markavfc40 Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 One result, I am not getting carried away here. One result and three very good performances on the bounce. It doesn't mean a corner has been turned or that everything will now be rosy but its a start. Hopefully we can continue with the upturn in form and pick up more positive results. I'm sure most of us will be happy then apart from the small minority that will simply never accept him of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alec Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 Whilst performances over the past week or so have improved, it's important to remember just how bad we had been looking for much of November and early December. You've got to give credit where it's due and that result and performance yesterday was outstadning - and as far as I'm concerned, that's the benchmark now. If they can produce that away at Chelsea, then there can be no excuses aginst anybody else. However, I'm still far from confident looking at how McLeish has finally arrived at this point. A lot of improvements in the last two or three games have been down to changes enforced upon him through injury or suspension. If Hutton hadn't got himself a red card or Heskey hadn't gotten injured, would they have been slected ahead of players like Cuellar, Ireland or Clark, each of whom have played a big part in these games? The recent team selections have been a lot close to what the supporters have been criticising him for not making for much of the season and, like everybody else, am glad that we are finally seeing players in their correct positions and lining up in a formation that suits their overall abilities - but it should not have taken half a season to work out what so obviously works and doesn't work. I will start to have a bit more faith when I see players like Hutton, Delph and Heskey permanently out of the team when they are all fit and available. So we should by no means be getting carried away by a couple of improved performances and one solitary excellent result, but, at last, there are encouraging signs that suggest that 2012 may not be as bleak as it was shaping up to be a few weeks ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 No matter what you think of him, IMO it's safe to say after yesterdays result he's going nowhere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villanmike Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 3 good performances in a row now in my opinion. All against tough teams who play different styles and we've done well in all of them. AMc is starting to get it right and deserves a tonne of credit for yesterday's win. Hilarious reading through the match thread, about 90% negative posts in a game which we won 3-1 at Chelsea, laughable. I agree with this 100% Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houlston Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 I always find it odd that when some people do well at something its because of someone else being rubbish or said person being lucky, but when that person does badly its then definitely their fault and not a case of being unlucky or someone else just being much better or maybe a better team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 Its a strange one, because the game plan yesterday was risky but it worked. We sat very deep, I think Chelsea had over 60% possession, on another day they probably would have converted a 2nd possibly 3rd goal. They didn't and we hit them late on with 2 breakaway goals Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brummybloke Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 I wasn't sure about the appointment, because of the fans reaction, but after losing our two best players and with the limit of funds to buy players with I'm not sure eg Moyes or Hughes would have done much better. Other choices for manager touted like Martinez, Martin Jol, Owen Coyle haven't exactly set the premier league alight this season neither.We start the year in 9th position which is a darn sight better than where we were under Houllier this time last year The football since the Liverpool game has improved significantly - we're passing and moving much better and hitting teams on the break, utilising the pace our squad possesses, which IMO is EXACTLY what we need to do. Hope it continues. I can't fault McLeish for how he handles himself, he always comes across as professional and sensible and unlike MON isn't a control freak who refuses to play players who've dared to question his judgement or make substituions during games when required. IIRC. its not really though is it? we are 3 points up on last year while the league is significantly weaker bottom club this time last year was wolves on 18 points, that would get them 15th place this year ! so we have played in a weaker league and had quite possibly the easiest start to a season i could ever remember, it was the fixture list only dreams are made of, the perfect platform for a great season by getting lots of points on the board early on.. but we didnt. lets see what happens in the second half of the season i said at the start of the season this is a poor league this year and that would be our saving grace from relegation our squad should be in the top 10 no matter who is the manager 6 to 8 would take a good manager lets see what happens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 [ its not really though is it? we are 3 points up on last year while the league is significantly weaker 3 points up. 6 places better off. Conceded 10 less goals, scored two more. Could you explain how the league is significantly weaker? Blackpool, Sha and West Ham went down. Norwich, QPR and Swansea came up. There is no significant difference either way in those sides. What is significantly weaker is our squad having lost