Super-Villan

So he was injured and not due to play and he went out for a few drinks? Jeez, that sounds like a hanging offence. Bet you wouldn't find may Villa players who'd do that, eh? You can't rip up his contract, of course. You could probably pay it up, but I don't really see any benefit of that.

This isn't entirely true. MON's Team wasn't defensive, it was counter-attacking. i.e. soak up pressure then break quickly. There's a big difference between the two. Equally, GH doesn't set up his teams to be 'expansive' by any means. They aim to pass the ball about much more, absolutely, but attacks don't come as quickly as before and often the ball never reaches the danger zone because of players being instructed (I assume, given the way his previous teams have played) to follow a safety-first keep-ball way of playing. I think what I'm saying is that there's no reason why our defence shouldn't be just as good under GH.

No no no to Fat Sam. I'd rather let the General take charge.

Half the fans were not still pining for MON, that's a gross exaggeration. I was one of his bigger supporters, but there was no point pining for him after he'd gone. If other people wanted Fat Sam - and I can only think of one - that's up to them. Doesn't mean they wouldn't have supported Houllier had he done OK. I wasn't excited by the idea of Houllier, but I thought he was the best possible option. Since then I've criticised when I thought he's done something worth criticising. Sadly that has been quite often. What it really comes down to then is that I think he did badly even allowing for injury problems etc. The transitional problems weren't inevitable, by the way, as has been shown by managerial changes at other clubs. A good manager can still pull results together when faced with that kind of situation. I believe a good manager could certainly have put together significantly better results than Houllier has given his resources.

I think maybe now I've heard everything. This is a total rewriting of history. Broadly I think - myself included - people were in favour of Houllier coming, or at least prepared to give him a chance. I certainly was. It is his own actions that have brought him to this point, and to blame any of it on the fans not accepting him from the start is daft.

I didn't expect him to take over the squad and have us motoring on up the league like Redknapp, I was just asking that he not do as badly as he has with the players he had available. That's not too much to ask, I promise you.

It's never going to be an identical situation. I don't think it's totally different though. And it proves that you can sack a manager who is severely underperforming, and the guy who comes in can do significantly better with the same group of players. So to say it takes us back to square one is ridiculous. It could take us anywhere, depending on who we appoint. (We could appoint Jol or Ranieri or whoever and climb up the table. Equally we could appoint Fat Sam and slide even further down it.)

(For the record, any talk of Fat Sam brings me out in a cold sweat. And I don't see why he'd come as a short-term appointment, and I don't think Randy is the kind of guy to bullshit him.)

Exactly. Hes had time to assess things here and he addressed that in the summer with some crucial bits of business. Give him the summer to sort the rest of MoNs mess out and we will be fine next season IMO. Sack him and we're back to square 1 im afraid. He has to stay until Sept/October next season. If we're still not getting results at that time, hes gotta go, no excuses. The trouble is, he's shown nothing in all the time he's been here to give me any confidence that he's the man to sort our problems out. And back to square one. A bit like Spurs after they sacked Ramos I suppose?

I don't have much hope that the board will sack him. I'm not even sure relegation would see him gone if I'm being honest. But I think if there is a vocal enough protest against him (and he's quite aware that he's not liked by a number of fans already) there's a chance he'll walk away in the summer for a quieter life.

SV-not having a pop at you mate. But what suprises me is that people appear to love Kyle Walker and yet he is part of THAT defence. People seem to love Clark and yet he is part of THAT defence. My own thoughts are that we are desperate for a more dominant keeper. Great though Big Brad has been, he's a year past his best. I genuinely think that Villa would be stronger defensively if Brad wasn't in behind them. Dunne and Collins have also been pretty unspectacular too to be fair. GH will improve them in the summer, he has to. Well you're certainly not having a pop at me as I've not said those things. I think Walker shows promise of being pretty good, but I'm not sure he's the player our back 4 needs right now. Clark is also more potential than anything else right now. Potential is great, but it doesn't stop our back 4 letting in goals.

I don't really care what defensive system we did play and what defensive system we play now and what defensive system Houllier wants to play next year. The fact is that Houllier has had long enough to get this defence playing much much better than it has been playing. If he really can't make this defence play any better than it has been playing during the season then I think that makes him an incredibly limited manager.

With nine games left, who could we get to replace him, and how will the squad react to that person? Sorry, but as much as i want a new gaffer, doing that now is riskier than leaving him there till the end of the season. I don't think it is necessarily. It's a close call though. Right now I'm not sure anyone who came in could do much worse, and we might at least get a new manager bounce to see us to safety. If he actually does end up taking us down (relatively unlikely but still quite possible right now) I'm sure there will be a fair few people wishing he'd left now.

There is a recall option after 28 days. I still think he could do a job for us, and would get better experience with the odd 20 minutes in the Prem than some games in the Championship.

That's why I said 'for the most part'. There were times when that old Liverpool side did the same, but they weren't the norm, and they haven't been the norm for us either. (Incidentally, I liked O'Neill, but the style of football was my major gripe too. Just because we've now changed that style, doesn't mean I have to like whatever we've changed it too.)

Passing the ball about better doesn't necessarily mean it's more attractive to watch. It can in fact be incredibly frustrating to watch us pass backwards and forwards and not pass with more attacking intent. I remember watching his Liverpool side. As a nuetral, for the most part, they weren't exactlty exciting to watch, despite passing the ball to death. I fear we are going down a similar route.

Comparing us with Man U is silly. They mad key mistakes in this one game. Maybe a couple of others through the season. That's fair enough, these things happen. Our team are making these kind of individual mistakes almost every game. That's a little bit different, and a little bit more worrying. And if you don't want to blame the manager for that then I'm really not sure what the point of having a manager even is.

It's not a fair comparison as has been pointed out many time. MON had a much worse squad to start with. A much lower quality of players overall, and probably not ones that would automatically play to the style he wanted either. Ged took over a squad that had finished top 6 for three seasons in a row. He had some problems with injuries, and the fact that Milner had left, which I'll give him a little bit of leeway for, but it was still a much much better situation than the one MON had walked into initially.

I'd rather he was given the odd 20 minutes every now and then until the end of the season, and given the opportunity to show what he could do and push for a more regular place in the side.

As he was the brightest spark against Man City, and I've got a lot of time for him in general, I'm a bit gutted about this, to be honest.

Don't agree at all that it's more exciting. More attractive in certain areas of the pitch, yes. But like his Liverpool side they lack the guts to go for it most of the time. Keeping possession like Barca is one thing. Keeping possession and passing it around for no reward is not what I call exciting.

I think you reckon wrong.

5 points in 5 games? I don't think that's top 6 form myself.

I'd argue about the quality of football being miles better. Yes, we pass it around, but my one big worry about Houllier before he came was that we'd start to play in a style similar to his Liverpool side. Passing it around nicely in non-dangerous areas, but placing more emphasis on keeping possession than attacking and scoring goals. And from what I've seen so far, that's what we've been doing for the most part. He's a man who likes to play it safe. I'm all in favour of passing football over hoofball...but people need to realise that there are many different types of both. And I'm not a big fan of Houllier's brand of passing football. Taken over the whole time he was here, I'd say MON's defence was pretty damn solid too.

Go. I'd rather it was now, as whoever came in to coach our defence for the rest of the season clearly couldn't do any worse, and maybe just a quick change would give the team a bit of a lift. It isn't going to happen though. I think relegation might be the only thing that would get rid of him, and even then it would be by mutual consent.