Champions League Contention

[PeterWithesShin]

What makes shake my head in wonder at times is that we're doing all this with a core of players that had won 4 of the last 22 league games under Gerrard.

[Drummond]

What makes shake my head in wonder at times is that we're doing all this with a core of players that had won 4 of the last 22 league games under Gerrard.

Me too, how the fuck did he stay in the job so long?

[Toronto Villa]

I laughed then cried with happiness at this. Because he’s likely had that impact on the rest of the squad.

He basically taught me that I know nothing about the position that I play,” the defender Tyrone Mings, who earned an England recall after Emery’s arrival, said. “He’s opened my eyes. He’s someone who takes great pride in everything he teaches.”

[andyh]

I laughed then cried with happiness at this. Because he’s likely had that impact on the rest of the squad.

He basically taught me that I know nothing about the position that I play,” the defender Tyrone Mings, who earned an England recall after Emery’s arrival, said. “He’s opened my eyes. He’s someone who takes great pride in everything he teaches.”

That is exactly the bit of that article that struck me too, TV.
When someone as intelligent and articulate as Tyrone speaks like this, you just know the impact that Unai has had is enormous.

[eamonn]

Didn't Ty get well-schooled by Southgate, Smith and Gerrard? Or are they all average English men?

[Smithy]

Didn't Ty get well-schooled by Southgate, Smith and Gerrard? Or are they all average English men?

I suspect there is zero "coaching" from Southgate, given the time he gets with players - it'll all be about formations and adopting HIS tactics.  Gerrard and Smith, I've no idea.  I get the impression they coached the defence purely to stop the other team scoring, but Unai clearly has them coached to also be the first line of attack.  Also, we're playing SO much higher up the pitch, that defending on the half-way line is almost an entirely different discipline to defending your 18-yard line.  It's not a surprise the players have learned so much.

Unai's first year at Aston Villa is probably the best example I can think of in recent times of what a genuinely world-class coach can achieve when put in at a new club.  It's always pointed out that teams tend to finish in the same position as their wage costs.  The teams that pay the most, finish at the top, those that pay the least, finish at the bottom.  Every now and again, a coach comes along and bucks that trend (sometimes in the wrong direction), and I think Unai has done an incredible job so far to have six or seven places higher than we should be based on wages alone.

[Villan82]

What makes shake my head in wonder at times is that we're doing all this with a core of players that had won 4 of the last 22 league games under Gerrard.

Me too, how the fuck did he stay in the job so long?

Unai is the business and as a club I hope we have learned the lesson. The most important person is the manager, and it is bad recruitment in this area that has held us back.

[Smirker]

Correct.

Fuck me the past decade of appointments. What were they thinking. Sherwood, Garde, Di Matteo, Gerrard... Lambert, Bruce and Smith you could see the logic and reasoning.

Anyway we're still in a title race.

One point off the top.

I said we'd go top on points at some point and that day is comíng.

[Dave]

I reckon there was some logic in Gerrard. Arguably Di Matteo as well.

Not particularly good logic in either case, and they would have been a long way down my list of preferred choices.

But they weren't completely insane choices in the circumstances.

[Sexual Ealing]

I reckon there was some logic in Gerrard. Arguably Di Matteo as well.

Not particularly good logic in either case, and they would have been a long way down my list of preferred choices.

But they weren't completely insane choices in the circumstances.

Strongly disagree on Gerrard. If Kevin Nolan had won one trophy in three years at an Old Firm club, in his first job, he'd rightly have been nowhere near the Villa job at that point.

[Clampy]

I saw the reasoning behind Gerrard. Luckily, we got shot of him when we did

[Sexual Ealing]

I saw the reasoning behind Gerrard. Luckily, we got shot of him when we did

The reasoning was that he was a 'legend' as a player at Purslow's old club, which is no reasoning at all.

[Clampy]

I saw the reasoning behind Gerrard. Luckily, we got shot of him when we did

The reasoning was that he was a 'legend' as a player at Purslow's old club, which is no reasoning at all.

I think it was a bit more than that. It ended up being horribly wrong but I can see why they went for him.

[pauliewalnuts]

I saw the reasoning behind Gerrard. Luckily, we got shot of him when we did

The reasoning was that he was a 'legend' as a player at Purslow's old club, which is no reasoning at all.

I think it was a bit more than that. It ended up being horribly wrong but I can see why they went for him.

I think Paddy is right, it was a really blatant exercise in starfucking on Purslow's part, a terrible appointment right from the off.

[Sexual Ealing]

What more could there possibly have been? He didn't achieve much at a tin pot club in a tinpot league. What else can it have been? Trust me, if I - effectively a know nothing moron in this context - can see that something's a terrible decision from day one, it really shouldn't be beyond the wit of highly-paid execs to see the same thing.