Ratings and reactions: Spurs 2-0 Villa

[TRO]

The sad truth about last night's defeat is that is was all too reminiscent of those numerous occasions last season when Houllier sent out a team that looked beaten before the referee blew the first whistle. And like those worst days under Houllier, the players looked just as listless, disinterested and devoid of anything resembling belief.

Everyone always knew that McLeish would have his limitations, but many of us expected that at the very least any set of eleven players he sends out on a matchday would be well-organised and prepared to fight. The reality is that this doesn't happen and it now appears that we are left with the worst of both regimes - defensively poor, weak in possession, devoid of creativity, no leadership. On OR off the pitch.

The players clearly recognise this just as much as the fans do. And they know that when their manager sends them out with a right-back in one of the winger positions when he's struggling to find any degree of form in his natural role that they are playing for someone that has no confidence in their individual or collective ability to take on the opposition. Last night didn't feel all that removed from the white-flag waving attitude of last season's FA Cup exit to Man City or O'Neill's Europa League capitulation in Moscow back in 2009.

I feel like I've come full circle since the summer. I vehemently did not want Alex McLeish to be appointed and railed against the decision. I then accepted it and decided to give him a chance to prove the doubters wrong having been impressed by his generally honest, straight-talking approach. I tried to find positives in the early weeks of the season and encouraged others to see the benefit of an unbeaten start as being something to build upon. But with the high volume of underwhelming draws becoming increasingly frustrating, patience started to wear thin and ever since that woeful defeat to Bolton in the League Cup, the team shape, selection and performances have been almost uniformly dire. The inexcapable fact is that we play some of, if not the outright, worst football in the Premier League and when I think back on when I ultimately turned on McLeish, it will probably be the moment I saw Alan Hutton lining up on the right wing when orthodox wide players were available for selection. The fact that he still didn't even see fit to make any changes to a system that had led to us going two goals down at the break only serves to reinforce the impression that he has absolutely no idea of how to set up a team that needs to take a game to the opposition.

I feel like our curren eighth place standing in the League is due more to the ineptitude of the dozen teams below us than anything we have 'achieved' this season, and I can see nothing but apathy spreading among our supporters who simply expect underperformance for as long as McLeish is in charge.

good summing up

[TRO]

Apparantly Tottenham's starting 11 cost them about £54m in transfer fees.

I wouldn't be surprised if ours cost something similar.

Just goes to show which club has spent wisely and which club hasn't.

....and there lies the best part of the problem

[TRO]

when all said & done aston villa players 2011/2012 are just not good enough against 50% of the prem teams,aston villa have sold their best players year in & year out,mon tried to keep the best players & to be fair he did a bloody good job in doing it like harry has done, sorry but imho aston villa are & wont be for some years better off since mon left the building.

I mostly agree with your assessment about us not being as good as a lot of Premier League teams because of our best players constantly leaving, but I don't like it when people try and make out that it was MON alone who held everything together. Look at Barry. MON couldn't keep hold of him. Look at Milner, he wasn't able to keep hold of him either.

....The lack of ball control started with O'Neill ...He was a myth.

The tragedy is we have got gradually worse instead of addressing the shortfalls of the O'Neill era and reversing it.

That Creates the illusion of O'Neills tenure....Overall he has set this club back years in his poor signings one or two good granted ,but generally poor and wasteful.

We have had 2 managers since 12mths & 4 mths who have seemingly failed to make any kind of mark on changing things.

We still can't hold the ball .....pass in to space move off the ball or any of the things associated with quality on the ball.

[JakeyyB]

Thing that annoyed me most was that we LITERALLY had all 11 men inside the box from corners. The only way we can get possession there is Given claiming it, or a lucky bounce somehow leads to one of our players running out with it.

However, 9 times out of 10 they would win the header, or we would win a header which would set them up with another opportunity, it was literally absurd, not a single player out there to put pressure on or be an outlet.

[JakeyyB]

Whatever opinion you have on O'neil, he still managed to get results and shared a vision to get us to our old days, doesn't seem to be that way with any of these managers.

"It's absolutely fantastic to be back and with a club such as this. This is a fantastic challenge. I am well aware of the history of this football club. Trying to restore it to its days of former glory seems a long way away – but why not try? It is nearly 25 years since they won the European Cup but that is the dream."

Aston Villa just missed out on a UEFA Cup spot on the final day of the 2007–08 season and qualified for the Intertoto Cup by finishing 6th. They scored 71 goals, (their best ever tally in the Premier League and best tally since winning the title in 1981), gained 60 points which was Villa's highest points tally since the 1996–97 season, and were the third highest goalscorers.[13] After 25 games of the 2008–09 season the club were third in the table on 51 points, 2 points above Chelsea on level games and 7 points above Arsenal in 5th place and on course for a place in the Champions League for the first time since 1983

[sir_gary_cahill]

Did we pay £8m for Cuellar ?

astonishing isn't it?

