ozvillafan Posted December 5, 2011 VT Supporter Share Posted December 5, 2011 The problem goes a lot deeper than AMc. The club is in turmoil, and this turmoil radiates down from the board room. Lack of funds, lack of ambition that's all on Lerner's shoulders, IMO AMc is a scapegoat, not that I'm thrilled that he's here. I just don't buy this. McLeish is hired to do a job. He knew exactly what he was getting into. Despite the quality (or lack of) in the squad he is getting absolutely nothing out of them with poor tactics, poor selections (Hutton and Heskey in midfield?) and an overall lack of confidence. How is that a being a scapegoat? That Randy made a mistake in hiring McLeish there can be little doubt but that is where his input ends. I see no turmoil on the board. I see no change in our ambition - it has always matched our ability to fund players and we can't get close the levels of the clubs above us. In order to compete, we need to do it through better football - not just better players. We have the foundations for it with a good youth set up and fantastic training grounds. We just need a good football brain to get them all playing a good style of football.... ... and that brain DOES NOT have to come from the Premier League. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VamosMiAstonVilla Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 The only problem I have with the owners is their appointment of Mcleish everyone else they have done for me has been spot on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Some people think that we haven't given Mc much time because of his blues background. I don't believe this...it never bothered me when he signed where he came from, it was just his style that I was worried about. I hoped when he had better players at his disposal he would play better football, make the team more solid and progress us. Unfortunately this hasn't happened. The man is turning us into a laughing stock. I have never seen such negative football. I know that under MON (and before anyone comments no I wasn't one that thought he walked on water), football wasn't always the best and we hit teams on the counter attack, but at least we had a gameplan. I just don't see that we a plan at the moment apaty from sit back and nullify the opposition, unfortunately we don't have defensive players so we can't even do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Si. Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 OUT OUT OUT before its too late! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villabromsgrove Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 I have a few friends who are Blues fans and the consensus of opinion is that although they obviously didn't want to be relegated, it resulted in AM leaving. At least they are now able to enjoy watching their football again under the management of Chris Houghton. The problem with Villa's current woeful football is nothing to do with the squad of players imo. The problem is .... Alex McLeish and Peter Grant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 I have a few friends who are Blues fans and the consensus of opinion is that although they obviously didn't want to be relegated, it resulted in AM leaving. At least they are now able to enjoy watching their football again under the management of Chris Houghton. The problem with Villa's current woeful football is nothing to do with the squad of players imo. The problem is .... Alex McLeish and Peter Grant. Spot on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fripono Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Let's face it, we won't see the best of McLeish until next season, by when he will have been able to assemble his own team, players willing to take responsibility on and off the ball. With the present team we'll do no better than last season. Things are also about to get tougher as stressed players succumb to a run of injuries. Nonetheless, even though McLeish was only my second choice as manager (after Lambert), I think this time next year he will have confounded the doom mongers by building his team around Bannan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NowDoINotLikeThat Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Let's face it, we won't see the best of McLeish until next season, by when he will have been able to assemble his own team, players willing to take responsibility on and off the ball. With the present team we'll do no better than last season. Things are also about to get tougher as stressed players succumb to a run of injuries. Nonetheless, even though McLeish was only my second choice as manager (after Lambert), I think this time next year he will have confounded the doom mongers by building his team around Bannan. Hang on.... McLeish was your second CHOICE of manager? Seriously? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 What exactly is "the best of McLeish" anyway? If you'll look at SHA he assembled a pretty shit squad there and they also happened to play some of the worst football in the league. Now we're playing that football, which is pretty **** depressing really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NowDoINotLikeThat Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 What exactly is "the best of McLeish" anyway? If you'll look at SHA he assembled a pretty shit squad there and they also happened to play some of the worst football in the league. Now we're playing that football, which is pretty **** depressing really. Agree - Birmingham last season played some of the worse and most negative football in Premiership history and we now play like them. They did actually have some good players like Hleb , Larrson , Bentley he often didn't use them or didn't know how to utilise them. Birmingham's squad compared to some other sides last season wasn't actually that bad . A decent manager would have kept them up. McLeish's management relegated them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 To be fair though their squad was still filled mostly with cloggers. But yeah, the worst part about them was the anti-football. