Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Match Threads & Player Ratings => Topic started by: Legion on February 11, 2012, 05:02:16 PM
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Available Sunday evening.
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Negative, dire, turgid and very depressing- how the hell has our great club declined into what we are seeing this season- time to go randy and take faulkner and mcleish with you- absolutely and totally unacceptable !
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Fucking dire for 89 minutes. And for 4 or 5 minutes we showed that we can actually play with this lot. The manager sent the team out without the confidence to believe that they could and the result is a consequence of that. I've defended McLeish since his arrival but this was utterly crap and he deserves every bit of criticism that he will get today.
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That's it for me Mcleish has to go. He hasn't learnt at all, and it took 76 minutes to have the right team on. Fucking abysmal negative shit.
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McLeish out.
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What we learned today.
McLeish out.
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Oh dear. Unbelievably naive tactics.
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Wrong tactics / wrong personnel / wrong mindset for the game.
Not good and the table takes on a worrying look.
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Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz............ Where's the passion? The spirit? How about taking the game to them?
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Devoid of ideas and until the last couple of minutes there seemed to be no enthusiasm either. That was just terrible.
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Shite defeatist gash.
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Manager to N'Zogbia and Ireland 'Prove yourselves on the pitch . . . by the way you're both dropped'.
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Today the game was given away just as much as houllier did in the cup last year, will the reaction be the same?
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I'm pissed off. I've had enough of negative football and shit tactics. We spent the whole game doing nothing.
Worst home run in how many years now?
15th in the league. Pathetic. Disgusting.
McLeish, please.. just go.
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boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring etc
fooking dire - wish I went to the protest now, probably more fun
If Mctwat wants Villa to play like that then God help us
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My goodness. We might need to go to Norwich and win to stay up.
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My FB status: 7 home games without a win. The heart and soul was ripped out of Villa Park last summer
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I'm pissed off. I've had enough of negative football and shit tactics. We spent the whole game doing nothing.
Worst home run in how many years now?
Longest run without a win at home in over 20 years, I read.
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We only improved after Ireland and N'Zogbia came on. We looked so bright for the last few minutes and that makes it more disappointing. We CAN play well. We just, for whatever reason, don't most of the time. I wasn't expecting three points, I was clear on that. What I wanted was for us to show what we were capable of and give it a go. Which for whatever reason, we didn't for most of the game.
The only player who deserves credit is Cuellar who was decent defensively in spite of playing a position less than suited to him and also unlucky not to score.
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McLeish reverts to type and we lose in embarrassing circumstances. True, we'd probably have lost in any case. And we did only keep it down to the one goal. But it's the manner in which we approached the game that tells us McLeish just doesn't understand what this club is about. Deep down, everybody knew that his appointment was nothing short of a disaster waiting to happen. But until Lerner gets the help of somebody who understands football, we can't sack him because his replacement is likely to be just as ill founded. We've got ourselves into a right old pile of shite, and I'm afraid it's all the chairman's doing.
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Really embarrassing to send us out like that, and it is far from the first time, either.
I can handle zero points against them, but we made it so very easy for them from the start.
That kind of ambition free approach really is not worthy of having an Aston Villa badge on it. We only looked vaguely like we were even taking part in that match when we put on CNZ and Stephen ireland.
The manager has a decreasing number of friends, and with embarassing, almost humiliating crap like that, he doesn't deserve the ones he still has.
If I were a neutral, we are exactly the sort of time I would absolutely hate.
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You are not at Small Heath anymore so stop strangling the life out of this club with your negativity you useless idiot. I've seen enough for my patiance to have finally run out. You are taking this club down and very soon you will find the majority will have turned on you.
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McLeish clearly believed that our only hope was to defend for 90 minutes and hold out for a 0-0 draw. When your own manager doesn't believe in you then you may as well pack it in, go home, sit down and think about what else you could be doing with your life.
What a complete defeatist surrender. David Moyes.....fancy a move to the Midlands, mate? (pretty please)
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Put that one in the Spurs,Utd,Liverpool file. When your plan A is so waffer thin,your never gonna have a chance. He ended up with the team he shouldve have started with.
This has happened too many times now,and its getting harder and harder to give McCleish a break,a lot of the time he does himself no favours at all.
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Today the game was given away just as much as houllier did in the cup last year, will the reaction be the same?
Difference is this isn't a one off it's a repeated approach. I've tried to support Mcleish but he's shot himself in the face with his tactics, so can fuck off in my opinion. We are Aston Villa, we should always try to win at home no matter what. We are not some tiny club, where playing 10 behind the ball at home is acceptable.
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Would not let him manager my kids Sunday team
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No ambition showed by the manager or team.
Negative tactics from the first whistle and it was only a matter of time before City scored, only then did we have a go.
Dunne was our best player, says it all.
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Why has he suddenly reverted to playing like a draw is all we need from the next so many matches to keep us up.
He should have learnt that when he puts a team out to defend because he doesn't think we are good enough to win, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
Still it will be interesting without Dunne at the back for the next few matches if that is his collarbone done in.
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Postives - Thought defence actually played pretty well considering the amount of pressure they were under.
Negatives - I'm not going to waste my time.
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He has learnt nothing since the Arse game, reverting to that type of football is unacceptable, and that is why he should go
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Good Lord that was poor stuff, and I'm afraid it's convinced me that if there is any possibility of replacing McLeish now then Lerner should do it. Inheriting a mess or otherwise, that sort of performance is not on, and it's happening with some regularity.
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What was McCleish thinking starting Heskey and Collins! Very negative tactics. Would of been happier losing 5-0 if it meant we played attacking football!
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I guess the idea was to pay defensively to avoid a hiding, in order not to damage morale. But it's much more damaging to tell your players, effectively, that they can't beat Man City. It was the same against Manchester United, Liverpool and Spurs. It's very disappointing.
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McLeish reverts to type and we lose in embarrassing circumstances. True, we'd probably have lost in any case. And we did only keep it down to the one goal. But it's the manner in which we approached the game that tells us McLeish just doesn't understand what this club is about.
He is only sticking to his remit: Don't get us relegated on a massively reduced budget. With there being 3/4 worse teams than us we won't get relegated, so he will probably get a performance bonus for achieving that.
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Really embarrassing to send us out like that, and it is far from the first time, either.
I can handle zero points against them, but we made it so very easy for them from the start.
That kind of ambition free approach really is not worthy of having an Aston Villa badge on it. We only looked vaguely like we were even taking part in that match when we put on CNZ and Stephen ireland.
The manager has a decreasing number of friends, and with embarassing, almost humiliating crap like that, he doesn't deserve the ones he still has.
If I were a neutral, we are exactly the sort of time I would absolutely hate.
Agree on every single word.
We utterly stink right now and no-one would be sorry to see us go down and if we start a match once more with that kind of negative approach its hard to disagree with them.
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Neville and Tyler seemed bemused by our approach,but didnt slate McCleish,the fact that he's a nice guy saves his skin far too often.
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The 7 points between us and the relegation battle will soon disappear with performances like that.
AM has had a lot of chances to get the right team within the restrictions placed on him, but he's not got a clue when it comes to the crunch
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When they scored, I think the manager was actually pondering whether we can get back to 0-0.
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Mcleish I hope your proud! Our WORST ever home run of results EVER!! Congratulations you Fucking clown!
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Shame just 0-1, citeh wasnt impressive at all... Best man for Villa maybe our left back King Carlos, i found he played ok today.
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I just don't understand after all the good attacking football of late and the fact we can't keep a clean sheet to save our lives that we revert to playing for a 0-0 against one of the big teams. I would have thought we'd learned that this didn't work earlier in the season. It just doesn't make any sense. Scoring goals is our strength at the moment, look at the pressure they were under at the end. Why didn't we play to it?
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Got what we deserved for an embarrasing display of anti-football for 80 minutes, we only looked decent when N'zogbia and Ireland were on for the last 10.
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Today's protest only had what, 100 people? The next one will have gained a lot of numbers.
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Gutted that the manager can send a Villa team out at Villa Park with no ambition of trying to win a game.
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I'd hoped we'd seen the back of the disgraceful damage limitation non-performances we saw earlier in the season, which not only failed miserably, but also totally embarrassed the club in the process. He really seemed to have got the message that not trying was unacceptable for a club like Villa.
Then the billionaires roll into town and McLeish reverts to type, and in one fell swoop destroys all the goodwill he's managed to build up by at least having ago against Arsenal, Chelsea and others. Quite unbelievable stupidity. It brings to mind Einsteins' definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
I didn't expect much result wise today today, but I at least expected us to continue to play some good attacking football and to take our cue from what Everton and Sunderland had done to City and rip into them a bit. They really aren't that good. He'd almost won me over, now I can't wait to see the back of the fuckwit. Well done AM, a cracking days work.
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Lost for words . Can he go now !!!!!!!
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That was as piss poor as anything I have ever seen.
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Shame just 0-1, citeh wasnt impressive at all... Best man for Villa maybe our left back King Carlos, i found he played ok today.
