switters

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..

I heard someone on Five Live at the weekend talking about McLeish and saying about how unhappy the fans were, what a bad start he had had and how the pressure is going to grow over the next month.

With Bruce going the media will be looking for the next man to fall and at the moment I'd bet they aren't looking much further than Steve Keen and our very own Alex McLeish.

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.

said it before and ill say it again now...the root of most people's hate is cause of where he has come from. let give you a for instance:

we make the same transfers as we have done, played the same line ups in games, same style of play, and same results...but paul mcgrath is our manager. who on here can HONESTLY say that they would be calling for his head with the same venom that you are calling for mcleish's?

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.

It's not always the case that the fans know best, but in the case of McLeish all the doom-mongering that greeted his appointment is proving to be thoroughly justified. The main problem that I (and many others) had with him was that he'd bring with him the dire football he had Birmingham playing, and this is precisely what he's done. The other fear was his knack for relegation & I think in a month or so, we will find ourselves looking nervously at the table.

There's just nothing to be positive about in this team as it has been playing this season. He's sapped all the hope out of the fanbase. Negativity on the pitch breeds negativity off the pitch and they just feed off each other. We're in a deceptive position in the league - 8th, but as close to bottom as 7th. Maybe he's not wholly to blame, with the squad being as it was when he was hired, but it just seems like a downward spiral which I don't see a way out of while we have a manager that the fanbase are decidedly against.

So yeah, I'd happily see him leave immediately. Unfortunately it's going to be at least another month or so of pain before that becomes even remotely possible.

There was no point in that match where it looked like we thought we could score.

Midfield looked brighter on paper, but on the pitch were non-existent. Can barely remember Jenas touching the ball. Bannan didn't get much right. Herd was chasing shadows. Albrighton, Agbonlahor and Bent had nothing to work with.

Defence was fairly solid, restricted United to few actual efforts on goal, but as usual distribution & ball retention from the back was poor.

Ultimately, there have been no games this season where we've looked like a functional attacking unit and that is a massive failing by the manager. Even though we lost Young & Downing there is no excuse to be this poor. Teams with far cheaper squads than ours are still able to play much better football.

Yawn. It was pretty comfortable draw, but that's exactly the problem. Once the 2nd half got going and we were on top we had to press the advantage & get the win, it was there for the taking. But there was never really any urgency. The changes, as ever, came too late. I'd wager Bannan made twice as many positive passes in his brief cameo than Herd, Delph and Heskey combined.

McLeish will no doubt be very pleased because we got a point and a clean sheet, and who could dream of anything more.

Given 7 - one important save, otherwise had little to do

Hutton 4 - stupid two-footed tackle, with the reputation he got from the other week lucky not to see red. Can't cross.

Dunne 7 - solid

Collins 6 - mostly solid, but got turned by Lita which could've been the goal

Warnock 6 - fine in defence, limited going forward

Herd 5 - got about, not good with the ball but gave some aerial threat

Delph 5 - looked rusty & struggled to get into game

N'Zogbia 6 - positive at times but lacking final ball

Gabby 7 - the most likely to make the breakthrough

Heskey 5 - limited

Bent 5 - invisible, didn't seem to be making the right runs in the box either (e.g. not getting to near post when crosses came in)

Jenas - didn't do much

Bannan - has to start, showed glimpses in his cameo

McLeish really needs to start putting some faith in the younger players. For all his talk of how we'll have to use lots of youth this season, at best we've seen 2 (and mostly, just one) from Delph, Bannan, Herd in the team. Each match we should be looking to start 3-4 out of:

Delph, Bannan, Herd, Clark, Gardner, Delfouneso, Weimann, Lichaj (when fit), Johnson, Albrighton

They will be inconsistent & I'm not sure any are up to starting week-in-week-out all season, but they need to be getting a good amount of time on the pitch & we can rotate between them over the season. Unfortunately McLeish seems to be in the mindset where if it's a tough fixture (e.g. Spurs, away), he'll pick a safe team to keep the score as close to 0-0 as possible and if it's an easy fixture (e.g. Norwich, home), he's into short term thinking and picking the seasoned pros because he knows he can't afford to drop points.

He calls it a transitional season, but the transition doesn't seem to be happening - just a general stagnation. Next match, what changes will we see, will we see some transition and bring in, say, Clark, Bannan & Gardner? or will we just see the introduction of a Spurs loanee?

I Missed the game to go and play 5 a side, but interested to know how Herd and Bannan got on?

Herd was the one midfielder who did seem to be pressing & putting in a few challenges. Not great on the ball & his efforts didn't really do much to stop Spurs, but better than most in our team (not that this says a lot).

Bannan only had half hour and we'd already given up the game by the point of his introduction, so hard to judge him too much. He wasted a couple of crosses but did manage to pass the ball to another Villa player's feet a few times, which was a step up from most..

Spurs have a better side than us, unquestionably, but that doesn't necessarily mean they will beat us every time they face us. Unfortunately it was clear from the lineup and the approach to the match that McLeish has decided our only possible hope was to fight out a 0-0. We go a goal down early and the gameplan (such as it was) is useless, now we're just trying to contain the defeat at a respectable level. And that was it.

Nearly an hour goes by after the goal before we change anything on the pitch - and that is pointless because we put Bannan, someone who might be able to use the ball, out wide on the right, where we'd had zero possession up to that point. Sure enough Bannan gets very little of the ball, except when he chases inside & has no chance to make an impact. And that's the sole tactical alteration McLeish attempts, despite his entire approach failing within 15 minutes. Baffling.

Bent is useless if we set out like this. No supply = no point. He might as well have put Gabby by himself up front if this was the tactic, add in a midfielder who actually likes to receive the ball (i.e. Bannan or Ireland) so the defence has someone to pass to. Kaboul and King were happy to deal with aimless hoofs all night long. But still no change.

I do blame the players for defensive mistakes & for general lethargy, but this was a loss made by the manager's team selection & tactics.

If I have to pick a MOTM, I'd say either Herd or Gabby for both having slightly more life than those around them.

Our defence should be;

Herd(Lichaj)--Cuellar--Clark--Warnock.

With a decent DM in front of them.

Then in the summer look to replace/strengthen Warnock...Maybe Olsson from Blackburn would be a good choice?

Hutton and Collins both deserve dropping, but not Dunne. He's easily our best defender.

Herd/Cuellar-Clark-Dunne-Warnock for me..

Did he not get an assist today?

It was one of those assists that show assists aren't always the most reliable stat. If anyone deserved an assist for that goal it was Gabby for smartly switching the play to the right, all Hutton did was receive the ball and play a 5 yard square pass to Petrov who did the rest. Assists where the goals are clearly solo efforts shouldn't really count as assists.

---

In general, I've yet to be at all impressed by Hutton. Maybe still not up to full sharpness or low in confidence, but he just looks bad in defence & utterly ineffective (though a willing runner) in attack.

a key player? i certainly wouldn't go that far, the only reason he's looked better than delph is that he's had more opportunity to play, he certainly isn't a better player

Eh? Delph has played nearly every minute in the league this season, barring WBA game. Bannan has only started 5 out of 9 matches. He's looked better by playing better & contributing more.