McLeish 'I can't spoon feed players.'

[Mark H]

I caught myself actually shaking my head when reading those comments ,oh he does make it hard work

[Monty]

Well, he's just expressed his main flaw better than I ever could. The Emirates is 'not the place' for passing it about at the back? Well, guess what, that's how Swansea beat Arsenal, and that's generally how to stop them scoring - HAVE THE FUCKING BALL.

It's maddening. Play in their half? Sometimes you can't, so you keep the ball where you can, play the situation, and get into their half when you can. It's called patience. He really doesn't understand football. He's just another idiot, jobbing, British manager from the past, still clinging on to old cliches, methods and mantras which have been disproved, outmoded or shown to have never worked anyway. I wish he would just f'Eck' off.

[Irish villain]

Why didn't Randy just go after somebody like Felix McGath after MON left? We could have got somebody big like that if we offered him decent wages and the prospect of developing a side that was at a crossroads.  Back then we had finished sixth three seasons in a row, had been to a Cup final and had quality throughout the side.

With a quality appointment then (and lets remember we were an attractice prospect in 2010!), I think we would have held onto some of the bigger players and cleared out the deadwood that were on ridiculous wages. We could be in the CL now.

Randy how have yo turned us to shit so quickly? Fighting relegation with McLeish? The man who relegated our rivals twice??? I mean, when you stand back and think about it, it is just a bizarre situation! When you are living it every day as a fan you forget just how stupid the appointment was and  justhow grotesque the management of the club has been since summer 2010.

[Witton Warrior]

"I can't spoon feed players"
"I can't believe I got this job"
" I can't motivate"
"I can't organise a team"
" I can't keep a team up"
" I can't blame myself"
" I can't be sacked it will be too costly"
" I can't understand why the fans react the way they do"
" I can't resign, who else will pay these wages?"
" I can't see us beating an ELITE team"
" I can't tie my own laces"

Just what can I do?? Oh yeah Heskey you're on son. Keep it tight boys! We are only 2 -0 down.

This is what I keep thinking - so what is your actual role at AVFC Mr McLeish? Apart from fall-guy...

[bertlambshank]

With that statement he should of dug his own grave!
Randy will give him a pay rise instead.

[Greg N'Ash]

Think he makes some decent points. The players at the back  can't pass so it would be daft to try it. Houllier tried, and it got us nowhere. also if the players are incapable of following his instructions as he claims happened in the first half then any manager is buggered. again this happened in Houllier's time and Mcdonalds. End of the day we've had 3 managers in 2 years and sooner or later people must start to wonder whether its not the manager thats the problem but the players. Whatever mug rolls up next is gonna hit the same brick wall - technically bad players with iffy attitudes and no money to shift them. Can't say that's going to appeal to many candidates

[JUAN PABLO]

feck off now McLeish .

you need to score goals to beat teams , you start with Heskey . Have you not learned your lesson.

You are clueless.      Blame anyone but yourself.

[Toronto Villa]

What's boiling my piss is that I cannot recall an interview where has has taken accountability for his selection, tactics, philosophy etc. I don't disagree with everything he says in the article, but every week it is a variation of the same thing. It's never his fault. It's always the players.

Look in the fucking mirror Alex. It ain't so pretty.

[WA Villan]

Think he makes some decent points. The players at the back  can't pass so it would be daft to try it. Houllier tried, and it got us nowhere. also if the players are incapable of following his instructions as he claims happened in the first half then any manager is buggered. again this happened in Houllier's time and Mcdonalds. End of the day we've had 3 managers in 2 years and sooner or later people must start to wonder whether its not the manager thats the problem but the players. Whatever mug rolls up next is gonna hit the same brick wall - technically bad players with iffy attitudes and no money to shift them. Can't say that's going to appeal to many candidates

Agree, crap average, in some cases below average players. Proffesional footballers do not need to be spoon fed tactics, they should know what to do, it's called instinct. We have unfortunately managed to build a team of average mediocrity, and it's cost us a fortune. It's shameful what has transpired at Villa, bad management and bad leadership. As much as I don't like Mcleish a lot of this is not his doing, it's down to a group of players who are making the most of it while they can.

[Tucson Villain]

What's boiling my piss is that I cannot recall an interview where has has taken accountability for his selection, tactics, philosophy etc. I don't disagree with everything he says in the article, but every week it is a variation of the same thing. It's never his fault. It's always the players.

Look in the fucking mirror Alex. It ain't so pretty.

