Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: lukey27 on January 16, 2012, 12:36:24 PM
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I was just wondering what other fans think about a statement Mcleish made when he took the job on. He said at the time [I'm paraphrasing] that he's not afraid to make the big decisions and if players are not performing he will have no qualms about dropping them.
We're now in January and I actually think as a pure half term report he has done the polar opposite of this. Our best performance and result of the season by a mile was at Chlesea and we haven't seen that team in the three games since. He instead has tried to accomodate too many players to the detriment of the formation. We clearly are suited to a man up front an Ireland or a Gabby behind and then two guys wide with two holding and I don't think any of the three attacking players who played Saturday are suited to playing wide left.
On Saturday, Ireland was started on the the left and then brought inside when it clearly wasn't working. Albrighton struggled and yet only one sub, Keane coming on basically as a midfielder.
Big decisions seem to be beyond Mcleish, in team selection and subsitutions, he waits an age to make any changes.
Warnock, Hutton and Collins have all been inconsistent this season. In the case of Warnock he's been abysmal. Mcleish hasn't backed his words up and dropped these guys. Tactically there are real concerns.
If necessary this can be merged, because I don't want this to be another attack Mcleish thread because I'm not that reactionary but I've seen all our games this season and there's real worries
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To be fair he dropped Hutton for Cuellar-Cuellars injured at the moment so has had to bring him back
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He only brought Cuellar in when Hutton idiotically got himself sent off against Arsenal.
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He only brought Cuellar in when Hutton idiotically got himself sent off against Arsenal.
He was benched against Chelsea though and IIRC came on when CC picked up an injury
Warnock needs to be dropped next game there but can't think of who we can put ther Enda, Lichaj ?? Clark's needed in midfield whilst Herd's injured
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Cuellar was on the bench Saturday?
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More worrying for me is that in AMc's post match he stated that he didn't bring Keane on earlier as he was worried it might open up a few gaps for Everton. This cautious approach at home might have cost us 2 points?
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Sometimes 'big decisions' are those where he decides not to change things and stick by a player. We have limited options in some areas of the pitch, so in many respects his hands have been tied also.
At present he's playing Albrighton over his big summer signing, so that's a pretty brave decision.
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Cuellar was on the bench Saturday?
I think he'd only started back training on Thursday
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The big managerial decision for me is the fact that he still persists with Warnock. We are effectively down to 10 men with him in the side he's that poor this season. He was poor last too but Houllier sussed that one very early.
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He only brought Cuellar in when Hutton idiotically got himself sent off against Arsenal.
He was benched against Chelsea though and IIRC came on when CC picked up an injury
Warnock needs to be dropped next game there but can't think of who we can put ther Enda, Lichaj ?? Clark's needed in midfield whilst Herd's injured
Here's a system we can try:-
4-4-2 with Petrov and Ireland in the centre, meaning Clark can play LB. We start with Gabby upfront and N'Zogbia wide, but give them some freedom to swap, with Charlie playing a little deeper behind Bent when switching centrally. Ireland would need to be a bit more disciplined in his game and prompt from deeper, but he's been showing the work ethic lately so that shouldn't be a problem.
Bench options are Keane and Warnock/Edna Stephens. Keane if we need a goal for who ever is playing worst out of Gabby/N'Zog/Marc or should we want to tighten things up, bring a natural LB on and move Clark into a midfield three, with one of the same three making way, or Bent if he's not in the game with Gabby moving up top to occupy their back 4 better.
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I think Clark is too slow for left back
Ireland and Petrov as a central two has not worked in the past (eg Newcastle away last season). Ireland's playing a lot better now, but may still tend to go awol, leaving Petrov isolated, which he does not have the pace or energy to cope with.
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Clark wouldn't be the most attacking of LBs, but solid defensively and comfortable on the ball, which would be a big improvement from Warnock right now. Not a longterm solution, but maybe a short term answer.
As for Ireland in a central 2, the disinterested Ireland we've previosuly seen would leave us exposed, but the 'at it' one of the last few games would not. Again, just an idea that may or may not work.
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I dont think AM can stick to his word at the moment due to the lack of personnel he can trust to replace the under performing ones. yes we would like to see some of the youth players being given a run but I think he is too cautious to go down that road especially the position we are in. He looks like he would rather stick with the experience rather than the inexperienced ones in case it all goes tits up rather than thinking it could have a positive impact.
Basically my mate (who is a nose) said that he will set you up not to lose which is a risk in its self as it has backfired on him. Its about time he did drop Warnock though closely followed by Hutton.
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What I dont like about AMC . Its gets to 65/70 minutes , you are playing a leggy poor Everton side without their two main CB's and do you go for the kill . No , you just make sure you dont lose the game.
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Well, he did substitute a LB for a striker, which is a very attacking move, even if he could have done it earlier.
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Well, he did substitute a LB for a striker, which is a very attacking move, even if he could have done it earlier.
I keep wondering what would have happened had Bent not scored when he did. Keane would have had to come on earlier. Who would he have replaced?
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Clark wouldn't be the most attacking of LBs, but solid defensively and comfortable on the ball, which would be a big improvement from Warnock right now. Not a longterm solution, but maybe a short term answer.
I believe the same is to be said for Eric Lichaj in for Hutton, he's solid but may offer less going forward (or would he what has Hutton actually done? except should of given away 7/8 penalty’s since arriving and provided poor crosses)
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The difference between Clark and Lichaj is that Clark is more tried and tested at PL level, however I wouldn't be adverse to seeing him given a go at RB.
