No indeed, but it can’t be very far away. They way how Villa sacked Smith before engaging Gerrard made me think at the time that they pull the trigger as soon as a mini-crisis occurs. This situation is similar. It’s nothing that Gerrard couldn’t address over the course of the season, but he won’t get that time.
Not sure about that. Lack of playing style, lots of personal changes to the starting xi and more a great win ratio since taking over. And from a few bits I’ve read he still infers a lot of blame onto the players. Villa’s ambition and spending over the past few years demand more than what they’ve got out of Gerrard.
If I was a Villa fan I’d want him replaced by Poch while he’s still available.
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Hopefully this calms down a little bit all the “will it be Gerrard, Lijnders or Alonso?!” talks.
I think its true that the vast majority of supporters would love him to be in charge some day.
For him to win a PL as manager would cement his legend.
His legend is already cemented. He has nothing to prove and a lot to lose.
Some of us have nightmares about midfield heroes who come down from Rangers to ruin our club.
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Coutinho’s let him down - been shite.
Oh I am old enough to remember.
Some of us remember signing Sean Dundee and thinking he would be great.
The same feeling signing Salah.
Turned out different though?
I personally believe that Gerrards biggest regret is not winning a PL.
Shouldn’t have fucking slipped then eh 
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Let’s not blame this in Villa. They were a club with decent foundations and spent reasonable money to support him when he came in. He of course had bad luck in some areas like with the Carlos injury, but this is not a team playing well just weak in the middle due tot he absence of a key CB. They look aimless and are toothless, which is not acceptable for a team with the likes of Ings, Watkins, and Phil to call upon.
If you look at how he’s done, almost all the good press he’s got came from a decent run he had immediately upon taking over that saw them raised from a relegation fight into the top half. That good press masked how quickly they went back to being shit and by the end of the season they had fallen back into pretty much the same position as the one they were in when he took over. They have continued this season the same way.
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Gerrard’s let himself down signing a lot of players he knew personally and not getting a tune out of them. He’s spent quite a lot but doesn’t really look to have improved the team nor how they play.
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Lijnders it is, then. 
All of what you say is true. Then again, notwithstanding injuries, time was needed in order to gel this newly assembled team. The quality in the squad is there now imo, and what Gerrard needs most right now is the owners’ support, and a bit of time. I for one think that he has done enough at Rangers to show that he can bring satisfying results in the medium term.
But obviously, a bad run of results would get him the sack at most clubs, and Villa are certainly part of them.
He’s been there a full season and has been in relegation form for pretty much the entire time except for the first period of games covered by the new manager bounce. After a quarter of this season they are on target for only 34 points, which is really difficult to avoid relegation on that form. And this is pretty much exactly how they finished last season as well (9 points from their final 11 game).
If they’re seeing that he isnt actually offering much more than quips about the players needing to have better standards, things that seemed smart when he was new and they were getting results, less so when they look shit and are under his direction, then it seems far more reasonable to pull the plug after a year.
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It’s still a bit sad though
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Against chavski especially in the first half they played well but its only a matter of time before he gone.
That’s what irks me a bit. There are signs that the team is still alive and fighting.
But that’s football business, and Gerrard is obviously well aware of it.
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There could have been mumbling and groaning behind the scenes from the players for all we know… Stevie has obviously got high standards of which a lot of players will never reach… The Tyrone Mings episode never seemed to go down well with their fans so maybe there was a swell of anti-Stevie within the club…
Be interesting to see what he does next and whether he still has the fire in his belly for the slog he will now face
This is it, for me.
In the convo for our greatest ever player. I very much want him to succeed.
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Is it official? Or just at the writing on the wall stage?
First off, Stevie is a Liverpool legend and always will be.
Second, flying the nest to forge his own career in management is laudable. I’m sure he could have had a job for life, training the kids under Jurgen’s tutelage at Anfield. But Stevie is a leader of men. A lion. And a lion needs to get out there and roar!
Taking on the Rangers job was a good move. Big club. Proper club, with traditions and a large and passionate fanbase. They had been to hell and back but Stevie brought them the title they so craved after a long spell without.
Part of me thought he should have stayed their a bit longer, but Villa came calling, and that’s a big job. [They have won the European Cup whereas those upstarts at Man City have not!]
And that’s where it sort of gets bogged down a bit. In the cold light of day Stevie hasn’t especially shown that he was altogether better than his predecessor at Villa. They should be looking at top half, and with a fair wind, making a run on a European place. It is still early days, and that might not be gone.
But…
Where’s the pattern of play? The evidence of a style being adopted? The sense that, even if results haven’t been quite right, there is hope for better to come?
I think it is fair to say that Stevie hasn’t done enough at Villa to keep those questions at bay, and if he is sacked, it is understandable, given the football climate we have in the Prem.
Where does he go from here?
He wouldn’t be the first top person to have a set back. It might make him a better manager in the long run. It all depends on what he sees himself doing.
He could get a job in the lower reaches of the Prem, maybe, or definitely in the Championship.
Would that get the juices flowing for him?
It will be interesting to see what happens.
Even so, Steven Gerrard: Liverpool Legend.
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I’m more willing to believe that Stevie faces the sack and less willing to believe Mauricio Pochettino is actually going to Birmingham.
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