Agree with that Cueller proved today he can play anywhere accross the back four
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It is hilarious that he brought on N'Zogbia and Ireland, two players that should have absolutely started. It just goes to show this mans inability to pick the appropriate squad. He is way in over his head.
The tactics and coordination were god awful. The defense played very brave, and Cuellar played pretty well for being so out of position. But up until the 85th minute, we did not have a single successful build up into their finals third. It's embarrassing. McLeish just isn't the man for this job.
I feel another manager could be getting a lot more out of an attack that involves Charles N'Zogbia, Robbie Keane, Darren Bent, Gabby Agbonlahor, Stephen Ireland and Marc. Our offensive ineptitude is shocking.
McLeish leaves out a mediocre squad until the City scores.. obviously gunning for the draw from the beginning. Then when we need to score he puts on effective and efficient players. N'Zogbia and Ireland changed the game.. and in reverse fashion McLeish is changing our club.
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Did anyone else actually see the following
When we're losing the sky cameras cut to the dugout and I'm nt a great lip reader but it was blatant. Mcleish turns to his right and asks and then to kevin mac and asks 'what do u think we should do?'
AM then sat there looking puzzled without saying a word. The man has not got a clue. No plan at all!
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McLeish reverts to type and we lose in embarrassing circumstances. True, we'd probably have lost in any case. And we did only keep it down to the one goal. But it's the manner in which we approached the game that tells us McLeish just doesn't understand what this club is about.
He is only sticking to his remit: Don't get us relegated on a massively reduced budget. With there being 3/4 worse teams than us we won't get relegated, so he will probably get a performance bonus for achieving that.
I wouldn't bet on it. We are playing crap without the fight the teams below us have
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The biggest problem is, they've got a 300M+ squad and they never needed to get out of first gear to beat us, we've basically gifted them 3 points and given them a nice easy run out.
I don't mind seeing us get beaten if the opposition have played really well, when they don't turn up either and still canter through the majority of the game like it's a training exercise I just can't accept it.
I don't deny he's a nice guy and he says he wants us to play the right way, and I believe that he really means that, I just don't think he has any idea how to achieve it.
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City didn't have to do much to see us off did they? Very poor from McLeish, he can say otherwise all he likes, but he's a negative manager.
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The chance that Cuellar got. Had that been Martin Laursen it would also have been in the Holte End, having burst through the net.
Hart's save was simply world class. He had fuck all to do all game and that save shows how justified his club was in promoting him to first choice when they did.
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What was the line in The Guardian after the Man U game?
Ambition free disgrace?
Well that can be applied here. What an absolute shambles.
That team selection was a pathetic joke. I'm sorry Alex, you're a decent, honorable bloke. However, to set an Aston Villa team up to try and fluke a 0-0 at home is completely unacceptable. The cretins who protested will go home feeling vindicated.
Only Citeh being very ordinary by their standards kept the score below 5. They won't have an easier game all season.
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I'm only repeating myself from last week. The man is an utter coward and does himself or the club no favours. Maybe he can get us the required wins for the rest of the season to stay up, which is why todays protests are pointless but my god that was surrender of the worst type. Shameful.
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How many times does this absolute negative moronic tit have to be told that trying to defend for 90 minutes at home in the hope of getting a 0-0 draw is not only the worst kind of negativity but it doesn't fucking work because the opposition will eventually score. You pathetic prick.
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He set up to keep the score down and succeeded, well done Eck.
Go, now.
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Did anyone else actually see the following
When we're losing the sky cameras cut to the dugout and I'm nt a great lip reader but it was blatant. Mcleish turns to his right and asks and then to kevin mac and asks 'what do u think we should do?'
AM then sat there looking puzzled without saying a word. The man has not got a clue. No plan at all!
I saw that and commented on the match thread. Couldn't lip read but AM just looked clueless about what to do.
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Protesters have gained credibility today. I never thought I'd be typing that.
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McLeish reverts to type and we lose in embarrassing circumstances. True, we'd probably have lost in any case. And we did only keep it down to the one goal. But it's the manner in which we approached the game that tells us McLeish just doesn't understand what this club is about.
He is only sticking to his remit: Don't get us relegated on a massively reduced budget. With there being 3/4 worse teams than us we won't get relegated, so he will probably get a performance bonus for achieving that.
I wouldn't bet on it. We are playing crap without the fight the teams below us have
I was trying to be positive. Think two are definitely down, just worried one of the bottom three will put a good run together.
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Anyone want to guess where our next point will come from?
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Comrades. Can I suggest that there is literally nothing worthwhile to post on this thread that isn't both obvious to all and been said a hundred times before. Rather than get ourselves in a tether, I suggest we all try to enjoy the rest of our Sunday.
That's what I plan to do.
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And Gary Neville - 'Villa have shown zero ambition.' Couldn't have put it better myself.
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Thinking about it
McTwat has made us worse than that smelly lot down the road
In all the times I watched them play they never seemed so poor as Villa today - at least they had a go whenever they played
Christ I`m so bloody annoyed at the moment I could crush a grape
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And Gary Neville - 'Villa have shown zero ambition.' Couldn't have put it better myself.
And he and Tyler both said it on a number of occasions during the match, and they were spot on, too.
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Last week I held my fire back against the manager because I thought there were quite a few players who just needed to take a look at themselves and start trying. This week as with many other weeks, I cannot hold back against this clueless, defensive, safe twat. He has turned us into a poorer version of Small Heath. I say poorer because they scraped wins.
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And Gary Neville - 'Villa have shown zero ambition.' Couldn't have put it better myself.
He was spot on all afternoon which annoys me because I really don't like him. We deserve better.
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Shame just 0-1, citeh wasnt impressive at all... Best man for Villa maybe our left back King Carlos, i found he played ok today.
Agree with that Cueller proved today he can play anywhere accross the back four
These are the type of players every first team needs. Can play in lots of positions , but never gets a game.
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he is a disgrace to our great club,all them fans paying there had earned money to go and watch that crap! negative football,no passion,no urgency.bringing our best 2 midfielders on in the last 15minutes of the game!we really are in a relegation dog fight now. no point protest against mctwat because he will never go or be sacked!! pissed off is an understatement right now!!!
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Too little too late.
Hope Im not saying that come the last day of season.
As well, Gary Neville = Twat.
We do not want Mcleish because of his brand of dire, unambitious, embarrassing football. Not because he came from small heath.
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Dropping both the best creative players was just completely pathetic, just acting like a big kid against them.
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Well McCleish needs to hope he never leaves Villa, because he won't get anymore letters from his sponsor praising him up to prospective employers after that team and tactic selection against the title rivals.
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The Houllier appointment was brave, bold and ambitious.
McLeish's appointment is proving to be what we all feared.
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im just waiting to see what the clueless plonker has got to say
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And Gary Neville - 'Villa have shown zero ambition.' Couldn't have put it better myself.
He was spot on all afternoon which annoys me because I really don't like him. We deserve better.
TBH, I hated Neville has a player and for trying to get the England players on strike because of Rio. But as a summariser this season he has been spot on most of the time. Shows up Mr Nurding and his too tight suits as the non opinionated, stating the obvious tosser he is.
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oMG listen to the twat
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oMG listen to the twat
what's he saying?
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very unlucky not to get anything
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
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He really hasn't got a clue.
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In honour of Whitney Houston, who sadly and inevitably passed away today, in light of our current plight, might I propose we sing "where do broken hearts go" and "why does it hurt so bad" in unison.
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oMG listen to the twat
Unbelievable.He has no perspective on reality.
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"thought we were unlucky" Mcleish ......
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wait, did he really say he thought his game plan was excellent?
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If he really is saying that then he needs to be sectioned.
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When asked "should you have gone for it earlier" the response was "No, we would have been ripped apart!"
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Dwight's a Villa fan
and he said its not acceptable
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very unlucky not to get anything
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
aside from two lazy headers we didn't even sniff the goal.
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Most incredible interview I've seen- gameplan excellent? You are clearly totally not up to this job if you think that mcleish, please leave our club NOW!
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I cant believe that interview by AMC
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I thought we'd seen the back of this type of gutless, tactically inept, defensive rubbish. At times I admire McLeish for having the guts to take the job and then for changing his tactics after the terrible results and performances against Spurs etc, however I've just seen him saying the game plan was correct and we are just suffering from bad luck. If he really thinks this then we are doomed. We are ASTON VILLA we are a proud club with a great history, what is happening is killing the fans and the club. As Dwight just said on TV even the fans seem to be giving up.
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Just shows how clueless he is after witnessing that interview.
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When asked "should you have gone for it earlier" the response was "No, we would have been ripped apart!"
What a wanker. Or is he thinking about how goal difference is going to affect us now?
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That interview was more ridiculous than Knut Kenny's yesterday.
We do have eyes Alex.
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Unbelievable Mcleish just sad that "the game plan was excellent" and he went on to say that we were unlucky.
Stumped when asked how he was going tu turn it around.