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NowDoINotLikeThat Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 To be fair though their squad was still filled mostly with cloggers. But yeah, the worst part about them was the anti-football. It was the anti-football that relegated them. He didn't have a clue how to try and win a game. They only lost ONE more game than we did last season. Wolves lost FIVE more than than they did but knew how to win a game. He didn't. Lot of Bluenoses were very happy we took McLeish off them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villabromsgrove Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Even if Alex McLeish realised that "anti football" may take us down, he would never convince Peter Grant that we had to change. PG is far more influential than an assistant should be imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamingsombrero Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Just seen the post match interviews from the Man U game. I didn't think there was any more shit to heap on the pile but after watching that he is even coming close to overtaking that Simon thing that rings up WM as the biggest embarrassment associated with Villa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briny_ear Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 The only problem I have with the owners is their appointment of Mcleish everyone else they have done for me has been spot on.Sacking O'Neill with 5 days to go to the new season, and having absolutely no plans in place to replace him, wasn't too clever either; appointing Houllier was pretty gash too. Exactly which bits have been spot on for you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gilbertoAVFC Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Sacking O'Neill with 5 days to go to the new season Really? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yakubu Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 when mcleish first came i was as dismayed as most people but i was prepared to give him a chance, after all there's not much i could do about it and having not been impressed by houllier and not particularly excited about martinez, mclaren or hughes i scrambed desperately to find some positives to take out of the appointment (other than "he's not houllier" i'm struggling to remember what those positives were) i think there are some mitigating circumstances you could reasonably mention in defense of mcleish, losing some of our better players, the obvious need to clear out some substandard players and lighten the wage bill and the usual quirks of a team that most managers probably encounter when they take over at a club that's under-achieving etc. and i'm trying to be reasonable about it, i always like to see a manager given a bit of time to settle in and a bit of money to mould his own team and i think it's probably fair to say that we've had a fair bit of turmoil at the club since mon cleared off which i expect would be a challenging situation for any new manager to deal with i know a lot of villa fans have been firmly in the "no" camp since he arrived and that's fair enough, i suppose the main thing that kept me "unsure" was a vainly optimistic desire to see him succeed against the odds or at least get us showing some spirit, and i should know better but i still have a thin sliver of belief which says that maybe he can turn it around, perhaps he can clear out some of the rubbish in january and make a couple of canny signings which will steer us clear of relegation and give him something to build on next season however since the spurs game i've been in the "no" camp and i will be staying there until there's a clear improvement in the football we're playing because right now it's a complete shambles. i realise that we have quite a few average journeymen in our squad and the likes of heskey and beye, but i also think that we have enough talent in there to at least make an attempt at winning games of football and i think mcleish has had enough time now to put out a team that looks like they're capable of putting up a fight and he has failed to do so Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krenborg Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Aston Villa must make better use of Darren Bent, says Alex McLeish • England striker has fewest touches in Premier League • Manager adamant he will not be forced out by fans reddit this Rob Bagchi and Ewan Murray guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 6 December 2011 00.00 GMT Article history Aston Villa's Darren Bent has touched the ball on average on the fewest occasions per game than any other outfield Premier League player. Photograph: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images Aston Villa's manager, Alex McLeish, has pinpointed the need to supply the England striker Darren Bent with better service if the club are to turn around their disappointing run this season. Villa's 1-0 home defeat by Manchester United on Saturday has left the club with a record of P14 W3 D7 L4 this season –matching precisely that of Birmingham City last season, the team McLeish managed before switching to Villa after Blues were relegated. McLeish said "I'm not a quitter" after Villa's latest setback when his side were booed off at Villa Park on Saturday