picicata

I have absolutely no sympathy for Houllier. He has faced challenges and has failed to deal with them. We can pass a little better in the middle but are no threat upfront and shit at the back. He had the opportunity to get new defenders in the January window and decided not to. He instead chose to spend 24m on a striker and then we have no supply line to him. Sympathy? No way!

Shit in defence. Shit up front. SHit in the middle. Shit.

Exactly how I felt. I didn't even swear or anything, I think an eyebrow may have raised but that was about it.

Well there's a surprise.

Challenge for what though? :winkold:

.. very constructive The thing is though Rob next year Houllier will continue to face problems that are not of his own making and its he how copes with these problems that is important. It is how he earns his money. Every manager has to face a series of different challenges and beat them in order to be considered a good manager and so far Houllier has made a right pigs ear of it. The thing is alot of the problems Houllier has had to face are of his own making.

Hated him as a Villa manager -and I use the word hate deliberately. But he -like Evans- played a big part in our good form under Sir Brian. JG was the foil to the more measured, slightly necrotic BL. JG was one of the lads, a players coach - and it's no accident that he got a decent response when he came back initially. When he had money to spend he was largely a nightmare though. That bright opening in 1998 aside, he presided over some of the most tepid, dull safety first football it has ever been my misfortune to endure, the nadir of which being not even mustering a shot on target v Chelsea in the 2000 Cup Final. I still haven't watched highlights of that game and I have no intention of doing so. He had put many supporters off long before that, I lost count of the amount of long term season ticket holders around me who had given up the ghost during his tenure. He also set the template for previously unheard of managers enjoying their 15 minutes of fame with his rent a quote approach -since equalled (and possibly bettered) by Phil Orange and Holloway. If only his football had been as spicy as some of his press conferences. But JG as an assistant did a decent job for us. That should never be overlooked. I don't think his ego would allow him to play second fiddle to anyone now though. I agree with your general sentiments but I don't think people are suggesting him as a long term manager, just as an 8 game kick up the arse. As you state one of his main attributes was the dogged, defensive, bust a gut tactics. Those are the sort of tactics we need now in order to dig us out of the shit we are in. Scrape a couple of 1-0 wins and a couple of draws and we will probably be safe.

John Gregory - 8 Game contract.

Coyle is a good manager but there is no way on earth that he would leave Bolton at this point to come and manage us. Maybe in the summer, but not now.

Stay for now. Should have replaced him back in December but it didn't happen. Come the summer get rid and find someone who actually wants to do the job. Never has a permanent manager felt so temporary.

Every single game our defense makes the same mistakes, it doesn't matter about the personel. There is something deeply flawed with the coaching they are receiving.

I've had **** enough of this! Whats the point in playing pretty shitty passing crap if you're going to concede from every **** corner for the opposition is going to end up in the net. What an absolute load of bollocks!

Two goals conceded both from set pieces. We concede every single game from a set piece. Do we have a defensive coach? Absolute defensive bullshit.

We're not gonna win this are we?

Poor. Houllier is making alot of mistakes at the moment and needs to get things sorted.

Gabby off, Bradley into the middle and Young out to wing please.

Its the way we are being set up to defend from set pieces. We need to get a defensive coach in. These are not bad players, they are being coached badly.

Well what a surprise, our marking from a set piece has ONCE AGAIN let us down. These players cannot mark zonally. Until we sort this out we will always concede. It is a major and obvious problem.

I'm looking forward to seeing Makoun and Delph together. I think Delph has the movement and intelligence that Petrov/ NRC lack.

That CM pairing would be a tad lightweight, IMO, MM. Makoun or Delph and one of Petrov/ Bradley/ NRC as the deeper midfielders, with Bannan as the attacking midfielder? Bannan has a better eye for a pass than Young.

No matter. They came back from two down to us. We're gonna win this, I can feels it I tell thee!

It sounded almost like Blackburn barely turned up. Good win, rested key players and some good youth experience. MOTM Clark

Who knows?!

So we start with ten men... and Pires. Hmmm.

No need to panic. Just need to change things around a bit and then we have the beating of this lot.