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Author Topic: Season 1/5 over, positives so far  (Read 15071 times)

Offline nigel

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Re: Season 1/5 over, positives so far
« Reply #60 on: October 04, 2011, 12:26:19 PM »
Playing Devils Advocate here.
Say we'd played, Man U, Man C, Chelsea, Liverpool in our first 4 games and lost all 4, we'd have been adrift at the bottom of the league, supporters would be calling for AMcL's head and probably Randy's too, the atmosphere in the ground would be awful, confidence in the squad would be rock bottom and there would most likely be squabbling amongst the players.
Then along come the 7 "easy games" that we've just had.
Do you think we'd have gone on a 7 game unbeaten run?
I'd put my house on it that we wouldn't have. We'd have probably lost to Hereford too.
This so called "easy start" has enabled the squad and the manager to gel together and given the players some much needed confidence.
Let's not knock this start guys, I doubt if there are many of us who'd have predicted we'd be unbeaten after 7 games.

Offline QBVILLA

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Re: Season 1/5 over, positives so far
« Reply #61 on: October 04, 2011, 12:32:40 PM »
Nigel,out of interest which game did you predict we'd lose? Only the Everton fixture was of concern for me but even that game i thought we'd get something from.

Offline Dante Lavelli

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Re: Season 1/5 over, positives so far
« Reply #62 on: October 04, 2011, 12:43:20 PM »
Everton, Fulham and QPR, basically any away match can be lost by a team as good (or bad) as Villa.
I think AMc deserves some credit for getting us past these potential banana skins.

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: Season 1/5 over, positives so far
« Reply #63 on: October 04, 2011, 01:39:35 PM »
It's been a solid start, with some definite positives, eg the form of Gabby and Bannan, and the fact that we're a lot more defensively sound than we were last season.  We'be beaten two very poor teams, and been "patchy" against others, and hope we don't come too much of a cropper when the run gets a lot tougher in December.

Yep, my take on it.

I think this season there will be a lot of mundane and backs to the wall football punctured by individual moments of brilliance like we had from Gabby on saturday to win us some games.

Hopefully Ireland and especially N'zogbia will get in on the individual brilliant moments act later on in the season as both have the talent to be matchwinners for us.

Offline Vanilla

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Re: Season 1/5 over, positives so far
« Reply #64 on: October 04, 2011, 01:46:16 PM »
Fans' rating: 6 out of 10.

Owner's rating: 10 out of 10.

Randy?

Yep. The obvious target for the manager was for Villa not to get relegated. So, as we are not in the bottom three, target is being achieved.

Offline Merv

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Re: Season 1/5 over, positives so far
« Reply #65 on: October 04, 2011, 02:03:59 PM »
Positives: Gabby playing better than ever; Given's form; the defence looking settled again; unbeaten in the PL; three clean sheets in the league; McLeish BEGINNING to shuffle his team/formation around for specific games and opponents; players seem happy.


Offline nigel

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Re: Season 1/5 over, positives so far
« Reply #66 on: October 04, 2011, 04:54:49 PM »
Nigel,out of interest which game did you predict we'd lose? Only the Everton fixture was of concern for me but even that game i thought we'd get something from.
I didn't predict any defeat in our first 7 games that we've played so far.
What I was saying is:
HAD we play those "Big 4" as our first 4 games and lost them all (which would have been a posibility) would
we, given rock bottom confidence of the players and a restless crowd, have gone unbeaten had those 7 games happened after 4 defeats.
I'm saying that we shouldn't knock this unbeaten start as It's giving the players the confidence for when we do player these top clubs. 

Offline TheSandman

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Re: Season 1/5 over, positives so far
« Reply #67 on: October 04, 2011, 05:24:29 PM »
I'll go with 7/10.

The big bonuses for me is the renaissance we have seen in some players (Gabby, Dunne, Warnock, Collins, Petrov and perhaps Ireland) and the signing of a magnificent 'keeper in Given. Aside from that, McLeish has been fairly impressive as a man. He's spoken well in press conferences. and aside from an initial obsession with Emile Heskey he has settled on a team that is not too different from what many of us would pick which with Bannan and Ireland has the potential to get much better aesthetically.

The negatives so far seem to be with a few of the signings with Hutton and N'Zogbia looking a bit disappointing though the hope is that they will improve. The central midfield looks a bit ropey but with so little to spend and his one central midfield signing being injured unable to play you can't really say how much McLeish is to blame for that. Style of play can be better but hopefully Bannan and Ireland can help improve that. If we still look horrid with such artisans in the team then something really is wrong.

Offline robbo1874

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Re: Season 1/5 over, positives so far
« Reply #68 on: October 04, 2011, 10:58:34 PM »
I look at it this way: there's only 3 teams that we don't have a realistic chance of picking up points from this season (IMO) and they are man u man city and Chelsea. If we can start turning 1 pt into 3 more often, then no reason why we can't aspire to a top 6 finish.

Online pauliewalnuts

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Re: Season 1/5 over, positives so far
« Reply #69 on: October 04, 2011, 11:23:06 PM »
If there's an accusation that he has played it safe somewhat so far, then you can forgive him that, if you look at the circumstances in which he came to the job.

He'd have been bonkers to do anything that would have made his life any more difficult than he needed to. Given that, the most obvious thing to do would be "not lose games", and treat anything more as a bonus.

There have been a few justifiable concerns about the way he's had us play for much of the season so far, but he's still got a valid get out of jail card on that front in my eyes.

Let's see how he can develop us moving forward. He's going to have a job on his hands, as he doesn't have many choices squad-wise, and for that, he gets my sympathy.

Offline Percy McCarthy

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Re: Season 1/5 over, positives so far
« Reply #70 on: October 05, 2011, 03:37:03 PM »
If there's an accusation that he has played it safe somewhat so far, then you can forgive him that, if you look at the circumstances in which he came to the job.

He'd have been bonkers to do anything that would have made his life any more difficult than he needed to. Given that, the most obvious thing to do would be "not lose games", and treat anything more as a bonus.

There have been a few justifiable concerns about the way he's had us play for much of the season so far, but he's still got a valid get out of jail card on that front in my eyes.

Let's see how he can develop us moving forward. He's going to have a job on his hands, as he doesn't have many choices squad-wise, and for that, he gets my sympathy.

You read my mind.

 


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