Steven Gerrard

[hippo]

1 minute ago, VillaChris said:

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.

O Neil had massively more experience than Stevie G. He had a much more established track record.

He also took over a villa team starved of investment for many years.

Stevie has a squad that finished 11th last season. Won away at OT a few weeks earlier and probably the best goalkeeper in my lifetime. 

[jimmygreaves]

4 minutes ago, 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. 

Interesting that Ings isn't mentioned for doing as little as possible to stop the cross for the goal in the first place. The ball shouldn't have got anywhere near the box.

Equally the manager could have taken steps to reduce the pressure on the defence.

Edited January 10, 2022 by jimmygreaves

[Mantis]

Just now, hippo said:

O Neil had massively more experience than Stevie G. He had a much more established track record.

He also took over a villa team starved of investment for many years.

Stevie has a squad that finished 11th last season. Won away at OT a few weeks earlier and probably the best goalkeeper in my lifetime. 

Ok but we then lost five on the bounce after that (and played crap as well) so what's your point exactly?

[VillaChris]

1 minute ago, villalad21 said:

They were very good last season defensively. 

So obviously it's possible to get a tune out of them 

Largely our defensive stats are still good under Gerrard....11 goals conceded in 8 games. We conceded 13 goals in the 5 games before he turned up.

Was a really poor goal to concede tonight though. Similar to just letting Lukaku have a free header two weeks ago.

[hippo]

2 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

They were very good last season defensively. 

So obviously it's possible to get a tune out of them 

If Stevie G decides Konsa and Mings aren't good enough. I'd be interested to see what clubs would think they are.

And who Gerrard gets in as replacements.!!!

[PieFacE]

We were fine. We do need to be stronger mentally and continue to make the right decisions during games when things don't go our way. I feel our squad are kinda weak mentally, adding a few experienced players in Coutinho and Digne should help.

[ciggiesnbeer]

The league is far more important. We shall see how that games goes. This was a game where I was actually pretty happy with the team performance. I agree though we could have made some different subs earlier but my sense was our subs were essentially conceding we had lost the game and saving our players for Saturday rather than any attempt to win it. But maybe I am being overly harsh on Gerrard. The subs certainly didnt help in terms of timing or selection,

[VillaChris]

2 minutes ago, hippo said:

O Neil had massively more experience than Stevie G. He had a much more established track record.

He also took over a villa team starved of investment for many years.

Stevie has a squad that finished 11th last season. Won away at OT a few weeks earlier and probably the best goalkeeper in my lifetime. 

So we should be finishing above some of West Ham, Arsenal, Man. United and Spurs?

8th is still achieveable. Wolves 6 clear of us but many teams have been more adrift at halfway point of season and finished ahead.

Given the disruption pre season and managerial change so soon I'm not sure how anyone can say that isn't good enough metric in short term. I'd be happy with 10th personally.

[hippo]

1 minute ago, Mantis said:

Ok but we then lost five on the bounce after that (and played crap as well) so what's your point exactly?

Sorry my point was the villa o Neil took over was in a much poorer state than the one Stevie G took over.

Not controversial I wouldn't have thought ?

[andym]

The approach defensively, i.e. keep it narrow, force the opposition wide to cross, and rely on Mings/Konsa to head clear, is no different to under Smith really. It's basically what he turned to after the first lockdown a couple of years ago, and what improved us drastically. We got away from that towards the end of his tenure.

Overall in games under Gerrard we have reduced the chances the opposition are getting, and we are winning the ball back higher up the pitch with more pressing from the front; the problem is we are shooting ourselves in the foot with sloppy moments where we switch off and give good chances away - Brentford pretty much got near our goal just twice the other day, yet scored both chances. As per the start of this season under Smith, we still have a tendency to get loose positionally at times; we don't stay close enough to each other and it means we get played through or a player gets isolated 2 on 1.