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I wanted him out before that interview but now!? By god please pleae leave! What a clueless tosser! Never hated a villa Manager this much and that includes pig face
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wait, did he really say he thought his game plan was excellent?
yess Id sack him now for saying that
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When asked "should you have gone for it earlier" the response was "No, we would have been ripped apart!"
..Did he honestly say that?
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So, when's the next McLeish out protest?
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If the above quotes are true, I'm glad I turned over as I can't afford a new TV or a new cat.
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Wow. I'm just watching the interview. The man is deluded. He honestly does not believe that strategically he is doing anything wrong. I'm lost for words because that is how is setting the team up. They clearly go out without any belief because the manager tells them to defend deep.
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Im stunned by that interview, how can he be happy with that today. At least Dwight can see what is going on. What another shocking day to be a Villa fan.
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So, when's the next McLeish out protest?
Sign me up!
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When asked "should you have gone for it earlier" the response was "No, we would have been ripped apart!"
..Did he honestly say that?
Yep. Just watched it. It beggars belief.
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He's a coward.
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an excellent game plan now involves going for a 0-0 result.. exciting times ahead!
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I've always backed the manager and thought he seemed to be realising that playing this way was not the way forward but I'm seriously worried after that today, and that post match interview was a disgrace. In what way was that gameplan excellent?
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Unbelievable Mcleish just sad that "the game plan was excellent" and he went on to say that we were unlucky.
Stumped when asked how he was going to turn it around.
There's a fucking shock.
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Did he really say that?
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Mcleish has made himself look a joke with his ludicrous comments when interviewed - what an embarrassment - god help us if the manager thinks those things- we are doomed !
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When asked "should you have gone for it earlier" the response was "No, we would have been ripped apart!"
..Did he honestly say that?
Yep. Just watched it. It beggars belief.
I'm speechless.
McLeish OUT.
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To be fair to him, and its fucking hard after watching more of the turgid shit he serves up at £30 a pop, he did say that home performances had been particularly poor.
I just have no confidence he knows how to make them better, particularly as that was Keanes last game for us at home.
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Odds Randy actually watched the game / cares?
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Did he really say that?
Imagine everything he shouldn't have said after that game and then accept that he did.
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Odds Randy actually watched the game / cares?
About the same as you currently residing on the moon.
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Did he really say that?
Imagine everything he shouldn't have said after that game and then accept that he did.
Yep I was genuinely staggered, he has to go.
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it actually beggars belief that he made those comments, but he did.
He might as well have stuck 2 fingers up his nose and gone Ga Ga GA Ga Bla Bla Ga Ga Bla
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Let's just clear up some myths as well.
The 3-2 win at Wolves is put into context when you see how easily them tossers beat them today.
The 2-2 home draw against QPR is put into context when you see that Wolves beat them at their place and now Blackburn have turned them over.
The 2-1 defeat at Newcastle is put into context based on how dire they were yesterday.
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There is one positive about today. For the few still on the fence, the penny has dropped. His days are now numbered. Randy's football knowledge maybe less than that of a senile Tibetian monk but he cannot risk the financial consequences of relegation.
Well done to all those that took the time to protets against this clown. They should be applauded and not ridiculed.
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As people are saying his view is that if we'd have started more positively then we would have been ripped apart. Is that the ripped apart that Everton and Sunderland suffered Alex?
He seems to have convinced himself that AVFC cannot compete with the big boys because we don't have the means. I remember him saying something similar about Birmingham in relation to Villa on the day that we beat his Blues 5-1. It seems that this is his footballing truth.
Well, I'm glad that nobody has told Paul Lambert, David Moyes or Brendan Rodgers this because they clearly would all be in the bottom 6 by now on this reckoning
Money is important, evidently, but these three managers prove that if you have belief and a vision of how to play and a positive attitude to go with it then you can overcome financial disadvantages. Alex McLeish is stuck in a mental straightjacket that he will never get out of. He lacks the vision to take this club forward. Christ, he lacks the vision to even keep this club stood still. Let's end this failed appointment now before it leads to relegation, if not this year, then next.
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Petrov and Bent were crap today. City didn't need any defenders with those 2 around giving away possession, stupid free kicks and for a striker, Bent seems to be Angelesque in his lack of knowledge of the offside law.
P.s. Darren, you are a striker. When your team is 1-0 down in the last minute and you are put through, head for the fucking goal. Twat.
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As people are saying his view is that if we'd have started more positively then we would have been ripped apart. Is that the ripped apart that Everton and Sunderland suffered Alex?
He seems to have convinced himself that AVFC cannot compete with the big boys because we don't have the means. I remember him saying something similar about Birmingham in relation to Villa on the day that we beat his Blues 5-1. It seems that this is his footballing truth.
Well, I'm glad that nobody has told Paul Lambert, David Moyes or Brendan Rodgers this because they clearly would all be in the bottom 6 by now on this reckoning
Money is important, evidently, but these three managers prove that if you have belief and a vision of how to play and a positive attitude to go with it then you can overcome financial disadvantages. Alex McLeish is stuck in a mental straightjacket that he will never get out of. He lacks the vision to take this club forward. Christ, he lacks the vision to even keep this club stood still. Let's end this failed appointment now before it leads to relegation, if not this year, then next.
Excellent post.
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Blaming Bent is harsh, he was given no service during any part of the game.
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Well next 4 games are Wigan & Blackburn away and Fulham & Bolton at home. He's going to need to win at least 2 of those because the next 5 games after them include Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Man Yoo and setting up like that against the so called "big" teams will get us feck all out of them..
Worrying times indeed.
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Oh and can find a real captain please? Only Albrighton, Carlos and Hutton tried geeing the side up after they scored. And it would be nice if after a player drops a clanger, like the Carlos pass, someone went over and said something to them.
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Well Randy, great appointment McLeish was! I wish Lerner and McLeish would just go. Since MON quit RL has made cock-up after cock-up. Let's face it Lerner makes these appointments and decisions - he's the one who deserves to be given a rough ride by the fans. It was my gut feeling last summer that we would be in this situation now. That was a carbon copy of the Man Utd game - McLeish hasn't a clue how to turn this round - for fuck sake starting with Heskey and leaving N'Zogbia and Ireland on the bench - just to ''teach them a lesson'' Fuck off Lerner and take McLeish with you!!
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How many times does this absolute negative moronic tit have to be told that trying to defend for 90 minutes at home in the hope of getting a 0-0 draw is not only the worst kind of negativity but it doesn't fucking work because the opposition will eventually score. You pathetic prick.
But it's the players/ the fans/ the price of Bank of America shares falling...
Ah fcuk it. I'm fresh out of excuses.
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If a chairman listened to what he said tonight in his interview he would be sacked. Deadly Doug would have sacked him right at the spot by now. But then again, he wouldn't have been so stupid to hire him in the first place.
Have we got the dumbest chairman in the football world?
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Its difficult to criticise Bent and Keane, the way we were set up they didn't even have scraps to feed on, did we get wide in the final third more than twice?
Horrible to watch, at least Stoke can launch it into the box from a throw in to give a bit of excitement.
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''Just because they have the Aston Villa badge we have no divine right to be up there'' -''That's the luck that's gone against Villa'' McLeish really is a tit with those quotes isn't he!
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How many times does this absolute negative moronic tit have to be told that trying to defend for 90 minutes at home in the hope of getting a 0-0 draw is not only the worst kind of negativity but it doesn't fucking work because the opposition will eventually score. You pathetic prick.
But it's the players/ the fans/ the price of Bank of America shares falling...
Ah fcuk it. I'm fresh out of excuses.
If a chairman listened to what he said tonight in his interview he would be sacked. Deadly Doug would have sacked him right at the spot by now. But then again, he wouldn't have been so stupid to hire him in the first place.
Have we got the dumbest chairman in the football world?
A simple answer - yes!!
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What we saw today is my problem with McLeish, which is what I've known since we were linked with him. It's not about lack of transfer funds, the opposition, giving him a chance, etc... it's about his basic coaching method.
I'd love to know what his thought process behind his team selection today was. I mean that genuinely. I'm fascinated. What was Heskey's role? To play wide, cover the full-back, up and down, track players? Why would that work? It never has. And why pick him there when we have recognised wide players who can do that role? And how did he arrive at Cuellar at LB? If he was totally at a loss and didn't want to try Lichaj or Baker there, or gamble with Stevens... just stick with Warnock.
The last thing a coach should be doing, in the situation we are in, is sticking round pegs in square holes. He should have either gone with a neat and compact 4-4-2 with Albrighton and N'Zogbia wide, or one of the two wingers with Ireland on the other side, coming inside to give us three in the middle when required and moving wider to find space when we're moving forward.
How he elected to find the starting X1, I'll never know. It looked wrong from the start, how could he not know that? City are not in great form, but again, we're at home and we've totally handed the initiative over to the visitors.
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Before today I felt a bit sorry for McLeish because while he is hopelessly out of his depth at Villa it's not his fault we were stupid enough to give him the job.
After that match and his latest comments I hate the clueless, gutless imbecile with a passion.