and insisted he is focused on providing better service to Bent. The England forward has touched the ball on average only 24.6 times per game this season, a figure that makes him comfortably the Premier League player with the fewest touches this season. Worryingly for McLeish, Bent's strike partner Gabriel Agbonlahor is also in the bottom 10 for fewest touches this season with an average of 39 per game but it is making more use of Bent that is at the forefront of the manager's plans. "He does make great movement, it's just a pity that sometimes we don't have quite the quality to see the runs and his movement," said McLeish. "It's not easy, I'm just juggling the balls and asking for players to give me outstanding performances to stay in this team. We're looking for horses for courses every week now rather than saying: ' I can't leave him out.' "There's seven out of 10 but we're looking for nines, eights or nines, and any of the midfielders that are ready to do that will be in this team. We created 10 chances in the Norwich game and he [bent] got a couple of goals and could have had another couple so we are capable of doing it depending on our personnel. "I've watched a couple of games from last season and Bent only had one chance in the Man City game, his debut, and scored so he was starved of service that night as well but the guy only needs one chance and he could have been rolled in by Emile [Heskey] and it may have been different. "We've got to plug away. [Gabriel] Agbonlahor in the game last week had more efforts on goal than Bent but sometimes it will happen that way, we can't just rely on Bent to score us the goals. Gabby has been fantastic this season and we look for the kid to retain his consistency and to be an even bigger threat than he has been and obviously [Charles] N'Zogbia, guys like Mark Albrighton, who I thought did really well in the second half, to come to the fore also." McLeish accepts Villa's form has not been good enough – the team were not only canned off at full-time on Saturday but left the field at half-time to a chorus of boos – but he is adamant that he will not be forced out by fan power. "I'm not going to criticise the fans," he said. "You know how difficult it was for me coming here in the first place and I've just got to persevere. As I've told you guys, I'm not a quitter and I'll go as far as I can to get this club turned around. But you know where you have to improve the quality, we have to make sure we defend with concentration and we've got to be a threat in the last third." Of the team's performance against the champions, he said: "We didn't pass it well, gave the ball away willy-nilly. I don't think we really believed in ourselves. Fans did not like it. I wasn't particularly keen on it either. I was in unison with the fans on that one and the second half was better and they went right to the very end which I would have demanded of every team I've coached or managed. We got that." McLeish admitted he might need to ask the chairman, Randy Lerner, to make funds available to bolster his squad in January. "Yes, that will be a fact. But, as I said, we've still got to try and trade carefully. But if we need emergencies, we have to seriously consider that as a club." McLeish has one prominent supporter in the Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, who gave him some advice after Saturday's match. "He just said: 'You've got to keep going,'" said McLeish. "He said a few other things which will remain private but he said they were sweating a bit at the death after our second half." Meanwhile, Aston Villa say Charles N'Zogbia is in contention to play against Bolton on Saturday, after the Frenchman was omitted from Alex McLeish's squad for the weekend defeat by Manchester United on disciplinary grounds. N'Zogbia was punished – also reportedly by way of a fine – after failing to report for treatment on an injury last week. Villa confirmed that he returned to training on Monday, and may now feature at Bolton. McLeish has now sought to draw a line under the affair. Villa's manager said: "Charles has to take it on the chin and show us the great player he can be. The players know we have got club rules and we will adhere to them. "There are no grudges. I just want to see the boy go to another level. I think he can improve on what he has done before. We are looking to guys like Charles to come to the fore. Charles has got to be receptive and realise I want to help him and every single player at this club." N'Zogbia has also shown remorse. He said: "My mind is focused on preparing for the game on Saturday at Bolton and I will train hard, as normal. "I have spoken to the manager, he has dealt with it and we have no problem. We are in this together, so we just move on. I will work hard to get back in the team. I want to show the fans of Aston Villa what I can do for them and for the team and that will be my objective on Saturday." N'Zogbia, who arrived in the Midlands from Wigan Athletic in the summer, was infamously branded "Charles Insomnia" by then-Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear during an earlier spell at St James's Park. Guardian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macandally Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 McLeish, you are not one of us and never will be. So the issue is not your management style and tactics, it is the lack of quality in the squad? Really. Full of shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG_Villa_Fan Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Sacking O'Neill with 5 days to go to the new season Really? Yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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