PussEKatt Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 The spirit looked absolutely bang on last weekend The best of seen it for years You dont see team spirit on the pitch,thats in the dressing room and on the training ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 I agree snowychap. We should be saying it as it is. I see it that the first half of the Fulham game was completely controlled by us. They came back for a small period of time in the second half, but we wree still largely in charge of the game. It was just the fact that the players couldn't get the ball in the back of the net. McLeish deserves credit for the team, formation and tactics used. Against Blackburn, again, the first half we were, mostly, in complete control. N'Zogbia got his goal, but we should have scored one, if not two, more. Again, I would say McLeish deserves credit for that good first half performance - he was just let down by finishing (or excellent goalkeeping by Robinson). One thing I would say that McLeish needs to work on, is motivating the team to play as well in the second half as we do in the first. Maybe a half time sub could inject some energy? I don't know, that's McLeish's job to work out. But I think the point I'm trying to make, is that recently we have appeared to turn things round. I know they were just 3 easy games against 2 relegation-threatened sides and a decent Fulham side. But you can only attack what's in front of you, with the resources & players' abilities available. In the last few weeks I have seen significant change in the way we play (before that, I saw attacking play, but only occasionally). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 The spirit looked absolutely bang on last weekend The best of seen it for years You dont see team spirit on the pitch,thats in the dressing room and on the training ground. How do you work that out? :? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 On the Dunne front, I think Cuellar is a much better defender and since he's now playing the defence is obviously going to improve. I really don't know why McLeish (until injuries kicked in) and Houllier both preferred the lumbering idiots Collins and Dunne over Cuellar. Cuellar is by far the best centre-back we have. Embarrassingly, he's probably our best left and right back as well. We had outpourings of love and adjelation last summer over Owen Coyle Jeez, we dodged a bullet there Now it's the turn of Rodgers who has had a fair first six months in top flight football That whole club is running in adrenalin at present, when that dries up, then we'll see how good Pep Rodgers isLol, how does ending up with McLeish count as dodging a bullet? Yeah alright we may have dodged a 9mm only to be hit with a .50 cal in the face instead. Lets just try and face the facts here....Mcleish is staying, end of. We may not like it but thats the cold hard truth. Hes already signing players in preparation for next season ffs. Im sure he has other targets lined up as well. Hes staying. No amount of kicking and screaming is gonna change that.Ok, we get it. However, just because McLeish isn't staying doesn't mean people can't criticise him or not rate him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Several players ran over to McLeish & Grant when Weimann scored That speaks volumes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djamfisher Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Several players ran over to McLeish & Grant when Weimann scored That speaks volumes The way many of the players have played this season on nuerous occasions also speaks volumes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu_The_Villan Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Ok, we get it. However, just because McLeish isn't staying doesn't mean people can't criticise him or not rate him I had noticed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Several players ran over to McLeish & Grant when Weimann scored That speaks volumes The way many of the players have played this season on nuerous occasions also speaks volumes.I was thinking the same thing. We played well on Saturday but for most of the season they certainly haven't looked like a team playing for the manager. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super-Villan Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 I agree that it is very likely that McLeish will be here beyond the end of this season, but it is by no means a cold hard fact. Many managers have signed players and then ended up going anyway. What are Lerner/Faulkner supposed to do if Randy comes to them with the chance of signing some guy from Holland on a Bosman? Say,No Alex, we're still trying to work out if you've got a job in the summer'. No, right now they have to back him. And they've probably reasoned that even if they do sack McLeish, and even if the new manager didn't want Holman, they could probably make a bit of money back on him anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 I agree that it is very likely that McLeish will be here beyond the end of this season, but it is by no means a cold hard fact. Many managers have signed players and then ended up going anyway. What are Lerner/Faulkner supposed to do if Randy comes to them with the chance of signing some guy from Holland on a Bosman? Say,No Alex, we're still trying to work out if you've got a job in the summer'. No, right now they have to back him. And they've probably reasoned that even if they do sack McLeish, and even if the new manager didn't want Holman, they could probably make a bit of money back on him anyway. Do you believe any of that? You need to accept that McLeish is staying, 100%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super-Villan Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Do you believe any of that? You need to accept that McLeish is staying, 100%. I believe it's possible. Like I say, my hunch would be that McLeish will stay. Nobody can say 100% that he will be staying at this stage. You can 100% believe he will stay, but it is no 100% nailed on to happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Nothing in football is certain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PussEKatt Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 The spirit looked absolutely bang on last weekend The best of seen it for years You dont see team spirit on the pitch,thats in the dressing room and on the training ground. How do you work that out? :? Team spirit is how the players feel not how they play. Put it this way, reading this forum you know how the supporters feel,so how do you think the players feel ? Thats team spirit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted March 14, 2012 Moderator Share Posted March 14, 2012 Nothing in football is certain. Other than Harry Redknapp talking about other clubs players you mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubbadog Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Do you believe any of that? You need to accept that McLeish is staying, 100%. I believe it's possible. Like I say, my hunch would be that McLeish will stay. Nobody can say 100% that he will be staying at this stage. You can 100% believe he will stay, but it is no 100% nailed on to happen. I can see that Randy et al have "absolute" faith on AMC - just as they had "absolute" faith in MON. At what point that faith is properly tested I do not know. I have a suspicion that a severe drop off in ST sales might have quite a bearing on the strength of said faith. The ludicrous decision to increase the price if you do not commit early enough could potentially backfire on the club. Yes, those with blind faith/extreme optomism will renew and fair play to them but I suspect an awful lot of ST holders will wait and see what happens during the summer before commiting/walking away. If we were to lose say 7000 ST holders, this would amount to a potential shortfall in club funds of about £3M - this would surely make RL wake up and smell the coffee? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 OK maybe I shouldn't have said 100%. He's staying, IMO, barring illness or aliens landing. A drop in sales will not entice Lerner to pay up the remainder of McLeish's contract. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dn1982 Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 A lot seems to be being made of a last minute win against Fulham, a win is a win but it shouldn't be blown out of preportion. Fulham's record at Villa Park is terrible yet it took 93 min to sneak the win. We looked in control for most of the game but didn't create much and this is the underlying problem. After 3/4 of the seaon gone we should be seeing a style of play with at least a plan for the future showing. Last year under Houllier you could see us trying to pass the ball more this year i don't see any improvement. Losing Bent has meant Gabby is upfront and he holds the ball up better. Dunne being injured meant Carlos has come in and we look more solid and the ball is staying on the floor a bit more. McLeish can't really take credit for those decisions as when he had the options he never did it. I think the team spirit we saw after the goal was that more of relief than anything else as after Bolton we hit a run that if we went into with no confidence we could easily lose them all. Hopefully we beat Bolton so i can relax we will still be in the Prem next year but if we don't get over 40 points McLeish should go as that is terrible for a club like us. I would love to be wrong but i haven't seen anything to make me think McLeish has it in him to get us where we want to go. UTV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted March 14, 2012 Moderator Share Posted March 14, 2012 We've been ticking over on low morale and not too many encouraging results. Sometimes it only takes one late win, or an inspired introduction into the team, to change a season's fortunes. If we can build on the Fulham win with another against Bolton, especially if Weimann starts and does well again, then who knows. It might be just what we've been waiting for. Eck's team selections are alright. If those players can just click then it might turn around. Note the word 'might'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Even things like yesterday's signing for next season will lift the whole place a little and create a buzz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 I'm sceptical that we will be able to build on this. Most wins this season have been followed up with absolute dross. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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