The, he's finally GONE! Tell us your thoughts Thread

[romavillan]

Ok so he was shouting for the players get forward. Tell me this. If he can't get the players to get forward and play attacking football even now with so few games to go, how is he ever gonna change his tactics. They are either playing how they want or there's some serious issues in that they don't agree with his tactical nous!

yeah i saw that a few times in teh second half, it was obvious they were too deep. he was saying the right things, that they shoudl push up and be more "compact" (if i lip read well enough). we brought the equaliser on ourselves in teh end by not doing what mcleish was asking.

i thought he made positive substitutions with what he available on the bench. maybe caruthers came on a bit late for me. i think the players were desperate not to lose this and as such got sucked deeper and deeper as liverpool kept comign forward.

we played ok today, but needed some more self belief in the second half from the players so we could have taken the sting out of the game a bit and knocked it around. it kept coming back to easily and we got battered.

we can take some positives from it though, more game time for the kids in a very difficult place to go and get a point. the stoke and bolton games are key now. 6 points from those two and we're out of the woods for sure.

[Tomsub]

I blame him for the injuries. You cannot play his highly defensive tactics all season, without sustaining injury. The team is so much under pressure for 90% of the game that its inevitable your gonna lose out to a skillful or even clumsy challenge exactly how Bent got injured, trying to track back, which isn't really his game.

Oh for god's sake - do you also blame him for the credit crunch?

[Tomsub]

To be fair, I am gonna be truthful now! If we do sack McLeish we are gonna need a big manager to come in and sort the squad out. Ok don't laugh, how stupid it may have seemed at the time, Ancelotti would have got this team a winning mentality and kicked the moaners in to touch. One thing McLeish has failed at. Anyone saying the squad is not good enough please believe with a big manager even Benitez, we would be much more motivated and disiplined.

R u joking Benitez! Ancelotti yes but Benitez got lucky with the European Cup but other than that was responsible for the demise of LFC. He got found out and then screwed up in Italy.

[Tomsub]

Yes but he inherited a very poor squad. He really hasn't been allowed to turn that around with the type of finance that O'Neill was given and thats what it would take to replace the absolute dross at the club. He has also had to contend with a serious of injuries to key players and then to rely on our youth, who with the exception of Gardner, who i rate very highly, are simply not good enough. So he has been a victim of circumstances at our club.

However if he had been given a decent budget to bring in more players in January and we were still in our current position then i would be more inclined to agree with you.

Good God I wish I'd written this it sums up the situation and my feelings exactly - some common sense at last.

[Guest av1]

Given injurys etc, well done today Alex. a good point well deserved.

Would still hope you are not the manager of AVFC come May.

[matrim]

Given injurys etc, well done today Alex. a good point well deserved.

Would still hope you are not the manager of AVFC come May.

It wasn't a point well deserved. It was a very lucky point and if we had been playing an inform Liverpool we would have lost this by at least 3

[kurtsimonw]

To be fair, I am gonna be truthful now! If we do sack McLeish we are gonna need a big manager to come in and sort the squad out. Ok don't laugh, how stupid it may have seemed at the time, Ancelotti would have got this team a winning mentality and kicked the moaners in to touch. One thing McLeish has failed at. Anyone saying the squad is not good enough please believe with a big manager even Benitez, we would be much more motivated and disiplined.

The second Ancelotti didn't have a World class team in Milan he went crazy defensive every game. He finished 5th in Serie A with these tactics, not good enough for Milan, not even close. He was fortunate to have the best player on the planet at the time or it would've been much worse.

[Big_John_10]

Yes but he inherited a very poor squad. He really hasn't been allowed to turn that around with the type of finance that O'Neill was given and thats what it would take to replace the absolute dross at the club. He has also had to contend with a serious of injuries to key players and then to rely on our youth, who with the exception of Gardner, who i rate very highly, are simply not good enough. So he has been a victim of circumstances at our club.

However if he had been given a decent budget to bring in more players in January and we were still in our current position then i would be more inclined to agree with you.

Good God I wish I'd written this it sums up the situation and my feelings exactly - some common sense at last.

I think he inherited an average squad, i don't think it was very poor and he was given money to spend in the summer.

