Steven Gerrard

[TRO]

14 minutes ago, ozvillafan said:

I'm not sure what to make of his management just yet.

Certainly we are less expansive and less gung-ho like we were under Smith. You could argue that has tightened us up - but we are shipping goals lately so no, not really.

Conservative? Definitely. Even against Brentford, the midfield 3 were very deep and we largely played with 2 defensive players in the midfield diamond in Luiz and McGinn.

For mine, we don't really have the players to suit his system. The front 3 aren't sorted (Watkins, Buendia + ?). We lack a proper DM since the loss of Nakamba and the delivery from Cash and Targett in the final 3rd is extremely poor considering they are the only players that give us width.

That means a busy January transfer window or square pegs in round holes for the rest of the season - which doesn't bode well.

Still, it's early days. I'd be surprised if we finished top half this season. On to the next, I guess.

We still have too many players not up to it, and we need to get the balance right.

McGinn and Luiz are not defensive minded players, despite them being deployed there......thats one of the reasons we are unbalanced.

We have wingers who can't beat a man on the outside or cross a quality ball.....many things need fixing.

Its not a criticism of SG, its an observation of what we are.....on a day like this we are nowhere near as good as what we think we are.

I would wager half these faces will ge gone by next season.

Edited January 3, 2022 by TRO

[MaVilla]

12 minutes ago, ozvillafan said:

I'm not sure what to make of his management just yet.

Certainly we are less expansive and less gung-ho like we were under Smith. You could argue that has tightened us up - but we are shipping goals lately so no, not really.

Conservative? Definitely. Even against Brentford, the midfield 3 were very deep and we largely played with 2 defensive players in the midfield diamond in Luiz and McGinn.

For mine, we don't really have the players to suit his system. The front 3 aren't sorted (Watkins, Buendia + ?). We lack a proper DM since the loss of Nakamba and the delivery from Cash and Targett in the final 3rd is extremely poor considering they are the only players that give us width.

That means a busy January transfer window or square pegs in round holes for the rest of the season - which doesn't bode well.

Still, it's early days. I'd be surprised if we finished top half this season. On to the next, I guess.

i agree that we currently dont have the players to play his preferred style.

I think Cash can probably play his style (i would debate this point - but he isnt the poorest by a long stretch, so that debate can wait while we solve the bigger issues), Targett can definitely not play the full back slot under Gerrard imo, meaning we need a new left back.

With Axel leaving, we critically need a CB, someone ideally who can challenge Konsa/Mings for the starting slot.

We dont have a proper DM, that will need sorting also, so we need a proper no.6/DM, i think Nakamba did very well while he was fit, but i think we will need Nakamba and A.N Other to compete for that slot, we really, seriously need a proper DM (and have done for a while tbh).

I dont think we have the 10s either, Buendia i think is good enough, Bailey possibly is but we havent seen fully yet whether he suits the style and can stay fit, I dont think Traore, Trez or El Ghazi are probably good enough for both the offensive AND defensive side of the game required by Gerrard, so we need at least 1 x no.10 type player.

I think i could go further, but thats 4 critical roles we need asap (LB/CB/DM/no.10).

 

Problem is though, we need to offload some players in Jan ideally, ie: El Ghazi, Trezeguet as minimum.

 

I think the rest can be addressed in the summer.

 

[Zatman]

I think complaining that players cant pöay his system is on the manager. He should be able to adapt to our players and then wait until the summer to see if he can tweak it

Why play a narrow system with 2 No. 10s when we only have one in the squad and have about 5 wide players. Its strange

[Tom13]

Mountain out of a molehill in here by many.

Smith was not more expansive IMO. Without Grealish, he served up dross football on a regular basis.

Gerrard has us more comfortable on the ball than we saw under Smith this season at all.

If we'd have won today, which we could easily have done, noone would be on his back. We've looked a much stronger outfit in away games, under Smith we would serve up pathetic toothless performances away from home way too often, where we could hardly string two passes together.

PS I'm sick of conceding shots from outside the area that fly into the corner.

Edited January 3, 2022 by Tom13

[KentVillan]

I think people moaning about the manager already after a few games are clearings in the woods

[IrishVilla10]

1 hour ago, Zatman said:

I think complaining that players cant pöay his system is on the manager. He should be able to adapt to our players and then wait until the summer to see if he can tweak it

Why play a narrow system with 2 No. 10s when we only have one in the squad and have about 5 wide players. Its strange

Pep Guardiola isn’t coaching an extra yard of pace into Targett. We have no defensive midfielder. This would be suicide. They know how they want us to play, and that’s what they’ve had success doing in their previous club. To come here and try a new system based on the fact our players may not suit their system yet would result in relegation, the players need to adapt to it. We’re maybe 3/4 signings away from being able to play how they want, so the rest of the squad will be well coached in their roles. Meaning when the new signings do come in it’s a smoother process. Any team in the league could have got a result against us prior to the new coaching staff arriving, we’ve a much better shape now and players in the first half knew exactly what they were doing and where they should be. It was actually great to watch, this is night and day from what we saw before their arrival. 
Just to add I’ve realised I’m saying they and their a lot here, I’m talking about the coaching staff incase that’s not clear 

[CVByrne]

I think Gerrard made a mistake bringing Trez on. I think he has stuck to a mantra of wanting to give everyone minutes on the pitch to see what they are like so he can assess his squad fully. Surely brining on Carney or AEG would have been a better option.