I cannot wait for the moment I hear he's gone, at this rate I will be celebrating like we've won the league.
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''Just because they have the Aston Villa badge we have no divine right to be up there'' -''That's the luck that's gone against Villa'' McLeish really is a tit with those quotes isn't he!
No Alex, this is the boat you've been steering since August.
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PeterWitheShin, Bent nearly rescued it for us for christs sake, so blaming him is way over the top, and he would not be giving possession away if he was not having to drop into our own half all the time - he hardly gave it away once under Houllier FFS!! The amount of stick he gets for a bloke who has 19 in 40 for us is incredible.
My mind was changing on Eck, I was getting on his side, but the last 135 minutes have nailed his coffin back shut for me. Basically, withdraw all creativity, cling on and then have a go for 2 minutes.
We have not won in 7 at home you clueless oaf FFS, that gameplan was clearly not excellent. Sunderland and Everton, not that much better than us in reality, have both beaten City in recent weeks. If your plan was excellent, they are managed by pure god like genius clearly.
Total pratt of an interview, display, team selection.
A wise man once claimed............we're doooooooomed!! I fear we are. I can't see us getting more than 35 points.
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My guess is that the team selection was trying to cram in as many tall players as possible to try to counter their threat at set pieces, they are one of the most powerful teams I have ever seen, but less so without the Toures and Balotelli.
Yet again it doesn't work though.
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I will also say I thought Heskey did ok considering where he played.
What pisses me off the most remains the slowness of our play so much of the time. 3 times in the first 10 mins or so, first Heskey and then Keane (twice) broke into space down the flanks. All 3 times the ball ended up nowhere near them and the chance of an attack vanished.
And our passing and off the ball movement. It's still shit.
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Wrong thread!
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Comment on the guardian thats pretty apt:
"What's the opposite of a breath of fresh air? That's what Villa are"
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As people are saying his view is that if we'd have started more positively then we would have been ripped apart. Is that the ripped apart that Everton and Sunderland suffered Alex?
He seems to have convinced himself that AVFC cannot compete with the big boys because we don't have the means. I remember him saying something similar about Birmingham in relation to Villa on the day that we beat his Blues 5-1. It seems that this is his footballing truth.
Well, I'm glad that nobody has told Paul Lambert, David Moyes or Brendan Rodgers this because they clearly would all be in the bottom 6 by now on this reckoning
Money is important, evidently, but these three managers prove that if you have belief and a vision of how to play and a positive attitude to go with it then you can overcome financial disadvantages. Alex McLeish is stuck in a mental straightjacket that he will never get out of. He lacks the vision to take this club forward. Christ, he lacks the vision to even keep this club stood still. Let's end this failed appointment now before it leads to relegation, if not this year, then next.
Excellent post.
Everton and Sunderland worked there bollocks off to get a result. We have better players than them and in the short time we attempted to attack we nearly scored two (Cuellar-Bent) a tactical disaster ......
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Amongst all the hand wringing (and I include myself) who is really suprised at the performance today? The Arsenal game at home was tremendous but went against everything AM believes in, thats what we saw this afternoon.
Decent man, terrible manager.
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we look just like small Heath from last year , playing the *big* teams and hoping for a 0-0 , why the f**k Lerner did not know this would happen. we are identical to them
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I won't believe the players enjoy playing like that. That was disrespectful to the history of the club. As others have said, If we were going to lose, at least go down fighting.
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I chose not to make the 220 mile round trip today and watched on tv. Thank God I did because I would have been half way down the M1 by now gnashing my teeth in disbelief. Is it a coincidence that I felt the same sinking feeling as in previous games when I got the text with the team on it showing N'zogbia, Ireland and Bannan, all players that can actually pass the ball, all cosying up to each other on the bench. Shades of Spurs away, amongst others. It seems we have to get the cloggers on to stop the top teams playing - it doesn't work. Then he brings on the ball players and hey presto things take a turn for the better. Will he not learn! Have a go. Even if Everton hadn't beaten them recently, Moyes would have got all the accolades for having a real go and giving the fans something to shout about. It's not acceptable and it's disrespectful for fans who travel a long way week after week because they love the game of football and they love their club. I admire him to bits as a bloke, but today he let us into his thought processes and it wasn't pretty. Sky must dread it when the Villa are on.
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At least I sort of met DC5 and villajk when they visited Legion. Well I saw them and after they had gone Legion told me who they were.
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I just feel numb I knew we'd lost as soon as I saw the team sheet
The team look completely devoid of confidence which is hardly suprising as the manager has no belief in them
Still we've come back after similar shit performances and there's some winnable games coming up
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Make no mistake, if AM stays we can go down!
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When asked "should you have gone for it earlier" the response was "No, we would have been ripped apart!"
And maybe we would have. We contained them well enough but unfortunatley Alex forgot the one vital tactic of creating chances which we did'nt actually manage until the last 10 minutes, which for a home side is not good enough.
Oh and a special mention for Carlos, once again shunted out to yet another position other than he's own and he's not let us down.
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To be predicted, negative, hopeless football, I know Man City are short a few but didn't they make hard work of that, don't get me wrong they still looked a different class, but surprised.
As for Villa..............................
When does the real Aston Villa get back on his feet, or this hamstring going to drag on for months.
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I've pretty much felt throughout the season that Big Eck would always do just enough to hang on to his job. Whenever there was a bit of momentum and a groundswell against him, we'd snatch a result.
TBH, losing to Man Citeh today AND the level of performance won't be enough to see him walk the plank either. But poor results in some of our easier games coming up and the sides below us closing the gap might be. To the extent that I wouldn't now be surprised if we have a new face in the dug out when MON's Sunderland come to town in April.
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For the first time ever my mate & I considered not renewing our ST's next season. That team was sent out to try and hold on to nil nil. Why the fuck does Heskey play when we've got the creativity of Ireland and N'Zogbia on the bench. No coincidence that we actually started to play when they came on. Totally insipid performance and, although I predicted a fairly heavy defeat, we could have salvaged a point from that if McCleish had the balls to go for the opposition rather than rolling over from the start.
Highlight of the day - the streaker. Well it was a cold day.
Lowlight - another mate of mine was accused of being a Bluenose because he didn't support the protest. Knobheads
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I think it was Toronto who said it during the match thread in reference to the game, but I think this applies to Mcleish's reign. It's like we are on life support and waiting for someone to pull the plug.
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Conversation with my 3 year old as I was putting him to bed..
Me: Aston Villa didn't score any goals today
Son: Why?
Me: Because we're rubbish
Son: Why?
Me: I don't know
Son: That's the way it is.
Then he hit me on the top of the head.
He's never said, That's the way it is before let alone linked it to something so futile. It was like being told by my dad to get over a bird when I was 16.
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We have got to win three of the next four games.Because when we play the bigger teams Mcleish will employ the same tactics as today ......
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Think people need to remember a few things before calling for the managers head after todays performance.
Firstly look at who we we're playing. Do you really think if went out attacked them we would of recieved anything other then a 4-0 roasting?
We actually nulified there attack very well, if it wasnt for another piece of poor defending from a set piece (no McLeish's fault) we would of earnt a decent point. Yes it may be 'boring' but when you have Aguero, Silva, Milner & Johnson running at you i would be inclined to play it safe!
Everton and Sunderland who both got a win against City played the same as we did today they managed to nick a goal and went onto win.
If we sit back like this against Wigan/Blackburn/Fulham/Bolton then i will have to agree with you however i will not moan if we do it against a team who's net spend is over £500 million on 5 years.
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Exactly the same as the Manure home game....
Just defended and defended until Man. City scored...then had a little go at the end with a bit more luck would've brought an undeserved equaliser.
Tbf the boo boys weren't too bad today... I actually thought Heskey was o.k and the defence aswell until the usual disaster of a corner marking.
Ireland has to start though for me. The build up and movement of the ball in central midfield is far too slow without him.
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Comment on the guardian thats pretty apt:
"What's the opposite of a breath of fresh air? That's what Villa are"
Stale Carbon dioxide?
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At least I sort of met DC5 and villajk when they visited Legion. Well I saw them and after they had gone Legion told me who they were.
Ahaha, so that was you. Nice to sort of meet you!
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Everton had a go at City, and played nothing like the way we did.
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Wait for it, in 2 weeks time its gonna be.."We can't compete with the Wigan's of this world".
Embarrassing lack of ambition today. I'm sure it's not the last time I'll say that this season.
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Think people need to remember a few things before calling for the managers head after todays performance.
Firstly look at who we we're playing. Do you really think if went out attacked them we would of recieved anything other then a 4-0 roasting?
We actually nulified there attack very well, if it wasnt for another piece of poor defending from a set piece (no McLeish's fault) we would of earnt a decent point. Yes it may be 'boring' but when you have Aguero, Silva, Milner & Johnson running at you i would be inclined to play it safe!
Everton and Sunderland who both got a win against City played the same as we did today they managed to nick a goal and went onto win.
If we sit back like this against Wigan/Blackburn/Fulham/Bolton then i will have to agree with you however i will not moan if we do it against a team who's net spend is over £500 million on 5 years.
