steaknchips

The rot is setting into Bent and N'Zogbia's brains...The more games that continue in defensive mode, the more the rot escualtes...It turns great attacking players into cabbages. That is down to the manager! Your a strange chap aint ya? So how about Chelsea's current and past manager, they set the rot in Torres's head to miss a sitter? Torres wasnt performing at Liverpool before the move to Chelsea..N'Zogbia has come to Villa on the back of good form. The rot has set in to our attacking players because McLeish plays negative tactics..The longer you go on without being effective and without scoring, the worse you get...Its the same with Dunne last season, his form was down to mentality, not that he became a bad player overnight. And the tactics McLeish plays gets Defenders playing full of confidence and attacking players start to lose confidence.. Good attacking football breeds confidence into attacking players..We dont play good attacking football..We play good defensive football, hence breeds good defensive play. Yes the manager is responsible for this..He decides on the tactical play..

The rot is setting into Bent and N'Zogbia's brains...The more games that continue in defensive mode, the more the rot escualtes...It turns great attacking players into cabbages. That is down to the manager!

Quite a number of our players were fine before Houllier turned up yet somehow in that instance its not his fault or its a good thing. Its always the manager's fault..Including Houllier last season in regards Dunne/Warnock. Yet I think with Houllier it more intentional and he knew exactly what game he was playing.. McLeish dosnt have the technical brain to work with great attacking players..We could sign Messi and he would look crap under McLeish..(which is a slight exageration) ,he wouldnt look nowhere near as good as he does at Barca because McLeish dosnt know how to compliment their game. You can see why Blues went down twice under him..Its because he dosnt know how to analise the opposition. He has no technical ability in his game plans at all..5 games into the new season and 4 of those he has lost the mind battles with his opposition number..Does McLeish do any homework on the attacking side to work out the oppositions weaknesses to try win games? Or does he just look at the opposition's strengths and how to combat them defensively? He is just clueless and you can see it a mile off in his game plans for each game...Yet last season, I seen very good game plans but some of the players not giving 100%.. Im just hoping with K'Mac now in the fold we will look a bit better.. I would like to see Grant replaced with someone like Wilkins too.

N'Zogbia is a winger, yet nothing in McLeish's tactics suggest good wing play in his methods. Its the manager's fault because there was nothing wrong with N'Zogbia last season.. Its just like Hleb, Bentley and Larsson at Blues, they too looked ordinary under McLeish, with players like Dann and Johnson looking top class. We are now seeing similarities at Villa with Dunne looking top class and attacking players looking poor.

Drenthe is an awful player and no doubt had we signed him and everton had signed zog, the comment wouldve been "everton sign n'zogbia for £10m and we sign drenthe on loan! sack the board!" Not from me Pete no...If you read my posts, I dont think money is as important as a manager with intelligence and Vision..My point was, that McLeish spends 10m on a player..Yet Moyes gets a player on loan with similar attributes, yet Drenthe made an immediate impact on the 1st team squad.. I do like N'Zogbia, I just dont think McLeish is the man to get the best out of him...Maybe things will change now K'Mac is involved in 1st team affairs...I hope so..

You could make 3 passes that create a chance and 20 passes that do nothing. The game v Everton last season wasnt identical because like im trying to point out..It was ANOTHER game we were winning until a dubious late penalty gifted Everton a point. This season Everton were all over us and we were lucky to get a point.. Last season we played football and matched(if not bettered)most the teams we played...We even bettered Man United and Chelsea yet only gained a point. Yet 4 out of the 5 games this season already...We have looked the poorer side.

That was my arguement..I was wrong about the Fulham game where Young missed a pen(I was thinking of another game)..Ive been answered with 15 games where some games you really have had to scrape the bottom of the barrel...I mean my whole point was "where we played poor"..Yet you list games like Blackpool away, when we had most of the play until Makoun got sent off. And Fulham at home where we lead twice and again came out a played well, passing the ball around(nothing like our last encounter at Craven Cottage)..Both games were hardly poor! I said list the games where we played "poor"...Poor as in crap, as in no ideas, little chances, on the back foot all the time etc..There was only a handful out of the whole season..Yet 4 out 5 this season you could consider we were on the back foot and played poor..Despite which manager you prefer. So even with Dunne throwing a paddy, the injuries piled high, the changes being implimented etc..We had a manager that despite all the odds, could still get a team playing nice football and took the game to the majority of our opponants...This season with all the friends in the world amongst the playing staff(which Houllier could have achieved and addressed this summer)we are playing crap and the team looking 2nd best for the most part with players looking out of sorts...And YES to keep this on topic, that also includes Fabian Delph..