We have had injuries, can you really blame our abysmal season on injuries?

Our performances have been shocking and we've come incredibly close on two occassions to setting terrible club records.

To claim its common sense to suggest mcleish is a victim of circumstance is ridiculous. What circumstance caused him to pick that team at White hart lane? What circumstance made darren bent touch the ball less than any other player in the league?

It blows my mind that there fans out there that think his management this season is acceptable.

I just hope most villa fans keep their expectations high for the future.

[VillaRoy]

Credit where it is due today Eck, got the tactics right with such a threadbare squad. Lets the end the season on a high now, I'd love to finish above the Stokies.

[Tomsub]

Given injurys etc, well done today Alex. a good point well deserved.

Would still hope you are not the manager of AVFC come May.

It wasn't a point well deserved. It was a very lucky point and if we had been playing an inform Liverpool we would have lost this by at least 3

But we weren't, and we didn't! Why all this negativity? I think this is what has cost us 6-9 points at VP this season - people who go down wanting us to lose and say "I told you so".

I wonder if this poster was saying we came up against an inform Man City, Man U and Arsenal? I suspect not.

[matrim]

Given injurys etc, well done today Alex. a good point well deserved.

Would still hope you are not the manager of AVFC come May.

It wasn't a point well deserved. It was a very lucky point and if we had been playing an inform Liverpool we would have lost this by at least 3

But we weren't, and we didn't! Why all this negativity? I think this is what has cost us 6-9 points at VP this season - people who go down wanting us to lose and say "I told you so".

I wonder if this poster was saying we came up against an inform Man City, Man U and Arsenal? I suspect not.

The negativity is because we were very lucky to even draw this game. Liverpool hit the post, could have have 3 penos and completely outplayed us.

We offered nothing in the last 60 minutes of the game and didn't even pretend to play football. We just put 11 men behind the ball and hoped to get someone in front cross/pass/shot

[Houlston]

The negativity is because we were very lucky to even draw this game. Liverpool hit the post, could have have 3 penos and completely outplayed us.

We offered nothing in the last 60 minutes of the game and didn't even pretend to play football. We just put 11 men behind the ball and hoped to get someone in front cross/pass/shot

Funny how people see things, you think we were lucky to draw, Gregory thinks we were unlucky not to win.

Course we got a point, with a very thread-bare team against however a poor Liverpool side its still only one that has only lost at home twice and a place we rarely get anything from.

Yeah we could have gone on and attacked more but then who knows we might be sitting on the end of a thrashing had that happened.

We got a good point, why moan? We all know McLeish isnt good enough for Villa but that still doesnt mean everything that happens is either lucky or something to not be happy about.

Also not sure what pens you are on about, they didnt deserve one, if anything we could have had one.

[villa4europe]

Given injurys etc, well done today Alex. a good point well deserved.

Would still hope you are not the manager of AVFC come May.

It wasn't a point well deserved. It was a very lucky point and if we had been playing an inform Liverpool we would have lost this by at least 3

But we weren't, and we didn't! Why all this negativity? I think this is what has cost us 6-9 points at VP this season - people who go down wanting us to lose and say "I told you so".

I wonder if this poster was saying we came up against an inform Man City, Man U and Arsenal? I suspect not.

not really, liverpool missed at least 1 sitter today and given made 2 brilliant saves, to say we deserved a point would be a stretch, to say we were lucky isnt IMO

it is negativity at VP thats costing us points but its not coming from the fans...

[smetrov]

If Mcleish only ever gets one more thing right in his managerial career -please let it be that he left anfield today thinking "that Andy Carolls *****n shit"

I have nightmares about us buying him

[TrentVilla]

I think this is what has cost us 6-9 points at VP this season - people who go down wanting us to lose and say "I told you so".

Which 6-9 points were they then?

[Keyblade]

Forget Ancelotti and Benitez, our club at this point in time would have been the perfect job for MON ironically (not too dissimilar to the situation at Sunderland before he took over). Able to motivate a group of players and get them to overachieve. Also without the funds for him to make his wasteful signings. We'd probably be up there challenging for 7th or 8th with the squad we have.

