Gio Discussion Thread

[BlueboyG 5,319]

9 minutes ago, SeparateEntityMyArse said:

Sands isn't being played out of position.

Tillman simply can't play wide otherwise he's lost and his effort is minimal.

Those aside, pretty fair assessment.

Then there's the injury list....

Sands is a midfielder he's being played at centre half most games.

[STEPPS BOY 75,065]

The team lacks belief when we play away from home in Europe. 

Nearly a year into Gio’s tenure and there’s still no clear way of playing and not even sure if he knows what his best 11 is yet.

[Gaffbear 4,104]

Time and patience is running out .

[Essandoh 21,351]

8 minutes ago, STEPPS BOY said:

The team lacks belief when we play away from home in Europe. 

Nearly a year into Gio’s tenure and there’s still no clear way of playing and not even sure if he knows what his best 11 is yet.

I’d say we lack belief when we play away from home full stop.

Before anyone says “aye on the back of a 4-0 win at Tynecastle”, our away record in the league under GVB is simply not good enough.

[STEPPS BOY 75,065]

4 minutes ago, Essandoh said:

I’d say we lack belief when we play away from home full stop.

Before anyone says “aye on the back of a 4-0 win at Tynecastle”, our away record in the league under GVB is simply not good enough.

He’s playing the CL games, inc USG, like two legged affairs. Keep the score down and win game at Ibrox.

No coincidence that the two wins away from home (BD and PSV) we’ve scored first.

 

[The Beast 9,264]

1 hour ago, superallysbears said:

When a said similar I meant the same idea to get a result but that is where it ends, as you say there's a world of difference how Gio's team went about it, I'll be honest and say he's put me right off, I'll always support us no matter what but his football is joyless.

His football is among the worst I've ever seen. There may be worse managers out there but I don't remember ever seeing a manager with such a negative cowardly outlook.

With the possible exception of Barasic every single player that was already here has regressed since van Bronkhurst arrived. The team's fitness and organisation is nowhere near what it was before.

I don't know how a player who played for such great teams and managers "learned" to be a manager like this.

 

[plymouthranger 3,937]

1 minute ago, The Beast said:

His football is among the worst I've ever seen. There may be worse managers out there but I don't remember ever seeing a manager with such a negative cowardly outlook.

With the possible exception of Barasic every single player that was already here has regressed since van Bronkhurst arrived. The team's fitness and organisation is nowhere near what it was before.

I don't know how a player who played for such great teams and managers "learned" to be a manager like this.

 

Sorry but that part on regression is bollocks. Bassey couldn’t get a game for us and within 6 months under Gio went for a record fee. 
 

Lundstram was nearly out the door when Gio came in and finished last season as our best midfielder. 
 

Im not a massive backer of Gio, but saying he hasn’t improved anyone in the side is mental. 

[Dickie 12,905]

1 hour ago, BlueboyG said:

When you go through our players one by one you start to wonder what the fuck has happened to them, to name a few.

McGregor  doing fine

Tav  hasn't kicked a ball all season

Goldson  done well last night other than that he's been poor

Don't have a settled CB to partner Goldson so far

Barisic  would rather pass the ball backwards than get fwd, found wanting when defending

Lundstram nothing like the player last season

Kamara  been shite and doesn't look interested 

Davis slowing up and shouldn't be relying on a near retiring player

Jack  gives everything but slow and injury prone

Sands  jury's out as he is played in wrong position

Sakala trys hard but no end product

Kent  totally bereft of confidence and will probably leave us

Wright  not good enough for us

Matondo  terrible signing

Colak  excellent finisher but not much else

Morelos  Attitude,fitness and another who will probably leave

 

Just a few of what's wrong with us just now, it's fuckin depressing. 

So what exactly are you looking for from Colak?

If all that imposter Kent could do is score goals then I would be delighted.

[SeparateEntityMyArse 54,292]

49 minutes ago, BlueboyG said:

Sands is a midfielder he's being played at centre half most games.

Sands says himself he's happy as either a CH or CM, he lets his manager decided where to play him. So he considers both positions to be his and shouldn't get an easy ride for allegedly being played out of position.

[CR3 12,750]

31 minutes ago, STEPPS BOY said:

He’s playing the CL games, inc USG, like two legged affairs. Keep the score down

4 away to Ajax and will be similiar in Napoli if we’re being honest.

