Dunne urges fans to lay off McLeish

[Rip Van We Go Again]

  playing the same uninspiring, basic football that is McLeish's hallmark.  He's just fundamentally a bad coach.

McLeish's stlye of football makes a mockery of whats required to pass F.A. coaching badges.

What Hleb said the other week is what scared me.

"At Birmingham, the team played the long-ball game, practically bypassing midfield," Hleb told Russian website RIA Novosti.

"To get into the game you had to play up front or linger at the back with the defenders to get hold of the ball, which more often than not flew right past me.

"The day before a game he would come onto the pitch and show us what to do: 'You stand here, the goalkeeper will give you the ball here, kick it as far as you can and don't pass to anyone nearby. And we all run.'"

His lack of nous was proven after we went behind against Bolton, the team then started hoofing the ball up to Gabby's head, clearly they'd forgot that Heskey had gone off.

[Eigentor]

Whilst it seems virtually no one wants McLeish, pining after a manager who oversaw our demise from 6th spot to last years relegation battle is laughable.He managed to do this with Young and Downing in the squad, two wingers who weighed in with 15-17 goals between them and without checking i'm fairly sure they also provided the assists for Bent's goals.In the five games he missed we took eleven points, and going into the game at Arsenal we weren't safe.Have the actions of Houllier been forgotten? Liverpool away The surrender of the FA Cup? By all means moan about McLeish, but getting misty eyed over that mug is ridiculous.

Missing the point here, I think. No-one is saying that last season was great, or that GH was definately the right man to take us forward. The point is that at least GH seemed to have an idea of what he wanted to do (we don't know if he would have succeeded in carrying out his vision). McLeish is just clueless.

I'd argue that Mcleish DOES have an idea what he wants to do - as I've said before I think the blueprint is something akin to George Graham's Arsenal.  I just don't think he's going to achieve it.

If that's the case, then he was bullshitting us when saying that the notion that he is a "naturally defensively-minded manager" is a "myth", and that his "appetite for attacking, winning football is second to none". Maybe that was something he just said to please the fans, and that we would later conveniently forget when counting the points from numerous 1-0 wins and 0-0 draws.

Anyway, I wrote that McLeish is clueless. What I meant to say is that McLeish seems clueless. One thing is that this season has been awful, but nothing the manager has said or done indicates that things will be better next season. With GH there was at least the hope that he would ship out the troublemakers and hoofers and bring in decent players capable of playing decent football. Maybe that was just a pipe-dream, but at least there was hope - even if the results were (almost) just as bad.

[tomd2103]

Whilst it seems virtually no one wants McLeish, pining after a manager who oversaw our demise from 6th spot to last years relegation battle is laughable.He managed to do this with Young and Downing in the squad, two wingers who weighed in with 15-17 goals between them and without checking i'm fairly sure they also provided the assists for Bent's goals.In the five games he missed we took eleven points, and going into the game at Arsenal we weren't safe.Have the actions of Houllier been forgotten? Liverpool away The surrender of the FA Cup? By all means moan about McLeish, but getting misty eyed over that mug is ridiculous.

Missing the point here, I think. No-one is saying that last season was great, or that GH was definately the right man to take us forward. The point is that at least GH seemed to have an idea of what he wanted to do (we don't know if he would have succeeded in carrying out his vision). McLeish is just clueless.

I'd argue that Mcleish DOES have an idea what he wants to do - as I've said before I think the blueprint is something akin to George Graham's Arsenal.  I just don't think he's going to achieve it.

I agree with that point John.  I think he has a very clear blueprint which he developed at Rangers (especially in the Champions League) and with Scotland.   The whole style of football is low risk and it is interesting to see that Given rarely throws the ball out and all free kicks are sent long.  I think his ideal way of playing is 4-5-1, with a team of grafters who are primarily sent out to work hard defensively and anything going forward is a bonus.  I thought his comments earlier in the season about the work rate of our wingers after the game up at Newcastle were telling and were a clue to what he really expects.  It's why we had a central midfield the other night of Herd and Warnock, and more creative types like Bannan were on the bench.  The major problem is that he doesn't have the type of players he needs to play that way at Villa and he hasn't been able to (or hasn't been good enough to) find a way of getting the best out of what he has at his disposal.  What has surprised me is how poor we have been defending set pieces this season.  I would have thought that would have been an area that he would have been able to sort out. 

His way of playing suits the Championship and Scottish football perfectly.  It is extremely dull to watch, but is effective at those levels.   

