KHV

It makes Petrov old and Delph a league 1 player which is where he came from and where he belongs IMO

spot on, once Herd went we should have gone to a back 3 of Cuellar,Dunne and Collins. I think on the whole McLeish is tactically bloody useless even when there are 11 men on the pitch. But we knew that before he took over. I will give him some credit because I thiugh the starting 11 was nearly spot on for once, I would have played Ireland instead of Nzogbia though.

3-1 Sunderland win

bollocks, we did **** all with 10 men. even with 10 men at home we should be able to give a pretty average WBA team a decnt game. We have played badly in every game this season aprt from 60 mins against Blackburn and in patches against Wigan both of whom are **** useless. Alex McLeish is crap, has always been crap and will continue to be crap

Also tells you alot when most people say our man of the match was a guy who only played the 1st 40 mins

Shocking decision, we were comfortable up until then. However........... once we went to 10 men McLeish and his tactics totally baffled me, his substitutions were terrible and he clearly cant motivate a team like MON used to. 0 shots on target tells you all that needs to be known. Totally disgraceful effort by the team and the mangement. The whole set up seems to lack passion and any ideas. McLeish is quickly going down as one of the worst mangers I have seen at Villa Park since I have been going which is 1988. People will try and defnd him but honestly the guy plays poor football, is tactically inept, does not know his arse from his elbow when it comes to making substitions. He is totally crap when it comes to buying players apart from goal keepers and I honestly dont know how much more of his bollocks I can be bothered to watch. He is ruining this club. Charles Nzogbia and Alan Hutton oh deary me

Id just go 3 at the back with Cuellar, Dunne and Collins and attack the living shit of them. they are crap 8)

I think Bannan deserves to play he has been our best midfielder, Herd for Delph I think is a great move. Unsure about Nzogbia, he needs to perform today i agree. Cheeky bet on Herd 1st goalscorer. I think he will turn out to be a Tim Cahill type of midfielder as he is axcellent in the air 8)

so glad Delph is out. I think Herd will play really well today. Would be even happier if Hutton was dropped too for Carlos as he is dreadful. Hopefully Nzogbia performs today. Think we might sneak it 2-1

No I don't know what he was doing in the summer. I do know the following: - Delph is not a DCM. He has never played there in the past and shouldn't. McLeish's attempts to play him there this season have, IMO, ruined his game in the short term. He is a playmaker/box to box player. - If he had intended Clark to step up I find it hard to understand why he hasn't given him one game in that role as yet. - Gardner is not a DCM from what I have seen, and has barely made the bench let alone the first team. - Stan and Jenas - we will see IF he is ever fit. I just don't see this working. Glad you have faith though mate!! where do you get this Delph is a box to box playmaker stuff from? Ask any self respecting Leeds fan and they will tell you they can't believe how much we paid for him. hot headed dangerous tackler is what most of them say with dodgy ball control. i live with 2 Leeds fans and they just laugh whenever he is is mentioned

no we dont, the 4-2-3-1 formation is the reason why everything is so dire. It's a piss poor tactic and its dull and negative. It's basically 4-5-1 which leaves Bent isolated and its the reason why we create so few chances and have had least shots on target tahn anybody else in the premier league. There is no need for 2 holding midfielders at all. The formation is horible and the sooner its ditched the better IMO. We need to play Gabby and Bent up top together Completely disagree with this. Barca play 4-6-0 effectively but they are anything but defensive. A 4-2-3-1 can be attacking as any formation if you get the right players playing it properly. Look at the Plop side a few years back with Mascherano and Alonso holding and Gerard, Kuyt and one other supporting Torres - probably the best football they have played in years. Playing Heskey on the right of the three and not having a DCM in the two is a big part of the reason, IMO, it is pretty ineffective for us. Also, the manager himself said we were playing a 4-3-1-2 during Saturday's match. Seemed like the strikers took it in turn to play as the "1," as Bent was tracking pretty far back.

Yep, we really needed a winger so we can play the 4-2-3-1 formation.

Gary Charles was much better than Alan Hutton. Infact I think Bardsley and de la Cruz were also better than Hutton. I have been going to Villa Park since 87/88 and I am struggling to think of anybody that is worse than Hutton

If Mcleish plays a 4-4-2 diamond formation like against Wigan we will win. If he lines up with the coma inducing 4-2-3-1 crap again with Gabby and Hesky either side of Bent we will lose. Unfortuantly I have a horrible feeling he will do the later

Form-wise? Yeah, probably. Squad-wise I'm not so sure. Their midfield is better but that's about it. Yeah, I think our squad is better on paper but in terms of tactics, style of football they are miles ahead. I agree Newcastle have a much better midfielder which is why their football is much brighter. I think they have a much better manager in Alan Pardew too, I actually quite like him