Its s good job you ain't a fucking football manager then.
Are you Alex Mcleish ?
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Final straw, get him out. Dazzy g. Come home.
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At least I sort of met DC5 and villajk when they visited Legion. Well I saw them and after they had gone Legion told me who they were.
Ahaha, so that was you. Nice to sort of meet you!
Sorry. I should have introduced you.
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There is one positive about today. For the few still on the fence, the penny has dropped. His days are now numbered. Randy's football knowledge maybe less than that of a senile Tibetian monk but he cannot risk the financial consequences of relegation.
Well done to all those that took the time to protets against this clown. They should be applauded and not ridiculed.
The penny dropped for me today. I have always stuck up for him. I still think he's a good man and I like the pride he has in himself actually. Even in that disastrous interview I saw him give he managed to say 'I pride myself on home form'.
Sadly he hasn't the ability to carry that through. Today was a big day for the club. After today, I am certain he will not be our manager in 12 months time.
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Cuellar was outstanding. We gave it a real go but left it far too late. That save from Hart at the death was exceptional.
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Why were Albrighton and Gardner picked over Ireland and N'Zogbia?
McLeish is his own worst enemy at times. It was truly awful to watch today. No excuses.
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Match highlights (http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/aston-villa-0-manchester-city-1/)
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Why were Albrighton and Gardner picked over Ireland and N'Zogbia?
McLeish is his own worst enemy at times. It was truly awful to watch today. No excuses.
Don't you mean Heskey and Albrighton as Gardner was playing instead of the injured Clark.
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Wait for it, in 2 weeks time its gonna be.."We can't compete with the Wigan's of this world".
Embarrassing lack of ambition today. I'm sure it's not the last time I'll say that this season.
Embarrassing lack of ambition today? Did you miss who the opposition was? Man U attacked these a few months back and got smashed 6-1.
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Wait for it, in 2 weeks time its gonna be.."We can't compete with the Wigan's of this world".
Embarrassing lack of ambition today. I'm sure it's not the last time I'll say that this season.
Embarrassing lack of ambition today? Did you miss who the opposition was? Man U attacked these a few months back and got smashed 6-1.
Everton and Sunderland beat them!
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His Interview on BBC website is just as laughable!
Also to the interviewer, we dont like him because of his lack of ambition, talent or sanity. Not because he used to manage the scum!
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At least I sort of met DC5 and villajk when they visited Legion. Well I saw them and after they had gone Legion told me who they were.
Ahaha, so that was you. Nice to sort of meet you!
Same to both of you. I was the one in the silly hat and brown furry coat in an attempt to stay warm. I can't remember if Legion had both his bodyguards there when you visited or if the part-timer Mr RedSox had already left.
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Think people need to remember a few things before calling for the managers head after todays performance.
Firstly look at who we we're playing. Do you really think if went out attacked them we would of recieved anything other then a 4-0 roasting?
We actually nulified there attack very well, if it wasnt for another piece of poor defending from a set piece (no McLeish's fault) we would of earnt a decent point. Yes it may be 'boring' but when you have Aguero, Silva, Milner & Johnson running at you i would be inclined to play it safe!
Everton and Sunderland who both got a win against City played the same as we did today they managed to nick a goal and went onto win.
If we sit back like this against Wigan/Blackburn/Fulham/Bolton then i will have to agree with you however i will not moan if we do it against a team who's net spend is over £500 million on 5 years.
Its s good job you ain't a fucking football manager then.
Are you Alex Mcleish ?
A 'newbie". AVFC PR? Listen, read and don't comment. One thing this Club does not need right now is Bullshit.
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Wait for it, in 2 weeks time its gonna be.."We can't compete with the Wigan's of this world".
Embarrassing lack of ambition today. I'm sure it's not the last time I'll say that this season.
Embarrassing lack of ambition today? Did you miss who the opposition was? Man U attacked these a few months back and got smashed 6-1.
There again more recently Everton had a go and beat them. As did Sunderland
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Wait for it, in 2 weeks time its gonna be.."We can't compete with the Wigan's of this world".
Embarrassing lack of ambition today. I'm sure it's not the last time I'll say that this season.
Embarrassing lack of ambition today? Did you miss who the opposition was? Man U attacked these a few months back and got smashed 6-1.
Oh. that's okay then. We did the right thing then by passing the ball sideways and backwards until we lost it. Thankfully we only lost 1-0. How I must have misjudged that master tactician AMcL.
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Wait for it, in 2 weeks time its gonna be.."We can't compete with the Wigan's of this world".
Embarrassing lack of ambition today. I'm sure it's not the last time I'll say that this season.
Embarrassing lack of ambition today? Did you miss who the opposition was? Man U attacked these a few months back and got smashed 6-1.
Oh. that's okay then. We did the right thing then by passing the ball sideways and backwards until we lost it. Thankfully we only lost 1-0. How I must have misjudged that master tactician AMcL.
0-1 and 0-5 are the same result for us at the moment.
We didn't even try to score.
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Marc Albrighton tweeting how we didn't deserve to lose.
Crikey.
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What was the point? Playing for a draw was never going to work. In recent games we've seen we're more than capable of passing the ball and creating chances, why couldn't we just do this and have a go?
AM would've come out with more credit if we'd have lost by 2 or 3 goals if we'd shown some ambition, but as it is, my judgment on him has gone down, after he'd began showing me he did seem to know what he was doing.
He could've saved me the bother of turning up to watch us hoof the ball to Heskey. Is that really what it's come to? Is that how Everton beat them?
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Anybody got the interview?
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His Interview on BBC website is just as laughable!
Also to the interviewer, we dont like him because of his lack of ambition, talent or sanity. Not because he used to manage the scum!
The thing is, The he used to manage the Blues old stick had some mileage in it for a while, problem now of course we are seeing what 20+ games means in its own right, nothing to do with his CV, and it will be no different at the end of the season.
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Wait for it, in 2 weeks time its gonna be.."We can't compete with the Wigan's of this world".
Embarrassing lack of ambition today. I'm sure it's not the last time I'll say that this season.
Embarrassing lack of ambition today? Did you miss who the opposition was? Man U attacked these a few months back and got smashed 6-1.
We accept that we would probably have been beaten but at least we would have gone down fighting. If you are going to lose, at least have a go as the crowd would get behind the team if we could see they are trying. The negative tactics we are seeing again and again when we can all see the obvious outcome will be the straw that breaks the camels back. Mclueless hasn't learnt anything from his mistakes and keeps repeating them which is why he will inevitably have the crowd on his back.
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Marc Albrighton tweeting how we didn't deserve to lose.
Crikey.
Well, he should have as good a judgment as us considering he spent most his time watching the game go by.
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Think people need to remember a few things before calling for the managers head after todays performance.
Firstly look at who we we're playing. Do you really think if went out attacked them we would of recieved anything other then a 4-0 roasting?
We actually nulified there attack very well, if it wasnt for another piece of poor defending from a set piece (no McLeish's fault) we would of earnt a decent point. Yes it may be 'boring' but when you have Aguero, Silva, Milner & Johnson running at you i would be inclined to play it safe!
Everton and Sunderland who both got a win against City played the same as we did today they managed to nick a goal and went onto win.
If we sit back like this against Wigan/Blackburn/Fulham/Bolton then i will have to agree with you however i will not moan if we do it against a team who's net spend is over £500 million on 5 years.
I can see why he set us up like he did and Heskey really put a shift in but after the encouraging signs over the last few weeks, I was hoping we'd play to our strengths rather than trying to nullify Man City's. Looking at Man City's record, if you can shut the up for the first 25 minutes, you're in with a chance. Today, despite a couple of near scares, I thought the defence looked the best it's looked for a long time, although it could be argued with Petrov and Gardner playing so deep, we had 6 across the back line.
Where we failed today, apart from Dunne going missing for the goal, was any real threat up front. As a few mentioned on the Match thread, we really should have introduced Ireland and N'Zogbia immediately after they scored and played to OUR strengths. In the end we were unlucky not to equalise, Carlos really should have buried that header and Bent his shot. Hart did very well but in a game with so few opportunities, he really needs to be more clinical.
Hopefully in the next four games we'll get back to playing to our strengths and if the players show the same level of commitment as they showed today and they'll need to, I really can see us picking up a few, long overdue wins.
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Wait for it, in 2 weeks time its gonna be.."We can't compete with the Wigan's of this world".
Embarrassing lack of ambition today. I'm sure it's not the last time I'll say that this season.
Embarrassing lack of ambition today? Did you miss who the opposition was? Man U attacked these a few months back and got smashed 6-1.
Oh. that's okay then. We did the right thing then by passing the ball sideways and backwards until we lost it. Thankfully we only lost 1-0. How I must have misjudged that master tactician AMcL.
0-1 and 0-5 are the same result for us at the moment.
We didn't even try to score.
At no point did we try to win that game today.
The club woud benefit more from having a go and losing four or five than meekly surrendering and losing one nil.
