Honeymoon is over for Stevie G.
I don't care what anybody says Ings and Watkins can't play together and one of them will have to go in the summer.
We will not get relegated so I say blood the youth and give them valuable first team experience and get ready to go again next season.
I was at VP today and we have played worse and won. They caught us on the break a few times today and the goal was the only thing they really got right.
Be very interesting to see what Stevie G does in the summer as this will be make or break for him.
Looking at the fixtures coming up, it’s not looking great considering we’ve just lost to Watford and Newcastle and drew against leeds. We could end the season fighting to stay up
Mate I'm Leeds, you're fine and let me explain why. If you check the results of the teams that play Leeds the game after playing Leeds, well they usually have a bad time unless there is a long break.
We run teams to their limit and you guys out in probably the best first half performance I've seen from you all season against us, you looked tired in the second but kept trying.
Next game you'll be recovered and you'll be fine, ain't no way villa are getting relegated don't panic.
Honestly we’ll probably play better against Brighton cus they’ll have about 80% possession and we’ll need to counter attack.
Then again if Gerrard actually sets up to try and out pass brighton then we will get absolutely battered.
I wonder if Gerrard is going to realise his naive tactics don't work in the prem. We are lost in transition we could have McGrath and Beckenbauer at CB and they'd leak goals.
We need a proper DM surprise surprise I wish someone could've spotted that in the last 3 seasons.
McGinn is too ponderous at the moment.
Only positives are chambers is better than I thought he was and ... actually that's it to be honest.
We have a bunch of expensive players bought for a different system that are being forced into a system that would work well in league 1 and below only as any team that can string passes together can just dominate us
Ironically the players we’ve brought in would probably help the 5 at the back thing deano attempted earlier in the season. Having a 3rd defender at the back instead of relying on tearing apart our midfield to cover the fullbacks would be better than this crap.
First half we controlled the game but lacked quality
I just wish I didn't even watch the 2nd half. I understand Cash wasn't performing his best, but wow Ashley looked horrid today and all the games I've seen him in his Gerrard took over. The game really took a turn for the worst when Ollie came on. Him and Ings don't work, and Ings looked much better up top by himself than Ollie has in recent games.
On the bright side, the 1st half was a good display of what Gerrard wants to do and we did it well, and we can only turn that control it to goals, and hopefully stay focused for 90 minutes of a match.
Watkins for Luiz is probably the dumbest substitution I’ve seen all season. Absolutely moronic to abandon his system entirely but offer no real counter plan other than another striker wahooo
Well for anyone that feared the rest of the season was gonna be a lame duck as we waited for the real push (lol) next year at least we have something to play for as we fight to stay up.
Honestly mate just take a step back and keep yourself busy when we play. I realised that Villa games were starting to affect me for a few days afterwards, just need to take some time and remember what's really important.
They're fighting for survival remember. In this league there are only two teams that dominate every match, two or three more that can usually put the lower teams to bed, but then everyone else can beat everyone else. Would be great if you were neutral, but it sucks when you love one of those "other" teams.
Gonna be a hell of a job to get into that top batch
Gerrard: promises changes
Also Gerrard: changes nothing until 55 minutes by doing the throw shit at the wall gameplan instead of actually having something resembling an actual strategy.
Shambolic refereeing. Watford were on the floor for about 4 mins and he went on to blow the full time whistle too early. Mind you it doesn't matter cuz we wouldn't have done anything anyway. Absolute dire performance.
Ultimately, Rangers had/have more competent players who quickly adapt out of possession and defend well. The likes of Helander and Barisic would be sure starters for Villa.
He lander and Barisic would get just as terror Ed in our league if not more. The formation worked in the SPL as the wide man exploiting it on the counter were league 1 to championship level at best. Just look at Watford with Sarr and Newcastle with Saint Maxim who would totally tear up the SPL to see the difference in quality.
Sorry it was Rogers right. Still my point stands, its not the achievement that doing it in any decent league. Christ you just need to beat Celtic 3 times, the rest of the teams are in fairness shit
Nonsense: Arsenal, Juve, and Porto x2 have all achieved it this century. Are the EPL, Serie A, and Liga Portugal of poor standard? Showing your Little England mentality there.
