As soon as the whistle was blown for the start of our match against Liverpool, you could see the way Rémi Garde instructed his Villa side to play football that day. It was very noticeable to me that the players were told to take up their positions in their own half, allow Liverpool the bulk of possession and hopefully hit them on the break.
0-6 was the final score, so you can tell how Rémi’s tactics worked out. This was the worst performance I’ve ever witnessed down at Villa Park, which also drew a lot of sympathy from the Liverpool manager, klopp. Along with the West Ham fans the other week, and as if he couldn’t be blamed himself for our defeat, Garde is now also starting to feel sorry for us, all this sympathy is really getting up my nose!
Maybe if Garde had shouted to his players to press the opposition more, or if he even tried to change the tactics to only get something that resembled a performance out of the game, then who knows, it wasn’t like Liverpool were in the best of form coming to Villa Park. This only reinforces my opinion that Garde is not the right man to turn our fortunes around, this season or next.
But Garde did make us hard to beat in our previous five league matches, and for that I give him credit, but he also has to accept that his start to his Villa journey wasn’t the best, and he was a major part in our heaviest home defeat since 1935. Giving him credit one minute and then saying it’s not his fault the next when things are going wrong isn’t right, at what point does a manager take the blame?
Intelligent as Rémi might come across, he honestly doesn’t fill me with the confidence that he’s the right man to get us out of the Championship next season. The board will not be going anywhere, so people can keep on saying, ‘Lerner Out’, ‘The Board Out’ all they want, it won’t make any difference until they’ve gone, but they’re not going anywhere!!! We need a manager in, who can do the best for Villa with the resources that we’ve got, and for me, Rémi isn’t that man!
The way some of our players have come across this season after losing certain matches wouldn’t have ingratiated themselves with the fans. This could also be a sign of a week manager, players making statements and then unbelievable apologies that follow, could show a lack of respect for the authority of the manager; it’s a lot easier to punish a twenty year old who had a drink or two, than a senior player who doesn’t respect you.
Probably the right manager appointed at the wrong time for all the wrong reasons.
As for you touting Grealish, get a grip, he’s a spoilt brat who will end up playing in the lower leagues and drifting into obscurity unless he grows up and behaves like a professional
What a poor post.
Get a grip for God sake.
Villa has failed the moral test and now we reward managers for poor performance.
Give Remi a chance, clear out the wasters and let him get his own players.
At the moment I get the feeling the players in the squad want us to get relegated. They get released and move on to a new pay day…
What we need now is stability and that comes by have a manager who can build his own team. Where players know they will go before the manager.
why come on here if all you can do is slag people off because they dare to voice a honest opinion, get under your stone until next season.
its true we did sit back but im not sure we did it on purpose ,,,,,,,,
liverpool just hounded us and we were over run in midfield
and because the midfield was so crowded the crab football which was even worse due to a lack of attacking options just got us nowhere and we got dispossessed time after time,,,,, and punished big time
what i would like to know is how you would have set the team up,,, with 7 first teamers out and a rolly polly up front
please inform us of your ideas as at the moment you look like you have just jumped on the defeatist bandwagon
garde is a good manager,,,, working with unbalanced team full under confident players who were unfit , been demoralised and that has suffered many injury’s with no money to make things better,,,,,,,,
and with certain players who are either shadows of there former selves
or prefer to swallow balloons and lie comatose d in the fu*king street
7 points from 9 in our previous 3 home games and only 3 teams bettered our points total in the previous 5 games in the entire premier league.
Overall the football is improving under Garde, to say differently as a knee jerk reaction to one poor day at the office is stupid. Yes he’s not had the impact that was needed but that’s in the past now. All we can do is look forward and for me, once he ditches the let downs (mainly senior and British players btw before we start on the fallacy that the foreigners are the problem) and gets his own team to better I think we’ll do well under this guy.
Hi Glenn – We can’t just keep blaming the managers. The players are lightweight (both mentally & physically) and there are very few that will be suitable for the Championship.
We are going to have rebuild most of the team for the Championship but with an eye to a (hopefully) quick return to the Premier league.
We need a mix of proven good quality Championship players, players from lower leagues with potential (could we find our own Vardy), Villa youth/academy players and GOOD quality foreign players (could we find our own Marez).
What we do need is a proper Scandinavian centre half i.e. Olof Mellberg / Martin Laursen / Kent Nielsen.
The fact that you call yourself the villa blogger is an embarrassment. I’ve read two of your posts and they have both been awful. The problem, is that the players are in control in the dressing room, you may want to try and explain how that was any different under the previous two managers?
Garde gets things wrong, but how on earth is he meant to change anything without being able to bring anyone in? It’s the same squad as Tim Sherwood had and hes doing a better job.
I question whether you know football or even watch any of the games.
Finally it’s “weak” not “week” schoolboy
I’d say Garde is the first tactically astute manager we’ve had since Houllier – and his appointment (plus public assurances from the board that he keeps his job if we go down) is the first thing the board has got right in years.
We have a horribly unbalanced, lightweight squad. However we have plenty of talent there. If we had 2 decent forwards we’d have survived this season, in my opinion.
Please don’t judge the manager until he’s had a chance to show what he’s made of in the summer – something I pray he gets (and wants) the chance to do…..
The board will go if we fans actually do something, unlike you and the majority who have simply given up. The fans are just as much to blame; buying tickets when we knew Lerner had screwed his 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc chances… We’ve facilitated the decline big time. It’s up to us to drive him out. Could be so easily done…
Where’s Mr Hollis, reading the riot act to Lescott,shipping out Nzogbia
Bacuna Westwood Hutton Guzan. Gabby. No wonder we can’t buy any
decent quality strikers . These use flops are bleeding villa into oblivion.
Start the cull now we are down,start playing youth,
I’ve written a few comments on this site and predicted this situation a few seasons ago.
I returned to the area after being a season ticket holder in the days of boardroom battles, club takeovers, first division promotion through to European Cup glory. On my return my son and I purchased season tickets and for the last four seasons. I turn up, and that’s it! I don’t have any interest in the team sheet or any of those players. There’s no inspiration to go, no players of interest and who’s to blame, us, you and me, fans, for keep going. This club has made so many errors from every department, an embarrassment, even the Liverpool fans were doubled up laughing at our half time exploits. Which commercial whizz kid decided to put the advert on the big screen regards the Boo Boo coffee, just as the players truddged off!
This club has reduced incentives to purchase season tickets year on year, what’s the plan for attracting Championship sales! At best, same price with more games (at unattractive kick off times and days!). The solution is not to buy, not at least until they start to rebuild our club.
So your solution is to sack Remi Garde? Who has come in to Villa and taken on at best a bunch of mediocre players, and has not been allowed signed a single player.
The best thing the board can do is ensure Garde stays and allow him to build his own team. Guardiola would struggle to play positive football with the players currently at Villa.
Time to give youth a chance and start the rebuild now for next season. There are far too many has beens at Villa who want to control the team. Garde should fuck them all off and play players who are commited to teamwork and work ethic. Thats the best us Villans can hope for for the rest of this season. We know the players are not good enough, but commitment and character is a bare essential.
I will be at Stoke and will be looking for 100% effort on the park, not a claim of all players giving 100% on a tweet from one of our has beens after the game!
BIG RESPECT TO ALL THE VILLANS WHO STAYED TILL THE END V LIVERPOOL AND SHOWED DEFIANCE! Were the Villa boys, making all the noise, everywhere we go! UTV