switters

Other than the time of conceding, that game was very reminiscent of the home game against Man Utd. At no point did we look competitive, or look like anything other than a team waiting to lose. Zero attacking impetus, a near-total lack speed or movement. There was just nothing. Notably, 5 of the 10 outfield players were different to those in the Man Utd game, but the performance was identical - showing this is clearly down to McLeish and not the players we have. The central midfield were either over-run when they had the ball (most of the time) or by-passed when we had it. Defence was mostly fairly resiliant - Given didn't have to make many saves - but likes of Silva and Aguero found space at will. Bent and Keane weren't in the game (I'd be interested to see how many touches each had - bet they both struggled to get 20), while the wingers McLeish picked were wrong and he took way too long to correct it - should have been pro-active substitutions at half time rather than reactive substitutions when we (inevitably) go behind. I'd almost rather we were thrashed today, as at least it would put more pressure on the manager. There is no positivity in the club with him in charge and the 'silent majority' he was talking about in the press must be referring to the majority of people going to Villa Park who are numbed to silence by the sheer lack of anything good on offer from the home side. Next few games against the teams below us will determine if we are in a relegation battle or just lower-mid-table obscurity. Either way this season has been a total waste.

Really hope we bring on Ireland & Zog for Albrighton & Heskey. Ireland can play narrow to help out the midfield two & hopefully use the ball better, while Zog would give us a bit of pace as an outlet. Sadly, I expect McLeish is perfectly content with that first half and would love the same again.

I think either Lichaj or Baker should get a go. It was pretty obvious from McLeish interview last week that Stevens is not going to be getting anywhere near first team this year, but either of the above 2 should be worth a run of games, see if they are good enough. We already know Warnock isn't.

Given 6 - perhaps could've come out to claim the cross for 1st goal. Could do nothing for 2nd. Hutton 5 - both goals came from crosses from his wing, he also conceded possession which led to the 1st. Warnock 4 - bad, just bad. Dunne 5 - not good enough today Cuellar 5 - also not very good. Not the answer at CB, Collins is better. Ireland 6 - played some good passes - wait and see what the story is with the substitution Petrov 7 - pretty decent Clark 5 - wasteful with the ball on several occasions, think it's time to start Gardner ahead of him N'Zogbia 6 - got the assist, decision making & crossing both poor at times Keane 8 - best player easily. surpassed my expectations by a long way Bent 5 - didn't take his chances & looked lazy at times Bannan 6 - a couple of good crosses, but didn't get into game enough Heskey 6 - reasonable but no significant impact Gardner - promising cameo, should've been on for Clark at HT

Doesn't make much sense. Why wouldn't you just get the person you wanted to do the rebuilding in the first place? Why would you spend millions to get an interim appointment? And why would you hire a man who's just got relegated in order to keep you up? If the season ends badly (a flirt with relegation, perhaps), it's conceivable that they will change things in the summer, but I don't think that is their intention at all. They want stability. I take it nobody wanted to have to shift all that deadwood. Perhaps, but I'm still dubious. If they'd really wanted an interim manager to do a difficult task, surely promoting from within would be the sensible way. Kevin MacDonald would have jumped at the opportunity, however unappealing the circumstances, it would have been considerably cheaper, considerably less upsetting to fans (esp. if it was made clear from the outset what the plan was for the season) and not that much more of a risk - he'd have limited experience, but McLeish's experience is hardly that of someone you could call a safe pair of hands in this league. It makes the least sense of all on financial grounds - if you need to have a cost-cutting season, you wouldn't give a 3 year contract to someone you intend to sack after 1 year, having paid several million to release him from his previous contract.

Doesn't make much sense. Why wouldn't you just get the person you wanted to do the rebuilding in the first place? Why would you spend millions to get an interim appointment? And why would you hire a man who's just got relegated in order to keep you up? If the season ends badly (a flirt with relegation, perhaps), it's conceivable that they will change things in the summer, but I don't think that is their intention at all. They want stability.

But we also have the third best away record in the league :winkold: Joint 7th. Only one team has lost fewer away games (Man Utd), but we've drawn a lot. With neat symmetry, we are joint 7th worst at home.

The real annoying thing is that just when we're finally getting to the end of Beye's absurd contract, we've now got another substandard RB eating up wages for the next 3.5 years, who no other club is likely to want to buy. I thought it was an underwhelming and pointless signing at the time (we had a limited transfer/wage budget and Lichaj, Herd, Cuellar, Beye as options who all could've been worth trying in that position), but I thought at least he'd be average, not too much of a step down on L.Young. Alas, no. He dreams of being good enough to be called average. I did think he was looking slightly better the last few weeks, but it's probably just that Warnock has been worse. Yesterday both were liabilities.

20 good minutes when Ireland came into the game, otherwise pretty uninspiring. Gave Given MOTM for looking sharp on his return and saving us on several occasions in the first half. Gabby was only in the game sporadically, Albrighton's delivery was poor and Petrov/Clark offered little going forward so we rarely looked threatening outside that one spell. Full backs are very poor, Warnock the worst example today. Unfortunately it's hard to see much changing. I think we need to get Bannan and Ireland in the team together as they might both appreciate playing alongside someone who can think quickly & make first-time passes. There's a general lack of confidence in the side - only when we took the lead did the players seem to relax and start playing a bit of football - think we've more chance of getting points away than at home right now.

