Next Manager Speculation and wishful thinking thread

[Monty]

Yes Ads, let's generalise from one goal. Guardiola's style is all about swinging in those deep crosses. Must be why he signed all those big men.

[Ads]

Oh for the days when Aston Villa becomes a vehicle for career aspirations. The last one was Taylor and 31 years ago, before my Villa supporting days had even started.

[boozey182]

I get everybody's reservations about the Liverpool love-in. It wouldn't be nice to watch our manager/opposition fans/media all congregate in an orgy of sentiment while we seemingly stand on the sidelines.

I get the reservation about him as a person.

I get the reservation that he may just be using us a stepping stone to get the job he really wants.

I get the reservation that it's unambitious.

I get the reservation that it's just Purslow fawning over a big name that he's mates with.

All of that though, is ultimately irrelevant though. It's all fluff, which distracts from the main issue:

There is very little evidence that he is any way qualified to manage Aston Villa. If he was, none of the above would matter. If we get this appointment wrong, we could get relegated, so to trust in a man that hasn't achieved very much at all, and has never been tested, is risky almost to the point of negligence.

I understand the argument that it's all about the right time - right place, so there's no way of knowing how it turns out. But doesn't mean it's all just luck anyway? Surely you need some evidence that it will work? Where's Gerrard's?

[Ads]

Yes Ads, let's generalise from one goal. Guardiola's style is all about swinging in those deep crosses. Must be why he signed all those big men.

It's not generalising, it's inconvenient factual evidence.

You made a point that Gerrard attacks with crosses, but that this wouldn't work in this league.

I'm making the point that statistically most goals come from crosses or a cross from a set piece.

You say, OK but specific types of crosses, deep ones. Man City's most recent goal, under arguably the best manager in the world, came like this. To a tiny player profiting from a defensive error, as...most goals come from.

Man City have an abundance of wingers. They bought another one recently. They cross the ball a lot from deep at full back or high in square with the defence facing their own goal.

Crosses work.

[The Edge]

If people are already resenting SG for lapping up an Anfield reception that might need even happen I find that rather odd and I bet my entire life savings on the fans of Dean Smiths next club not having an issue with it.

People are apprehensive about the entire footballing world treating Aston Villa as second fiddle and a mere vehicle for the future career ambitions of a man who has thus far achieved very little in management. Nothing more, nothing less.

Perfectly put. And rightly so. I just can not bring myself to accept that Aston Villa could be treated as a stepping stone for anyone for any club in the world. People can think what they want of me for saying that but it's been ingrained in my DNA by generations of my predecessors.

[Rory]

Oh for the days when Aston Villa becomes a vehicle for career aspirations. The last one was Taylor and 31 years ago, before my Villa supporting days had even started.

Obviously all managers have career aspirations, but I think it's fair to say that Aston Villa's performances have not been of secondary importance to how close our manager is to being offered another job. It's the sense of predestination that is the problem.

I'd rather we were the focus, and not the possibility of a man I don't like reuniting with a club I don't like.

[paul_e]

There are cutbacks and there are crosses. Gerrard's Rangers are majority deep crosses and incompetent defending. I know - there's a Youtube video of every goal from their title winning season.

The fact is there is no evidence whatsoever that Gerrard deserves to manage the fourth richest club in England, currently in need of a crisis rebuild and a proper football identity imposed on the training pitch. None at all. Other than his name is Steven Gerrard, which I'm sure counts for some.

I think you need to add complexity to see why what Gerrard is doing at Rangers isn't particularly impressive. Crossing in a league like the premier league means creating an overload on the wing to create space to pick a cross, it then requires movement in the box (that's been worked on in training) to get an unopposed run at the ball that is delivered into the right area. There's a lot of tactical awareness involved in becoming consistently good at it.

In scotland, and other weaker leagues, the standards are far lower so you can achieve similar results much more 'off the cuff' because chances are defenders will make mistakes and when you're 1 of 2 clubs that have most of the decent players in the league the gulf in quality means you'll just bludgeon teams by having some fairly basic tactics to take advantage of your strengths.

It may be that Gerrard has a brilliant grasp of this and has far more complex tactical options in reserve that he doesn't need to use but there's literally no evidence to show as much.

Compare that to people like Favre, Emery, Fonseca, etc there's footage of their teams doing all of the things you need to do to create chances in the premier league. Maybe you want to dismiss that as better players doing better things but then you create a new argument of them all having experience of handling squads full of players of that standard, Gerrard doesn't have that.

Final point Rangers were humiliated by Malmo in the summer in what was probably the biggest tie Gerrard has managed, that suggests he still has a lot to learn before he's ready to be playing tough games every week rather than a handful of them all year.

[brontebilly]

Why do we always tend to go British? In the last 20 years i believe the only non brits we had were RDM, garde and houllier

Unfortunately...DOL and MON weren't Brits either...an honorary Brit in the case of MON (MBE/OBE!)

I haven’t logged on for years and never post BUT M’ON is from NI. So is British… but that’s a debate for another time!

NI is part of the UK (and I guess EU these days...) not Britannia. Please post more!

