Gerrard In or Out?

[Ads]

I think there are some rational concerns to be had, but nothing that suggests he shouldn’t be given more time. As Ads says I think a good number who were against him at the start are very comfortable calling for him to be out now. My personal view is that he, like any manager, needs time. It doesn’t mean it’ll work, but it’s the only way of finding out for sure.

Nothing suggests he should be given more time. 

That implies you've given him some time, which isn't true, as you've given him none.

He has had 5 months and absolutely nothing about the team suggests he is going to succeed.  Quite the opposite.

You hope he doesn't succeed, as you've given him no time whatsoever. Why pretend otherwise?

[django]

I don’t see why anyone is surprised or bothered by the people who didn’t want him then still not wanting him now though.

Just taking our last few managerial appointments…Dean Smith wasn’t a universally popular appointment, but we improved and he won the people who were underwhelmed over. Bruce was a pretty unpopular appointment but again I’d say he won people over in the short term with results, (before losing them again cos Bruce). Di Matteo felt like people were prepared to give him a go based on his European cup success and a feeling that he’d be good in the championship but he obviously used up any good will in no time. It’s results and performances.

Gerrard hasn’t got a stellar CV so while some people were impressed with the stature his playing career brings and the potential he showed in Scotland, a lot of people were, again, underwhelmed.

Since then he’s delivered a marginal improvement in return (on a points per game basis) on the form that got Smith sacked. However our form has slumped in recent weeks and a lot of the positivity around the club and our direction of travel has disappeared in the last couple of months.

For me, although I wasn’t impressed with the appointment (seemed to me unnecessarily smalltime and lacking in ambition) this feels like too small a sample size to really make a judgement on his abilities so I wouldn’t personally get rid now if I was in charge.

But it seems weird to be acting as if people have some sort of irrational vendetta against Gerrard when it’s simply that he’s not been very good so far.

[Goldenballs]

Fourth straight game without a goal from open play.

[paul_e]

I don’t see why anyone is surprised or bothered by the people who didn’t want him then still not wanting him now though.

Just taking our last few managerial appointments…Dean Smith wasn’t a universally popular appointment, but we improved and he won the people who were underwhelmed over. Bruce was a pretty unpopular appointment but again I’d say he won people over in the short term with results, (before losing them again cos Bruce). Di Matteo felt like people were prepared to give him a go based on his European cup success and a feeling that he’d be good in the championship but he obviously used up any good will in no time. It’s results and performances.

Gerrard hasn’t got a stellar CV so while some people were impressed with the stature his playing career brings and the potential he showed in Scotland, a lot of people were, again, underwhelmed.

Since then he’s delivered a marginal improvement in return (on a points per game basis) on the form that got Smith sacked. However our form has slumped in recent weeks and a lot of the positivity around the club and our direction of travel has disappeared in the last couple of months.

For me, although I wasn’t impressed with the appointment (seemed to me unnecessarily smalltime and lacking in ambition) this feels like too small a sample size to really make a judgement on his abilities so I wouldn’t personally get rid now if I was in charge.

But it seems weird to be acting as if people have some sort of irrational vendetta against Gerrard when it’s simply that he’s not been very good so far.

The bold bit is the problem really. He's our manager now so whatever concerns people had (me included) you have to park them for a while and give him time. With some posters it seems as if they were never willing to do that, which is their choice, but it does mean that when they post things like "he'll get sacked if we don't get x points in the last 6" it's hard not to think they're projecting their original dislike of him onto the board and will only be upset when he's still here in September.

[astonvilla82]

Sack him  and who we replace him with?

[SoccerHQ]

For me we've just gone back to being boring. Flat. Turgid. Whatever.

I guess that's a consequence of us settling back into premier league mid table after a decade away but I'm not even looking forward to watching our games for first time in a few years given the journey we were previously on.

I think the reservations about style of play and formation have been very justified in last two months whenever we play a top half team.

A DM will help but not convinced it will solve everything as there's so many question marks in final third for us and don't think one transfer window solves everything.

[Ads]

For me we've just gone back to being boring. Flat. Turgid. Whatever.

I guess that's a consequence of us settling back into premier league mid table after a decade away but I'm not even looking forward to watching our games for first time in a few years given the journey we were previously on.

I think the reservations about style of play and formation have been very justified in last two months whenever we play a top half team.

A DM will help but not convinced it will solve everything as there's so many question marks in final third for us and don't think one transfer window solves everything.

And Leicester were what?

[Goldenballs]

Tired, and looking forward to playing in European semi final.

[SoccerHQ]

For me we've just gone back to being boring. Flat. Turgid. Whatever.

I guess that's a consequence of us settling back into premier league mid table after a decade away but I'm not even looking forward to watching our games for first time in a few years given the journey we were previously on.

I think the reservations about style of play and formation have been very justified in last two months whenever we play a top half team.

A DM will help but not convinced it will solve everything as there's so many question marks in final third for us and don't think one transfer window solves everything.

And Leicester were what?

I could live with the little Leicester did today if we were in europa SF. And had won the FA cup 12 months ago. And finished 5th in consecutive seasons. They've still got to play likes of Norwich and Everton at home so even in half arsed state will probably finish above us again.