It could be one of those ironic ones where, having conceded set pieces to just about everyone we manage to keep out the specialists. But it's hard to really see it. Likes of Huth will have a field day attacking corners & throw-ins against a team which is so unsure at defending them. Need Guzan to be commanding and come of his line when possible. Expect if Heskey is fit he will be selected for his height, i.e.: Guzan Cuellar-Collins-Dunne-Warnock Albrighton-Petrov-Clark-N'Zogbia Gabby-Heskey That'd give us 4 CBs + Heskey - which is one way to try and counter Stoke's many giants, though it certainly won't be pretty. Of course another method is to play skilled ball players and try to dominate possession, but I don't think we've really got the means, even if we did have a manager who would countenance it. What will be depressing is if Stoke manage to have more possession than us, something they've barely managed against anyone whilst in the Premier League..

Subs: Marshall, Delfouneso, Weimann, Bannan, Collins, Delph, Williams Williams?

Team looks okay to me, given the injuries. Good chance for Clark and Ireland to stake their claim to be in the team.

Last season he showed his strength - when he gets supply, he is one of the league's most consistent goalscorers; this season he's demonstrated his limitations - other than when the ball is played in & around the opposition's six-yard box, having Bent in the team is much like playing with 10 men. Which is why he's never been bought by one of the Champions League clubs. I'd be okay with selling him on three conditions: -we get back at least what we paid -we invest a bit of that money into getting a good manager -we invest all the rest in letting the new manager buy some decent players As they are very unlikely to be met, I think it would be a bad move.

Bent misses again. Really could've killed the game again there. Good work by Petrov

Good stuff. But while Dowd is on the pitch, Bolton have a chance.

Nice work Marc & Gabby.

Warnock just put a good cross in with his right foot. Why does he not do that more often? So many times it comes out to him, but he chooses to check back on his left rather than put it back in with his right.

Bent probably should've scored as well. Two slips by defenders to set up the two chances. Really should have taken one.

Bad miss. Good work by N'Zogbia. Reasonable start.

3 strikers on the bench (if you include Heskey). Think McLeish has realized he really, really needs to win this one.

I do feel sorry for Bent as it must seem very much like he's been signed under false pretences. This season is his best ever chance to establish himself as first choice for England at a major tournament but if it continues like this, he might find himself struggling to even make the squad, as people like Defoe, Sturridge, Welbeck, Zamora will be making more of a claim. I think he was struggling for form a bit, earlier in the season when he missed a few chances & sometimes wasn't making the right runs, but it's clear in the last few games he just hasn't been getting the supply/support necessary. His body language looks like he's not happy out there & it's understandable. Chasing lost causes again and again can't be much fun, even if you get paid shedloads for the privilege. He could be getting paid shedloads somewhere else & getting much better supply..

At the moment they don't seem to be looking at him very much. Last time I checked before the Man U game most of them still seemed to be in the "he's doing a solid job at Villa, fans only want him out because of his Birmingham connections" camp. Perhaps that'll change soon. I think it will change soon. We've been under the radar for 2 reasons - first, we've gathered enough points to be at the top of the pile amongst the crap teams - people see 8th and think we doing okay, but it's a bit of a false position if you look at number of points. Second, we hadn't had many high profile games, so much of the media wouldn't have seen how bad we were playing, they'd just note that we drew again. But now after two woeful showings in noticeable televised games, they are cottoning on: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/dec/04/alex-mcleish-aston-villa-espn Over the next few weeks, we could easily drop 5 or 6 places in the league and then even the most oblivious hack will start to take notice. We're in a false position: top half, but closer to relegation zone than top 7. With all the points on offer over Xmas, it's likely that a number of teams will overtake.

Bolton have lost 5 of their last 6 matches, the one exception being a freakish 5-0 over Stoke. We should also note the positive that Sunderland and Norwich both got their only away win at Bolton. Indeed Bolton have lost 6 out of their 7 home games, which is woeful. So perhaps it can be our one away win too! Certainly there should be nothing to fear in this fixture & I imagine the natives there are as restless as us. Meh, well that's my attempt at positivity. I think it'll be Petrov, Delph + N'Zogbia in for Jenas, Herd + Albrighton, and I think that should make for a better midfield.

It is partly where he's come from, but it's also his managerial reputation in general & it's hard to separate the two. I think if it was McGrath he would not be getting the same venom, but that is an extreme contrast because McGrath is a player beloved to the fans here, so of course they would be more generous to him. A better question would be if it was a different manager with no links to either Villa or Birmingham. I think it is very possible for a manager with no previous history with the club to quickly become heavily disliked by a fanbase. How about a hypothetical for you: If McLeish had done everything exactly the same this season & all previous seasons, with the sole difference was that instead of it being Birmingham who he managed and relegated twice, it was with a similar sized club with no particular link to Villa (say, Portsmouth) - do you think he would be getting the same venom? I think it would be slightly less, but it wouldn't take long to get to the same point he's at now. He would still have the relegation & bad football reputation, the appointment would still have been met with much skepticism, albeit probably less hatred at the start - but the football would quickly speak for itself.

The simple fact is he's a footballer who does his best work without the ball. His strength is in occupying defenders to allow space for others. But the cost is that when he does have shooting opportunities he's actually the last person on the pitch you'd want them to fall to. I'd put more money on Dunne or Collins shooting from 25 yards than Heskey. Still, whatever people think of him as a player, he deserves some credit: today was his 500th Premier League game, which is a rather impressive milestone.