That is just it. Every week he spoon feeds the media his piss poor excuses.
He has to take accountability for the team that he puts out.

[newtonsballs]

sportinglife.com

Alex McLeish has told Aston Villa's players he can't "spoon feed" them during games.

McLeish couldn't spoon feed a baby - he'd poke the spoon in the poor little wretch's ear.

[paul_e]

Think he makes some decent points. The players at the back  can't pass so it would be daft to try it. Houllier tried, and it got us nowhere. also if the players are incapable of following his instructions as he claims happened in the first half then any manager is buggered. again this happened in Houllier's time and Mcdonalds. End of the day we've had 3 managers in 2 years and sooner or later people must start to wonder whether its not the manager thats the problem but the players. Whatever mug rolls up next is gonna hit the same brick wall - technically bad players with iffy attitudes and no money to shift them. Can't say that's going to appeal to many candidates

Agree, crap average, in some cases below average players. Proffesional footballers do not need to be spoon fed tactics, they should know what to do, it's called instinct. We have unfortunately managed to build a team of average mediocrity, and it's cost us a fortune. It's shameful what has transpired at Villa, bad management and bad leadership. As much as I don't like Mcleish a lot of this is not his doing, it's down to a group of players who are making the most of it while they can.

I can't agree with this.  Players spend 5 days a week in training working towards a game plan.  If that game plan is to defend the box then that's how they're going to play on a saturday.  If our training was around keeping the ball and playing in triangles then that's what we'd see.  Some of the players wouldn't be as good as others but we'd see better standards from them all if training was about passing under pressure making space for each other.  Our movement off the ball is terrible, it's not been great since MoN was here but it's much worse now.

The coaching and management are terrible.  Now given we know that Cowans and Mcdonald can coach a team to play good football (based on the performances of the youth and reserves over a number of seasons) the finger has to be pointed at the person who is organising the training, which is McLeish (or possibly Grant).

I don't disagree that some of the players need improve or leave but the reality is, if you were offered a job on 3m a year to turn around a department do you think you'd still have the job if, after 9months, you turned around and said you'd tried but the staff didn't listen and there was nothing you could do until you replaced most of the staff.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

TRANSLATION.

"I didn't feel that the Emirates was a place to express ourselves in terms of passing about at the back because that's not a strength of ours.
* Collectively we are not very good.

"That's no disrespect to our players as they have other qualities."
*Individually we are not very good.

"Today we played everything in front of Arsenal in the first half and that's tailor-made for a team with their speed and guile.
*Individually and collectively we are slow and lack any creativity and imagination.

"We never asked the players to do that.
*Individually and collectively, players dont listen to me. I have lost the dressing room

[JUAN PABLO]

TRANSLATION.

"I didn't feel that the Emirates was a place to express ourselves in terms of passing about at the back because that's not a strength of ours.
* Collectively we are not very good.

"That's no disrespect to our players as they have other qualities."
*Individually we are not very good.

"Today we played everything in front of Arsenal in the first half and that's tailor-made for a team with their speed and guile.
*Individually and collectively we are slow and lack any creativity and imagination.

"We never asked the players to do that.
*Individually and collectively, players dont listen to me. I have lost the dressing room

that's how it looks to me

[Mister E]

TRANSLATION.

"I didn't feel that the Emirates was a place to express ourselves in terms of passing about at the back because that's not a strength of ours.
* Collectively we are not very good.

"That's no disrespect to our players as they have other qualities."
*Individually we are not very good.

"Today we played everything in front of Arsenal in the first half and that's tailor-made for a team with their speed and guile.
*Individually and collectively we are slow and lack any creativity and imagination.

"We never asked the players to do that.
*Individually and collectively, players dont listen to me. I have lost the dressing room

I think - between you and Greg - you've summed it up.
McL is of limited ability, has not managed to "play each game as it comes" (i.e. read the tactics required for each game and set up accordingly) and is additionally hamstrung by having limited players - particularly at the back.

Yesterday, on the match thread, I mentioned a couple of times how poor we were at pressing and closing-down - a tactic that other clubs have used successfully at the Emirates - and that we needed to have played a midfield three instead of wingers. As it happens, Gabby was a passenger and Albie just wasn't very good; whilst Arteta - and later, Ramsey - had the run of the park.

The biggest indictment of his season is the fact that we are yet to score from a corner (so who's responsible for training and practice?) in c.170 attempts and the fact that our games-won is so low relative to those in the drop-zone.

He's morphed into O'Dreary, who was similarly out of his depth and disparaging about our expectations.