Look at our record v top 10 teams since Gerrard came in. Think it's two points from today and Man. United and we simply just don't have enough belief or drive in these games. From first 20 minutes we just had a look of team who wanted the 0-0 and that's fair enough when you've lost four straight but ultimately we need to be seriously challenging likes of Leicester, West Ham and Wolves sooner or later and four points out of 18 isn't really good enough to be finishing above any of them.

Hope for better next season but there's real limitations in how we play with this set up against organised teams, been pretty evident for a while now.

[paul_e]

There are very few managers in the world who wouldn't prefer boring to having a soft centre so it's no surprise to me that we're stopping the rot by focusing on defence. Gerrard did the same in the autumn and got a few decent results but then we had a few good performances in February and moved away from that, today looks like it was a case of going back to basics and, from what I can make out, we had the best chances to take something from the game so we nearly got it spot on.

The obvious aim is to be defensively solid and create loads of chances but a game like spurs blows a hole in that plan for a while.

[paul_e]

For me we've just gone back to being boring. Flat. Turgid. Whatever.

I guess that's a consequence of us settling back into premier league mid table after a decade away but I'm not even looking forward to watching our games for first time in a few years given the journey we were previously on.

I think the reservations about style of play and formation have been very justified in last two months whenever we play a top half team.

A DM will help but not convinced it will solve everything as there's so many question marks in final third for us and don't think one transfer window solves everything.

And Leicester were what?

I could live with the little Leicester did today if we were in europa SF. And had won the FA cup 12 months ago. And finished 5th in consecutive seasons. They've still got to play likes of Norwich and Everton at home so even in half arsed state will probably finish above us again.

Look at our record v top 10 teams since Gerrard came in. Think it's two points from today and Man. United and we simply just don't have enough belief or drive in these games. From first 20 minutes we just had a look of team who wanted the 0-0 and that's fair enough when you've lost four straight but ultimately we need to be seriously challenging likes of Leicester, West Ham and Wolves sooner or later and four points out of 18 isn't really good enough to be finishing above any of them.

Hope for better next season but there's real limitations in how we play with this set up against organised teams, been pretty evident for a while now.

That's a really arbitrary break point you've used there given 10 out of the last 24 is also true but doesn't support your point as well.

[SoccerHQ]

I meant when we play v West Ham, Wolves and Leicester rather than the general run of form.

We had a poor record v West Ham under DS so was hoping we'd get in their faces more under Gerrard. Instead we lost there pretty meekly when Burnley got a 1-1 in similar circumstances (playing them straight after euro game).

Wolves we were poor for first hour. They lost two games either side of playing us so not like they're in incredible form.

Notice I haven't included Arsenal or Spurs losses in this as I don't think there's any prospect of challenging either next season but again Arsenal at home up to 75th minute was as passive a performance as you can get.

I think we're just too easy to nullify with our style. Perhaps the new DM will solve everything but think we'll run into more roadblocks next season in final third.

[ROBBO]

Agree, well before his appointment we were all saying the midfield needs shoring up and that the squad was better that our position showed, I have changed my mind. How many players have we bought in that have actually improved us? and then those like Luiz who continually disappoints us, maybe we are the ones over the past couple of seasons who have misjudged the quality in the side. Gerrard is no fool, he can see the deficiances in the side but getting players of lesser quality to play to your standards is an impossibility. He will get his chance to build his squad, then that will be the time to judge him.

[kippaxvilla2]

Sack him  and who we replace him with?

Dean Smith no Sean Dyche.

[django]

I don’t see why anyone is surprised or bothered by the people who didn’t want him then still not wanting him now though.

Just taking our last few managerial appointments…Dean Smith wasn’t a universally popular appointment, but we improved and he won the people who were underwhelmed over. Bruce was a pretty unpopular appointment but again I’d say he won people over in the short term with results, (before losing them again cos Bruce). Di Matteo felt like people were prepared to give him a go based on his European cup success and a feeling that he’d be good in the championship but he obviously used up any good will in no time. It’s results and performances.

Gerrard hasn’t got a stellar CV so while some people were impressed with the stature his playing career brings and the potential he showed in Scotland, a lot of people were, again, underwhelmed.

Since then he’s delivered a marginal improvement in return (on a points per game basis) on the form that got Smith sacked. However our form has slumped in recent weeks and a lot of the positivity around the club and our direction of travel has disappeared in the last couple of months.

For me, although I wasn’t impressed with the appointment (seemed to me unnecessarily smalltime and lacking in ambition) this feels like too small a sample size to really make a judgement on his abilities so I wouldn’t personally get rid now if I was in charge.

But it seems weird to be acting as if people have some sort of irrational vendetta against Gerrard when it’s simply that he’s not been very good so far.

The bold bit is the problem really. He's our manager now so whatever concerns people had (me included) you have to park them for a while and give him time. With some posters it seems as if they were never willing to do that, which is their choice, but it does mean that when they post things like "he'll get sacked if we don't get x points in the last 6" it's hard not to think they're projecting their original dislike of him onto the board and will only be upset when he's still here in September.

Firstly, how dare you highlight my text in bold!!!
😉

I guess I think it’s reasonable for people to project their dislike onto him based on our current performances. If we were consistently playing well and or winning games/ showing improvement and people still had it in for him that would be worthy of calling out. As it is he’s the one person who can win his doubters round.

I imagine we’ll pick up another 7-10 points this season and go into the summer with pretty much everyone feeling positive. Significantly less than that and I think even some of those who were behind his appointment would be having second thoughts.