Nobody said he is a shit manager. He’s the manager of a (lower) midtable club. Those jobs are hot seats nowadays and one bad run is enough to get the sack if you’re not established.
9 points in his last 10 games. That would be 34 points in 38. Burnley got relegated with 35 today.
Gerrard started in November and got 35 points
Big season for him next season.
Meh could be sacked by Christmas, but likewise this time next season he could be a target for clubs finishing 10-5th and make a step up from Villa.
He ain’t coming here before Klopp finished in 2026 so he may as well build his stock in the mean time.
He probably ain’t coming here at all if he can’t turn Villa into a club competing with Leicester/West Ham.
Signed Lucas Digne who is a pretty good left back but yeah , still take your point.
I suppose it begs the (somewhat ambiguous) question of just how rated he is (or isn’t).
I mentioned a few weeks ago to some friends that Gerrard’s Villa has had very few if any “surprising” results, i.e. where you go “they’ve done well to get a result there”: they lose against teams you’d expect them to lose to (often narrowly), win against teams you’d expect them to beat, and have a few draws.
There’s so much narrative surrounding him from a Liverpool fan perspective that unless he clearly excels at Villa he’s unlikely to get a truly fair appraisal on here. There’s understandable resistance to the idea that he’ll be anointed at LFC rather than arrive on merit. On the flip side, I can see why some would expect him to be treated more favorably as the prodigal son (and compared to the English managing dinosaurs we’re finally pushing out of the game).
Stevie is doing well as a manager so far. Rangers, champions, unbeaten season, got the title back from Celtic. Very good. Then moved to a much bigger pond and took on the Villa job.
He hasn’t been great and he hasn’t been bad at Villa. He has also had less than a season. They have some money and if he does well there he should get them to the upper mid Prem, possibly knocking on the door of the lower European spots.
We will watch with interest. Good luck to him!
As for today, Villa did well to give Man City a real scare. Lots of us thought City would blow them away early on, but that’s not what happened. As soon as City scored they always had the chance to hit another and another, as they are like that. Sadly it didn’t work out for us.
He seemed to have a good impact when he came in, but they’ve ended in basically the same position they were in when he came in. Maybe a reflection of a limited squad reverting to their actual standard? If so, it suggests a couple of good signings could help him sustain that initial “good form.” Maybe though it’s a reflection of all the perceived initial success actually being noise, the sort of run that even averages sides can go on, and he really had an insignificant impact.
From a distance I’ve liked a lot of what Ive seen of him so far as a boss, and this coming from someone who didnt think he had the temperament for it and roll me eyes at the links to the liverpool job. But we’ll see what next season brings.
Would have been nice for Villa to take something away against Citeh,but not to be.
As other have pointed out he had only half the season so can’t see him being in any danger yet.
Villa weren’t setting the world on fire before Stevie,so he needs to be given a decent chance.
Whether he is a good manager I don’t know,I know it is another league altogether but my Rangers supporting mate,a Glaswegian anyway,swears by him and was thoroughly pissed off when he went.
As he was a class player in his own right,. I’m inclined to give Stevie time before writing him off.
First, I’d like to state that Villa did well to be 2 nil in front at the Emptihad for such a long time. Eventually, fatigue caught up with them (contrarily to the cheaters, they had to play three days before) and they lost their advantage. Still a good performance from them.
Regarding his initial impact on Villa, I’d say that it isn’t bad at all. He identified and signed Digne and Coutinho, two able players who can make a difference for them next season. Especially Coutinho’s signature is a coup for a club like Villa, no doubt about it. It shows that Gerrard has some pulling power on certain high-level players. Obviously, they also have the finances to aim for this kind of players.
I for one wouldn’t be too concerned with the late results. Villa were safe since some time and hadn’t much to play for anymore. Let’s see how they perform once Gerrard will have signed one or two more players and will have had a full pre-season with his lads. I was very impressed how he improved Rangers at the time (didn’t expect it at all), so I’m genuinely interested to see if he can do the same at a higher level now.
Going two up was a stunning performance. SG had them on fire for the game. Class showed ultimately. You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, but you can make a pretty attractive luggage tag.
Good Point. Some more recovery days for Villa might def have helped
The game flipped on it’s head when Coutinho went off, Gerrard rightly had 2 no.10’s playing inbetween Cities lines which was causing havok. When Coutinho went off it free’d Cities midfield to create overloads and the rest… They say… Is history.
That is good management, but room to improve which is where Gerrard should be at this point in his career. He basically did a change which ended in Villa sitting deeper and deeper and punting the ball long… Which is what City want.
Their careers under a new manager?
I just read Stevie has signed Boubacar Kamara on a free. That is a very good signing and he will improve the midfield at Villa. Stevie is starting to make a couple of moves and it will be fascinating to see what comes of it.
As for the Villa v City game, great point being made on the recovery and prep time both teams had. One week versus 2-3 days is a big difference, and at that point you would expect the fitness levels to diverge in the last half hour, especially if a team puts a lot into the game as Villa did.
It should also be noted that the teams play at a different level. One just won the league, for the fourth time in five years (cheating bastards) and the other is trying to build it up to get established in the mid or upper mid level of the Prem. Under the circumstances I can’t go overboard in picking over the bones of what Stevie did and didn’t do, as his Villa team did better than expected, and better than most, against Man City.
To be fair he probably did what he felt he could do, we don’t know the fitness levels of Coutinho or anyone at Villa. I’ll give them credit, they went and gave them a game and put at least 14 other clubs to shame in doing so.
And that was on a 2 day rest.
So he has lost us 2 titles now 
.
Klopp has lost us more; titles and cups. 
Klopp out!!! 
When we play Villa in future, we can now sing ‘ 2-0 and you fucked it up’
It’s the boyo’s birthday. Same day as my missus, so I never forget either.
For your pleasure:
Happy birthday, Stevie.