Houllier's presence

[eastie]

Having seen houlliers record as a manager compared to o neill I would say without doubt he is a better manager , whether he will do better here than o neill it is too early to say but the vibes are good and I look forward to the next 3 yrs very much!

[Monty]

Don't know how else to put it, but it all feels just a bit more grown-up. We're not just going into things with a bit of hope, more with plans, ideas, long-term aims and so on. With MON it all seemed a little wing-and-a-prayer, but with GH it has more of a mature, planned feeling.

[Villa'Zawg]

I don't get it. We got a draw at Spurs and beat chelsea at home last season. I guess I'm just not cultured enough to understand this better football craic.

[Lizz]

Discussing Houillier now on Radio 5. Mark Bright's echoing some comments on here - unimpressed at first, but doing better than expected so far.

[dave.woodhall]

I don't get it. We got a draw at Spurs and beat chelsea at home last season. I guess I'm just not cultured enough to understand this better football craic.

It's always a shame when one half of a relationship can't accept that the other half has walked out and doesn't love them anymore.

[TimTheVillain]

Nice to see GH wearing a Villa scarf, no number 31's here !

[mattjpa]

I don't get it. We got a draw at Spurs and beat chelsea at home last season. I guess I'm just not cultured enough to understand this better football cr aic.

Just a side and im not claiming to be more cultured that thou but i know that last season we beat chelsea with set piece goals and didnt create much more. yesterday we had 4 clear cut chances and generally looked very good. he's not had long to work with them much and oneill was in his 3rd season with not much of a marked improvement in play over that time

[pauliewalnuts]

I don't get it. We got a draw at Spurs and beat chelsea at home last season. I guess I'm just not cultured enough to understand this better football cr aic.

Just a side and im not claiming to be more cultured that thou but i know that last season we beat chelsea with set piece goals and didnt create much more. yesterday we had 4 clear cut chances and generally looked very good. he's not had long to work with them much and oneill was in his 3rd season with not much of a marked improvement in play over that time

Indeed.

What Martin did was his thing, and we did ok with it.

I think the question is why - given the stats VD posted the other day, re number of points won, final finish etc etc etc - are so many fans now either unbothered at best, or positively happy at worst, to see him gone?

It's also somewat unfair to compare the results in fixtures this season - when the current manager has been parachuted into the job after the start of the season, and only been here a few weeks - against last season, when the manager had been here knocking on four years and put his stamp all over the club.,

[eastie]

 I think the reasons many are happy to see mon go have been stated many times  paulie, also seems quite a few players are happy he's gone as they are now getting a fair chance- houllier is like a breath of fresh air , and yes mon did do an ok job for us , no more and no less - he certainly wasn't great for us .

[garyfouroaks]

I was Houllier Neutral, but have been impressed.

On balance MON's regime may have run its course, but matching his league record will be bery difficult, so standing still will be a huge achievement. I will be very interested to see what he does in the window. Ironically being forced to make do has been a blessing. he is a coach - "well go ahead, coach! Show us what you can do." And he has done pretty well

[Shrek]

I think  at time goes on, all the Oneil lovers will realise his frailties and wonder 'what if' Randy had of acted himself a season earlier.

We have missed some really good opportunities over the last few years, but I honestly think the future is brighter under Houllier!

[Chris Smith]

The signs are good so far but it is far too early to draw any firm conclusions.

[PaulWinch again]

Houllier's style will enable us to compete on a more consistent and more prelonged period during the season. As we will have more possesion we won't be as tired in the second half of the season. I think we have already seen we will be greatly improved in time.

[avfcpg]

We've looked very good so far but its far too soon to say he's better or worse than MON. The crowd reaction to him seems a bit odd at the moment, a kind of respectful acknowledgment of him rather than thinking 'he's one of us' like was the case from the off with MON and then for most of his tenure.

Don't know about better or worse but certainly different. I like MON and thought he did a great job of establishing us in the top 6 plus a final and semi final chucked in. But he had taken us as far as he could imo. To have a crack at the top 4, we need to be astute in the transfer market, better tactically and keep possession of the ball lot a lot more. Am hoping GH will give us this.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

The difference for me is we finally have coaches that know what they're doing. It's well documented on here I was no fan of Robertson and Walford, they appeared to be from another time but fortunately we have two ex-players in Gary Mac and Sid that really understand the basics of modern football. Houllier seems to be enjoying the job, which is no surprise as let's face it, any manager with half a brain could see what was wrong with us and what needed fixing.

MON never saw it and even if he had, he'd not the staff around him to change it.