picicata

No and for so many reasons. I can think of only one reason to vote yes and thats through fear of who Randy in his infinite wisdom would see fit to pick next. I expect Steve Bruce would be high in the running!

If City hadn't scored, we wouldn't have had those chances as we barely crossed the half way line until we had too. We would have been exceedingly lucky to get anything out of that game. We got what we deserved, feck all.

Excellent? That man is either a moron or a liar!

But maybe we wouldn't have lost 5-0? maybe if we had tried to win the game... we might have won the game! But setting up to play negative defensive bullshit for 80 minutes gave us zero chance. It was only once we were behind that we even tried to play football. This is exactly how his blues team played last year and we know how that ended! 15th place. Longest streak without winning at Villa park for 20 years. Clueless manager. We had chances to score when we attacked but playing defensive counter attacking against Man City makes sense - MON did the exact same thing when Sunderland beat them (with an offside goal). Our inability to defend set pieces and deal with David Silva cost us. No we shouldn't have sat deep for 80 minutes but it's a game we all expected to lose - the manner of it isn't fun. But lets be realistic the bigger games are coming up. Luckily they are away. We didn't play counter attacking. We played merely defensive. For those first 80 minutes we didn't look like we even knew where their goal was let alone trouble Hart. If we had played counter attacking then it wouldn't have been so bad. We didn't. That is right up there with the Spurs game for utterly poor crap. You are correct though, the next four games have now become incredibly important.

But maybe we wouldn't have lost 5-0? maybe if we had tried to win the game... we might have won the game! But setting up to play negative defensive bullshit for 80 minutes gave us zero chance. It was only once we were behind that we even tried to play football. This is exactly how his blues team played last year and we know how that ended! 15th place. Longest streak without winning at Villa park for 20 years. Clueless manager.

That just makes me so fecking angry! Not the fact we lost, I thought we would do well to get anything from the game, but the fact that for 80 chuffing minutes we didn't even try to win the fecking match. What is the point of playing the game if you are not going to try and win? Today summed up McCleish in a fecking nutshell!

On the plus side: We haven't conceded and have been 'relatively' comfortable in defence. While it is 0-0 the re is a chance we could hit them on the break and get a goal. On the negative side: Our possession is as naff as always Can we really defend for 90 minutes? Can we rely on Man City not to step up out of first gear?

Genuine question, what signs have you seen that suggests we will spend in the summer? Everything to me suggests McCleish will get only that which he can raise from player sales... if he is lucky!

Plus we shouldn't be sacking him until Steve Bruce has found himself another job. Just the thought makes me shudder!

We were ok in the first half in a pretty even match. Some nice moves involving our attacking players. Second half we were absolute donkeys bollocks, sitting back and kicking long. When you are looking for a goal Heskey is never the answer and giving Gardner only 8 minutes was bloody silly. 6 Wins in 24 games is fecking shocking. Thank god that there are some real rubbish teams in the league this season.

Hey Alex, we're behind! Make an attacking change you **** nut!

We've been shit this half.

Those times are called 'first halfs'. On the bonus side we do start to play attacking football once we are behind.

Here is a novel thought. If the fans actually attempt to support them team, instead of sitting in silence waiting for one of them to make a stray pass and then vent ultimate rage at the team - we may just do it. The only time this season I have heard the fans support the team was Arsenal, now I know we lost it, but how well we played that day. Just a thought. Which came first though? The good support or the playing well? It was always going to be an almost impossible task for McCleish to win other the crowd and is one of the main reasons he should never have been hired. But he is here now and we should try and support the team. Personally I think the crowd support, or lack there of, in the home games is slightly over played. The truth is that we play a defensive style, built to play on the break and this style of play simply suits playing away better when the opposition feel they have to take the initiative. When asked to take that initiative ourselves at Villa park we are not tactically set up to do so.

Well there are some pretty poor international teams out there, maybe he was referring to one of those? Two good break away goals shouldn't hide the fact that on the whole our possession, passing and movement was rubbish in both halves of the game. The fact that McCleish thinks we played well in the first half worrys me intensely! All Arsenal had to do was step it up for 15mins, then sit back and watch our shite footballing team try to create something when their defence play a deep defensive line rather than a high one. All the bad things happening at the club are not McCleish's fault, but he certainly isn't helping.

Poor first half, no width, but we defended ok and got two good goals against the run of play. Arsenal stepped it up a gear for 15 mins at the beginning of the second half and tore us a new one. We are a poor, directionless 'team', relying on the opposition being poor rather than ourselves playing well. We got exactly what we deserved from the game - nothing.

To me this has low scoring draw written all over it. McCleish will be well aware that another loss and he will breaking all the wrong sort of records and as such he will play with 10 men behind the ball at all times. Personnel on the pitch won't really matter as they will be played deployed defensively whom ever thay are. From Everton's perspective I think they would be happy with a draw, considering their many injuries, and as such they will play a cagey match. Either 0-0 or 1-1 and exceptionally dull to boot.

Just because I expected McCleish to have us in lower mid table doesn't mean i'm happy that he has met my very low expectations of him!

I'm sure Steve Kean would do a great job at Villa. They've beaten Man Utd and Arsenal this season :winkold:

But that is what made the appointment of McCleish so utterly stupid. It was obvious that the guy was never, never, going to have a chance winning over the fans as the job was going to be tough for whoever took it. Lerner and Faulkner are to blame for the current shit situation due to their inability to choose managers and for cutting finance far to quickly. McCLeish should never have been manager, not simply as I personally think he's a terrible manager, but also because it was always going to be impossible for him to succeed unless he achieved something quite amazing. There were so many cheaper, easier more intelligent choices for manager that everytime I see 'Aston Villa Manager, Alex McCleish' written down I still shake my head in disbelief.

Well i'm going to try and not go over the top on this, just as I thought that beating Chelsea didn't suddenly make us one of the best in the league, losing against Swansea doesn't make us certain for relegation. However, creating only one shot on target all game is so poor as to be almost unbelievable... if it wasn't for the fact that this is becming almolst the norm. McCleish was never right for this club and will never be right for this club.

His new club won't want him if he picks up an injury before the January window will they

Heskey? Sighhhhhh...

Can only only see an Arsenal win, although I think we will keep the score down to 0-2, or thereabouts, as the soporific style of our play seems to mesmerise the oppositiuon and stop them bothering attacking in the second half of games.

What happens when the wage bill is reduced ? We have to reduce it some more as parachute payments don't last forever?