OnlyOne Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 McLeish is extremely indefensible considering his record. 25% win rate in the league so far. I want him to succeed, but patience will get you nowhere with him. He built at Rangers, eventually finished 3rd, Built at SHA, eventually got relegated. The fans were punished for waiting to see what he could do and they had to put up with his horrid football in the meantime. Why the third time? What's going to be different here? He's on a shoestring budget again. And the football under him has been horribly inconsistent. I still have no idea what he wants us to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottie_villa Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Funny how people conveniently forget Rangers got to the last 16 of the Champions League, McLeish had a 70% win record as Scotland manager, came into a sinking ship at Brum but got them promoted at first attempt, failed to keep a threadbare thin squad up but won a League Cup. Look at how Brum have disappeared since. We won today, get off the guys back, anyone who criticises him today is out of line, wait til its justified, but it isnt today! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandrell Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Even if Eck was managing the sty now they would be in the position they are in...if not worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Shame his win record for VILLA in the league is only 25%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NowDoINotLikeThat Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 came into a sinking ship at Brum but got them promoted at first attempt, failed to keep a threadbare thin squad up but won a League Cup. Look at how Brum have disappeared since. We won today, get off the guys back, anyone who criticises him today is out of line, wait til its justified, but it isnt today! Birmingham did not have a threadbare squad compared to other sides last season. Mick McCarthy had much worse squad as did others. McLeish had likes of Larrson , Hleb , Bentley and squandered them mostly on bench. He is a crap manager and record in the Prem is poor and certainly one most negative ever to manage in Prem. But agree theres no need for much criticism for todays specific game. It was a terrible pitch and we won . Job done really. Winning a game under McLeish itself a rarity . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Think today's game was pretty meaningless in the grand scheme. We went to a League 2 side and won comfortably. No complaints there. However, the league is what's crucial and he hasn't performed in that at all this season. Everton will be crucial. Lose that or perform badly and the pressure is right back on him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NowDoINotLikeThat Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Think today's game was pretty meaningless in the grand scheme. We went to a League 2 side and won comfortably. No complaints there. However, the league is what's crucial and he hasn't performed in that at all this season. Everton will be crucial. Lose that or perform badly and the pressure is right back on him. Agreed. 5 wins in 20 league games is terrible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandrell Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 We were expected to win today. ... he deserves no credit for the win. the question i ask is if we had lost would it have been a nail in the coffin?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Think today's game was pretty meaningless in the grand scheme. We went to a League 2 side and won comfortably. No complaints there. However, the league is what's crucial and he hasn't performed in that at all this season. Everton will be crucial. Lose that or perform badly and the pressure is right back on him. Agreed. 5 wins in 20 league games is terrible. I agree . Its the kind of failure we are used to though as Houlliers first 20 league games in charge also yield just 5 wins but even less points in 21. You have to hope that things will improve though. Big three league games coming up now in Everton, Wolves and QPR which we need to be picking up at least 6 points from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NowDoINotLikeThat Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Think today's game was pretty meaningless in the grand scheme. We went to a League 2 side and won comfortably. No complaints there. However, the league is what's crucial and he hasn't performed in that at all this season. Everton will be crucial. Lose that or perform badly and the pressure is right back on him. Agreed. 5 wins in 20 league games is terrible. I agree . Its the kind of failure we are used to though as Houlliers first 20 league games in charge also yield just 5 wins but even less points in 21. You have to hope that things will improve though. Big three league games coming up now in Everton, Wolves and QPR which we need to be picking up at least 6 points from. Houllier had a lot of injuries last season , didn't have a pre-season etc. Admitedly tho at same time Houllier had better squad to work with with Ashley Young , Downing etc . Agree those next 3 are important - 6 points form those games is certainly possible and should be expected but would be incredibly reluctant to put any money on us beating anyone under this manager. Todays game was job done but pretty irrelevant as Mantis said. Either way 5 wins in 20 league games is incredibly poor and mirrors McLeishs time at Birmingham. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Todays game was job done but pretty irrelevant Its irrelevant because we won it had we have lost that wouldn't have been the case though. What we need is to do something we haven't done in the last two seasons and that is to string half a dozen or so positive results together and gain some momentum. Today was hopefully the start of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srsmithusa Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 I can't imagine that anyone is inspired by our recent play (this year or last). I can understand those that think the way forward is to have enough negativity and disaster and lack of support that Lerner is forced to make big changes up to if not including selling. I can understand that's what some think they are doing. Some have stated on here that such is their hope and plan. I agree with the board moderators position that it is not acceptable to question another fans genuine support of the team. I am not questioning the support of the chronic cynics. I just disagree with their assumptions and tactics. There are lots of reasons we have not done well the past two years. Some of the those reasons include poor decisions (IMO) by our current manager (as well as the previous three (Houl, GMAC, MON). What bothers me about this board right now, is that it's not acceptable for those of us who choose to stay optimistic and supportive and hopeful are harangued with constant sniping that we are blind, stupid, naive, or just ignorant of all facts. I wish the moderators had a rule that it was not only inappropriate to challenge that another poster is "not a good fan." But equally inappropriate to accuse those that see anything positive as being fools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 I thought that we would be able to get more than just a win against Bristol Rovers, I thought we would score 4 or 5 and give our confidence a much needed boost after the Swansea defeat. Despite scoring 3 quality goals we still made loads of very basic errors for a team of Premier league players. Bent never seemed in the right place when that ball bounced around in the box. Some of the crossing was atrocious and we passed the ball terribly at times, all against a very poor side. Yes, the pitch was poor but we gave a great pitch at Villa Park and we have witnessed the same errors there all season! How many times did we hit cross-field balls that went directly out of play? Particularly from Warnock who IMO is a car crash in a football shirt. I mean come on, everytime the guy puts a challenge in he looks like he has injured himself! Mind you, the same could easily be said about Petrov and Heskey. Villa must be the only team that could go to such poor opposition with a 85-90% full strength team and give a ridiculous goal away and concede a pen - although it never was - right at the end of the game. If it wasn't for Guzan and the bad pen that last minute or so could have been unbelievably embarrassing for us. I hope that Herd comes back into the team in centre mid so that Clark plays left back over Warnock. I just cannot keep feeling so sorry for him for how bad he's become. