Players lack of fight

[BannedUserIAT]

BFR is a ridiculous suggestion, in my opinion. We've had our fill of managers who have gone years without Top Flight experience.

I do however agree that the time for a manager is over. We don't need someone to be forward planning for a season where we don't know which league we'll be in, we don't need a master tactician. We DO need someone who knows the players, who knows how to get the best out of them and who will have their respect. Laursen's a great call.

He'll have the lads playing where they should be playing, he'll have the defence sorted and back to doing what they were doing last season in the next fortnight, he'll get the dressing room abck and he'll unite the fans.

[eastie]

Laursen has no experience and is not in any way the man for the situation right now.

[brian green]

This point could not have been more starkly brought into focus than by that 85th minute "time-out" created by the linesman replacement.   McCarthy brought his players to the touchline and gave them words of encouragement and a drink.   The Villa players stood about aimlessly.  Friedel even sat down.   If ever there was the time for somebody to step up and rouse the players into one last big effort to save something from the game it was then.   What happened?   Nothing.

The moment for important action came and went and we did nothing.   Just like we did nothing when the writing was on the wall at Christmas that Houllier was not the man for the job.

The executives of the club who chose and appointed Houllier decided to gamble with our Premiership status by doing nothing.   They gambled and they have lost.

They have no real concept of the size of the gulf between the Premiership and the Championship nor of the damage done to a club fighting 50 games a season of hoofball to get back into the top flight.

This calamity which has been bubbling under for months will only get through to the Villa executives when next season's season ticket sales fall through the floor.   That is because they are running the club just like it was any other business.   They have no real grasp of what the support base thinks or what it wants, we are just postcodes to be sent junk mail.  Neither do they have any real grasp of the traditions, the pride or the history of the club.   That is just old blokes going on about Pongo Waring and dusty old photographs of  men with moustaches and lace up shirts.

Stand by for our views to be temporarily taken into account when the numbers start to filter through in the summer and get a great big bin bag ready for the junk mail charm offensive.

[ROBBO]

What really suprised me was how much AY takes on himself, penalties, free kicks, goes where he wants when he wants. I am not knocking his desire but to be honest he has been very poor of late and needs to play on the wing and stay there. He is not a captain in fact he would improve with a very good captain in the team. I cannot get away from the idea that all the blame is being aimed at one man in the dugout when there are eleven on the pitch doing sod all. I've had a rethink though, we need Dunne and Collins back playing even though i think they are both pricks, they are our best chance defensively of keeping a clean sheet.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

The lack of fight/bottle/steel, whatever you wish to call it, clearly transfered itself to the crowd too. There was clearly an air of resignation that we expected defeat as the game wore on. A distinctly different atmosphere from that present at our previous VP low point at the end of the Sunderland game.

No way am I blaming the crowd, the responsibility lies squarely on the shoulders of the players and management.
The older ones amongst us all know the fan/player dynamic is very different these days because of high wages and perceived lack of loyalty. But yesterday showed a even greater gap. We watched just hoping that somehow some of the present employees get the ball in the net and keep us up before the majority of them move on with their careers elesewhere. This is because of the way Houllier has antagonised so many of us, meaning that at this moment there is no sense of unity and purpose, no connection whatsoever between player and fan.

With just 8 games left to try and avoid the drop, this is a recipe for disaster.

[NeilH]

The lack of fight/bottle/steel, whatever you wish to call it, clearly transfered itself to the crowd too. There was clearly an air of resignation that we expected defeat as the game wore on. A distinctly different atmosphere from that present at our previous VP low point at the end of the Sunderland game.

No way am I blaming the crowd, the responsibility lies squarely on the shoulders of the players and management.
The older ones amongst us all know the fan/player dynamic is very different these days because of high wages and perceived lack of loyalty. But yesterday showed a even greater gap. We watched just hoping that somehow some of the present employees get the ball in the net and keep us up before the majority of them move on with their careers elesewhere. This is because of the way Houllier has antagonised so many of us, meaning that at this moment there is no sense of unity and purpose, no connection whatsoever between player and fan.

With just 8 games left to try and avoid the drop, this is a recipe for disaster.

