Too Early?

“I’m trying to play the people that deserve to play but it’s not my job to give minutes, it’s their job to earn minutes and to show me they deserve minutes and, if they do that, they’ll play."

Notwithstanding the sheer hypocrisy of the statement, Steven Gerrard’s latest less than well judged post match comments about the squad he has at his disposal got us thinking:

• When is a squad a manager’s squad?

• When is a team a manager’s team?

• When can a manager still be allowed to blame his predecessor? The squad he inherited? The kit man’s wife’s dog?

• Is it games played? 10 games? 20 games? 30 games? 32 games?*

• Or is it transfer windows? One? Two?* More?

• Or is it players shipped out and in? Five? Ten? Nineteen?*

• Or is it money spent? £5 million? £25 million? £50 million? £76 million?*

• Or is it months? Three? Six? Nine?*

• Or is it after the first win? Twelfth win?* Fifteenth defeat?*

• Or is it the amount of times players suffer public criticism from the manager? First time? Second time? Fifth time? Tenth time?*

• When can the media, desperate to retain access, safely admit the truth? The first time the manager invokes his vacuous nonsense of "ruthlessness, reset, identity and quality"? The fifth time? The fifteenth time? The thirtieth time?*

• Or is it when they become the worst performing manager in the last decade?*

• Or the worst performing manager in the Premier League era?*

• Or the worst performing manager since the club’s last title win?*

• Or the Second worst performing manager since the Second World War?

• Or the second worst performing manager since the club was formed in 1874?

Who knows?

Perhaps we all do, just some won’t admit it.

• Steven Gerrard has been in charge for 32 games.

• Steven Gerrard has been in charge for two transfer windows.

• Steven Gerrard has bought, loaned or sold 19 players

• Steven Gerrard has spent £76m

• Steven Gerrard has been in post for 9 months

• Steven Gerrard has beaten 11 top flight teams, all but two of whom finished in the bottom six of the Premier League in 2021-22.

• Steven Gerrard has lost fifteen matches at a loss rate of 48%

• Steven Gerrard has said, among many other demoralising and dispiriting words:

“[Today I’ve learnt] about certain individuals."

"It’s hard to execute a game plan if not everyone believes in what you are doing."

“We move forward, we have to persevere and we have to keep trying to improve these players."

"We can look for the right players to try and have a strong pre-season.”

“I really want winners in the dressing room."

“When Tyrone is back at his best and looks me in the eye and shows me he’s ready to play, he’ll get opportunities.”

And of course the latest:

“it’s not my job to give minutes.....”

• Steven Gerrard has said over nine months of separate press conferences - although they all sound the same:

“Over the 90 minutes we had a lack of quality in the final third."

“We need to be more ruthless and clinical."

"We need to have more quality and answers."

“We weren’t ruthless enough."

"We have to remain cautious and keep resetting ourselves."

"We’ve got to reset."

“We felt it has been a good time to reset and really go over our identity."

“We need to reset our identity and our style of play in and out of possession."

“We need to be more ruthless moving forward."

(And yes each one was genuinely said at separate games.)

• Steven Gerrard is the worst performing manager in the last decade after 32 games with a loss rate of 47% with only the woeful Gérard Houllier and Paul Lambert (42%) coming close.

• Steven Gerrard is the worst performing manager in the Premier League era after 32 games with a loss rate of 47% with only Graham Taylor 2002-03 (45%) coming close.

• Steven Gerrard is the worst performing manager since the club’s last title win after 32 games with a loss rate of 47% with only Graham Taylor 2002-03 (45%) coming close.

• Steven Gerrard is the joint second worst performing manager since the Second World War after 32 games with a loss rate of 47% with only Dick Taylor (50%) being worse.

• Steven Gerrard is the joint second worst performing manager since the club was formed in 1874 after 32 games with a loss rate of 47% with only Dick Taylor (50%) being worse.

To even begin to climb to the level of Billy McNeill and Alex McLeish - two of the most derided Villa managers of all time with a loss rate of 38% - Gerrard would need to win his next six games on the bounce beating West Ham, Arsenal, Manchester City, Leicester, Southampton and Leeds and even then he would still sit in the bottom ten managers of all time after 38 games - a full Premier League season.

Too early to judge Gerrard?