named a weakend team, but we weren't to know they would do that.

Also when you look at it I'm not sure he had much choice in terms of options, I'm pretty sure that Archer and Iroegbunam didn't start because either they're going out on loan or it's a strong possibility, as Gerrard himself hinted at before the game, so not sure why there was surprise that they didn't start, other than Feeney all our other youngsters are either already out on loan, injured, or not yet ready for first team football.

Beyond not playing some of the youngsters for which there were sound logical reasons, not sure what else he could have done, other than maybe give Olsen and Feeney a game, Augustinsson was injured so he couldn't play, maybe Konsa instead of Mings to try and help with his confidence, he made five changes to the team that played Palace.I'm frankly glad the likes of Guilbert, Sanson, and El Ghazi didn't play, it's obvious that for whatever the reasons, rightly or wrong that they're not part of the plans, so would rather give game time to the players that are going to play a part this season.

It was a strong team because we have a strong squad, whereas in previous seasons making changes for cups meant we would bring in the likes of Trezeguet, Hourihane and El Ghazi, now we can bring in the likes of Coutinho, Luiz and Buendia.

I'm not even trying to defend Gerrard I doubt last night's result has any bearings on his future whatsoever, only way it will make a difference is if the good result gives the players some confidence and they now go and turn the league form around, but as it is we're still in the midst of a bad run of form league wise, so there's still going to be pressure on him for the West ham game, lose that and it could be the beginning of the end for him.

My issue wasn't so much with the strength of the squad, just that he's persisting with the same shit system.

[rodders0223]

19 hours ago, The_Steve said:

Rubbish. As I and others pointed out that wasn’t the case. Lads needed a confidence boost and they take the cup seriously. Take those tinted shades off mate. 

PL footballers on 50k a week don't get morale boasts from beating a league 1 reserve side. It's not football manager.

I'd imaging half that team were actually questioning why they had to travel to Bolton on a Tuesday night when a full rotation  should be fully capable of getting the job done.

Gerrard played that side because he needed the win for his job prospects and because he truly deep down thinks he's incapable of winning it without a full strength.

He's an absolute joke of a manager. Up there with the worst we have had in PL years.

[CVByrne]

3 minutes ago, Villan_of_oz said:

Make it the last 7 pl games and we're on track for about 28 points....

 

 

Make it since Gerrard came in and we're on for 10th

We can do lots

[KentVillan]

35 minutes ago, tinker said:

With all these stats flying around has any manager ever dramatically increased their PPG after 12 months?  Arteta's stint at Arsenal seems to be one but is this common?

 

I would guess Ferguson, Klopp, possibly Pochettino… arguably Dyche at Burnley depending on how you calculate it. If we ignore the Championship, then Smith’s second PL season was a big improvement. It definitely does happen, but it’s not the norm.

[Villan_of_oz]

7 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

Make it since Gerrard came in and we're on for 10th

We can do lots.

Yes we can

Edited August 24, 2022 by Villan_of_oz