Rob182

From his comments, I fully expect the side to be Given, Warnock, Collins, Cuellar, Hutton, a central midfield of Petrov & Gardner, Gabby, Ireland, N'Zogbia and Albrighton OR Heskey. He mentions that Wiemann could play 'if there is a problem with the 2 aforementioned players' (Gabby & Ireland). If I'm right, I don't really mind whether Heskey or Marc plays. Marc has been average recently and Heskey only has his moments sparingly. Maybe Marc edges it actually...

I can't tell whether you're joking or not...

I'm trying out a nice 4-1-2-1-2 formation, to use Bent & Gabby together, but it's making my wingers unhappy. Do I dare sell N'Zogbia & Albrighton in the summer, to fund money for a backup striker and quality CB? Or is that too dangerous? Sticking rigidly to a narrow formation? Here's my current line-up: GK: Given LB: Warnock CB: Dunne CB: Cuellar RB: Hutton DM: Haestad (Makoun when he's back) CM: Kayal CM: Delph AM: Thiago Neves ST: Bent ST: Gabby Subs: Clark, Lichaj, Aldeba, Ireland, Fonz, N'Zogbia, El Ghannasey/ Albrighton

We could have got better for what we paid for Petrov. So I'd still put him in the average bracket

Fat chance of that Tom!

If it makes anyone feel better, I'm close to selling Bent on Football Manager. He's terrible. He never scores for Me and rarely puts in a performance higher than 6.5! Although.... Dunne and Collins are my top scorers... so... maybe it's not too realistic?

I've seen the team come out fighting for some games. I've seen other games where we've attacked a fair amount but the players haven't been accurate enough with their shooting. Then there have the games that most people remember and judge McLeish on - the games where we've looked uninspired, defensive and lazy. McLeish deserves criticism for the way he sets the team up to play, but he's not the only one who should be blamed imo. MON's players wanted to fight because they knew that if they dropped out the team, there was a chance that they'd be banished to the career-ending subs bench Davies... Sidwell.. Shorey... Harewood...

How is it Makouns fault that the player dived and cheated to get that penalty? Salifou would have known not to go near the diving player. ... and that's why Salifou is now playing football.... (I don't know where) I'd rather my players attempt to challenge a player that is known for diving, rather than just let them pass.

I agree with this, however, I think it's more down to the team that he has to work with, than McLeish's tactics (as I'm sure most people will say). None of the players supplying Bent, have had a good, consistent spell in the side. N'Zogbia has only recently started to look like the player we thought we'd bought, Albrighton seemed like he was playing with no confidence (and is still now showing the heights that he hit last season), Gabby has played well but has had a couple of injuries, Ireland has been given quite a few chances to show form but only started to play well in the last few months & Keane has helped Bent but he wont be here for long. Before we start to see the best of Bent again, I think we really need to bring in an experienced right winger in the summer & allow Zog to hit a good run of form.

:? Are you sure that's true Mantis? I don't recall our players constantly taking long shots. Petrov does it occasionally, but he also scored a few corkers earlier this season - so McLeish's faith in him to shoot from long range would be with reason.

I like Makoun. I hope he stays and is used by McLeish, but it doesn't look good.

How often do you attend the dressing room meetings?

.... until he lost 2 games in a row, then they would use the most obvious stick to beat Hughton with. Probably something clever and witty like.... 'He's a worse manager than Mick McCarthy' or.... 'His managerial career is shorter than the tea lady's' With Houllier, people said he was washed up, old, couldn't motivate the players etc etc With McLiesh it was, originally (note: I say originally!), abuse about sha, then it was his 'negative' tactics. We've seen some negative displays, we've also seen some decent ones, some teams set up to win on the counter and some teams that are capable of playing attacking football. But forget whats on the pitch, just go to the obvious choice of saying 'Anti-football!!!!!!?!?!?'.

I thought he a had a decent run of games under Houllier (but I honestly can't remember). MON played him then seemed to drop him mid-game, even if he was our MOTM at the time. McLeish has been playing him in a defensive role, perhaps believing that Keane/ Ireland were better options in the attacking role. Either way, I would really like him to be given another chance - as long as it's in a more attacking role!!

Agreed, we would only lose 2 mill.. And get another injury prone player of the wage bill. cut our losses. Or.. we could keep him, try to play him in his favoured role, keep him as a rotation option (as I doubt he's on high wages) and then IF he picks his form back up, we'll either have a quality, young player on our hands, or we can sell him for a higher fee.

