Zatman Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 44 minutes ago, Tom13 said: Played well tonight, but I'm getting a bit **** fed up of losing to the 'top' sides. We need to start getting results against them. the other 3 we lost to are understandable but this team tonight were absolute garbage. We really should get a result at the weekend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinker Posted January 10, 2022 VT Supporter Share Posted January 10, 2022 1 minute ago, jimmygreaves said: Smith beat a better performing utd side with these very same players. He did and I'm not saying Smith wouldn't have beat utd tonight either. Gerrard is our future for now but it took more than a few games for me to be convinced by Smith and i have a feeling it will take more than a few with Gerrard as well. His subs were certainly questionable today but he did have a limited choice. Ings and Watkins....is a problem that he needs to solve ASAP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmygreaves Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 (edited) 5 minutes ago, hippo said: Thing is there was such a hard on for Gerard - the totally ridiculous salary for a guy who only managed in a poor league. Basically it seems NSWE will chuck absolutely everything to ensure Stevie G is a success. If he isn't god knows where that leaves us. This also my worry... Could all go a bit MON shaped couldn't it? Edited January 10, 2022 by jimmygreaves 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvonVillain Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 1 minute ago, Phil Silvers said: Do me a favour, we were the better team, we got cheated and the managers shit, behave yourselves. Fair play, mate... but those poorly timed subs made so little sense we might as well have had Gary Mac still making such decisions for another week. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted January 10, 2022 VT Supporter Share Posted January 10, 2022 For what it’s worth we had a rather ropey spell during the first winters under Bruce and Smith so it does feel a bit as you were. Almost like a tradition now. In both those previous cases I’d written the season off and just wanted to see what they could do for the remainder. We did then noticeably improve on both occasions. Same applies with Gerrard, the season for me now is just to work out who’s here with us going forward, who needs to come in and how they’re going to play together next season. Following the Grealish exit, this was always going to be a transitional season, although it’s turned out to be a bit more transitional than I thought it would. No do or die goals for the season, technically Europe is not completely out of the question but it is not on my radar at all. A top half finish is what I’m hoping for. I reckon as before with the bad winter form under previous regimes, it will pick up soon. We’ll be alright with plenty to look forward to. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 38 minutes ago, VillaJay said: Very Klopp Liverpool-like tonight in performance, just without the world class full backs and forwards. Coutinho and Digne would elevate this team into a top 10 certainty in my mind and 2 more from challenging top 8. He needs to be Klopp on the touchline and intimidating the weak officials. It is something Terry used to do and gets into the refs head. I am not a fan of it but if the refs are dodgy then it is needed 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 Just now, jimmygreaves said: This also my worry... Could all go a bit MON shaped couldn't it? Yep exactly. Give Stevie G £200m + and we're still bottom half - won't they think feck this ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 7 minutes ago, hippo said: I was expecting one after Brentford. We played well for most of tonight unless I missed something. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 5 minutes ago, vreitti said: Feels like we've heard this before. We lost v Man. City, we beat Leicester three days later. We lost to Liverpool and comfortably beat Norwich. We lost to Brentford and played well tonight so don't really get the we never respond well from setbacks narrative. We'll be bang at it on Saturday especially as atmosphere will be electric when Coutinho's name is read out. I'm fully expecting Oliver to be appointed ref for the prem game now so have to factor stuff like that in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 (edited) 2 minutes ago, hippo said: The last 20 minutes would be my guess. Think we just tired tbh. Players also got frustrated after the two goals offside and lost a bit of belief going forward. Think one criticism like Brentford is I'm not sure he timed his subs again that well. He was great early games at deciding when to make changes to keep momentum going, less so tonight and last week. Edited January 10, 2022 by VillaChris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 Just now, Zatman said: Under a manager you criticized for 3 years now you use his results as a bar Smith was good compared to a guy who may end up being a fraud. If Gerrard flops that doesn't make Smith good. The sacking was a correct decision. Jury still out whether Gerrard was the right replacement. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 2 minutes ago, Mantis said: I love how you've basically already gamed out the next several seasons in your head and judged Gerrard based on that. Fair point. What I am saying is this appointment is very high stakes. This goes arse upwards I wonder where go as a football club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 11 minutes ago, Phil Silvers said: Do me a favour, we were the better team, we got cheated and the managers shit, behave yourselves. It's actually been quite exhaustive reading recently.... I'm legit bemused these days. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 Just now, hippo said: Fair point. What I am saying is this appointment is very high stakes. This goes arse upwards I wonder where go as a football club. Depends what the metric is really. Short term demand to finish top 6 and win trophy. Tough but not impossible ask. Finish top 10 this season and 7th-8th next season, that's good year on year progress and achieveable if we make the right signings in next six months. This reminds me a bit of when O'Neill first came in tbh. Loads of hype, a very good and surprising start then we had a long winless run around December/Jan IIRC before finishing strongly. Next season we finished 6th. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmygreaves Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 1 minute ago, VillaChris said: We lost v Man. City, we beat Leicester three days later. We lost to Liverpool and comfortably beat Norwich. We lost to Brentford and played well tonight so don't really get the we never respond well from setbacks narrative. We'll be bang at it on Saturday especially as atmosphere will be electric when Coutinho's name is read out. I'm fully expecting Oliver to be appointed ref for the prem game now so have to factor stuff like that in. Weird isn't it - pissed we lost a winable game in the cup but there's a strong chance we take 6 points off them in the league. Rather still be in the cup though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 I'm sick to death of hearing "we played well" but we keep losing. Reality is we are losing because we can't defend. Gerrard has not sorted that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoony Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 Just now, villalad21 said: I'm sick to death of hearing "we played well" but we keep losing. Reality is we are losing because we can't defend. Gerrard has not sorted that We defend shit because our defenders are shit. Mings is nowhere near good enough, Targett was horrific today and Konsa is questionable this season. There’s only so much Gerrard can do at the mo. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Silvers Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 Just now, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said: It's actually been quite exhaustive reading recently.... I'm legit bemused these days. The manager hasn't had long enough to assemble his team and to get them playing the way he want's. That said we've gone up they and more than matched them, we've had a ref that's let the ManU players kick chunks out of our lads for an hour I think before HAVING to get his card out to stop embarrassing himself and VAR catches itself out and cheats us out of a goal. I'd say the manager deserves a little bit of slack. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 Just now, Spoony said: We defend shit because our defenders are shit. Mings is nowhere near good enough, Targett was horrific today and Konsa is questionable this season. There’s only so much Gerrard can do at the mo. They were very good last season defensively. So obviously it's possible to get a tune out of them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 5 minutes ago, hippo said: Fair point. What I am saying is this appointment is very high stakes. This goes arse upwards I wonder where go as a football club. But surely that was always going to be the case regardless of who we appointed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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