Sorry, but anyone who thinks this is really about losing is totally missing the point.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17006352
Here is the BBC post match interview, not the sky one.
He thinks we have stuttered at home this season.
Fuck me, it makes you want to punch the screen
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Marc Albrighton tweeting how we didn't deserve to lose.
Crikey.
McLeish must have them brainwashed. When Bent almost got an equaliser I was saying to my housemate it would be daylight robbery for us to get away with a point.
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If we continue like this then I really fear McLeish could be on the end of another hammering when he faces MON at Villa Park again.
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Despite not being impressed with the lineup or large portions of the performance performance, it could be argued that what ultimately settled the result is that their defender scored their chance from a corner and ours put it over the bar. Change any 1 of those scenarios and the result could have been different.
Simplistic view I know, but also true. Maybe that's what Alby and AM are focusing on?
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Exactly the same as the Manure home game....
Just defended and defended until Man. City scored...then had a little go at the end with a bit more luck would've brought an undeserved equaliser.
Tbf the boo boys weren't too bad today... I actually thought Heskey was o.k and the defence aswell until the usual disaster of a corner marking.
Ireland has to start though for me. The build up and movement of the ball in central midfield is far too slow without him.
Listen Paul thanks. Hoping to meet you at Bodymoor Heath tomorrow morning. Apparently you are welcoming us. I am taking my two juniors. It's good of you to spend some time with us here as your CEO schedule must be hectic.
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Dunne out for a month?
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This is what the Telegraph journo said before the match:
"I would contend that supporting Villa is about as bad as it gets as a fan of English football. Huge club, decorated history, excellent ground, but year after year of relentless mid-table tedium. Not even a relegation scrap to get excited about. Just regulation wins against teams they're expected to beat and the odd brave draw against the top clubs.
Under Alex McLeish they've even lost the slight impression that they might cause the odd upset. You know it's going to be defend, defend, defend today, and you feel that all that's going to mean is a low-scoring City win.
How thrilling."
Pretty much spot on...although McLeish may be about to invalidate the bit about the relegation scrap...
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I think that McLeish played into the hands of those people who want to protest: the dubious selection, sterile tactics, the apparent absence of passion, energy and forward-thinking ... all of these were disappointing today.
Given that this is a transitional season, why not give it a go? Why not pick players for the future rather than Emile and Cuellar (the latter of whom is obviously going to be gone in the summer)? Why not try and win over the doubting fans by trying to play attractive football?
Whatever happens on the pitch, I think that the Villa future for McL is rapidly shortening. and, as was said on the match thread, the teams below us are demonstrating a bit of fight and energy; which we didn't really today.
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Despite not being impressed with the lineup or large portions of the performance performance, it could be argued that what ultimately settled the result is that their defender scored their chance from a corner and ours put it over the bar. Change any 1 of those scenarios and the result could have been different.
Simplistic view I know, but also true.
Agree PWS. We successfully nullified Silva, Aguerro and Co. Milner and Barry were kept quiet and Adam was made to look totally ineffective. If only Collins had put that header away.....if only.
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This is what the Telegraph journo said before the match:
"I would contend that supporting Villa is about as bad as it gets as a fan of English football. Huge club, decorated history, excellent ground, but year after year of relentless mid-table tedium. Not even a relegation scrap to get excited about. Just regulation wins against teams they're expected to beat and the odd brave draw against the top clubs.
Under Alex McLeish they've even lost the slight impression that they might cause the odd upset. You know it's going to be defend, defend, defend today, and you feel that all that's going to mean is a low-scoring City win.
How thrilling."
Pretty much spot on...
Well apart from the pretty frequent non mid table finishes, regular wins against all the top sides (apart from Manure), it is spot on.
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I am just waiting for DC5 and Chris Smith to try and defend the prick after today.
McLeash has dug is own hole and the only way out of it is to go!
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There have been those on here saying the protesters would have dragged the name of the club down and they would embarrass us.
Well, the club are doing that for us.
Again the media are taking the piss out of our anti football, lack of passion and lack of adventure.
The ginger twat is doing more damage to our reputation than ANY protest.
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Due to illness I couldn't make it today, so watched it quietly on my own and the worst thing is, I just couldn't get any passion for the game. When you aren't at the game, you can take a little more detached view and see things for what they are. Basically, we are totally and utterly boring to watch, from start to finish.
I suspect it's a combination of players who have been there too long and are far too comfortable, a manager who as things stand, appears to be out of his depth and other players who just aren't up to it.
Like a few have said on here, Gary Neville and to a lesser extent Martyn Tyler, had it spot on. We played for 0-0 and somehow hoped to nick a goal. Where we differed from Everton and Sunderland is that we didn't have the energy they had. I have felt all season that our players aren't fit enough, we don't press the opposition and we don't work hard enough. Villa fans will forgive most things if you work hard, I don't think that too many of our players are fit enough to press and harry and snarl and tackle for 90 mins.
As for his interview, I didn't see it, but heard another one on WM. I honestly can't believe he thought we didn't deserve to lose. I have defended him all season and still, in a masochistic way, hope it comes right for him but he doesn't do himself any favours with unadulterated horse shit like that.
I believe and hope, we will get enough points from our next four games to stay up, but what happens after that is a frightening prospect.
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Think people need to remember a few things before calling for the managers head after todays performance.
Firstly look at who we we're playing. Do you really think if went out attacked them we would of recieved anything other then a 4-0 roasting?
We actually nulified there attack very well, if it wasnt for another piece of poor defending from a set piece (no McLeish's fault) we would of earnt a decent point. Yes it may be 'boring' but when you have Aguero, Silva, Milner & Johnson running at you i would be inclined to play it safe!
Everton and Sunderland who both got a win against City played the same as we did today they managed to nick a goal and went onto win.
If we sit back like this against Wigan/Blackburn/Fulham/Bolton then i will have to agree with you however i will not moan if we do it against a team who's net spend is over £500 million on 5 years.
Its s good job you ain't a fucking football manager then.
Are you Alex Mcleish ?
Why because i wouldnt go and attack Man City?
maybe im just realistic and understand the only way we would of beat them with our current team is to nick a 1-0. Man U lost 6-1 to these when they attacked them.
Maybe its a good job you arent a football manager. As we are on the topic what would your plan be??
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One positive from the day, Warnock not setting foot on the pitch.
Carlos did a good job today .
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Marc Albrighton tweeting how we didn't deserve to lose.
Crikey.
I was thinking brainwashed , or AMC has banned all players twitter accounts and took over their passwords.
Marc should have come off at HT
McLeish must have them brainwashed. When Bent almost got an equaliser I was saying to my housemate it would be daylight robbery for us to get away with a point.
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Those saying we more a less nullified Citeh's threat are missing the point. They never stepped out of third gear and the point is we are at home and we didn't try to win, if you can't see what's wrong with that I cannot understand why not.
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Despite not being impressed with the lineup or large portions of the performance performance, it could be argued that what ultimately settled the result is that their defender scored their chance from a corner and ours put it over the bar. Change any 1 of those scenarios and the result could have been different.
Simplistic view I know, but also true. Maybe that's what Alby and AM are focusing on?
that would have been covering the cracks or getting out of jail
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One positive from the day, Warnock not setting foot on the pitch.
Carlos did a good job today .
He certainly did. Collins looked a lot better too and despite what some have said on here, I really thought everybody put a shift in. I'd be more interested to hear what those that we at the game have to say about it but from TV, it certainly seemed that way.
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One positive from the day, Warnock not setting foot on the pitch.
Carlos did a good job today .
Well Dunne is going to be out for a bit so Warnock will be back for Wigan. Can't believe McLeish talks up Ireland and CNZ and then benched them. Heskey Ffs! If he plays play him up front you clown. Albrighton is just too lightweight for me. Positives - the defence were ok and Gardner looked decent and hungry for the ball.
What I'd give for a Lambert or Brendan Rogers!
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Why were Albrighton and Gardner picked over Ireland and N'Zogbia?
McLeish is his own worst enemy at times. It was truly awful to watch today. No excuses.
Ireland dosen't function that well in a 2 man midfield, he needs to play as the advanced midfielder in a 3 man central midfield. Gardner is more box-to-box or will be over time.
Suppose the feeling was Albrighton would help out Carlos more than track back, in the end Carlos had Adam Johnson in his pocket anyway. Albrighton was out muscled so much off the ball by De Jong and Zabaleta.
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Those saying we more a less nullified Citeh's threat are missing the point. They never stepped out of third gear and the point is we are at home and we didn't try to win, if you can't see what's wrong with that I cannot understand why not.
I don't buy this City didn't get out of third gear. We stopped them from doing so however we are or were not good enough due to players/tactics to do any more than that. We were not any better against GIANTS under MON. This goes against my natural instinct as I think we should not be afraid of anyone at home but sadly we are.
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Those saying we more a less nullified Citeh's threat are missing the point. They never stepped out of third gear and the point is we are at home and we didn't try to win, if you can't see what's wrong with that I cannot understand why not.