Downing, Ash and to a lesser extent Reo Coker and either not replaced them or not replaced them with anything like the same quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houlston Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 I wasn't sure about the appointment, because of the fans reaction, but after losing our two best players and with the limit of funds to buy players with I'm not sure eg Moyes or Hughes would have done much better. Other choices for manager touted like Martinez, Martin Jol, Owen Coyle haven't exactly set the premier league alight this season neither.We start the year in 9th position which is a darn sight better than where we were under Houllier this time last year The football since the Liverpool game has improved significantly - we're passing and moving much better and hitting teams on the break, utilising the pace our squad possesses, which IMO is EXACTLY what we need to do. Hope it continues. I can't fault McLeish for how he handles himself, he always comes across as professional and sensible and unlike MON isn't a control freak who refuses to play players who've dared to question his judgement or make substituions during games when required. IIRC. its not really though is it? we are 3 points up on last year while the league is significantly weaker bottom club this time last year was wolves on 18 points, that would get them 15th place this year ! so we have played in a weaker league and had quite possibly the easiest start to a season i could ever remember, it was the fixture list only dreams are made of, the perfect platform for a great season by getting lots of points on the board early on.. but we didnt. lets see what happens in the second half of the season i said at the start of the season this is a poor league this year and that would be our saving grace from relegation our squad should be in the top 10 no matter who is the manager 6 to 8 would take a good manager lets see what happens Its all relevant though isnt it? Whilst some teams are weaker some are much stronger. Just because points tallys are less it doesnt mean that the league is weaker it just means a balance of points has shifted. The league is as competitive as it always has been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brummybloke Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 [ its not really though is it? we are 3 points up on last year while the league is significantly weaker 3 points up. 6 places better off. Conceded 10 less goals, scored two more. Could you explain how the league is significantly weaker? Blackpool, Sha and West Ham went down. Norwich, QPR and Swansea came up. There is no significant difference either way in those sides. What is significantly weaker is our squad having lost Downing, Ash and to a lesser extent Reo Coker and either not replaced them or not replaced them with anything like the same quality. ? of course the league is weaker, the table shows it last season the bottom teams were getting more points than they are getting this season and lucky for us other teams have equaly poor managers just with worse squads like keen at blackburn and coyle at bolton and you also think 3 clubs making their debut in the premier league compaired to last season 2 of the relegated 3 being in and out of the premier league is not stronger? norwich were division 1 ,2 years ago and our squad is not better for having one of the top scorers in the premier league in it? GC has had a full summer to work with the players, to pick whoever he wanted to buy and instil his footballing ethos and philosphy on the club and players he has had more time to get things right than MON had in his first season or houllier had last season so trying to claim GC has made a big difference is in my view total rubbish every manager has luck, i always though bobby robson was the luckiest england manager ever, his teams did crap at the world cups until injury and suspensions forced him to use other players such as platt and hodge and beardsley so despite him getting lucky ( on players everyone and their pet gerbil were telling him to pick) that goes with the job and while i can see people mentioning it, you cant knock him for it as it happens with every manager. picking heskey, collins and hutton each and every week, playing hoofball bottling it, trying to sell cuellar, being negative in 75% of our games i can knock him for the team has been set up and has been playing how he wants them to, so if you are going to lap up 1 result and performance and proclaim he is all of a sudden despite his poor record as a manager, now some tactical genius rather than take the game in the isolation it deserves going on the shower of shit we have had to endure previously, then good for you. i on the other hand require more than 1 game to be even in the slightest convinced he will get us in the top 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.Bear Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 Ok I was thinking about it all last night and at the end of the day, from now on he has a clean slate with me. We are 9th at halfway, yes there have been some shocking decisions and games but we have a nice run now so can build a bit of form. With Zog looking better every game and Ireland seemingly now up for it, I'm actually looking forward to the second half of the season. Build on this victory Eck and you will win the fans over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiegoD Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 Well I said 8th at the start of the season and while Mcleish has been too negative with his tactics he has been better with the man managing aspects that I expected. I still reckon we'll finish 8th with a much improved second half to the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AValon Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 