[icouldtelltheworld]

12 hours ago, Zatman said:

Of the 8 games we played we certainly should have been taking points from Brighton, Palace, Leicester, Norwich and Brentford

I broadly agree, but reasonably expecting to take points from a game is very different to going in as clear favourites

[hippo]

1 hour ago, CVByrne said:

I think Gerrard made a mistake bringing Trez on. I think he has stuck to a mantra of wanting to give everyone minutes on the pitch to see what they are like so he can assess his squad fully. Surely brining on Carney or AEG would have been a better option.

Well Stevie G said after the match that we lacked grit. So in that context you can see why he brought Trez on.

[sne]

12 minutes ago, hippo said:

Well Stevie G said after the match that we lacked grit. So in that context you can see why he brought Trez on.

Bit of a miscalculation when your gritty player falls down due to air resistance from a defender waving his arm in front of him  

[hippo]

18 minutes ago, sne said:

Bit of a miscalculation when your gritty player falls down due to air resistance from a defender waving his arm in front of him  

Yeah embarrassing. 

[MaVilla]

i suppose my only concern, and this isnt a Gerrard concern, more of a run of games concern, is we lost to Chelsea/Brentford, we have Manure twice now, then Everton, if we lose both Manure games thats 4 losses on the spin, then resting on the Everton game is 5 losses on the spin (again).

Im not saying this should have any impact on Gerrard, i wont judge gerrard fully until after the summer window, but my point is more, the last thing we need is another 5 game loss streak.

[jacketspuds]

Gerrard needs to get the players to understand that if you can’t win a game, don’t lose it. We have lost the 4th most games this season and, although I don’t expect us to be in any trouble , it’s not ideal. It suggests a mental fragility, not helped by the fact that we have so many inconsistent players in the squad.

Hopefully we will sign some more leaders to get the players to concentrate for the full 90 mins. It has worked for Brighton who are in a good position having drawn a large number of games this season instead of losing them.

[hippo]

19 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

i suppose my only concern, and this isnt a Gerrard concern, more of a run of games concern, is we lost to Chelsea/Brentford, we have Manure twice now, then Everton, if we lose both Manure games thats 4 losses on the spin, then resting on the Everton game is 5 losses on the spin (again).

Im not saying this should have any impact on Gerrard, i wont judge gerrard fully until after the summer window, but my point is more, the last thing we need is another 5 game loss streak.

Talk about getting your excuses in early

[MaVilla]

4 minutes ago, hippo said:

Talk about getting your excuses in early

lol not at all, i dont think its fair to judge Gerrard until he has at least one summer window, and i think he's actually doing really well so far.

I just mean it cant be good for the players losing 2 x 5 game streaks in a row, dunno, maybe it doesnt bother them!

 

[villalad21]

2 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

lol not at all, i dont think its fair to judge Gerrard until he has at least one summer window, and i think he's actually doing really well so far.

That's ridiculous.

We could in theory still get relegated but you won't judge him?

Yes he need his own players in but that does not mean this season is a write off. If we barely survive he will be on very thin ice in my book.

Edited January 3, 2022 by villalad21

[PussEKatt]

Dont forget the top teams did not thrash us apart from Chelski ) we only lost by the odd goal.

[Mark Albrighton]

On 14/11/2021 at 07:33, villalad21 said:

Will 100 % be a relegation battle this season and we've got Smith to thank for that.

If Gerrard manages to salvage a 14th place position he's done an outstanding first season.

 

22 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

That's ridiculous.

We could in theory still get relegated but you won't judge him?

Yes he need his own players in but that does not mean this season is a write off. If we barely survive he will be on very thin ice in my book.

14th “outstanding”

17th “very thin ice”

[Davkaus]

13 hours ago, Zatman said:

I think complaining that players cant pöay his system is on the manager. He should be able to adapt to our players and then wait until the summer to see if he can tweak it

Why play a narrow system with 2 No. 10s when we only have one in the squad and have about 5 wide players. Its strange

Nail on head. We should be picking a system that fits the players we have not forcing his sytem onto a squad if it's not equipped to play that way. You've addressed the No10 situation, but same for fullbacks. If you need two creative attacking fullbacks to provide the only real width, and you're wholly reliant on Targett and Cash, you're going to have a bad time.

Yesterday is the first result I've been really unhappy with since he joined, so I'm certainly not "getting on his back" as some say, but I'm hoping getting a bloody nose from a really rather unimpressive Brentford team gives him something to think about.

[sparrow1988]

37 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

 

14th “outstanding”

17th “very thin ice”

Ah yes, you may laugh and sneer, but have you considered the usually giant chasm between 14th and 17th in terms of points?

20/21 - 5 Pts

19/20 - 8 Pts

18/19 - 9 Pts

17/18 - 5 Pts

16/17 - 1 Pt

15/16 - 4 Pts

14/15 - 3 Pts

And so on...