[deeps]

Today was a big point. However, he's still not the man I want her next season. If he is it will be déjà vu all over again.

[Tomsub]

The negativity is because we were very lucky to even draw this game. Liverpool hit the post, could have have 3 penos and completely outplayed us.

We offered nothing in the last 60 minutes of the game and didn't even pretend to play football. We just put 11 men behind the ball and hoped to get someone in front cross/pass/shot

Funny how people see things, you think we were lucky to draw, Gregory thinks we were unlucky not to win.

Course we got a point, with a very thread-bare team against however a poor Liverpool side its still only one that has only lost at home twice and a place we rarely get anything from.

Yeah we could have gone on and attacked more but then who knows we might be sitting on the end of a thrashing had that happened.

We got a good point, why moan? We all know McLeish isnt good enough for Villa but that still doesnt mean everything that happens is either lucky or something to not be happy about.

Also not sure what pens you are on about, they didnt deserve one, if anything we could have had one.

Nice one mate - common sense reins.

[Morpheus]

The money has had to spend compared to O'Neill is totally and utterly irrelevant nobody is placing the same kind of expectations upon him as they did O'Neill because everyone can see he hasn't the same resources.

You can talk about injuries to key players all you want but they have been recent things, we have been shite all season. We couldn't win games under him at the start of the season when he had a full squad to pick from, if we had done we wouldn't still be worrying about relegation in April.

He hasn't been the victim of circumstance that is utter utter rubbish and all you are doing is making excuses for a man who simply isn't very good at winning football matches largely because of his rubbish negative approach to the game.

As for a decent budget to spend he spent more than most in the summer and what he spent he wasted, I wouldn't want to see him spend another penny of the clubs money.

Not making excuses for him at all. I actually wanted either Jol or Hughes as our manager but i'm just trying to be fair.

I believe the topic of our debate has been whether he has been 'a victim of circumstance.

You state quite correctly that even with our better players available our results weren't good.

However, when he became our manager he immediately lost the services of Young and Downing who were the supply to his main striker. So before he had got his knees under the manager's table he had inherited a squad which had lost 36m worth of talent and wasn't going to be given the money to replace them. Of course our performances were going to suffer without that talent. We also lost our main keeper on a free so part of his transfer budget had to be immediately spent on Given who hasn't exactly been a waste of money.

Victim of circumstance? I certainly think so.

He farmed out Makoun rightly judging in my opinion that he wasn't best suited to the Premiership and brought Jenas in on loan who in turn picked up a bad injury.

Victim of circumstance? I certainly think so.

As far as his other signings are concerned i think N'Zogbia was showing signs of coming good before being injured and Keane was a roaring success during his short loan period with us.

I would agree however that Hutton should not have been brought to the club, but even his performances are starting to improve.

Like you i have also criticized his negative tactics but with Petrov as our Captain and no combative midfielder with the Jenas injury equating to a weak midfield, i believe he has set us up to try and protect what is a aging and cumbersome defence. I haven't always agreed with his tactics or choice of player but i can see what he's trying to achieve.

Its looking like he will be with us for another season at least and with the liverpool result, hopefully in the Premiership, so its a major re-building job in the summer if he is given the correct funds to do it.

[terrythevillan]

Taking the lead against a team with no confidence and handing them the initiative for the entire remainder of the game is not acceptable. I've seen this too many times and this is irrespective of the players we have on the pitch. We did exactly the same thing against Blackburn away this season without all the injury problems we have now.

Managers have football philosophies which they stick to. Would Wenger or Rodgers play that defensively if they had so many injuries? I doubt it. Holloway brought a reserve Blackpool side (out of choice) last season and still played the exciting, attacking football they played all season, deserving more than the defeat that they got.

I've had enough, I HATE watching us and I now HATE Mcleish. I notice him shouting on the sidelines to keep the ball etc, but have zero confidence he knows how to achieve that style of football as I've never seen it from one of his teams. I don't buy this "we did well because we played Liverpool". If Swansea had that attitude they would be down already and wouldn't have outplayed and beaten the likes of Arsenal and Man City.

MCLEISH OOOOOUUUUUUTTTTT!!!!!