He showed promise that he could justify the hype before he got injured. Against Fiorentina, Man Utd in the League and Blackburn in the cup - I remember him being excellent. Perhaps playing in a defensive role and lacking in confidence due to poor performances has really effected his game? I never recall him having a bad touch or a poor pass before his injury. He used to play with freedom. He would often be the only player in our team with the confidence and ability to take on a player, his left-footed passing was always sharp and he often challenged the keeper (much in the way that Bannan now tries to, the only difference being that Delph's were a lot more accurate). I'd really like him to stick around and be given a chance to play his natural, attacking game.

I still think he could have a future here. But he needs to play in the attacking role we know he can. When Keane leaves, if Ireland is put back into the attacking-mid role, Delph would be decent backup in that position, imo.

No no no, you don't count Gareth... you live in England. Don't squiff the 25% stat!

So out of the 4 recent VT posters (on this page or the last) that live abroad; 3 have rarely, if ever, seen one of our Nike kits in a local shop, whereas 1 has? I'd rather be Macron's main English club, gaining all their focus, than one of Nike's little clubs that they don't care about.

Exactly VERB, what we need is money, and that's why the new deal is better. Whether it's used on players, players wages or something else, it's more beneficial to us right now.

I think that as things stand, if Lambert was offered the Villa job today he'd turn us down. What motivates managers? The chance to do well, earn money and win things. We can't offer him better than he already has, and he'd be leaving a club which he has led to two successive promotions and a successful first Premier League season to take over one on a downward spiral with a squad that needs a huge overhaul, but with an owwner who won't provide any more money to do it. The words "poisoned chalice" spring to mind. An owner who won't provide any more money to do it? I'm pretty sure I saw quotes from McLeish, stating that the wage bill is down so that big player wages could be afforded if required... He'd be leaving a small club, that he has helped massively, to come to a massive club, stuck in the bottom half because of underperforming players and poor tactics. He'd probably be given funds to bring in a few players he wanted, then he could work with upcoming talents like Albrighton, Bannan, Clark & Gardner and internationals like Bent, Gabby, Petrov, Ireland, Dunne & Given. I think any smaller manager that hasn't promised their board they'll stay, would jump at the chance to come here. It's whether Randy has the balls to sack McLeish and pay off another club for their manager.

This. Therefore I refuse to vote :evil: I'd love us to have a manager that got us playing attacking football like Swansea, but I just can't see us taking a chance on an inexperienced manager (or that manager been given a chance by the fans, when he gets more than one loss in a row).

Mark, I'm with you when you say that you don't have a problem going into games against the top sides, looking to soak up pressure and then attack on the counter. But you say '. Do you really think that that's what McLeish has advised the players to do? Is there not also a chance that it could be due to the poor movement/ lack of ability of our players? At times Yesterday, Me and the guys around Me were screaming at some of the players to work harder. On another day, with a few better players (or our current players a few years younger), we could easily have got a point or more against a top City side. That's exactly what we did against Man City last year, when we won 1-0. I'm disappointed at the loss, and I would love us to be the next Arsenal (or even try to play like Swansea) but is it completely McLeish's fault that the players didn't take their chances?

In the grand scheme of things, a 1-0 loss to Man City isn't bad. Many people were going to the game assuming we would be completely turned over. Perhaps Heskey's physical presence did help with the defensive side of things? My opinion is that McLeish made a good choice in dropping Warnock, and a clever alteration by bringing Cuellar in (he could have easily put Baker, Lichaj, Hutton or Stevens at left back). The midfield was set up well, Albrighton back to fitness to hit them on the couner, Petrov & Gardner (presumably because Clark was injured?) in the middle, but then Heskey on the right was slightly less attacking than many of us would have liked. But then we did play with Bent & Keane up top. If we'd have played Albrighton, Bent, Keane & N'Zogbia OR Ireland with only Petrov & Gardner in the middle and we'd have been trounced 5-0 or 6-0, then people would just be slating him for going too 'Gung Ho' and not giving Petrov or Gardner enough cover. I really don't think he can win. We contained them until their goal, and we did have attempts on goal ourselves. City looked like they wanted to just keep possession for most of the game, even when it was 0-0. Our players did work hard to get the ball back - mostly Keano! But we lost to one poorly defended corner. I came away from the game thinking we could have had a point, and that would have been more than most of us had expected. I understand people's frustrations that we didn't attack more, but I really don't understand the anger at losing a game 1-0 when we did attack, we did have chances on target and we did contain them for the majority of the game. He does really need to pick up some points in the next few games though, if he doesn't then we are going to be dangerously close to the drop.

... and the protest really worked.