[TheTimVilla]

This is the Dunne who, when we were eleven points clear, said we'd be finishing strongly now we were out of danger.

And then a month ago said "let's catch Sunderland". We couldn't even fucking do that.

[Tom Sawyer]

Villa fans urge Dunne to lay off the cream cakes.

[rob_bridge]

Whilst it seems virtually no one wants McLeish, pining after a manager who oversaw our demise from 6th spot to last years relegation battle is laughable.He managed to do this with Young and Downing in the squad, two wingers who weighed in with 15-17 goals between them and without checking i'm fairly sure they also provided the assists for Bent's goals.In the five games he missed we took eleven points, and going into the game at Arsenal we weren't safe.Have the actions of Houllier been forgotten? Liverpool away The surrender of the FA Cup? By all means moan about McLeish, but getting misty eyed over that mug is ridiculous.

GH made a lot of mistakes, the main one was trying to change things too quickly, and his behaviour at Klanfield was misguided to say the least.  But at least you could see there was a decent football philosophy in there, and a way forward.    And apart from the revolt of the dunne-derheads, he also had to negotiate our worst injury crisis for many a year.  If he'd had the chance to get rid of outdated, overpaid shit-stirrers like Dunne, Warnock and Collins, and replace them with the likes of Cabaye, as was rumoured, I think you may have seen a Villa team pushing at the top end again.   When I look at the negative, gutless, defeatist and tactically clueless reign of McLeish, I see no football philosophy except to survive, and very little to build on.

Houllier was arrogant, aloof,out of touch and basically crap - anyone who though Traore was a left back better than Warnock and Risse, Westerveld and Dudek better than Friedel and Baros was a more vauable player to the team than Carew. Yep he did all of those things. Not mention Pires for Pension Cheque-- anyone,Domenech the man for France is 2010. Makoun - can't remember him pulling up any trees to be honest.

That said McLeish is worse which is some achievement

[SashasGrandad]

Villa fans urge Dunne to lay off the cream cakes.

And the beer

Chips

Burgers

etc

[Tom Sawyer]

To be honest while he was lying in bed looking at the Brum skyline from QEHB, McAllister was saving us from relegation and leading a late charge up the table. Did we miss an opportunity by letting him leave? Could he have been the diamond in the rough we were (and still are) looking for?

[rob_bridge]

To be honest while he was lying in bed looking at the Brum skyline from QEHB, McAllister was saving us from relegation and leading a late charge up the table. Did we miss an opportunity by letting him leave? Could he have been the diamond in the rough we were (and still are) looking for?

His prior record suggested otherwise

[Tom Sawyer]

So did Pardew's

[LeeB]

To be honest while he was lying in bed looking at the Brum skyline from QEHB, McAllister was saving us from relegation and leading a late charge up the table. Did we miss an opportunity by letting him leave? Could he have been the diamond in the rough we were (and still are) looking for?

Yes.

It couldn't have gone worse, and we'd have saved ourselves roughly the price of that shit hot forward the geordies bought in.

[brontebilly]

How many points have we earned since Dunne's injury? Despite all his critics on here we are a better side when he is in it as the second half of last season and the first half of this season proves.

Carlos 'Bobby Moore' Cuellar tends to be rated higher on here when he doesnt play than when he plays. After his laughable display against QPR, Dunne must come back in. Collins to partner him.

The revisionism towards Houllier is misplaced as always.

[KevinGage]

Cuellar has made one (admittedly bad) mistake in the games he's featured in this season. Probably wasn't great v Swansea at home either, in fairness.

Dunne seems to average one game changing error per match when he plays.

CC's recent brainstorm doesn't make the Dunner a better/ more reliable player during the time he's been out of the side either.

Our points haul since Feb might have quite a bit to do with all the other injuries we've endured since then too. 

[brian green]

Memories of Villa games over the years are saved (by me anyway) as snapshots.   Our O'Neill period will always be encapsulated for me by the sight and memory of Stoke's second goal going in.   This season's agony will be contained in the snapshot of us being 2 1 down to Bolton last Tuesday and the ball from the midfield being shovelled back to Given to be put high in the air for somebody, anybody, to get on the end of.  I shall always believe for the rest of my life that if we had carried on passing the ball on the ground against Bolton we would have got a draw and the point which will be the difference between the Premiership and the Championship next season.

That McLeish allowed them to descend into pump it upfield and hope is also a very accurate snapshot of his management.

[martin o`who??]

Yeah, i think we should lay out half a grand a season, put up with shite and shut the fuck up!!!