Take it as experience for next year and maybe the board will actually spend some money to somewhat compete as this year has gone already with the group we have found ourselves in. imo

Also, Liverpool see us as an easy six pointer now as Napoli are fairly bossing the group, so clinging onto maybe beating them next week and getting a result against Ajax at home is just clutching at straws tbh.

[hammer93 15,129]

It's easy sitting here and blaming Gio for a lot of things but we have to realise the step up in quality the champions league brings, Liverpool were faster, fitter, stronger, more alert and technically far superior to us allover the pitch, people can bleat all they want about tactics but the truth is we were never getting anything out that game last night 

In the past I've read how good Tav is and that TAA is a fraud.....really....what I saw last night was Tav looking like a Scottish premiership player....completely out his depth, Lundstram & Davis who always look composed on the ball in Scotland repeatedly gave the ball away....why is this, simple really, Liverpool have better players who know the areas of the pitch to close down leaving no space and then widespread panic ensues which causes a loose pass

Let's face it lads, the money is one thing but the level is totally way above us now, I've said it before in here but the way football is controlled now with money we are a Europa League club these days, over the last 4 years the Europa League has brought us some magical nights away from home but even more so at Ibrox

Apart from the money can anyone actually say they are preferring this campaign to last years campaign?

This is not a negative outlook It's just a realistic outlook.....I genuinely worry that we could finish this campaign without a single point, fuck me at this stage scoring a goal is a worry.

 

[Malkytfp1 18,770]

There is a lot of shite being pinned on Gio just for the sake of making shite stick.

However, he monumentally fucked up last night before a ball was kicked imo with his setup. We should have met them in the middle of the park. We should have had a go but giving up midfield and focusing on containment was never ever going to be successful. I'm also concerned a lot of the players, especially senior players, don't seem to be playing for him. The body language is atrocious just now and there is a real stench around the first team. It's no a great situation but there are more people at the club just as culpable as Gio but ultimately the sword falls on him. Last night swayed me away from him a bit 

[Bigdave30 8,752]

Is anyone willing to defend the direction our football has went under Gio?

We are not harder to beat, we don’t appear to score as many goals, we do not press anywhere near as much, we do not press with as much intensity, we don’t retain possession as well as we used to, we look as devoid of ideas going forward as we have for quite a while.

Outwith the long awaited cup success and European final last year I’m struggling for positives.

This is outwith the game last night as I believe we could play that Liverpool team 100 times and comfortably lose 90 of them.

Wilson out.

[Dickie 12,905]

6 minutes ago, hammer93 said:

It's easy sitting here and blaming Gio for a lot of things but we have to realise the step up in quality the champions league brings, Liverpool were faster, fitter, stronger, more alert and technically far superior to us allover the pitch, people can bleat all they want about tactics but the truth is we were never getting anything out that game last night 

In the past I've read how good Tav is and that TAA is a fraud.....really....what I saw last night was Tav looking like a Scottish premiership player....completely out his depth, Lundstram & Davis who always look composed on the ball in Scotland repeatedly gave the ball away....why is this, simple really, Liverpool have better players who know the areas of the pitch to close down leaving no space and then widespread panic ensues which causes a loose pass

Let's face it lads, the money is one thing but the level is totally way above us now, I've said it before in here but the way football is controlled now with money we are a Europa League club these days, over the last 4 years the Europa League has brought us some magical nights away from home but even more so at Ibrox

Apart from the money can anyone actually say they are preferring this campaign to last years campaign?

This is not a negative outlook It's just a realistic outlook.....I genuinely worry that we could finish this campaign without a single point, fuck me at this stage scoring a goal is a worry.

 

Can’t argue that they have better more skilful players but there is no way they should be faster fitter or stronger than us as they are all meant to be professional players.

Bottom line is that Gio is stubborn and clueless.

[BlueSuedeSambas 54,486]

23 minutes ago, Dickie said:

Can’t argue that they have better more skilful players but there is no way they should be faster fitter or stronger than us as they are all meant to be professional players.

Bottom line is that Gio is stubborn and clueless.

Being a professional is far too broad of a spectrum to pigeon hole everybody into the same category.

Liverpool will invest a lot more money into the sport science and fitness side of their club than we do and that’s going to lead to them having fitter, stronger and faster players than we have, in the same way that the money we invest in ours makes us have fitter, stronger and faster players than say a St Johnstone have.

