Anybody starting to get worried…… again?

[Beard82]

Where we were really good last season was with the wide players - Grealish and Bert, pulling back into the box - there Watkins worked well because he was good at finding space and scoring tap ins effectively.

We dont really have that now - its too reliant on crosses from fullbacks or one of the 10s spilting the defence / doing something magic.

I think hes formation/tatics is the issue, and for me at least, he needs to work out how to fix it before the summer.  Otherwise, hell have shown he is too limited to manage at this level at this point in his career.

Im not saying I expect us to go on a 10 game unbeaten run, but just have us looking like an improving team like we were in his first 5-6 game.  Otherwise, I would be tempted to bin him off rather then spending 100m on players for a manager isn't the right fit for us.   

[kippaxvilla2]

And another thing hindsight is a wonderful thing for all of us.  Whilst I thought Deans time was up, it seemed to me that Purslow in particular was desperate to get a star through the door and he seems to have been literally starstruck instead of analysing who was available in the market that had the necessary experience to do the job.  Ours is one of the toughest jobs in football.  High fan expectation, starved of any real success over the years, an acceptance of mediocrity and worse over recent years.  That’s a hard ship to turn around.

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

 And I agree again!

[Risso]

And another thing hindsight is a wonderful thing for all of us.  Whilst I thought Deans time was up, it seemed to me that Purslow in particular was desperate to get a star through the door and he seems to have been literally starstruck instead of analysing who was available in the market that had the necessary experience to do the job.  Ours is one of the toughest jobs in football.  High fan expectation, starved of any real success over the years, an acceptance of mediocrity and worse over recent years.  That’s a hard ship to turn around.

People keep saying that Purslow was start struck, but where's the proof of this? I think they wanted a young and upcoming manager, and the fact that the Rangers set up quite closely mirrored what we're trying to do was probably a plus point. I think at the time my first choice was Potter, because he's done a brilliant job at Brighton, but having turned down Spurs I think he's more than happy to carry on with his project there. For people who think that Purslow was star struck, who else should he have considered?

[Beard82]

And another thing hindsight is a wonderful thing for all of us.  Whilst I thought Deans time was up, it seemed to me that Purslow in particular was desperate to get a star through the door and he seems to have been literally starstruck instead of analysing who was available in the market that had the necessary experience to do the job.  Ours is one of the toughest jobs in football.  High fan expectation, starved of any real success over the years, an acceptance of mediocrity and worse over recent years.  That’s a hard ship to turn around.

100%  -  But also, it was a hugely attractive job as all the building blocks are in place - reasonable squad, great batch of youngesters coming through, great fan base, stadium, owners etc. etc. 

[Beard82]

And another thing hindsight is a wonderful thing for all of us.  Whilst I thought Deans time was up, it seemed to me that Purslow in particular was desperate to get a star through the door and he seems to have been literally starstruck instead of analysing who was available in the market that had the necessary experience to do the job.  Ours is one of the toughest jobs in football.  High fan expectation, starved of any real success over the years, an acceptance of mediocrity and worse over recent years.  That’s a hard ship to turn around.

People keep saying that Purslow was start struck, but where's the proof of this? I think they wanted a young and upcoming manager, and the fact that the Rangers set up quite closely mirrored what we're trying to do was probably a plus point. I think at the time my first choice was Potter, because he's done a brilliant job at Brighton, but having turned down Spurs I think he's more than happy to carry on with his project there. For people who think that Purslow was star struck, who else should he have considered?

This for me is part of the issues / proof:  https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/steven-gerrard-aston-villa-purslow-b1955681.html

I don't know who else, I think Potter would have been good.  I would have loved to see us go out and try and convince a top, top manager, even if it meant waiting to the summer. 

I think part of the issue is that we needed to back him up with the players to play his system, and we didnt do as much as we should have done in January. 

Likewise, we should have done more to backup dean with the system he wanted to play

[ASHTONVILLA]

Gerrads system doesn't work without Nakamba, but looked pretty good when he had him available.

Smiths system also didn't work with the squad he had available even with Grealish, and the new system he tried without him (three at the back) also didn't.

We have tried a few systems and each one has different issues, this gives back to when we were trying to get out of the Championship when we also couldn't put a midfield combo together that worked in any system despite having OK players at that level.

The problem is the squad. A lot of the players are not very good, and the ones that are make a whole weaker than the sum of the parts.

Pitarch got potted because of this, but his signings, on the whole, were actually better than Langes. The man that made both appointments and that f the managers should be facing more scrutiny than anyone else for this mess.

I don't think anyone will get more than sporadic runs of good form out of this lot until we finally get a better blend of players that allow us to play 2-3 systems with no gaping holes in a team.
. I do think we will be comfortably above the bottom three come the end of the season, but yes I am worried as we could get sucked in.

[Risso]

The problem is the squad. A lot of the players are not very good, and the ones that are make a whole weaker than the sum of the parts.

That's it, in a nutshell. Ads made a good point yesterday, that the spine of our team is Mings, McGinn/Luiz, Watkins. That's not a top 8 heartbeat of a side at all. Mings is fine on his day but makes too many mistakes. The others are either out of form or not really good enough, and I'm of the opinion that it's the latter. This is a team that was nosediving down the league and sorting that out is going to take more than a few games.