Going forward the biggest difference i've noticed is also trying to avoid big spaces between players, and always having options for the man on the ball; we've played some really nice stuff again tonight where the midfield and front 3 are linking up with some quite intricate passing. We also seem to be attempting through balls more. Previously (and this was a hang over from Grealish i think), there too often would be no support for the player on the ball, so they just had to resort to chucking it down the line. They had got too comfy giving it to Jack, then just waiting for him to beat 3 or 4 players. Again, we still lapse back into this at times.

Decision making in the final third is the biggest big problem at the moment; we are working it nicely up to and around the box, but then lacking that clinical edge. We are not taking advantage of when we dominate periods of games (and we dominated the majority of tonight) by actually sticking the ball in the net.

 

[hippo]

Just now, VillaChris said:

So we should be finishing above some of West Ham, Arsenal, Man. United and Spurs?

8th is still achieveable. Wolves 6 clear of us but many teams have been more adrift at halfway point of season and finished ahead.

Given the disruption pre season and managerial change so soon I'm not sure how anyone can say that isn't good enough metric in short term. I'd be happy with 10th personally.

Oh yeah 10th would do me fine. Totally agree. But I'm not confident of 10th right now. 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

" I'm not going to stand here and talk about luck, it's clear why we've lost this "

" We need to go from NEARLY to good enough "

Edited January 10, 2022 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[Mantis]

I still think Nakamba's absence isn't getting mentioned enough. We've definitely looked less defensively solid since he's been out and I think the way Gerrard wants us to play relies on us having a certain type of DM in the midfield (which Luiz isn't).

 

[MaVilla]

has Gerrard made any comments about transfers tonight?

[ciggiesnbeer]

"Me and the players need to address the gaps. No excuses."

Good for him.

[hippo]

3 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

 

Boo ! - I thought it was a Farley's !

Can't believe he's rolled over on that VAR - there might be another on Saturday - he should be telling the whole world we have been cheated out of the FA cup. Puts it in the officials mind for Saturday. (What would Klopp/tuchell be saying)

He looks to have aged in the few weeks he's been here already.

 

[Phil Silvers]

One more thing on Gerrard criticism on top of the above post, Konza gets a smack in the face that brings him down in their box, not even checked by VAR, if that up the other end it gets given by every ref and every VAR operator in the game today. The blood pouring out of his nose might have given a clue that there was contact, but it's old trafford. We should have had a penalty.

Edited January 10, 2022 by Phil Silvers

[hippo]

6 minutes ago, Mantis said:

I still think Nakamba's absence isn't getting mentioned enough. We've definitely looked less defensively solid since he's been out and I think the way Gerrard wants us to play relies on us having a certain type of DM in the midfield (which Luiz isn't).

 

Seriously wtf ??? - sure hes a loss - but come on ? Nkamba is a player of nominal ability , great tackling, but his wayward passing often leads to opposition chances .

If an injury to one of last season fringe players derails us I'm seriously worried.

[Spoony]

6 minutes ago, hippo said:

Boo ! - I thought it was a Farley's !

Can't believe he's rolled over on that VAR - there might be another on Saturday - he should be telling the whole world we have been cheated out of the FA cup. Puts it in the officials mind for Saturday. (What would Klopp/tuchell be saying)

He looks to have aged in the few weeks he's been here already.

 

What’s the point? Doesn’t matter if you’re Villa manager. 

[Mantis]

1 minute ago, hippo said:

Seriously wtf ??? - sure hes a loss - but come on ? Nkamba is a player of nominal ability , great tackling, but his wayward passing often leads to opposition chances .

If an injury to one of last season fringe players derails us I'm seriously worried.

He was playing some of his best football so far here under Gerrard and it hasn't "derailed" us but if the system Gerrard wants to implement relies on us having a good tackler to sit in front of the back 4 then it makes sense that we've lost some of our defensive solidity since the one player we have in the squad who can do that well has been injured. It's why getting a good DM in is crucial this month.