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For whats it worth I would have no hesitation putting Lichai at right back Clark at left back Cuellar at centre half and Herd centre mid. These changes would tighten us up no end.
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What I dont like about AMC . Its gets to 65/70 minutes , you are playing a leggy poor Everton side without their two main CB's and do you go for the kill . No , you just make sure you dont lose the game.
That's nonsense! It was because they were going for the game that they got caught square by a sucker punch.
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Clark wouldn't be the most attacking of LBs, but solid defensively and comfortable on the ball, which would be a big improvement from Warnock right now. Not a longterm solution, but maybe a short term answer.
I believe the same is to be said for Eric Lichaj in for Hutton, he's solid but may offer less going forward (or would he what has Hutton actually done? except should of given away 7/8 penalty’s since arriving and provided poor crosses)
Lichaj was quite effective going forward this past summer in the Gold Cup; I would like to see him be given a run as pretty much anyone or anything is better than Hutton.
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Maybe we should play three centre-backs and use attacking players as wing backs given that we've no decent full backs.
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I think Clark would be an improvement at left back but I wouldn't have Ireland and Petrov in the centre as a two. Good as both are in their ways their weaknesses are such that most two men central midfields in the premiership would have the better of them let alone the three man ones. I'd bring Herd back in but I'm not sure if he's fit or not.
It depends on how good or ready Enda is or until Herd is fit we should bring Lichaj in for whichever of Warnock and Hutton is the bigger liability. IMO Warnock.
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Maybe we should play three centre-backs and use attacking players as wing backs given that we've no decent full backs.
That would leave the back three open to to much pressure with their wingers given free space if those attacking wing backs don't track back.
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We may have poor fullbacks, but we don't have ANY wing backs, so that'd be a non-starter, IMO.
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Another thing he's avoided is the Bent/Gabby conundrum. We just tend not to play well with both of them in the team but he's not made the obvious call to drop one of them in order to make the team play better. I'm not knocking him too much for it as I'm not sure which one I'd choose but it's definitely a call he's avoided.
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Gabby has good and bad games playing wide, but we'll only get the best of of both him and Bent in a 4-4-2. The problem with that being do we have two midfielders capable of keeping us competitive in a 2? Herd and Petrov did it against Bolton, but I think the better teams would dominate us in there.
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I think for one match, he should drop Gabby to the bench and play Bent up top with Ireland, Zog and MA supporting him. Would like to see how that would work.
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Another thing he's avoided is the Bent/Gabby conundrum. We just tend not to play well with both of them in the team but he's not made the obvious call to drop one of them in order to make the team play better. I'm not knocking him too much for it as I'm not sure which one I'd choose but it's definitely a call he's avoided.
Whichever it is, you will alienate one of them. This isn't really a good idea when Keane flies back to the US with still a third of the season left to play.
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This is going to go down like a lead balloon I'm sure but I think the biggest issue for us is Petrov. He's only played well in a midfield pair when he's had someone very very good alongside him (Barry for a season who controlled play superbly and Milner for a season who did all the running for him). Since then every time we've tried to pair him with someone we've looked poor and the consistent in that has been Petrov.
I think if we seriously want to give 442 a go we need to drop petrov and give Clark and Ireland a go together. If it doesn't work go back to the 451 and try to get a midfielder in who can boss the game during the summer.
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This is going to go down like a lead balloon I'm sure but I think the biggest issue for us is Petrov. He's only played well in a midfield pair when he's had someone very very good alongside him (Barry for a season who controlled play superbly and Milner for a season who did all the running for him). Since then every time we've tried to pair him with someone we've looked poor and the consistent in that has been Petrov.
I think if we seriously want to give 442 a go we need to drop petrov and give Clark and Ireland a go together. If it doesn't work go back to the 451 and try to get a midfielder in who can boss the game during the summer.
Drop Petrov? - he has been our best and most consistent player this season !
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We spent most of last season with Warnock out of the team. this time last year the LB position was being shared competently by Baker and Clark.
I'd rather Clark stayed where he is. If we're not going to use Baker at LB, where are we going to use him? Whatever his qualities, playing him at CB would probably be a risk too far.
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This is going to go down like a lead balloon I'm sure but I think the biggest issue for us is Petrov. He's only played well in a midfield pair when he's had someone very very good alongside him (Barry for a season who controlled play superbly and Milner for a season who did all the running for him). Since then every time we've tried to pair him with someone we've looked poor and the consistent in that has been Petrov.
I think if we seriously want to give 442 a go we need to drop petrov and give Clark and Ireland a go together. If it doesn't work go back to the 451 and try to get a midfielder in who can boss the game during the summer.
Drop Petrov? - he has been our best and most consistent player this season !
That's why I said it wouldn't go down well. I think the issue is Petrov is a great player withe the side setup to suit him. The issue is I don't think setting the side up to suit him necessarily leads to our other players being in their best role, the whole Bent or Gabby up top on their own is, in my opinion, as a result of playing a 3 in midfield to get the most out of Petrov.
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We can do far better than Petrov. Just because he has been a consistent performer this season, I really cant see what all the fuss about him is. He doesn't offer much in drive, passion, determination, strength, vision or attacking qualities. Ok so he has scored some good goals this season but what happened to the previous seasons? HE is far overrated in my opinion and the sooner we can start phasing him out just like GH was doing, the better.