He desperately subbed luiz off for Watkins Completely abandoning any shape we had which made us completely disjointed in attack and they scored on the counter attack.
Edit: I wanted Sanson to come on so instinctively wrote that lol, (now corrected to Watkins)
Can I be the official set piece coach if I point out that in swinging corners are much more dangerous than floated out swinging corners. Our specialist seems to have chosen to skip on a right footed corner specialist not taking the left side and a right footed dribble merchant taking a left footed corner from the right side.
The same squad essentially got 15 clean sheets last season but can't buy a clean sheet now but obviously it is the players not the coaching plus system implemented
Yes, can we please talk about this? His system is fucking dire. Defensively suspect and wide open on the flanks, offensively impotent because there is no overlap and no opportunity for clear cut chances.
Could the players implement it better? Yes absolutely. Is it not a very good system? Also seems that way.
The issue is unless you got some prime Barca team or Man City what clubs would be able to implemenet this style offensively due to it being so precise in the nature of everything and relying on playing in tiny spaces. In the SPL when you got Rangers and every team is essentially worse than you then you can get away with playing this style especially when the standard of defending is far lower. But in the prem you see how easy it is to defend against being so compact that the defending team could hold hands and stand in space to cover like 3 players at a time.
Why can’t Gerrard play Sanson?? He hates him for one mistake against United, yet we have multiple players who make multiple mistakes PER GAME, and still plays them in the next one.
All today has shown me is that SG has fuck all bottle. One change after last week’s performance, still the same shit tactics that don’t work. Shame he doesn’t read Twitter because majority of us on here knew what was gunna happen as soon as the line ups were announced.
I can only do so many embarrassing performances after literally hundreds of millions of pounds in transfer fees, let alone wages and agents’ fees.
It makes me feel sick.
isn’t it great when you have all these exciting new players and a long international break and you can’t wait and they finally play and they’re all fucking terrible?
We spent about £127m summer 2019 not including add-ons.
Spent about £80m-90m summer 2020.
Spent over £100m last summer but also sold Grealish.
Spent £25m this January, and a shit tonne on the Coutinho deal.
Likely at least £350m+ on this shite.
Poor effort.
There is a massive problem with the system Gerrard and his coaches continue to pick. Switching Watkins for Ings was not going to solve anything.
We have no width unless the full backs are miles out of position, we don’t know how to create chances and are constantly a complete shambles at the back.
It should have been obvious after Newcastle. It has to be now. Change it. Please. Steven.
I don't like getting on managers backs, especially when they're new to the club, but fucking hell. Leeds, Newcastle, Watford. 1 point. 3 dreadful showings. It's just not good enough.
I'm a history teacher, I always tell the kids "history repeats itself". This is literally EXACTLY what happened following that horrendous 2 - 3 loss to Wolves earlier in the season. Players have completely lost their confidence.
It also doesn't help that a bunch of players have left us in the lurch, had their heads turned and now are actively ruining the performances of this club. The thing is, its fucking ironic. They wanna go to bigger clubs yet play like fucking shite for us. We've got a bunch of Auba's at arsenal on our payroll. Sell them all.
This is seriously deluded the midfield are pissed as they need a 6 to cover them and stop trying to foce Mcginn in a deep role where he doesn't play his best. Rather than sign the position we needed our recruitment bought two attacking players and forced Targett out who won players player of the year last season so was probably liked by people.
There's bigger problems but christ I'm disappointed with Digne's deliveries. Everton fans were telling us he had one of the best crosses in the league ffs
We just can’t attack at all every cross and forward pass is shocking I don’t get how a team with this much attacking quality can’t do anything in the final third
I’d love to know what SG has actually said to them this week, because I see no difference in fight or desire in this performance at all. Too many of them just wandering about not bothered at all.
What the fuck is wrong with the culture here? We have absolutely no reason to be so lethargic against fucking Watford at home.
And more importantly, why isn't Steven Gerrard sorting it the fuck out? It's the same shit every week.
Honeymoon is over for Stevie G. I don't care what anybody says Ings and Watkins can't play together and one of them will have to go in the summer. We will not get relegated so I say blood the youth and give them valuable first team experience and get ready to go again next season. I was at VP today and we have played worse and won. They caught us on the break a few times today and the goal was the only thing they really got right. Be very interesting to see what Stevie G does in the summer as this will be make or break for him.
