steaknchips

Stan getting forward? so he all of sudden becomes a great player.. Stans job is the holding role, the defensive rock of the side..That is "not" young Delph's responsibility..Delph is a forward thinking creative player, that likes a pop on goal..

Petrov is our Makelele, Viera, Roy Keane, Dennis Mortimer, Mascherano etc.. He is the senior figure, the captain, the defensive mobile hard man in the middle that allows the "rest" of the team to play...Its the most important role in the side..He stabilises the midfield, he presses, he closes down, he holds onto the ball and sets up the starting play of our attack..

Stan isnt good enough and McLeish should be seriously thinking of replacing him at the end of the season if we want Villa to progress forward. Far too many teams are out playing us in the middle of the park and Stan is meant to be our experienced rock to steady the ship etc..Midfield defensively, is bar far our weakest area and Petrov is the main man playing that role..We need a stronger, more mobile player with far more physical pressence...Then we could see players like Delph,Ireland and Bannan express themselves in both creative and attacking play. Petrov is holding us back and although he is playing better than he did at times last season, he still remains the weak link in the side(along with Hutton and Collins).

Wigan should take Delfouneso on loan.

Far better performance today...Very pleased with Bannan and Gabby, also good to see Ireland looking more interested. Hutton is poor and should be dropped in favour of Herd, Delph also pretty poor.

Well if Mcleish is a decent manager he would have looked at the partnership between Bannan and Ireland in the 2nd half v QPR. And build on it..

Managers dont love Collins at all. He is picked because of Dunne, they are inseperable as a duo..If you drop a fit Collins for Cuellar, then Mr.Dunne will have something to say about it.

If Collins is that good and managers all love him, why does he struggle to get into the Welsh 1st XI?

Jenas is a decent player, think he's better than what we've got.

Nice to know we are paying a loan fee to Spurs to bring him up to match fitness.

Its criminal we loaned out a fit Makoun..

he is useless and has been for a long time now. arrogant header back. he isnt good enough

i would rather give clark a chance with dunney

They both play the left side of Central defence...The better balance would be Cuellar instead of Collins..

I don't understand those of you saying our performance is typical of Mcleish ?

Didn't you hear his own post match comments ?

He was as annoyed as us at the first Half and asked for exactly what we got in the Second.

He made precisely the criticisms we have - so how is it 'his style/tactics/way etc ?

Prejudice ?

Basically he is just admitting in front of millions of fans that he is not up to the job. Is he saying he wants to see different football to what he witnesses but dosnt know how to impliment it into the squad? Has the pre-season been wasted? Whats he been doing all this time, as now we are 6 games into the season, yet to play a top 6 team and have only won 1 game..Adding to that, we are out of the League cup through losing a home game against bottom club Bolton. So he can be as annoyed as he wants but he should judged on what he can deliver as a manager, not what he says/does in front of the TV cameras.

Should be turned into a LB to replace Warnock when his contract runs out.

you keep saying this but never give a valid reason

He would get more time on the ball, has good running, left foot and could make it his own..An Ashley Cole type player in the making(under the right coaching)..He is too lightweight for a Premiership midfielder and always needs more time on the ball than he can get..He would get that at LB.

Should be turned into a LB to replace Warnock when his contract runs out.

Very good second half, but I thought he stank in the first half.

Hope he starts next match.

Because in the 1st half we sat deep, in the 2nd half we tried to play football. Play football and players like Bannan, N'Zogbia, Bent and Ireland will shine...Sit deep and they will rot...The question is, has McLeish learnt this from the game of 2 halves today? Or is he still clueless?

I would say the players we have are good enough to be top 6 challengers..But the system McLeish plays isnt getting the best out of them. You could see today Bannan pegging back to clear the ball away and then shake his head at how poor the system is. Yet then when we do start playing, players like Bannan and Ireland look good. We need to start coming out to play the game, no more long ball, no more giving the ball away cheaply etc. We did see 10mins of good football today from Villa and that 10mins included good movement from N'Zogbia and Delph too..

Great ball from Bannan to find Delph who should have scored..Other highlights was the link up play in the 2nd half between Bannan and Ireland, its something that can grow and I would keep them both in the line up.

Delph and Petrov though, its not working..Maybe try Clark and Delph instead, or Petrov and Gardner.

Still dont rate Hutton or Collins..Time to give Cuellar and Herd if they are fit some more match time..

we played well for 10 mins of the game and scored. That 10mins shows as a team how well we can play and just how poor a team QPR are. Yet for some reason we played them like we feared them for the other 80mins.

Bannan and Ireland have both gelled well this half, not sure why Bannan was taken off.

Bannan MOTM..

Amazing because as soon as we start playing football we score..

results and performaces after the Bolton match? see into the future, can you?

the players coming out and saying Bodymoor is a much happier place is an indication that he's having a positive effect on the morale of players

Thats ok then..

The football and results dont matter...Just as long as these highly paid players have a happy worklife in which to earn their crust..

Just watched that press conference on AVTV. So uninspiring and depressing. Can't believe he's using the 'IT's NOT 1982' card already. Valencia got rid of Villa, Mata and Silva yet I watched them boss Barca the other night. Plenty of examples of teams who have sold but are still strong through shrewd transfer dealings and non-defeatist managers.

