Gerard Houllier

[garyshawsknee]

I'm losing patience quicker than I should, I still believe we need to give him until the summer, it's absurd to sack a manager without giving him the chance to bring in some players of his own liking, he inherited a bad situation, caused by MON who left at a time to cause maximum damage.

However, the pathetic defensive displays just go on and on, we don't close the opposition down, we don't track runners, we don't do the basics and you have to look at the tactics and the coaching here and Houllier has to address this, we have been piss poor defensively all season, this is why I'm losing patience with him, we have decent defenders but something is woefully wrong with how they're defending.

 I agree,but it worries me how bad our battling and defending has become. In no way am i comparing the two,but when M'ON took over he inherited some young and some average players before he bought Petrov in,but he made us a hard working team,and we done the basic things well.

 GH has been in the game long enough to know you have to do this first with a new team,and though some of the players should be moved on,theyre still good enough to do these basic duties.

[Concrete John]

To those who want to give GH time, I would like to ask a genuine question, I'm not being funny or picky, but would like to know what have you seen that makes you believe that more time and more games will improve things for the manager at the club ?

This is a position I am slowly getting to myself.

Yes, sacking someone after 4 months is ridiculous on the face of things, but I think what we are seeing is us getting worse and not better.  We all said once the injuries clear up we'll be better, yet over the last few games we've had Delph, Petrov, NRC and Heskey back, yet performances have been as bad as any under Houllier.

Do I want him sacked?  Yes, although it would be so unfair that were it my decision I'd give him more time to turn it around.
Do I think he will turn it around?  Increasingly no.   

[NeilH]

We have no choice but to support, no matter what our feelings are. For the sake of the kids who do care we have to stick with them.

I think GH has got a monumental job on his hands to try and get the overpaid senior morons at the club to find an modicum of form or pride in the job they do in order to relieve the burden on the kids and collect enough points to finish outside the bottom 3. Do I think he's good enough, possibly, possibly not? However, the question remains redundant because the board won't pull the trigger and that's why right now I am extremely depressed about the sorry state of the club.

[Jimbo]

I would have liked to have given Houllier at least a season and a couple of transfer windows for him to mould his own team. If we were muddling around mid-table right now, that's exactly what I'd like. But we're not. We're in free-fall and it's in no small part down to him. Whatever he has done, he's managed to turn players against him. They clearly do not want to play for him - you have to be blind not to be able to see that. And since players hold all the power in the game these days, it simply spells the end for him. Sooner or later, he'll have to go. So why waste time in an impossible situation? He has to go now so we can try to turn this around.

All that stuff about doing the decent thing, believing in the manager and giving him a fair chance has gone out of the window because of player power. We either wake up to it - immediately - or we pay the consequences. The attitudes of our players stink like shit, yet they have the basic ability to get us out of this mess. We need a manager who can get those players to apply their ability until we are safe, then we can start clearing them out if necessary and rebuild. Transition I will accept, relegation I can't. 

[Risso]

It is a sorry state Neil.  I am absolutely convinced that Houllier will get us relegated, such has been the negative impact on the club since his arrival.  A change would be another upheaval I agree, but would at least give us a chance of staying up.  Under Houllier I think we'll end up in a Sunderland from a few seasons ago total collapse.

[Holte L2]

The negative impact upon his arrival has been massive.  I think it's time we cut our losses now and get rid before the situation gets worse. We still havent hit rock bottom yet.  We need a serious motivator to come in and lift the players for the remainder of the season.  We are now clearly in a relagation battle.  I hate to say it but Big Sam could be that man.  He's been in this situation before so knows what needs to be done.  On the plus side, he has fantastic scouting contacts. 

Though, I'm still convinced we could get Coyle at Villa Park if we offer Garside a good package.

[levico]

I would have liked to have given Houllier at least a season and a couple of transfer windows for him to mould his own team. If we were muddling around mid-table right now, that's exactly what I'd like. But we're not. We're in free-fall and it's in no small part down to him. Whatever he has done, he's managed to turn players against him. They clearly do not want to play for him - you have to be blind not to be able to see that. And since players hold all the power in the game these days, it simply spells the end for him. Sooner or later, he'll have to go. So why waste time in an impossible situation? He has to go now so we can try to turn this around.

All that stuff about doing the decent thing, believing in the manager and giving him a fair chance has gone out of the window because of player power. We either wake up to it - immediately - or we pay the consequences. The attitudes of our players stink like shit, yet they have the basic ability to get us out of this mess. We need a manager who can get those players to apply their ability until we are safe, then we can start clearing them out if necessary and rebuild. Transition I will accept, relegation I can't. 

Well said

[Concrete John]

I am absolutely convinced that Houllier will get us relegated

I'm not - I think we've enough winnable home game in the 2nd half of the season to gbet enough points to be a PL side in 2011/2012.  What I'm not convinced about is his ability to get us back to where we were, as in top 6 and challenging for top 4, no matter what Randy gives him to spend.

[SteveD]

I think the Sunderland and Sheff Utd games are a crucial test of the team's mettle and Houllier's abilities to turn things around. Ideally, we should be going to Chelsea, who are probably on a worse run that us, and put them under pressure and fancy some sort of result but I can see nothing but capitulation again. If we can't get results though at the games that follow, the club must seriously question whether he is able to fix this - or that the players want to be fixed by him.

There is something seriously wrong when a squad which was admittedly greater than the sum of its parts under MON is way below what it was achieving. I'm sure Houllier was a decent candidate for a job which should have involved gradually weeding out some high earners on the fringes and bringing on some youngsters - with the club comfortably midtable knocking on the door of Europe again. But he doesn't look like a man to get us out of a downward spiral or help us "kick on" -  a phrase laughingly used by some fans who thought last season was sterile. OK, he has not been helped by injuries to key players (I'd like to know if the new training regime is a factor here) but I'm flabbergasted that week after week our defence is disorganised and we appear demotivated. He might be a nice guy, we might consider ourselves a "nice" club, but sorry, he's getting paid a huge salary and failure is not an option.

[Greg N'Ash]

so we're faced with sacking the manager and sticking with the players who've shown no passion for the team and even less technical ability in the hope someone else can at least get them playing a bit? not much of an option is it? They could be just as useless under a new manager

[levico]

Jimbo is spot on. In a situation where we were not haunted by the possibility of relegation, most of us would give GH more time. We just don't have that luxury - there is no evidence whatsoever that he can turn things around. To think otherwise is just delusion. Villa can go down and will go down if GH is still with us on 1st February.

[Jimbo]

so we're faced with sacking the manager and sticking with the players who've shown no passion for the team and even less technical ability in the hope someone else can at least get them playing a bit? not much of an option is it? They could be just as useless under a new manager

They weren't just as useless under the last manager.

[Greg N'Ash]

oh a lot of them were. thats why MON didn't play 'em

[NeilH]

I am absolutely convinced that Houllier will get us relegated

I'm not - I think we've enough winnable home game in the 2nd half of the season to gbet enough points to be a PL side in 2011/2012.  What I'm not convinced about is his ability to get us back to where we were, as in top 6 and challenging for top 4, no matter what Randy gives him to spend.

I think that the West Brom game demonstrates that we can just about hold on. It does not alter a single thing, but I agree that we have just about enough in the tank to at least maintain our PL status. I wouldn't want to bet my house on it though and the Fulham game in a few weeks is surely the litmus test.

[Concrete John]

oh a lot of them were. thats why MON didn't play 'em

We can argue about the merits, or lack thereof, of our previous manager until we're blue in the face, but for whatever reason he did get more out of this group than Houllier has thus far.