[Clampy]

Spurs had already appointed Conte by now, for comparison, after sacking Nuno.  We are still apparently working down a list.  I really thought they would have had someone lined up, else as Amfy says, the timing is just wasted.

Maybe they already have him lined up and out of respect to Smith, they are letting the dust settle before announcing it. There not much evidence of them just working down a list.

[Ads]

There are cutbacks and there are crosses. Gerrard's Rangers are majority deep crosses and incompetent defending. I know - there's a Youtube video of every goal from their title winning season.

The fact is there is no evidence whatsoever that Gerrard deserves to manage the fourth richest club in England, currently in need of a crisis rebuild and a proper football identity imposed on the training pitch. None at all. Other than his name is Steven Gerrard, which I'm sure counts for some.

I think you need to add complexity to see why what Gerrard is doing at Rangers isn't particularly impressive. Crossing in a league like the premier league means creating an overload on the wing to create space to pick a cross, it then requires movement in the box (that's been worked on in training) to get an unopposed run at the ball that is delivered into the right area. There's a lot of tactical awareness involved in becoming consistently good at it.

In scotland, and other weaker leagues, the standards are far lower so you can achieve similar results much more 'off the cuff' because chances are defenders will make mistakes and when you're 1 of 2 clubs that have most of the decent players in the league the gulf in quality means you'll just bludgeon teams by having some fairly basic tactics to take advantage of your strengths.

It may be that Gerrard has a brilliant grasp of this and has far more complex tactical options in reserve that he doesn't need to use but there's literally no evidence to show as much.

Compare that to people like Favre, Emery, Fonseca, etc there's footage of their teams doing all of the things you need to do to create chances in the premier league. Maybe you want to dismiss that as better players doing better things but then you create a new argument of them all having experience of handling squads full of players of that standard, Gerrard doesn't have that.

Final point Rangers were humiliated by Malmo in the summer in what was probably the biggest tie Gerrard has managed, that suggests he still has a lot to learn before he's ready to be playing tough games every week rather than a handful of them all year.

Or you rely on rank bad defending like Man City did at the weekend.

I appreciate the point that there's a difference in quality, but ultimately however you frame a cross, you're always playing percentages.

[paul_e]

There are cutbacks and there are crosses. Gerrard's Rangers are majority deep crosses and incompetent defending. I know - there's a Youtube video of every goal from their title winning season.

The fact is there is no evidence whatsoever that Gerrard deserves to manage the fourth richest club in England, currently in need of a crisis rebuild and a proper football identity imposed on the training pitch. None at all. Other than his name is Steven Gerrard, which I'm sure counts for some.

I think you need to add complexity to see why what Gerrard is doing at Rangers isn't particularly impressive. Crossing in a league like the premier league means creating an overload on the wing to create space to pick a cross, it then requires movement in the box (that's been worked on in training) to get an unopposed run at the ball that is delivered into the right area. There's a lot of tactical awareness involved in becoming consistently good at it.

In scotland, and other weaker leagues, the standards are far lower so you can achieve similar results much more 'off the cuff' because chances are defenders will make mistakes and when you're 1 of 2 clubs that have most of the decent players in the league the gulf in quality means you'll just bludgeon teams by having some fairly basic tactics to take advantage of your strengths.

It may be that Gerrard has a brilliant grasp of this and has far more complex tactical options in reserve that he doesn't need to use but there's literally no evidence to show as much.

Compare that to people like Favre, Emery, Fonseca, etc there's footage of their teams doing all of the things you need to do to create chances in the premier league. Maybe you want to dismiss that as better players doing better things but then you create a new argument of them all having experience of handling squads full of players of that standard, Gerrard doesn't have that.

Final point Rangers were humiliated by Malmo in the summer in what was probably the biggest tie Gerrard has managed, that suggests he still has a lot to learn before he's ready to be playing tough games every week rather than a handful of them all year.

Or you rely on rank bad defending like Man City did at the weekend.

I appreciate the point that there's a difference in quality, but ultimately however you frame a cross, you're always playing percentages.

Of course, but when you've got the best squad in the league by a long way those percentages are stacked in your favour, the same applies to Man City to be fair.

[Sexual Ealing]

Minor point of order from a few pages back, MON is a UK subject, not a Brit, as I'm sure he'd vigorously argue himself. If Woody Allen can do vigorous.

My own mother has the same status and was half-proud of it.

[SoccerHQ]

Please tell me they don't have a long throw specialist in their team....

[Sexual Ealing]

Why do we always tend to go British? In the last 20 years i believe the only non brits we had were RDM, garde and houllier

Unfortunately...DOL and MON weren't Brits either...an honorary Brit in the case of MON (MBE/OBE!)

I haven’t logged on for years and never post BUT M’ON is from NI. So is British… but that’s a debate for another time!

NI is part of the UK (and I guess EU these days...) not Britannia. Please post more!

Beat me to it, you miserable git!

[Legion]

Steven Gerrard: Rangers manager high on Aston Villa shortlist to replace Dean Smith - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59217531