Gerrard In or Out?

[Pat McMahon]

I think Liverpool and Manyoo have truly international appeal - they attract fans who have absolutely no attachment to England or English football. The only continent I have been to where they didn’t seem to penetrate was S America, where local football ruled the roost. No other English club comes close, though I can see Chelsea closing the gap if they maintain their zillionaire funding for another decade.

I agree with BV re Rangers and Celtic. They have incredible networks of supporters clubs across the globe, though in my experience they are drawn from the British and Irish diaspora.

[astonvilla82]

I think Liverpool and Manyoo have truly international appeal - they attract fans who have absolutely no attachment to England or English football. The only continent I have been to where they didn’t seem to penetrate was S America, where local football ruled the roost. No other English club comes close, though I can see Chelsea closing the gap if they maintain their zillionaire funding for another decade.

I agree with BV re Rangers and Celtic. They have incredible networks of supporters clubs across the globe, though in my experience they are drawn from the British and Irish diaspora.

you find alot support Manchester United or Liverpool as well,in Ireland that is

[Rigadon]

I've never thought the Glasgow clubs are anything more than slightly bigger Leeds / Newcastle types.  'Big club' is a subjective thing. If we mean big club = 'identity' then Celtic qualify, not sure about Rangers.  Anything else and they don't. 

[robbo1874]

I don’t want Gerrard out, but something just doesn’t sit right with him and I’m not sure what it is yet. I think it may be the obvious intention to bring in big name, slightly past it players at the expense of bringing our youth through. There’s no real evidence of it, but you could point to the likes of Chuk and wonder whether he’d have got more minutes under Smith. Dunno, just not sure about Gerrard.

There's no evidence of it at all. Chuk has already got loads more games and minutes in the league under Gerrard than he did Smith, so that' a really easy one to answer. As for the obvious intention to bring in big name, slightly past it players, do you mean Ashley Young and Danny Ings? Because you can't possibly mean Coutinho who has been superb.

well there is evidence, because he hasn’t even been on as a sub in the last couple of months, as far as I recall.

Re: the big name slightly past it players, I wasn’t referring to Coutinho, who has been at times brilliant, but also struggled to make an impact in at least two matches I’ve watched. It was more Gerrard’s comments after one of the recent losses that led me to think that.

[Goldenballs]

I reckon Gerrard is more committed to the image and reputation of Steven Gerrard than he is to the 'Villa Project' hence why he wants players for instant success. It's when we're losing and he slumps in his chair with his arms folded as if it's nothing to do with him at all, which is annoying me.

Smith seemed to buy in to what we were doing, or trying to do, with the whole blueprint or whatever shite buzzword they gave it, of having a defined style of play and bringing in players and mangers to suit that style whilst promoting youth after massive investment in that area rather than rip it up each time. I'm sure there's interviews with Perslow saying this exact thing.

Now we're seemingly doing a total 180 on all of that with a manger with a totally different attempted style, rendering some of our expensive players obsolete/sidelined. Saying that if these players can't do what he wants to "fix it", he'll buy players who will. We needed a change of manager, but I don't think that we were broken and in need of a massive repair job as he's alluding to.

If things start to go sour and he has to work with what he's got, I can see him flouncing off MON style to protect his rep leaving us with Habib Beye type dross (maybe not quite as appalling as that) on £35k a week contributing fuck all, leaving it for the next manager to mop up after him. tbf we are a bit of a graveyard for managers.

Interesting to see what happens in the summer as he's 99% going to get time and a pot of dosh, barring an epic fail in what's left of this season. Let's just get this season over and done with, with hopefully a smattering of progress shown in the games that are left.

To finish with the usual disclaimer, I'd love to sign some massive names in the summer that make me piss my pants in excitement, forgetting everything I've just written, him to be a roaring success and ending up leaving us in a better state.

[Risso]

I reckon Gerrard is more committed to the image and reputation of Steven Gerrard than he is to the 'Villa Project' hence why he wants players for instant success. It's when we're losing and he slumps in his chair with his arms folded as if it's nothing to do with him at all, which is annoying me.

Smith seemed to buy in to what we were doing, or trying to do, with the whole blueprint or whatever shite buzzword they gave it, of having a defined style of play and bringing in players and mangers to suit that style whilst promoting youth after massive investment in that area rather than rip it up each time. I'm sure there's interviews with Perslow saying this exact thing.

