FA Cup - Aston Villa: Post Match

[McDermotX]

The smooth? Where's the smooth? I want some ****ing smooth

Stick on a re-run of last season's highlights and lubricate with a nice bottle of whiskey.

[Leyton388]

There's been far too much rough than smooth for 25 years.

[Red_Polo]

Stick on a re-run of last season's highlights and lubricate with a nice bottle of whiskey.

Laphroaig here I come

[McDermotX]

Laphroaig here I come

[Icon]

When the guy holding. Skrtels leg left, so did the magic...

[Montana]

Travelling back from the game. ****e performance all round. Out ****ing classed by Villa!

Rodgers had my backing but now unsure. Maybe another year maybe not. I sense not tbh

[Leyton388]

We shouldn't give him or this committee another penny. John henry himself would probably do a better job.

[Ams12]

Where are Burnley and City in the league respectively? Anybody can beat anybody but over the course of a league season those with the most resources will find themselves in the top positions. For us we need to spend what we have better than Spurs, Arsenal and maybe Southampton do and we'll be in with a chance of getting top 4 but that's it. Forget about trophies or even finals on a consistent basis.

Yes there is a big gap...but is there a possibility of finding a manager working with the potential our squad has, having about £40 million transfer fund every summer, developing a way of playing that can beat most teams & not fold when up against the bigger teams/more physical sides? If so then we may see ourselves competing in the top 4 or even for the league. Arsenal possibly have a lower budget & wage bill compared to city but are above them at the moment...so billions are not essential always.

We have a reasonable squad of players. Some exciting prospects. Some useful squad players. We are quite low on experienced players after this season. But we have a squad who can beat the man city's from time to time. What i would like is a manager who can provide a consistent performance & results over several seasons. We definately have to find more sturridge & coutinho type signings overall & get our spending right this summer.


Not sure where im going with the rest of this post lol but not directed at you G.
Rodgers has done ok but the ship is far from steady from when he has been in charge. We now go through another mini transition phase starting next season. I'll start from the back:
Our keeper is far from perfect but has done superbly to regain some form after being dropped earlier. We don't have a strong 2nd choice keeper.
Our defence is a patch work! Got slightly better when changed to a back 3 using Can & Sakho. We spent £20 million on a CB who has not shown the performance of a first teamer. How do we fix this for next season? RB is another area we will have to sort out this summer with Johnson leaving.
Our midfield is not strong enough. Lucas is our only recognised DM & we can see how his involvement helps us. The other 2/3 spots is probably one better player short to add some strength & attacking threat. Lallana has been in & out of the side for another £20 million.
Our strike options lack goals! Pretty ironic for strikers. Sturridge is our main striker but there are injury concerns with him after this season. Ballo, borini & maybe lambert won't be here next season. We have origi coming in but will surely be 3rd/4th choice while settling in. We need a striker who gets goals this summer.
Our formation is...well i don't actually know! We've used a few this season & may change again next year. Lets say pick 3 & build a squad that is fluent playing in either by being versatile positionally or subbing out who doesn't work in one for someone who does.
If next year is Rodgers last season then he has to finish in the top 4. Stay if he does. New manager if he doesn't. Maybe even new manager if performances are inconsistent but that is kind of like this year with the bad start, decent run of results after new year & drop in form now. I think this last part of my post is should we stick with Rodgers & hope things improve next year or change now & hope a new manager can produce the results & performances i/we see acceptable.

[SB]

Brendan's lack of guts to hook a totally inept Gerrard in this match speaks volumes. He hooked Allen who was far better than Stevie & I thought he hook him instead of Markovich at HT. I agree Lazar wasn't doing well but at least he offered pace out wide. The sooner Stevie's gone the better which is a sad indictment of how far he's fallen off his perch.

[peekay]

IMO last few games we havent played well and I include the win v Newcastle in that

Midfield is an enormous problem for me, the ease with which teams just carve through our centre is scary

There is no pressure on the ball, no competing for second balls, positionally we look all over the gaff and teams just rock up flood the midfield, physically bully us and its game over

I think Koeman and Gary Monk figured out the way to stop the new system but we got lucky those two games. We have been playing **** since then,

[Muddled]

Brendan's lack of guts to hook a totally inept Gerrard in this match speaks volumes. He hooked Allen who was far better than Stevie & I thought he hook him instead of Markovich at HT. I agree Lazar wasn't doing well but at least he offered pace out wide. The sooner Stevie's gone the better which is a sad indictment of how far he's fallen off his perch.

I've seen this mentioned around the forum and I don't think Rodgers could have taken Gerrard off. Our subs bench consisted of full backs and strikers. With Lucas injured, our only options were to change formation and utilise players that were already on the pitch.

Markovic was the obvious substitution at half time and I guess it was touch-and-go as to whether that was for Balotelli or Johnson. We were crying out for a striker and that's the way Rodgers went. No way was he going to make a second substitution at half time with the potential of a game going to 120 minutes.

[Tee]

Still cannot believe how we failed to perform yesterday. Gutted.

I have been thinking that maybe Brendan is too much one of the lads - given the average age of our squad we could benefit from a bit more of a disciplinarian approach.

We have had a **** season and ultimately Brendan is accountable.

[Yozza]

Watching Tims smug faces& his talk of 'bamboozling' us with his tactics

Bollocks - BR tried to be too clever & the players just bottled it

[Muddled]

As a disclaimer, I'm not advocating a Benitez return.

Perhaps Rodgers tinkered too much too soon yesterday? If you look at the formations we played and the number of positions a handful of players had to play, it's no great surprise we couldn't get any momentum.

Benitez had so much faith that his formation and tactics would come good, he hardly deviated from it mid-game. Sure, he set up differently for certain opponents, but he was adamant it was right from minute one and bar the odd defensive tweak, he was rigid.

Yesterday, we had Gerrard played as a attacking midfielder and a defensive midfielder; Henderson played central midfield and right wing back; Can played centre back, right back, central midfield and wide right. In a game where we needed to grab the game by the scruff of the neck, the players were too busy adapting to their new roles. It was in no way a seamless change.

I think the players have to take responsibility for their lack of desire, but equally Rodgers needs to stop being so reactive and stand by his decisions.

[Roboklopp]

But Benitez would divide the fanbase.