[Gaffbear 4,104]

We should have went toe to toe with the same aggression and heart .

Aye they're better but we looked uninterested, unfit, clueless and just hoping we kept the score down. 

Getting beat is part of the game but losing with no fight is unforgiveable. Happened against the taigs and ajax and now Liverpool. 

Someone is to blame 

[BlueboyG 5,319]

49 minutes ago, Dickie said:

So what exactly are you looking for from Colak?

If all that imposter Kent could do is score goals then I would be delighted.

Happy with Colak but he needs players who can feed him and we haven't got that.

[ForeverAndEver 72,160]

58 minutes ago, plymouthranger said:

Sorry but that part on regression is bollocks. Bassey couldn’t get a game for us and within 6 months under Gio went for a record fee. 
 

Lundstram was nearly out the door when Gio came in and finished last season as our best midfielder. 
 

Im not a massive backer of Gio, but saying he hasn’t improved anyone in the side is mental. 

The whole team were shite under Gerrard last season, and we don’t look worse than when GVB took over.

Another point to have a go at him that’s just complete bollocks.

 

[hammer93 15,129]

25 minutes ago, Dickie said:

Can’t argue that they have better more skilful players but there is no way they should be faster fitter or stronger than us as they are all meant to be professional players.

Bottom line is that Gio is stubborn and clueless.

Disagree with this mate, take Kent for instance....one of our players we think is pacy, compared to TAA he is slow, Salah against Barisic on the other hand is murderous, we are slow and laboured against top quality opposition as in comparison to what @BlueSuedeSambas cites how we look against lesser teams in Scotland, unfortunately for now the champions league is too big a step for this current crop of players, they are found out at this level it's as simple as that

[Henders82 544]

Just a bit disillusioned with us at the moment. We were all absolutely buzzing to reach the group stages but was has followed has just been a disaster. Not really one minute of enjoyment, haven't even scored FFS! We appear quite aimless and win domestically due to the fact we just have better players then the majority of other teams.

[The Blues 375]

If we played like we have in the last three games we would have never got out of Europa league groups in the previous few seasons. I know CL is higher standard but we are playing without any confidence.
Teams like Benfica,RB,BD ,Porto and Frankfurt who we have matched or beaten in recent seasons (ok we lost on pens to Ffurt but could have won) are all picking up CL points.

 

[BlueSuedeSambas 54,486]

23 minutes ago, hammer93 said:

Disagree with this mate, take Kent for instance....one of our players we think is pacy, compared to TAA he is slow, Salah against Barisic on the other hand is murderous, we are slow and laboured against top quality opposition as in comparison to what @BlueSuedeSambas cites how we look against lesser teams in Scotland, unfortunately for now the champions league is too big a step for this current crop of players, they are found out at this level it's as simple as that

People can dissect it whatever way they want to, but the reality is we are just in the champions league to make up the numbers. Gio worded it terribly after the Ajax game, but we don’t have the quality needed to compete at this level, and we’ve seen that in the three games so far.

The best we can realistically hope for is battling performances, which granted we haven’t seen in Amsterdam or Liverpool, and that does deserve criticism.

[GWR1979 1,987]

Gio's style is brutal to watch turgid shite. It's not defeat it's the nature of the defeats and 2 thrashing by the filth. And conceding the league last season. 

Turning up to Champions league with I hope they don't get 5 attitude is brutal. 

No hope under Gio and I think the players are feeling the same. 

[STEPPS BOY 75,065]

Parkhead, Amsterdam, Anfield.

10 goals against and 0 goals for.

3 listless performances. 

[OrangeRab 3,038]

I don’t really understand people saying “Liverpool are miles ahead of us”. It’s a moot point. We all know it. But the performances that we have shown against celtic, Ajax, Liverpool are not even close to europa league performances. Many of the teams we’ve beaten over the last few years wouldn’t be performing as poorly as we are. That could have been 8-0 last night.

It was an indefensible set up of the team. Both mentally, tactically, personnel and formation. 
 

That’s not a manager that has studied his opposition this year and concocted a game plan to get something out the game. And it was a disservice to the players. Playing them in a new formation they rarely play on that stage. They looked clueless as to what they were supposed to be doing.

This is just the latest on the back of some mediocre domestic performances. And a general regression in all areas of our play. 
 

I find it pointless waiting for him to turn it around as he shows no sign of improvement.