Spot on, listening on the telly to the game it had all the air of a club imploding. Fans not prepared to cheer on the team a poisonous atmosphere from the offset and body language from the players that stank of a lack of spirit and fight. It was pretty depressing to see and thus the result was a foregone conclusion. For Houllier to then wibble on about the Bolton game before turning on the fans just made a bad situation worse.
It strikes me that from the board, through the management team to the players and fans, the fight to stay up is not there and that really is a perfect storm.
We are sleeping walking into financial meltdown and we're doing it with a whimper.

[darren woolley]

That's what we need to do start fighting together has a team instead of fighting each other we need the older players in the team to bring there experience to the team and put some fight into the other players.

[Holte L2]

The lack of fight stems from the Manager. I think it's apparant they don't believe in his tactics/methods of playing.

We have the players, the coaching is to blame

[pablopicasso_10]

the lack of fight comes from the manager admitting that its ok to not bother if you dont think you are good enough in the fa cup game...

he has set the tone, and the players are responding...

the manager, and the players are all a disgrace for it...

[Rip Van We Go Again]

BFR is a ridiculous suggestion, in my opinion. We've had our fill of managers who have gone years without Top Flight experience.

Not only that, when he was coaxed out of retirement to try and salvage Notts Forest's top flight status, he failed miserably.

[brontebilly]

Trevor Francis made a good point in commentary after the Bent penalty shout, not one Villa player appealed to the referee for the decision. It was like they didn't give a fuck.

There was also another bizarre episode. Wolves were breaking half heartedly in the second half but we were outnumbered. Pires the nearest midfielder though started arguing with the ref during play. Francis couldn't believe it.

The lack of professionalism throughout the side all season has been vomit inducing. Of course it spreads like wildfire and with a hapless egotistical clown in charge your left fighting relegation. A good manager nips that in the bud. We on the other hand routinely give away stupid freekicks in dangerous areas, players on the piss, don't return from holidays etc etc That clown is extremely well paid too to deliver results so
I sure as fuck don't feel sorry for him.

I actually wouldn't mind so much if we had a shit group of players. But with the players at his disposal we should be at a minimum top 8. That's what makes it so sick though. The side and management team are frankly rotten to the core. It's like we are freewheeling towards financial meltdown through indifference both from the chairman who doesn't want to admit he was badly wrong, from a manager who thinks he is too good for the players he manages and the club he employs while the players frankly shame the shirt on a weekly basis almost as if to get the manager out of the job.

[paulcomben]

Has anyone else posted this from today's Mail?

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew has promised an investigation after nightclub photos of three players - striker Leon Best on-loan midfielder Stephen Ireland and reserve team player Stephen Folan - were posted on the internet.

Villa still own Ireland, so how did we end up with so many overpaid wasters?

[TheSandman]

We now need someone with a big fucking mouth. A manager to tell it how it is and get the job done. What happens on the training ground now is largely moot. We simply need the right players in the right positions with the right attitude. And, for my money, someone who's already done it at this club and knows what it means.

Big Fat Ron.
Paul Merson.
Martin Laursen.
Ian Taylor.

Most of these ideas seem somewhat Newcastle-esque to me. I think by their own admission Big Ron and Sir Graham are yesterday's men and they much prefer the quiet life doing media work. Don't get me wrong I love both of them but as we have seen in the past getting in a guy who has been out of the hotseat for so long doesn't work. Look at SGT's second spell, Kinnear at Newcastle and Houllier here. The only real exception I can think of being Kenny Dalglish (anyone who disagrees with that should consider we were above Liverpool when he took charge and now they are outside bets for Europe). As for Taylor and Laursen they might work out, they might not. They could be tomorrow's men. The same goes a couple of years down the line for Mellberg.

I do agree with the essence of what you are saying. We need a big personality who can get them to believe and to re-organise the team. We need a man who can do that if we are to replace Houllier at this stage. I know others do not like him but I reckon Big Sam could do that. Wishful thinking points to Jol assisted by Chris Hughton (which got Spurs to the cusp of the top four) and even that might be too ambitious.

Of course they do have to motivate and re-energise some total shits amongst the team.

[Phil from the upper holte]

Laursen as manager? You can't be serious?

[Bad English]

GH is quoted as telling the players they now have 8 Champions League games, I am sure that has motivated them

I doubt an away trip to Žilina in February playing in -5°C without a snood would have me at my best.