I don't buy this City didn't get out of third gear. We stopped them from doing so however we are or were not good enough due to players/tactics to do any more than that. We were not any better against GIANTS under MON. This goes against my natural instinct as I think we should not be afraid of anyone at home but sadly we are.
I'd argue City didn't even get out of second gear. They didn't have the drive or urgency to pull out all the stops today. We hardly troubled them enough to make them even consider defending.
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Wait for it, in 2 weeks time its gonna be.."We can't compete with the Wigan's of this world".
Embarrassing lack of ambition today. I'm sure it's not the last time I'll say that this season.
Embarrassing lack of ambition today? Did you miss who the opposition was? Man U attacked these a few months back and got smashed 6-1.
Oh. that's okay then. We did the right thing then by passing the ball sideways and backwards until we lost it. Thankfully we only lost 1-0. How I must have misjudged that master tactician AMcL.
0-1 and 0-5 are the same result for us at the moment.
We didn't even try to score.
At no point did we try to win that game today.
The club woud benefit more from having a go and losing four or five than meekly surrendering and losing one nil.
Sorry, but anyone who thinks this is really about losing is totally missing the point.
So if we had held out for 0-0 or 1-0 win but played like that you would still be unhappy? Because if this isnt about loosing then surely you would?
Dont get me wrong i'd love to see attacking football down the Villa, playing teams of the park, however do you really think we could play Man City of the pitch?
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Play them off the pitch? No.
Have a go and try to win the game? Yes.
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Those saying we more a less nullified Citeh's threat are missing the point. They never stepped out of third gear and the point is we are at home and we didn't try to win, if you can't see what's wrong with that I cannot understand why not.
I don't buy this City didn't get out of third gear. We stopped them from doing so however we are or were not good enough due to players/tactics to do any more than that. We were not any better against GIANTS under MON. This goes against my natural instinct as I think we should not be afraid of anyone at home but sadly we are.
We gave Aresnal a game though ?
We lost, but we gave it a bloody good go, and the players we rightfully applauded from the pitch, even in defeat.
McLeish should have learned from that, he obviously has not.
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One positive from the day, Warnock not setting foot on the pitch.
Carlos did a good job today .
Well Dunne is going to be out for a bit so Warnock will be back for Wigan. Can't believe McLeish talks up Ireland and CNZ and then benched them. Heskey Ffs! If he plays play him up front you clown. Albrighton is just too lightweight for me. Positives - the defence were ok and Gardner looked decent and hungry for the ball.
What I'd give for a Lambert or Brendan Rogers!
Thanks, you've just pissed in my chips.
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Ciaran Clark out for a few weeks with knee ligament injury GREAT!!:(
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So if we had held on for point or nicked a 1-0 would you be happy with the performance?
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The McLeish set up is one of high risk. High risk in that if you set up so negatively (particularly in home games) you have to get some sort of result out of it.
He was good at this at SHA as they did (somehow) go unbeaten at home for a year playing like this.
So far it's failed every single time we've done this. At Spurs. At home to Manure. Home to Liverpool. And today.
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So if we had held on for point or nicked a 1-0 would you be happy with the performance?
That's the thing, there's such a fine line between success and failure in the PL right now. Sunderland defended, backs to the wall for 93 minutes against Man City and snatch a late winner with the last kick of the game. I'm sure their fans weren't complaining.
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So if we had held on for point or nicked a 1-0 would you be happy with the performance?
What is the point of this? We didn't, did we?
But no, I would have been unhappy with the performance but happy with the least deserved point I have seen in years.
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Put that one in the Spurs,Utd,Liverpool file. When your plan A is so waffer thin,your never gonna have a chance. He ended up with the team he shouldve have started with.
This has happened too many times now,and its getting harder and harder to give McCleish a break,a lot of the time he does himself no favours at all.
Its interesting that we won away at Chelsea playing Agbonlahor, N'Zogbia, Ireland, and Albrighton from the start. Bent was coming back from injury I think, and came on later. In fact the three substitutes who came on were all attacking players; Bent, Bannan, and Gardner. Even if we had lost that game I don't think there would have been much criticism of the approach. Setting us up as AML did today, especially at home, is disappointing.
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So far it's failed every single time we've done this. At Spurs. At home to Manure. Home to Liverpool. And today.
Indeed. You do have to wonder what was going through his head, especially when the Villa fans appreciated the approach in the Arsenal game, despite losing.
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So if we had held on for point or nicked a 1-0 would you be happy with the performance?
Anyone who's a fan would've been happy if we'd won. 0-0 I'd have been annoyed but accepted that it was a decent result despite a shit performance.
The reality is we played for 0-0 and didn't manage it, the game plan failed and we don't have anything positive to fall back on.
Yes we defended well for times but could anyone really see the game not becoming more and more about us retreating to the edge of the box and circling the wagons if they hadn't scored when they did? When did we last attempt to do that and actually succeed?
Man city have proven recently that when they're away if you press them high up the pitch and make them work for their space they get a bit desperate, lump it forward and leave gaps, 2 managers who could do exactly that with our group of players have done exactly that to them with their respective teams in the last few weeks. Sitting deep and letting them probe away was always a dangerous tactic, particularly when you defend set pieces as badly as we have for the last 18months.
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You said its not about loosing its the performance.
IMO we are more likely to pull something out the hat setting up like that then attacking them.
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You said its not about loosing its the performance.
IMO we are more likely to pull something out the hat setting up like that then attacking them.
but we didn't though did we.
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It might have been discussed, but did anyone see the quote in the Sunday Mirror today from the manager, saying RL will allow him to make a grandstand signing in the summer, even if it means unbalancing the clubs wage structure!!!
Where did that come from, and what was the agenda?
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/transfer-news/Aston-Villa-Alex-McLeish-backed-by-Randy-Lerner-to-make-big-signing-article864128.html
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The quotes from him don't say what the article does, so I wouldn't pay much attention to it. Bullshit from the Mirror.
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You said its not about loosing its the performance.
IMO we are more likely to pull something out the hat setting up like that then attacking them.
I mean people aren't moaning because we've lost, that's hardly a surprise. They're so unhappy because we were so unambitious about it.
What happened against Arsenal at home? We lost but had a right go at them, and then went and win at Chelsea. We also got the fans behind us.
Today was like Spurs, Liverpool and Man United, and we've got two whole weeks to mope about it.
It was horrible ambition free nonsense (again) of exactly the type he played last season, and the damage will go way beyond zero points.
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You said its not about loosing its the performance.
IMO we are more likely to pull something out the hat setting up like that then attacking them.
but we didn't though did we.
We attacked arsenal who are a much worse team then city and lost.
If i had a choice between setting up that way or attacking them i know which i think would be more likely to get us 3 points.
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I have to say , after today, after that team selection, after that performance, after that interview, i am changing my mind about McL.
Idid'nt think we would win today, but i expected us to have a go.The surrendering of our home advantage is unacceptable.
On to todays game, Given, Dunne, Hutton all ok.
Cuellar...MOM.
Petrov, Albrighton......absolute shite.
Collins.....yet again another lapse of concentration.
Keane...not in it.
GG.......not on todays performance, but plenty of time.
Heskey, works hard, done his job, but whats the point.
Bent, never in the game.
I'm afraid with the managers tactics, all we could hope for was a 0-0, once we went 1 down we had no chance.
Unacceptable.
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You said its not about loosing its the performance.
IMO we are more likely to pull something out the hat setting up like that then attacking them.
No way. Just no way. As SoccerHQ pointed out, whenever we've tried it we've stunk the place out and lost. Today was no different.
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One in the eye for all those who would be happy to see the back of Cuellar.
You can't tell me he wouldn't do a better job at the back than either Collins or Dunnedefending.
As i've feared for some time, Albrighton will never be a Premiership quality player, The Championship or League 1 awaits.
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You said its not about loosing its the performance.
IMO we are more likely to pull something out the hat setting up like that then attacking them.
I mean people aren't moaning because we've lost, that's hardly a surprise. They're so unhappy because we were so unambitious about it.
What happened against Arsenal at home? We lost but had a right go at them, and then went and win at Chelsea. We also got the fans behind us.
Today was like Spurs, Liverpool and Man United, and we've got two whole weeks to mope about it.
It was horrible ambition free nonsense (again) of exactly the type he played last season, and the damage will go way beyond zero points.
I know, im just saying when it comes to getting a result we are more likely to get something that way rather then attacking them, i know it would be more entertaing but i'd rather us try a nick something then go down 5-0/6-0.
Anyway im off to watch a bit of wild at heart with the missus! lets hope we dont set up this way against Wiagn in two weeks else i will be jumping on your wagon!
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Anyway im off to watch a bit of wild at heart with the missus!
Is this a euphemism for 'Going to fuck her brains out'?
Remember to lay a towel down first, you don't want a map of Africa staining the new leather suite.
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Why, in injury time, was another centre half brought on to replace Dunne ?
Why not throw Weimann on at that point, just in case Villa were able to mount one last attack ?
