Remi Garde - Departs Aston Villa

[Ron Manager]

I feel sorry for the new manager. He is on a hiding to nothing and may live to regret his decision to take on this club. Why should he? Well he probably doesn't know a lot about the playing staff
but last night will have helped.Tom Fox has not succeeded in getting him the back up staff he needed and he will have very little say on incoming transfers.Kevin Macdonald will no doubt be dispensed with pretty sharpish but in any case appears to have his own agenda which means Garde will spend around a month finding  out what he has got.We haven't got a month he needs to hit the ground running and be absolutely ruthless without the required information.

As we know he has some talented players to work with.I won't name them because you all know who they are.He also has some truly dreadful professionals who are mainly in the team.

Remi Garde has a mountain of work to get through.I hope he is up to this task.

As I said I feel sorry for him.

[Mister E]

Maybe I'm being overly optimistic, or perhaps naive...but I think if Garde is anything close to decent we will survive - it's only 4 points to safety. Not like we're adrift, 10 points away from 17th with 3 games to go (yet).

Correct. You'd think by some of the statements we were miles off everyone else. It's not like Norwich, Bournemouth, Sunderland, Newcastle to name 4 are all going to win out. They will all drop points too, and none of those sides are playing that well. It's not going to be easy and winning just one game would be a start, but there is nothing impossible about the task. We just have to get that win soon, or at least a point so we can create a foundation to build from.

He is going to need to quickly identify the problems and find a way to address them otherwise the gap will start to stretch. We have fundamental problems in that we regularly concede soft goals, create too few chances ourselves and appear to have few obvious goal scorers in the squad. Of course it not impossible but there is very little leeway.

agreed, Chris; our current prognosis is really poor. Last night's game summed up the levels of mediocrity to which we've sunk.
I also endorse Frank's nephew's comments about our ineptitude with set pieces. Ever since the MON days, we have been gash at exploiting and defending set pieces and successive managers have failed to address the issues. It was Alladyce who first shared the stats that set pieces are responsible for a significant proportion of goals scored: if a team cannot exploit them they are already starting a game at a substantial disadvantage.

[VillaAlways]

Maybe I'm being overly optimistic, or perhaps naive...but I think if Garde is anything close to decent we will survive - it's only 4 points to safety. Not like we're adrift, 10 points away from 17th with 3 games to go (yet).

Correct. You'd think by some of the statements we were miles off everyone else. It's not like Norwich, Bournemouth, Sunderland, Newcastle to name 4 are all going to win out. They will all drop points too, and none of those sides are playing that well. It's not going to be easy and winning just one game would be a start, but there is nothing impossible about the task. We just have to get that win soon, or at least a point so we can create a foundation to build from.

Even if we lose to City on Sat, because of the other fixtures we will still only be 5 points adrift at worst.

[Villan For Life]

I wonder if he's waking up this morning thinking "oh fuck, what have I done"?

[john e]

I wonder if he's waking up this morning thinking "oh fuck, what have I done"?

I honestly think he might be

[VillaAlways]

I was comparing the reaction of Sherwood in the stands,  jumping round like a lunatic punching the air whereas Garde sat there calm, measured and appeared to be taking everything in.

I am hopeful that we have a really intelligent manager on our hands.

[curiousorange]

From what I saw of him during last night's game, he has a fair idea already what needs to be done. I'd imagine he's itching to start.

[john e]

I was comparing the reaction of Sherwood in the stands, Sherwood jumping round like a lunatic punching the air whereas Garde sat there calm, measured and appeared to be taking everything in.

I am hopeful that we have a really intelligent manager on our hands.

He looked scared shitless, a rabbit in the headlights comes to mind
His facial expression looked like he was in the dock and had been sent down for life

[Chico Hamilton III]

Never mind Garde, unless we get a player who looks even remotely like scoring regularly, Pep Guardiola couldn't keep that pile of shit in the prem. And even then our defence looks more than capable of undoing any work that our strikers might get through. Mate of mine texted me at the game, saying that Alan Smith had just said on Sky " there are no easy games in the Premier league but this one is as close as it gets".

Welcome to Hell, Remi

[Ron Manager]

I was comparing the reaction of Sherwood in the stands, Sherwood jumping round like a lunatic punching the air whereas Garde sat there calm, measured and appeared to be taking everything in.

I am hopeful that we have a really intelligent manager on our hands.

He looked scared shitless, a rabbit in the headlights comes to mind
His facial expression looked like he was in the dock and had been sent down for life

I only watched the first half but each time the camera panned in on him I imagined him thinking

Sacre Bleu!

[brian green]

In actual fact Remi Garde is personally in an excellent position. As my son posted yesterday there is only a modest amount of improvement needed to yield concrete benefits. In addition he is in no way to blame for the state we find ourselves in. If we go down it will be the mass of points thrown away in August, September and October. Perversely McDonald did him a big favour by showing the extent of the dressing room division and being French he can address that malaise instantly.  I could not imagine an incoming Fat Sam or Tony Pulis building any kind of bridge with the new players.
If we are to survive we must get the best out of Gana, Vertout, Amavi, Ayew, Gestede, Ilori, Traore and resurrect the careers of (whisper it) N'Zogbia, Kozak, GG, Baker, Bennett and all the binned off players.
Fan expectations are zero. Remi Garde can only improve his reputation with us.

[curiousorange]

I agree with Brian. Sunday is like a free pass - if he gets a half decent performance out of us (by paradoxically having us play decently for both halves), he'll get as long a honeymoon period from the fans as he needs.

[Mister E]

A very sanguine commentary from last night, from the Grauniad
As has been said: Garde has his work cut out.

[Chico Hamilton III]

I agree with Brian. Sunday is like a free pass - if he gets a half decent performance out of us (by paradoxically having us play decently for both halves), he'll get as long a honeymoon period from the fans as he needs.

Disagree. His job is to keep us up, not to use previous managers' incompetence as an excuse for getting us relegated. We're a quarter of the way through the season with only 10% of the points we think we'll need to stay up and his job is to make sure we get them. Starts on Sunday.

[villabear]

In actual fact Remi Garde is personally in an excellent position. As my son posted yesterday there is only a modest amount of improvement needed to yield concrete benefits. In addition he is in no way to blame for the state we find ourselves in. If we go down it will be the mass of points thrown away in August, September and October. Perversely McDonald did him a big favour by showing the extent of the dressing room division and being French he can address that malaise instantly.  I could not imagine an incoming Fat Sam or Tony Pulis building any kind of bridge with the new players.
If we are to survive we must get the best out of Gana, Vertout, Amavi, Ayew, Gestede, Ilori, Traore and resurrect the careers of (whisper it) N'Zogbia, Kozak, GG, Baker, Bennett and all the binned off players.
Fan expectations are zero. Remi Garde can only improve his reputation with us.

Couldn't agree more Brian. All this 'should have got a manager with Premier League experience' is just rolled out for every club who find themselves in trouble.

As fans all we want is to see the team giving it a go.  Give me Ayew with a bit of attitude all day over Gabby who really carries himself as not giving a toss.