[flamingsombrero]

All this dreaming about what might have been had we held on to such and such a player, the Spurs fans were right, we really have become West Ham in disguise.

[Mantis]

Whatever opinion you have on O'neil, he still managed to get results and shared a vision to get us to our old days, doesn't seem to be that way with any of these managers.

"It's absolutely fantastic to be back and with a club such as this. This is a fantastic challenge. I am well aware of the history of this football club. Trying to restore it to its days of former glory seems a long way away – but why not try? It is nearly 25 years since they won the European Cup but that is the dream."

Aston Villa just missed out on a UEFA Cup spot on the final day of the 2007–08 season and qualified for the Intertoto Cup by finishing 6th. They scored 71 goals, (their best ever tally in the Premier League and best tally since winning the title in 1981), gained 60 points which was Villa's highest points tally since the 1996–97 season, and were the third highest goalscorers.[13] After 25 games of the 2008–09 season the club were third in the table on 51 points, 2 points above Chelsea on level games and 7 points above Arsenal in 5th place and on course for a place in the Champions League for the first time since 1983

What's your point?

I find it funny how you're quoting an article talking about how we were 3rd after 25 games in 2008/09, but you conveniently miss out that dramatic nosedive after that, where we ended up 6th. If anything that little stat just goes to prove that actually O'Neill isn't as great as people think he is.

[VillaAndLoyal]

It is a miracle how we kept the score at 2-0

But best of all, a Villa fan in a wheelchair made what seemed to be a decent attempt to get at McLeish. He just casually rolled out of the lower tier by the corner flag and got halfway to the dugout before the stewards realised what was going on and trundled him back. That was pretty much the most passionate act by anyone in claret and blue all night.

I'm so glad somebody mentioned this. It was the single funniest moment I have ever witnessed at a football game, and certainly brought a smile to my face after watching that dross on the pitch.

The man, who was stationed right in front of me throughout the game, wheeled his way towards the exit and when the mob (an accurate description) of stewards had turned away he just sped up the touchline like a 100m racer in the London 2012 Paralympics. It was a magical moment, and the fastest movement down the line from a member of the Villa contingent all night *cough* Heskey *cough*...

The head steward raced after him like a scene from Little Britain and after a bit of resistance, the Villa fan was spun back round half-way to the dugouts and wheeled back towards our end where he received nothing less than a hero’s welcome.

We laughed out of shock and pure comedy value but also because we completely shared his utter frustration.

Why is this one incident so significant? Because, in the space of 60 (amusing) seconds, that loyal Villa fan showed more passion for this club than any of the so-called players or management staff did for the entire night.

Why would I talk about that dross on the pitch when I can talk about this guy?

He may have had a moment of madness, which was harmless in reality, but who can blame him after being treated to such a shambolic display all night. The over-zealous stewards, who were horrific again, last night - to the point of watching people have a jimmy riddle in the toilets, gathered round the bloke. The head steward, probably furious at being made to look like a fool as he chased after him, proceeded to take out a notepad (a lot like a traffic warden would do) take the man's ticket off him and jot down his details. Will this Claret & Blue brother be banned from certain/all games now? One would guess, if those stewards had their way, that the answer would be yes. The more petty of you might say 'good, he deserved it' but I highly doubt you'd be saying that if you saw what I saw, and what 1,200-odd others saw at the end of a thoroughly depressing evening. It was a moment of enthusiasm in a sea of mediocrity.

If the 11 Villa players on that pitch had half the passion (and speed) this man had, we might have picked up something from the game, or even resembled something that looked like a Premier League football team.

Well done sir, I salute you.

[Borgs]

Just some housekeeping....

Is Herd trying to model himself on Barton

What's the Hitler tash all about ??

This.

**** me it's nearly the end of Nov, is that all he could grow ??

And its not just Australia either. Jenas has grown one as as Collins. Not easy to see Collins's of course being a ginger. A bit like his contribution as a defender.

Some of us have the dual fortune of both not having red hair and nothing to shave even every fourth or fifth day. I was introduced to someone growing an absolutely cracking labial thatch at a wedding a few weeks ago - certainly thicker than any I could possibly produce. Good manners, not to mention significant internal conjecture about its intent, prevented me from commending her on a charitable effort.

[Morpheus]

AM chose and set up the team to strangle the life out of Spuds. If he had instead played our more creative players such as N'Zogbia, Albrighton, Ireland and Delph in midfield do you not think we would have lost by quite a bit more than we did?

Yes the performance was as bad as i have ever seen a Villa side play but maybe AM new that it was always going to be a damage limatation game and chose that side to do exactly that.

I guess i'm just trying very hard to explain such an abject performance but it will be interesting to see what team AM puts out over our next five or six fixtures?

By the way did not vote for man of the match as they all were shite!