its not really though is it? we are 3 points up on last year while the league is significantly weaker bottom club this time last year was wolves on 18 points, that would get them 15th place this year ! so we have played in a weaker league and had quite possibly the easiest start to a season i could ever remember, it was the fixture list only dreams are made of, the perfect platform for a great season by getting lots of points on the board early on.. but we didnt. lets see what happens in the second half of the season i said at the start of the season this is a poor league this year and that would be our saving grace from relegation our squad should be in the top 10 no matter who is the manager 6 to 8 would take a good manager lets see what happens So we had the fixture list 'only dreams are made of'? We also had the double blow of losing our two main players, which effectively cut off the supply of quality crosses to our best targetman in years! And if that was'nt enough, the board turn confusion into chaos with the appointment of the one guy nobody wanted as manager of Aston Villa, who was so desperate not to lose a game he totally ignored the fact that we possess a forward line. I think expecting ANY manager to hit the ground running would have been something of a tall order given those particular circumstances. Like you say, though, lets see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 One result, I am not getting carried away here. One result and three very good performances on the bounce. It doesn't mean a corner has been turned or that everything will now be rosy but its a start. Hopefully we can continue with the upturn in form and pick up more positive results. I'm sure most of us will be happy then apart from the small minority that will simply never accept him of course.Three very good performances? I count two. I can't fathom why everyone's getting excited over the Stoke performance as it was decidedly poor. Arsenal was pretty good but we still ended up losing. Yesterday was excellent and McLeish got it right. However, like many others I'm of the opinion that one game doesn't suddenly make everything better. If we approach more games like that then I'll be happy. What he can't do however is revert back to the same old negative approach he's adopted for most of the season. We'll wait and see I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulieB Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 Spot on Avalon. I was just going to say - You can't just dismiss that McLeish and our squad have had to adapt this season after losing our two main supply lines. We've been toothless and predictable going forward in the main but the last few games you can see slowly we're getting the tactics right to score goals. I also don't think McLeish expected us to leak so many goals from set pieces. 57% of goals scored against us Sky said yesterday on comms. The only goals scored against us in the last few weeks have been from penalties and corners IIRC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brummybloke Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 Spot on Avalon. I was just going to say - You can't just dismiss that McLeish and our squad have had to adapt this season after losing our two main supply lines. We've been toothless and predictable going forward in the main but the last few games you can see slowly we're getting the tactics right to score goals. I also don't think McLeish expected us to leak so many goals from set pieces. 57% of goals scored against us Sky said yesterday on comms. The only goals scored against us in the last few weeks have been from penalties and corners IIRC. you mean since cuellar came in for hutton? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 In all fairness given how shit we were last season and the gutless tripe we were serving up then using that as a benchmark is obviously setting the bar low. All it shows is that McLeish is currently doing better with a worse squad. Lets all hope, at the very least, that continues. If it does then a comfortable top half finish will be secured. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulieB Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 you mean since cuellar came in for hutton? As I said yesterday. I agree, our team looks far better without Hutton in it. His postioning is woeful at times for a right back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC-Prideofbrum Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 In all fairness given how shit we were last season and the gutless tripe we were serving up then using that as a benchmark is obviously setting the bar low. All it shows is that McLeish is currently doing better with a worse squad. Lets all hope, at the very least, that continues. If it does then a comfortable top half finish will be secured. Given our injury problems last year, that's debatable. For a 2 month period our midfield was between Clark/Hogg/Bannan and we had to use Heskey as a lone striker because Gabby was suffering a lot of injuries. + I've never seen worse performances as a Villa fan, both Man United and Tottenham games were a joke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 In all fairness given how shit we were last season and the gutless tripe we were serving up then using that as a benchmark is obviously setting the bar low. All it shows is that McLeish is currently doing better with a worse squad. Lets all hope, at the very least, that continues. If it does then a comfortable top half finish will be secured.What? On the whole this season's been just as bad for gutless tripe if not worse. :| Amazing how you can remember games from over a year ago but not games from a month ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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