Mind boggling comment considering we have Nzogbia on our books who was more expensive, has higher wages and has contributed much less to the team. I really wonder what people expect from a right back, He has been getting up and down the pitch a lot but his final ball has been lacking so far. Defensively he is getting caught out a little but he has hardly made any massive howlers that are costing us points. defensivley caught out a little????? he gets caught out all the time. he cant cross, he cant tackle and he has all the positional sense of a blind hedgehog in a carrier bag. Truely dreadful player, its no wonder Arry made him train with kids at Spurs, he took one look at him and thought this lad is cack and he was right. Turkey of the season so far must be Nzogbia, I agree with the comment that McLeishs outfield signings have been poor so far. When you have a limited budget it helps if you dont buy cack players. I wish our scouts were as good as Newcastles as they have done really well with their signings in comparison

Send him back to Leeds. he came from league 1 into the premier league and is way out of his depth. he is starting to embarrass himself every week. terrible again today

Mcleish=tactically inept. he can shove his 4-2-3-1 right where the sun doesn't shine. its a horrible tactic

Man city are a better team than us but i have say after watching that there seems to be a total lack of passion. it was a game that we were always likely to lose but i would be happy if we at least had a go. it almost seems at times the players are not sure what they are doing at times. it all seem a bit clueless. Im not sure what mcleish was doing bringing heskey in. that 4-2-3-1 system is a total bag of wank. he should of played the diamond formation with petrov holding and Ireland behind gabby and bent with bannan and herd in the middle. i like herd he reminds me of Tim cahill and it really is time that Delph was left out. i know alot of people on here want him to have a chance but he has been poor in every game apart from one half against blackburn. people will say a diamond reduces the width but it works better as we have people that can play in the positions. there is no point playing gabby wide he more dangerous upfront and allbrighton is way off form and the less said about nzogbia the better. i think mcleish must take the blame for picking a formation that doesn't work and picking the wrong personel. don't get me wrong we probably would have lost but i don't think it would have been as inept as the performance was today.

i worry about mcleish at times. Comments like this don't help!

Are you having a laugh ? Everton we were under the cosh but displayed a fighting spirit regardless, resulting in two equalisers. Newcastle they had better chances, but wouldn't say they were all over us, our lack of productivity with our shots and chances makes it look one way traffic. We were lucky to get a draw off QPR?! This being the QPR that got a late-injury-time-deflected-freak-own-goal-equaliser when we'd defended stoutly and impressed (second half anyway) throughout? Wolves no way, we should have won that. I'm surprised no-ones said we were outplayed by Wigan and Blackburn as well. The only occasion I've been furious or particularly disappointed with our performance was against Bolton. Everton we were extremly lucky against as that game was totally one sided. we only got back into it because of a rare Petrov 30 yarder. Ncastle had 21 shots on goal and totally outplayed us we did harldly did anything after Bent missed his chance. We were lucky against QPR we only had 1 attempt in the first half and QPR also hit the post and should have had a penalty could have had two. The second half was better than the first but I would not go as far as to say it was impressive stuff! Without Shay Given we would certainly lost at Fulham and QPR and also at home to Newcastle. We were better than Wolves at VP but it was hardly convincing stuff and we didnt really create many clear cut chances over the 90 mins. An overall reflection so far this season would be disappointing football going forwards and lack of creativity. Defensivley we have been better especially set plays, hopefully he wiwll stick with the diamond formation against Wigan as it means that Nzogbia will not be playing as every time he plays its like we are playing with a man less as he has done nothing. The Citeh game is a massive test and should be a marker for where we are. If we can get away with only losing by a couple of goals I think we will have done well, I hope we dont end up on the end of a 4 or 5 goal pasting which I think could happen if play like we have done in the majority of games this season

--------------------------------Given----------------------------- Herd------------Dunne-----------------------Clark-----------Warnock -------------------------------Petrov------------------------------------- ----------------Jenas----------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------Ireland-------------------------- Allbrighton-----------------------------------------------------Gabby ----------------------------------Bent---------------------------------- subs Guzan,Hutton,Collins,Bannan,Gardner,Nzogbia,Heskey, this would be my ideal team at the moment.

30,500

Your right with that, I expect to see Petrov Jenas and Ireland against Wigan. Having said that he will probaly revert back to Petrov Delph and Heskey with Nzogbia and Gabby wide and Bent up top

been to every home game apart from blackburn and seen all the other games on telly . maybe you see a different game to me but in my opinion Delph has been poor and i thought he was poor against qpr. petrov and bannan have been much much better this season so i would have petrov deep with jenas as the box to box player and bannan/Ireland as the attacking midfield. Delph just hasn't done enough