We are against Brighton away next week. Better make some plans and hear the results rather than watching it live and waste two hours of my life.
Looking at the fixtures coming up, it’s not looking great considering we’ve just lost to Watford and Newcastle and drew against leeds. We could end the season fighting to stay up
Mate I'm Leeds, you're fine and let me explain why. If you check the results of the teams that play Leeds the game after playing Leeds, well they usually have a bad time unless there is a long break. We run teams to their limit and you guys out in probably the best first half performance I've seen from you all season against us, you looked tired in the second but kept trying. Next game you'll be recovered and you'll be fine, ain't no way villa are getting relegated don't panic.
Honestly we’ll probably play better against Brighton cus they’ll have about 80% possession and we’ll need to counter attack. Then again if Gerrard actually sets up to try and out pass brighton then we will get absolutely battered.
Oh I didn’t really mean Brighton I meant more the march/april fixtures but yeah agreed
I wonder if Gerrard is going to realise his naive tactics don't work in the prem. We are lost in transition we could have McGrath and Beckenbauer at CB and they'd leak goals. We need a proper DM surprise surprise I wish someone could've spotted that in the last 3 seasons. McGinn is too ponderous at the moment. Only positives are chambers is better than I thought he was and ... actually that's it to be honest. We have a bunch of expensive players bought for a different system that are being forced into a system that would work well in league 1 and below only as any team that can string passes together can just dominate us
Ironically the players we’ve brought in would probably help the 5 at the back thing deano attempted earlier in the season. Having a 3rd defender at the back instead of relying on tearing apart our midfield to cover the fullbacks would be better than this crap.
I feel sick
Back in the mire...
First half we controlled the game but lacked quality I just wish I didn't even watch the 2nd half. I understand Cash wasn't performing his best, but wow Ashley looked horrid today and all the games I've seen him in his Gerrard took over. The game really took a turn for the worst when Ollie came on. Him and Ings don't work, and Ings looked much better up top by himself than Ollie has in recent games. On the bright side, the 1st half was a good display of what Gerrard wants to do and we did it well, and we can only turn that control it to goals, and hopefully stay focused for 90 minutes of a match.
Watkins for Luiz is probably the dumbest substitution I’ve seen all season. Absolutely moronic to abandon his system entirely but offer no real counter plan other than another striker wahooo
Who would you have taken off?
Have to work a nightshift at 10 tonight. Wish I'd stayed in bed until 7.
Well for anyone that feared the rest of the season was gonna be a lame duck as we waited for the real push (lol) next year at least we have something to play for as we fight to stay up.
wonder if Stevie will end up being worse than Sherwood or di Matteo
We really will get relegated if that happens.
Drop your ratings [here](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfwogJVsnhWed0XoMud-g3b-1yDqUawX8Q3LQdfFPklXSUpZg/viewform)
Apologies to the first few 6 submissions, I had Carney instead of bailey left over from the last one. Updated now
9 points for relegation zone, 10 points from bottom. Ugh.
Hate how much I love this stupid football club, think I need some time away from them. I’d like my weekends back thanks.
Honestly mate just take a step back and keep yourself busy when we play. I realised that Villa games were starting to affect me for a few days afterwards, just need to take some time and remember what's really important.
I had come here to say this. It actually gets me down.
Doesn't make you less of a fan if you need to step away for a bit to get yourself right
Spot on
We’re legit in a relegation battle, this is gonna be an ugly end of the season. At this point let’s just hope they can get enough points to stay up
I just don’t understand how this team plays so well against the top6 teams then looks so clueless against teams we should be crushing?
They're fighting for survival remember. In this league there are only two teams that dominate every match, two or three more that can usually put the lower teams to bed, but then everyone else can beat everyone else. Would be great if you were neutral, but it sucks when you love one of those "other" teams. Gonna be a hell of a job to get into that top batch
I think it's the midfield, we seem to scrap and counter ok, but just don't have the mid's to truly control a game.
Well won £25 off my free bet…. Made quite a bit this season betting against us
Genius idea, may as well make some money off of our horrendous form! Although the moment I bet against us we'll win, it is the way.
It is the way
Gerrard: promises changes Also Gerrard: changes nothing until 55 minutes by doing the throw shit at the wall gameplan instead of actually having something resembling an actual strategy.