Now we're seemingly doing a total 180 on all of that with a manger with a totally different attempted style, rendering some of our expensive players obsolete/sidelined.

Smith was having an absolute nightmare trying to fit in the players that were bought this summer, it's part of the reason he got the sack after 11 games. He tried 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1, 5-3-2, 3-4-3 and 4-4-2, mostly with very little success. I'm not blaming Smith for this as I think the Director of Football had a nightmare in the summer to be honest. That's obviously said with the benefit of hindsight, but we still didn't buy the defensive midfielder we needed, and trying to replace Greasy ended up being very patchy.

[Skerra]

I’ve lost track, over the many years that the been a season ticket holder, how many times I see a comment like, let’s write this season off and look forward to the following season.

[Ads]

I wouldn't be surprised to see McGinn have his best performance since Palace/Man United in the cup against Leicester, with him being 10 yards higher up the pitch thanks to Marv.

This season has been disappointing and we need to be frank about where our weaknesses are. I think too much is made of an overhaul or a cull. We need better centre halves, we need better defensive midfield cover, we need better chance conversion upfront. That will give us a better chance of gaining increased consistency.

The league is riddled with it. We're with a clutch of clubs who are stupifyingly inconsistent. I don't think the solutions to our problems are revolutionary.

[Goldenballs]

I reckon Gerrard is more committed to the image and reputation of Steven Gerrard than he is to the 'Villa Project' hence why he wants players for instant success. It's when we're losing and he slumps in his chair with his arms folded as if it's nothing to do with him at all, which is annoying me.

Smith seemed to buy in to what we were doing, or trying to do, with the whole blueprint or whatever shite buzzword they gave it, of having a defined style of play and bringing in players and mangers to suit that style whilst promoting youth after massive investment in that area rather than rip it up each time. I'm sure there's interviews with Perslow saying this exact thing.

Now we're seemingly doing a total 180 on all of that with a manger with a totally different attempted style, rendering some of our expensive players obsolete/sidelined.

Smith was having an absolute nightmare trying to fit in the players that were bought this summer, it's part of the reason he got the sack after 11 games. He tried 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1, 5-3-2, 3-4-3 and 4-4-2, mostly with very little success. I'm not blaming Smith for this as I think the Director of Football had a nightmare in the summer to be honest. That's obviously said with the benefit of hindsight, but we still didn't buy the defensive midfielder we needed, and trying to replace Greasy ended up being very patchy.

This set of players seems even less suited to Gerrard than Smith, which makes his appointment more baffling.

[Risso]

This set of players seems even less suited to Gerrard than Smith, which makes his appointment more baffling.

Smith got 10 points from 11 games with these players. A difference opinion is one thing, but the facts just don't back that assertion one bit.

[Goldenballs]

This set of players seems even less suited to Gerrard than Smith, which makes his appointment more baffling.

Smith got 10 points from 11 games with these players. A difference opinion is one thing, but the facts just don't back that assertion one bit.

One of Smith's complaints was the injuries to the new players and he didn't get much of a chance to use them together properly. How true that was, I can't really remember.

Gerrard has come in and got Coutinho in which was a massive boost, his impact alone is probably worth about 6 points. Buendia had also seemed to be getting up to speed which takes game time. Smith did seem to lose the plot a bit with scattergun formations and his time was very much up for me.

We had Trez, El Ghazi, Traore, and then spent big on another winger in the summer, but Gerrard doesn't play with wingers. He might throw them on at 70 mins if we're losing to see what happens.

He just seems a bizarre fit for where we are.

[Ads]

Cash and Digne offer more consistent attacking quality than any of our wingers.

[Steve67]

Cash and Digne offer more consistent attacking quality than any of our wingers.

And that's probably the reason why Gerrard has dispensed with the wingers.  We may see a bit of a change when we have some protection for the midfield, although I doubt it.  If our wingers are not playing well, they offer nothing else to the game.  Cash and Digne have a job to do in defence but get forward well and with better strikers and Ramsey, Coutinho getting amongst the attack, we will be in a better place.

[Goldenballs]

El Ghazi did well last season, 10 or so goals.

Cash has looked good under Gerrard, Digne I haven't really seen enough to say he's £25m better than Targett.

[Steve67]

A fair few penalties for El Ghazi I think though Goldenballs?  Very inconsistent player.