2 of those games we had a stand in manager, the others huge injuries and it still only equates to a handful of games. Fulham at home we should have won, we were the better the team and should have won comfortably, Young missed a pen and it knocked us back a bit.. but overall we outplayed them..Blackpool away was ok too, it wasnt an easy ground to go to yet we got a point and played ok...Like I say, the majority of the games we came out and played football, we did get some good results, yet was unfortunate with a few others..You could see with slight adjustments that this season, on the path we were on,we would have been a lot better.

Macandally, we need balance and team work,energy, movement, desire and winnability. -----------Clark---------- -----Bannan--Delph------ Albrighton-------N'Zogbia ------------Bent-----------

Ive told you to look over the whole season and list ALL these games we were poor in..I can only name a handful.

Take a look over the season and you tell me how many games we played poor in? So far its been 4/5 for McLeish.

I don't suppose facts play too big a part in your constellation but, just so you know, McLeish didn't "release" Reo-Coker. He was out of the club by the time McLeish arrived (Reo-Coker left club on 27 May, McLeish appointed 17 June - check the AVFC web site). Also, I am sure you will spot the little flaw in your statement, "Houllier may have kept...Cuellar". Um, so did McLeish! Now that you've been reduced to making stuff up in your increasingly desperate attempts to keep the flame of memory alive for Houllier, it is surely time to give up. I was just giving examples..Maybe had Houllier stayed in the job Reo would have signed a new deal instead..Maybe Downing would have stayed...Maybe it would be Dunne and Gabby etc off the wage bill instead.. .....which would've been a bit of a downer as they've been our 2 best players so far this season. Apart from the Mcleish signed Shay Given, maybe. Yes but the 2 worst players in a system where we pass the ball, keep possession with good movement and work the ball into the net..Which players like Makoun, Downing, Reo and Bent were all begining to adjust to doing in their games..If you check out the chalkboards for the stats from Reo and Makoun, we had great pass success rates..Bent was also scoring and Downing, along with Albrighton were creative..We didnt need Dunne and Gabby in this system.. Clark and Bent were both better.

I don't suppose facts play too big a part in your constellation but, just so you know, McLeish didn't "release" Reo-Coker. He was out of the club by the time McLeish arrived (Reo-Coker left club on 27 May, McLeish appointed 17 June - check the AVFC web site). Also, I am sure you will spot the little flaw in your statement, "Houllier may have kept...Cuellar". Um, so did McLeish! Now that you've been reduced to making stuff up in your increasingly desperate attempts to keep the flame of memory alive for Houllier, it is surely time to give up. I was just giving examples..Maybe had Houllier stayed in the job Reo would have signed a new deal instead..Maybe Downing would have stayed...Maybe it would be Dunne and Gabby etc off the wage bill instead.. Its just examples..But my main main point is that on the whole, Randy has done ok for the club...Its just incorrect managerial decissions that have let him down...But as for backing, building us up as a club etc he has done more than enough. I think under MON we were amongst the highest Premierleague spenders season upon season..Allowing wages to go higher than Spurs etc, in the hope of bringing CL football to the club...He held up his end of the bargain...Its just the manager at the time wasnt quite good enough to top Redknapp.

Its the story of our lives...We purchase a top quality goal scorer and then the manager that knows how to use him, is forced to retire through injury..

Everton sign Drenthe on loan, we sign N'Zogbia for 10m quid...= Money means everything in today's game..NOT!

The only thing Randy has done wrong, is get rid of Houllier and appoint a poor quality manager for his replacement. The backing has been fine and I understand that wages need to be reduced. McLeish has sold/released our better players in response to reducing the wage bill..Whereas Houllier may have kept players like Makoun, Reo and Cuellar etc and got rid of Dunne, Petrov and Heskey etc instead..Its just different approaches by different managers. But what Lerner has done to this club in regards investment, ticket pricing, infrastructure improvements etc its been top drawer..

Jenas the saviour.

So what you saying? 10m squiddies are down the drain? This has to stop..

Getting rid of Makoun...Stupid mistake.

Failing at simple stuff like passing the ball when "not" under pressure.. I think we should start fining players that give the ball away and for passing backwards..Should generate a few funds.

Sit back, sit back, wait, wait, give the ball away....Sit back, sit back, wait, wait, give the ball away...Sit back, sit back, wait, wait, Good save Given my son...Sit back, sit back, wait, wait, give the ball away.. What a clueless manager..Blues couldnt afford to sack him, so we paid them off to bring him to Villa....You couldnt make it up.. Team performance 3/10...MOTM = Given.. Problem area = the manager.

Thought he played well today..He gets involved and never seems to go missing in games. Unlucky not to score in the 1st half.

We may as well move the Bent, N'Zogbia and Delph discussion into the coaching under McLeish thread..Because we all know they arn't bad players..Its all down to the coaching style, tactics and training by McLeish and his team. Its not good enough as it focuses mainly on defensive duties.

Given is world class