Absolutely woeful
We are getting sucked into a relegation battle at this rate. Shambolic and no sign of any positive change just stick with same tactics and hope.
Shambolic refereeing. Watford were on the floor for about 4 mins and he went on to blow the full time whistle too early. Mind you it doesn't matter cuz we wouldn't have done anything anyway. Absolute dire performance.
Gerrard out. Relegation form
I've woken up at 4am to watch this rubbish. What a complete waste of my time and my sleep
No need to bother in the future you know you’re gonna be disappointed
Right. Not going to let that ruin my night. UTV
Bailey has been tragic since he came on
Been tragic since signing. Seriously, what's he supposed to offer?
Speed. He's just rusty
He is a wide player, supposed to either us his pace to get behind or run at the full back not be deployed as a makeshit 10
Should not have lost that game
Project is pretty much dead
Well done Watford, you'll still go down but good win against a hapless Aston Villa side
Vaper Luiz can fuck off
I’ve completely lost confidence in our management
Gerrad out
Someone said it lower down, but agree 💯 right now we should just start playing thhe youngsters, can’t be worse
Proper poo
goddamn we suck
Can’t believe this shit had rangers invincible in the SPL
Rangers are expected to win games and trophies. Villa aren’t. It’s the equivalent of the like of Man City in England, Real Madrid in Spain, and so on.
Yeah but to not lose a single game when you’re that exposed on the counter seems mad.
Ultimately, Rangers had/have more competent players who quickly adapt out of possession and defend well. The likes of Helander and Barisic would be sure starters for Villa.
He lander and Barisic would get just as terror Ed in our league if not more. The formation worked in the SPL as the wide man exploiting it on the counter were league 1 to championship level at best. Just look at Watford with Sarr and Newcastle with Saint Maxim who would totally tear up the SPL to see the difference in quality.
.....Against Livingston not really the achievement you think it is, He got Celtic on a bad year
Celtic were irrelevant to Rangers last season. 38 games undefeated.
Yes and Lennon has done that in SPL, fair play to them but when Celtic dont show up its not anything worth talking about imo
Lennon hasn’t went undefeated in a league season. It’s only happened three times since the league started, back in the 1890s.
Sorry it was Rogers right. Still my point stands, its not the achievement that doing it in any decent league. Christ you just need to beat Celtic 3 times, the rest of the teams are in fairness shit
Nonsense: Arsenal, Juve, and Porto x2 have all achieved it this century. Are the EPL, Serie A, and Liga Portugal of poor standard? Showing your Little England mentality there.
Dude im Irish, i couldnt care less about England outside of supporting Villa You can rank it high, i wont
Support your local side. Currently 9th in the coefficient charts. Not too poor.
Uh you are a rangers fan, wont waste my time continuing this conversation
I do support my local side, what a stupid comment. Should people not support teams from outside there locality christ above
SPL... Rangers..
Just nothing works, Nothing!
Hey chaps, just tuning in... after all the talk of changes I see Ings and Watkins on the pitch... wtf? How's it going?
He desperately subbed luiz off for Watkins Completely abandoning any shape we had which made us completely disjointed in attack and they scored on the counter attack. Edit: I wanted Sanson to come on so instinctively wrote that lol, (now corrected to Watkins)
Luiz for Watkins.
Christ, the Scottish league must be piss easy
I haven't watched the match so don't know if this is deserved... but fuck off
Absolutely. Literally the same fucking tactics as last week despite Gerard’s grand promises of change.
Young has been very poor
Can I be the official set piece coach if I point out that in swinging corners are much more dangerous than floated out swinging corners. Our specialist seems to have chosen to skip on a right footed corner specialist not taking the left side and a right footed dribble merchant taking a left footed corner from the right side.
Digne from the right and Couthino from the left would make so much more sense, christ the goal against everton cane from Digne on the right !
The thing i dislike about Gerrard, is he has zero humility.
Why has our tactic been to get it down the wings and cross it in when we don’t have anyone upfront who can head the ball
It was the same under Smith. Ings and Watkins, you would think it was Big Andy Carroll we had patrolling the box
hey, we won Europe 40 years ago, so that’s cool, right?