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macandally Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Its comical at times, every win brings McLeish a stay of excecution but its a bit like a girlfriend who cheated on you, deep down you really know that the relationship is destined to go nowhere. Poor manager, poor tactics, uninspiring motivator and a team destined for mid table at best. Of course I listen to those who say the opposite, but really cannot see where they find their optimism for this guy, he has done nothing to earn it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romavillan Posted January 8, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted January 8, 2012 i'm not in the mcleish out camp, i'm not a massive fan on the basis of how we've played the majority of this season but we're a few points better off than last year at least. we've had too many managers in the last couple of years because of the gamble on houllier's health that didn't come off. i would have liked to have seen an effort to keep him involved in a less visible and high pressure role but again that didn't happen and we are where we are. there ARE positives, 3 great goals from 3 players who have come through our academy is fantastic stuff. the downside to all the pressure on mcleish is that it will make him scared to trust unproven youth at a time when we need to be bringing through clark, herd, bannan, albrighton and gardner etc. if these players can make it then we will have half the team who have come through the academy and are villa 100% like gabby. i'm hoping mcleish can slowly bring them through this season so that when the summer comes round and a few of the big contracts run out we will have some spare funds/wages to compliment them with some class players around 27/28 years old who can have a long contract played out at villa park in their prime. villa is a tough job right now as we have to rebuild a squad hopefully around our great youth prospects. personally sacking mcleish right now would be a mistake, who knows who we'd get, if they didn't click we could go down from the position we are in. if at the end of the season it's obvious that mcleish isn't the man to take us forward then end of may/june would be the time to part company and get someone in who can build us a team around our young talent. it's the only way we are going to be able to have a crack at the top 6 again based on our revenues. i think the 4-2-3-1 he's starting to play (when heskey isn't in the side ) has potential. they need to play some more games together in that system and start scoring some more goals and creating more for bent. if that happens we'll finish top 10 and be in a position to push on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 What bothers me about this board right now, is that it's not acceptable for those of us who choose to stay optimistic and supportive and hopeful are harangued with constant sniping that we are blind, stupid, naive, or just ignorant of all facts. I wish the moderators had a rule that it was not only inappropriate to challenge that another poster is "not a good fan." But equally inappropriate to accuse those that see anything positive as being fools. This. I'm not happy when we lose or when a sub is made that I do not understand, but I find it disgusting that I am made out to be some 'happy clappy idiot' just because my nature is to be positive instead of complaining. It is my belief, and my hope, that Randy is tightening the purse-strings because he HAS to. And that when we have got rid of Heskey, Beye etc that we will continue to invest in the squad, and that when McLeish has a squad, built by him, he can hopefully remove the parts of our game that fail and focus on the better parts (Ireland vs Chelsea, Bent & Gabby combining earlier in the season etc). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Most other managers and I'd be looking forward to them building their own squad. With McLeish however I'm generally worried at what he will build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Funny how people conveniently forget Rangers got to the last 16 of the Champions League, McLeish had a 70% win record as Scotland manager, came into a sinking ship at Brum but got them promoted at first attempt, failed to keep a threadbare thin squad up but won a League Cup. Look at how Brum have disappeared since. We won today, get off the guys back, anyone who criticises him today is out of line, wait til its justified, but it isnt today! Yes, a victory against a struggling League 2 side changes everything... All hail McWonderful. To bad our dynamic midfield maistro Heskey got injured, but im sure McLeish will make it work by playing Robbie Keane as left back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samclarke2010 Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Funny how people conveniently forget Rangers got to the last 16 of the Champions League, McLeish had a 70% win record as Scotland manager, came into a sinking ship at Brum but got them promoted at first attempt, failed to keep a threadbare thin squad up but won a League Cup. Look at how Brum have disappeared since. We won today, get off the guys back, anyone who criticises him today is out of line, wait til its justified, but it isnt today! Yes, a victory against a struggling League 2 side changes everything... All hail McWonderful. To bad our dynamic midfield maistro Heskey got injured, but im sure McLeish will make it work by playing Robbie Keane as left back. good to see weve got optomistic supporters isn't it. i dont understand why people like you bother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samclarke2010 Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Funny how people conveniently forget Rangers got to the last 16 of the Champions League, McLeish had a 70% win record as Scotland manager, came into a sinking ship at Brum but got them promoted at first attempt, failed to keep a threadbare thin squad up but won a League Cup. Look at how Brum have disappeared since. We won today, get off the guys back, anyone who criticises him today is out of line, wait til its justified, but it isnt today! Yes, a victory against a struggling League 2 side changes everything... All hail McWonderful. To bad our dynamic midfield maistro Heskey got injured, but im sure McLeish will make it work by playing Robbie Keane as left back. good to see weve got optomistic supporters isn't it. i dont understand why people like you bother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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