[Chico Hamilton III]

I’m not sure we can blame a poor squad for the piss poor way that we played our last 2 games ( plus a few earlier games)  Obviously not top 6 quality but I would expect a competent manager to organise things and get them punching above their weight.

[PaulTheVillan]

Isn't this part and parcel of being a Villa fan?

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

Gerrads system doesn't work without Nakamba, but looked pretty good when he had him available.

Smiths system also didn't work with the squad he had available even with Grealish, and the new system he tried without him (three at the back) also didn't.

We have tried a few systems and each one has different issues, this gives back to when we were trying to get out of the Championship when we also couldn't put a midfield combo together that worked in any system despite having OK players at that level.

The problem is the squad. A lot of the players are not very good, and the ones that are make a whole weaker than the sum of the parts.

Pitarch got potted because of this, but his signings, on the whole, were actually better than Langes. The man that made both appointments and that f the managers should be facing more scrutiny than anyone else for this mess.

I don't think anyone will get more than sporadic runs of good form out of this lot until we finally get a better blend of players that allow us to play 2-3 systems with no gaping holes in a team.
. I do think we will be comfortably above the bottom three come the end of the season, but yes I am worried as we could get sucked in.

Spot on.
At the end of last season, I thought we needed a proper dcm, a number 10 to take over from what barkley was intended to do and cover for Ollie.
We didn't get the dcm under Smith or our current manager in January. Buendia may have been intended to fill the no.10 role.
Obvs grealish left and we also needed one high profile player to replace him (not the 3 purslow ridiculously claimed, when we got them in)
Re-directing some of the grealish money to fill some of the roles we were desperate for would have been a better approach.  Instead lange and purslow have us where we are due to a number of their decisions.

[Risso]

I’m not sure we can blame a poor squad for the piss poor way that we played our last 2 games ( plus a few earlier games)  Obviously not top 6 quality but I would expect a competent manager to organise things and get them punching above their weight.

It's two games though. Obviously he needs to turn it round and sharpish, but we've never had a manager in my lifetime who hasn't had a much worse run of form than that. In O'Neill's time, the last manager who gave us consistent top 6 finishes, we called it "March".

[ChicagoLion]

Gerrads system doesn't work without Nakamba, but looked pretty good when he had him available.

Smiths system also didn't work with the squad he had available even with Grealish, and the new system he tried without him (three at the back) also didn't.

We have tried a few systems and each one has different issues, this gives back to when we were trying to get out of the Championship when we also couldn't put a midfield combo together that worked in any system despite having OK players at that level.

The problem is the squad. A lot of the players are not very good, and the ones that are make a whole weaker than the sum of the parts.

Pitarch got potted because of this, but his signings, on the whole, were actually better than Langes. The man that made both appointments and that f the managers should be facing more scrutiny than anyone else for this mess.

I don't think anyone will get more than sporadic runs of good form out of this lot until we finally get a better blend of players that allow us to play 2-3 systems with no gaping holes in a team.
. I do think we will be comfortably above the bottom three come the end of the season, but yes I am worried as we could get sucked in.

Spot on.
At the end of last season, I thought we needed a proper dcm, a number 10 to take over from what barkley was intended to do and cover for Ollie.
We didn't get the dcm under Smith or our current manager in January. Buendia may have been intended to fill the no.10 role.
Obvs grealish left and we also needed one high profile player to replace him (not the 3 purslow ridiculously claimed, when we got them in)
Re-directing some of the grealish money to fill some of the roles we were desperate for would have been a better approach.  Instead lange and purslow have us where we are due to a number of their decisions.

Correct, the Grealish money was pissed away and did not address the fundemental needs of the Team.

[Beard82]

I’m not sure we can blame a poor squad for the piss poor way that we played our last 2 games ( plus a few earlier games)  Obviously not top 6 quality but I would expect a competent manager to organise things and get them punching above their weight.

It's two games though. Obviously he needs to turn it round and sharpish, but we've never had a manager in my lifetime who hasn't had a much worse run of form than that. In O'Neill's time, the last manager who gave us consistent top 6 finishes, we called it "March".

Yes thats very true.  For me, what I found disapointing is we had a mini-preeason, and they seem worse after that.  I was expecting us to come out flying from it, but we haven't.  Likewise, after he said he would drop players for watford, and didnt - I thought we would come out flying and whilst better, aren't great.

Clearly he needs time, as all managers do - but for me he needs to show more in his next 14 games than he has in the last 8 to remove the concerns that he is out his depth.

[Chico Hamilton III]

I’m not sure we can blame a poor squad for the piss poor way that we played our last 2 games ( plus a few earlier games)  Obviously not top 6 quality but I would expect a competent manager to organise things and get them punching above their weight.

It's two games though. Obviously he needs to turn it round and sharpish, but we've never had a manager in my lifetime who hasn't had a much worse run of form than that. In O'Neill's time, the last manager who gave us consistent top 6 finishes, we called it "March".

I agree, it’s 2 games so not a crisis. The buck does stop with him though, is what I was trying to say. Not the fact that we don’t have a perfectly balanced squad.