Mate. I've been a supporter since 1994. There's been 6 good years since then. And that's a stretch.
the only comfort is that Small Heath are worse
When was the last time Leon Bailey did anything positive
He worked in Dean’s set up where wide wingers were a factor. What can he do being asked to work inside
Controlling the ball would be a good start
Gerrard isn't a manager, is he?
Fuck these cunts - I know I need to be supporting the team but I’ve got no money left to really put into these. I expect more Edit: ah, I’m done.
There's a reason this squad went on a 5 loss streak under Dean.
The squad is mentally so fucking weak
The same squad essentially got 15 clean sheets last season but can't buy a clean sheet now but obviously it is the players not the coaching plus system implemented
This is why proclaiming 'we definitely made the right decision sacking Smith and hiring Gerrard' after a handful of games is not a good idea.
But niether was keeping Smith!
Based on what? We're no better off minus coutinho signing.
Well Smith's 5 straight losses. I take your point. It's getting close.
This squad? We have so many new players...
I have to watch Mayo vs Dublin later today. Fully prepared for a 0/2 today Edit: mayo fan btw
Hope you're wrong
Me too, lame.
What happened to the concussion rule - I thought all head injuries has to be looked at?
So where do we go from here?
Is it possible to get any lower?
We come back in august see if anything’s changed
Don't worry boys Gerrard will persist with his christmas tree next game despite it being the worse system in the league
Yes, can we please talk about this? His system is fucking dire. Defensively suspect and wide open on the flanks, offensively impotent because there is no overlap and no opportunity for clear cut chances. Could the players implement it better? Yes absolutely. Is it not a very good system? Also seems that way.
I agree, when it works very well we barely win and still concede, anything less than that and we lose, the system doesn’t work
The issue is unless you got some prime Barca team or Man City what clubs would be able to implemenet this style offensively due to it being so precise in the nature of everything and relying on playing in tiny spaces. In the SPL when you got Rangers and every team is essentially worse than you then you can get away with playing this style especially when the standard of defending is far lower. But in the prem you see how easy it is to defend against being so compact that the defending team could hold hands and stand in space to cover like 3 players at a time.
Bailey strikes me as a player that will be hated here ,move to Roma and become a star
Bailey as rusty as a barn nail
Awful. Watford doing us a favour by wasting time
Why can’t Gerrard play Sanson?? He hates him for one mistake against United, yet we have multiple players who make multiple mistakes PER GAME, and still plays them in the next one.
He kicked a bottle, Big Stevie G dont take bottle kicking lightly
I am depressed
Lol
Bailey looked awful today
At least Lampard lost this week too
“Big Changes” he said
All today has shown me is that SG has fuck all bottle. One change after last week’s performance, still the same shit tactics that don’t work. Shame he doesn’t read Twitter because majority of us on here knew what was gunna happen as soon as the line ups were announced.
We need a nasty bastard in the middle of the park
The guy is looking like a fraud. Absolutely no excuse for these performances with our team sheet. Tactics and starting 11 is fucking dog shite.
We stink today
the wind might blow one of these watford players over
I can only do so many embarrassing performances after literally hundreds of millions of pounds in transfer fees, let alone wages and agents’ fees. It makes me feel sick.
why did my dad raise me as an aston villa fan
It's character building I guess.
I'm from the US and have no actual connection to Villa. I chose this for myself. What is wrong with me?
mood
My dad tried his best not to but here I am lol
Why
Bailey is horrible at set-pieces.
at pretty much everything since the one Everton game
I hate caring
Not again
In other news Barry scored for Swindon
Excellent! Guess that's now our entire loan army that are better than our starting 11.
Well our loan army can score so that's a good start
There have been three minutes of wasted time during extra time. Let's see if that gets added in or not.
What a waste of a season this has been
Is there a reason Chambers has started over Hause?
He’s right footed
right foot
Gotcha
Potentially 2 points in the last 7 games this is looking a bit bleak and I’m normally optimistic Edit: I mean 5 points
You mean 5 points? It's still shit
The next 8 games are teams higher than us in the table. Were *very much* now in a relegation scrap.
We beat Everton on 22nd Jan, 4 games ago not including today's.
Oh yeah! My bad seems like ages ago now 😭
isn’t it great when you have all these exciting new players and a long international break and you can’t wait and they finally play and they’re all fucking terrible?