Should be sacked for being realistic and knowing what year it actually

haha yeah they really bossed Barcelona when Barcelona could have had 2 penalties and Guaita made some good saves.

Whats the year got to do with anything?

At the end of the day he has his workforce and he has his budget, get on with it. Can he achieve or not? If not, I dont want want hear petty excuses about not enough funds, or its the wrong time of the year, or the wrong year in football.

He held onto the players he wanted to keep. The last regime would have probably have seen, Dunne 50k a week, Gabby 50k a week, Warnock 50k a week, plus maybe a few more come off the wage bill..Ensuring new signings could have come in giving us a fresh look for this season.

McLeish is making his own bed, he too has the squad to work with, or sell and replace with others. He sold L.Young and bought in Hutton...He loaned out Makoun and bought in Jenas...This is McLeish laying down his own footprints on the squad...If the fans cant see any progress, they will voice opinion.

macandally,

Poyet is the man...We should get him now before its too late. Because before too long he will snapped up by a big team.

Duverne was part of the France staff that got sacked for failing spectacularly. He was well known for causing trouble. He pissed off the most professional and best left-back in the world in Patrice Evra.

give it a rest.

Duverne is a winner and was telling the "on strike" French team to train..I think if you ask any French player thats worked with Duverne, all you will hear is great praise...Lyon won "all" of their recent success with him as trainer.

I would not put O'Neill in the Moyes Bracket.

I would say Moyes has far more about himself in terms of Honourability, loyalty, Nous and the most of all Humility.

In my personal opinion, Randy Lerner was great to Martin O'Neill. Within reasonable terms Randy gave him all the money he wanted and the freedom to work with it.

Martin made mistakes and rather than own the mistakes he then threw his teddy out of the Pram.

Gerard Houllier made a monumental mistake at Anfield disrespecting the Villa fans by lauding the Liverpool fans....an error of judgement you would not expect from a seasoned campaigner.

However

Martin O'Neill ,addresses a dinner in the Holte made possible by the club to negate the dissappointment in Moscow by the travelling fans and makes his point of saying "I will apologise, but i won't do it again" or words to that effect....Sincerity in its most diluted form possible.

I am seriously not sure which is the biggest snub, because if I had of been in the Holte that day my dinner would still be there.Had i been at Liverpool perhaps I would have understood more ( but he was only with us a few weeks) sorry for being so understanding.

we have simply had too many managers not in tune with what we all want to achieve.

SUCCESS.

For us to achieve greatness again, we need huge changes..Houllier was doing this.

If you want Champions league football at Aston Villa, then Houllier was our best bet..He is the only manager(out of MON,McLeish,K'mac) that knew players like Dunne, Collins, Gabby, Warnock etc were not good enough..It was this man that was in the process of doing something about it. If you want change, you have to back it and believe it. Dont be scared of a few bumps whilst the changes are being implimented..

As it is we got scared as a majority and we have kept the mediocrity label ever since..And the mediocrity players to go with it...And with additions like Hutton and Jenas, its all same, same, same..

S&N I'm not sure if Houllier was the man....he might have been.... but I think your overall philosophy is right.

Just answer me these questions;

Group A;Dunne, Gabby, Warnock, Beye, Sidwell, Carew, Collins,

Group B;Bent, Makoun, Downing, Young, Clark, Albrighton, Bannan, Delph

Out of those 2 groups which are most likely to play in the Champions League?

Out of those 2 groups who looked better under the last regime?

Out of those 2 groups who would you keep and build your team around for next season?

Now answer this; Out of those 2 groups, which looks best under McLeish??

Houllier and Duverne = top of the tree in modern day techniques, training, coaching, playing styles, player development, connections on the European stage etc.

I would not put O'Neill in the Moyes Bracket.

I would say Moyes has far more about himself in terms of Honourability, loyalty, Nous and the most of all Humility.

In my personal opinion, Randy Lerner was great to Martin O'Neill. Within reasonable terms Randy gave him all the money he wanted and the freedom to work with it.

Martin made mistakes and rather than own the mistakes he then threw his teddy out of the Pram.

Gerard Houllier made a monumental mistake at Anfield disrespecting the Villa fans by lauding the Liverpool fans....an error of judgement you would not expect from a seasoned campaigner.

However

Martin O'Neill ,addresses a dinner in the Holte made possible by the club to negate the dissappointment in Moscow by the travelling fans and makes his point of saying "I will apologise, but i won't do it again" or words to that effect....Sincerity in its most diluted form possible.

I am seriously not sure which is the biggest snub, because if I had of been in the Holte that day my dinner would still be there.Had i been at Liverpool perhaps I would have understood more ( but he was only with us a few weeks) sorry for being so understanding.

we have simply had too many managers not in tune with what we all want to achieve.

SUCCESS.

For us to achieve greatness again, we need huge changes..Houllier was doing this.

If you want Champions league football at Aston Villa, then Houllier was our best bet..He is the only manager(out of MON,McLeish,K'mac) that knew players like Dunne, Collins, Gabby, Warnock etc were not good enough..It was this man that was in the process of doing something about it. If you want change, you have to back it and believe it. Dont be scared of a few bumps whilst the changes are being implimented..

As it is we got scared as a majority and we have kept the mediocrity label ever since..And the mediocrity players to go with it...And with additions like Hutton and Jenas, its all same, same, same..