McLeish may have had a negative effect, but you also need to remember that this is largely the same squad that has nearly got relegated for two years on the trot.
Good players will get results to some extent under any manager - this lot have failed to for two seasons now and (at the moment at least) we're still counting...
Yes but those last two season's we were being managed by clueless idiot's, so with a much better manager there is no reason why we shouldn't finish 10th - 12th.
Under Houllier we also had Young and Downing and therefore a better squad, but the team this year is better than last year imo and I'm confident that we will sign more player's still.