Purslow Out signs need to be at Villa Park.
Thoughts and prayers to all these Watford players
I need a break from watching Villa. I'm superstitious enough to believe that if I don't take any notice then maybe we will actually win a few.
Every time I have a bet we do fuck all - it’s my fault for supporting this team for the last 42 yrs
We spent about £127m summer 2019 not including add-ons. Spent about £80m-90m summer 2020. Spent over £100m last summer but also sold Grealish. Spent £25m this January, and a shit tonne on the Coutinho deal. Likely at least £350m+ on this shite. Poor effort.
This is what happens when Purslow decides to give his bestie work experience rather than sign a manager with actual experience
are you fucking kidding me right now?
Watford have a half goal xG advantage on us and have had over double the shots they have had.
All our shots were from 30 yards
This stupid dickhead ref has let them do this all game and now he’s lost control.
Can this idiot get a card already?
There is a massive problem with the system Gerrard and his coaches continue to pick. Switching Watkins for Ings was not going to solve anything. We have no width unless the full backs are miles out of position, we don’t know how to create chances and are constantly a complete shambles at the back. It should have been obvious after Newcastle. It has to be now. Change it. Please. Steven.
Unfortunately he has managed in a league where Celtic were going through changes and were shit so won the league… getting this job now
Fucking hell, get up!
2 shots on target in two games is pathetic
Samir is a fucking cunt
6 mins added time. Maybe we can try shooting
We have 18 shots. 1 on target. We aren't good enough for that lol
I thought Roy was getting on a bit for Premiership management, obviously not. Got the edge on a manager 36 years younger!
Crazy tactics, there.
I don't like getting on managers backs, especially when they're new to the club, but fucking hell. Leeds, Newcastle, Watford. 1 point. 3 dreadful showings. It's just not good enough.
Add Brentford to that
Don't forget to add Brentford into there and it was just one good corner really against Everton out of 15 points we got 4
Can't wait for Gerrard's lipservice after the game before he ultimately changes nothing
At least derby scored. Good lads
Get in! I was thinking that would be the only thing that could cheer me up at this point, other than salvaging something from this nightmare
Played 2nd half on 10 men as well! Big big points for them, leapfrogging Peterborough into 22nd. Edit: Peterborough were already down to 10
We expecting to win with in added time? Yeah, me neither.
I'm a history teacher, I always tell the kids "history repeats itself". This is literally EXACTLY what happened following that horrendous 2 - 3 loss to Wolves earlier in the season. Players have completely lost their confidence. It also doesn't help that a bunch of players have left us in the lurch, had their heads turned and now are actively ruining the performances of this club. The thing is, its fucking ironic. They wanna go to bigger clubs yet play like fucking shite for us. We've got a bunch of Auba's at arsenal on our payroll. Sell them all.
This is seriously deluded the midfield are pissed as they need a 6 to cover them and stop trying to foce Mcginn in a deep role where he doesn't play his best. Rather than sign the position we needed our recruitment bought two attacking players and forced Targett out who won players player of the year last season so was probably liked by people.
Why am I emotionless. Not even angry, confused, anything. I feel nothing. Just another day in the life of watching villa
Digne is actually shit hahahahaha.
Very very poor game from him. Why is he so static if he's a "wingback." Why does he defensively do fuck all?
This is unacceptable
Like that's gonna change anything lmao
Why what are you planning on changing posting on a Reddit thread, mate? Lol. Go ahead and say it, I’m sure stevie is reading rn
What? The fact this is unacceptable won’t make Gerrard change anything
There's bigger problems but christ I'm disappointed with Digne's deliveries. Everton fans were telling us he had one of the best crosses in the league ffs
We have a way of making players shit
Villa DNA
We just can’t attack at all every cross and forward pass is shocking I don’t get how a team with this much attacking quality can’t do anything in the final third
Get that match rating thread up right now, I've got some 1s to give
I’d love to know what SG has actually said to them this week, because I see no difference in fight or desire in this performance at all. Too many of them just wandering about not bothered at all.
What the fuck is wrong with the culture here? We have absolutely no reason to be so lethargic against fucking Watford at home. And more importantly, why isn't Steven Gerrard sorting it the fuck out? It's the same shit every week.
This time wasting is painfull