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It might have been discussed, but did anyone see the quote in the Sunday Mirror today from the manager, saying RL will allow him to make a grandstand signing in the summer, even if it means unbalancing the clubs wage structure!!!
Where did that come from, and what was the agenda?
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/transfer-news/Aston-Villa-Alex-McLeish-backed-by-Randy-Lerner-to-make-big-signing-article864128.html
Yes, but buying Nic--ola Zijich doesn't count.
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Why, in injury time, was another centre half brought on to replace Dunne ?
Why not throw Weimann on at that point, just in case Villa were able to mount one last attack ?
I think because the aim was to keep the score down, and that's an 'excellent' game plan.
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At least I sort of met DC5 and villajk when they visited Legion. Well I saw them and after they had gone Legion told me who they were.
Ahaha, so that was you. Nice to sort of meet you!
Same to both of you. I was the one in the silly hat and brown furry coat in an attempt to stay warm. I can't remember if Legion had both his bodyguards there when you visited or if the part-timer Mr RedSox had already left.
There were two of you.
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Anyway im off to watch a bit of wild at heart with the missus!
Is this a euphemism for 'Going to fuck her brains out'?
Remember to lay a towel down first, you don't want a map of Africa staining the new leather suite.
haha! :)
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Ashley Young and his family were at the game today supporting Villa. God knows what he would have thought.
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Thought our defence all did well. Collins and Cuellar were shite for the goal but it was a decent defensive display. Our midfield was non existent. Idiotic decision to play Heskey on the right. Maybe more importantly Gardner and Albrighton were out of their depth and totally out of the game. We improved when Ireland came on but an equalizer would have been robbery going on the 70 mins beforehand. Thought he showed good spirit late on and created a couple of good chances.
Thought our best was Dunne and looks like he is out for a while. Would give Baker or Lichaj a start at left back next time out. With Keane gone, Ireland is needed back and Gabby too.
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Ashley Young and his family were at the game today supporting Villa. God knows what he would have thought.
'This is why I left' probably.
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Ashley Young and his family were at the game today supporting Villa. God knows what he would have thought.
I still maintain hope that Ash will return to Villa one day.
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You said its not about loosing its the performance.
IMO we are more likely to pull something out the hat setting up like that then attacking them.
If that is the case, how would you explain the last 10 minutes compared to the previous 80?
City did not put their feet up after taking the lead, nor did they run out of steam. We finally took the game to them with a better shaped team and had them clinging on when time ran out.
It was one of those odd games where the longer it was 0-0 the more likely we were to lose.
All down to the manager's mindset and team selection.
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Just home after battling through the fog. There are people around where I sit who actually think the inclusion of Heskey is a good thing. But he wins the ball in the air for us they bleat in unison. No he doesn't. In the first place he only deflects the ball and at best create the possibility that Bent or A N Other might be arsed to chase it but what he really does is act as a great big hoof ball magnet so that bladdering the ball high wide and anywhere is legitimized.
We never gave them a minute of anxiety until Ireland and N'Zogbia came on with 13 minutes of the game left.
We were a beaten side before we went on the pitch. You would have thought that we were Saltley Gasworks XI and they were Barcelona.
Very depressed. Let's just volunteer to join the Championship and not have to suffer any more of this.
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Just home after battling through the fog. There are people around where I sit who actually think the inclusion of Heskey is a good thing. But he wins the ball in the air for us they bleat in unison. No he doesn't. In the first place he only deflects the ball and at best create the possibility that Bent or A N Other might be arsed to chase it but what he really does is act as a great big hoof ball magnet so that bladdering the ball high wide and anywhere is legitimized.
We never gave them a minute of anxiety until Ireland and N'Zogbia came on with 13 minutes of the game left.
We were a beaten side before we went on the pitch. You would have thought that we were Saltley Gasworks XI and they were Barcelona.
Very depressed. Let's just volunteer to join the Championship and not have to suffer any more of this.
Depressing isn't it?
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Another home match without a win.
Frustrated, pissed off, annoyed and embarrassed. Just a few words to describe how I feel at the moment.
Fair play to the streaker though, in comparison to our manager he had the balls to try and be entertaining!
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What's happened to Mark Albrighton? When he first broke onto the scene he was like a breath of fresh air with a cross to die for. For most of this 12 months though he's been like a little boy lost. Today he was a complete and utter waste of space. I lost count how many times he lost the ball. Dreadful performance.
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McLeish's thoughts on the game from Pravda (http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~2608675,00.html).
"Everton was good inspiration for us. We played very similar. Unfortunately for us we let one in and didn't get luck at the other end that Everton got on the night. "
He's putting it all down to bad luck.
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At least I sort of met DC5 and villajk when they visited Legion. Well I saw them and after they had gone Legion told me who they were.
Ahaha, so that was you. Nice to sort of meet you!
Same to both of you. I was the one in the silly hat and brown furry coat in an attempt to stay warm. I can't remember if Legion had both his bodyguards there when you visited or if the part-timer Mr RedSox had already left.
There were two of you.
PWS was the tall, thin one on my RHS (your LHS). I have no idea who the other one present was.
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McLeish's thoughts on the game from Pravda (http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~2608675,00.html).
"Everton was good inspiration for us. We played very similar. Unfortunately for us we let one in and didn't get luck at the other end that Everton got on the night. "
He's putting it all down to bad luck.
I think he's genuinely struggling to find new excuses now, he's really starting to sound desperate.
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McLeish's thoughts on the game from Pravda (http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~2608675,00.html).
"Everton was good inspiration for us. We played very similar. Unfortunately for us we let one in and didn't get luck at the other end that Everton got on the night. "
He's putting it all down to bad luck.
Insanity, genuinely completely delusional.
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I can see why he set us up like he did and Heskey really put a shift in but after the encouraging signs over the last few weeks, I was hoping we'd play to our strengths rather than trying to nullify Man City's. Looking at Man City's record, if you can shut the up for the first 25 minutes, you're in with a chance. Today, despite a couple of near scares, I thought the defence looked the best it's looked for a long time, although it could be argued with Petrov and Gardner playing so deep, we had 6 across the back line.
Where we failed today, apart from Dunne going missing for the goal, was any real threat up front. As a few mentioned on the Match thread, we really should have introduced Ireland and N'Zogbia immediately after they scored and played to OUR strengths. In the end we were unlucky not to equalise, Carlos really should have buried that header and Bent his shot. Hart did very well but in a game with so few opportunities, he really needs to be more clinical.
Hopefully in the next four games we'll get back to playing to our strengths and if the players show the same level of commitment as they showed today and they'll need to, I really can see us picking up a few, long overdue wins.
That's more or less my take on things.
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Man of the Match by a metric mile:
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/12022012/8/photo/streaker-invades-pitch.html
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Some random stranger who attached himself to us.
Is my reply to Legion's post further up.
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At least I sort of met DC5 and villajk when they visited Legion. Well I saw them and after they had gone Legion told me who they were.
Ahaha, so that was you. Nice to sort of meet you!
Same to both of you. I was the one in the silly hat and brown furry coat in an attempt to stay warm. I can't remember if Legion had both his bodyguards there when you visited or if the part-timer Mr RedSox had already left.
There were two of you.
PWS was the tall, thin one on my RHS (your LHS). I have no idea who the other one present was.
Did he pay you to say that? ;)
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At least I sort of met DC5 and villajk when they visited Legion. Well I saw them and after they had gone Legion told me who they were.
Ahaha, so that was you. Nice to sort of meet you!
Same to both of you. I was the one in the silly hat and brown furry coat in an attempt to stay warm. I can't remember if Legion had both his bodyguards there when you visited or if the part-timer Mr RedSox had already left.
There were two of you.
PWS was the tall, thin one on my RHS (your LHS). I have no idea who the other one present was.
Did he pay you to say that? ;)
I paid him to say I was the handsome one. I want my money back!
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Probably also banned from VP.
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You can't blame the streaker for his thought processes.
a) I fancy streaking
b) It will get me banned from watching this negative cock fartery for a good while...
win win for your streaker, needs to work on his cartwheel though! MOTM 7.
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I can see why he set us up like he did and Heskey really put a shift in but after the encouraging signs over the last few weeks, I was hoping we'd play to our strengths rather than trying to nullify Man City's. Looking at Man City's record, if you can shut the up for the first 25 minutes, you're in with a chance. Today, despite a couple of near scares, I thought the defence looked the best it's looked for a long time, although it could be argued with Petrov and Gardner playing so deep, we had 6 across the back line.
Where we failed today, apart from Dunne going missing for the goal, was any real threat up front. As a few mentioned on the Match thread, we really should have introduced Ireland and N'Zogbia immediately after they scored and played to OUR strengths. In the end we were unlucky not to equalise, Carlos really should have buried that header and Bent his shot. Hart did very well but in a game with so few opportunities, he really needs to be more clinical.
Hopefully in the next four games we'll get back to playing to our strengths and if the players show the same level of commitment as they showed today and they'll need to, I really can see us picking up a few, long overdue wins.
That's more or less my take on things.
And mine.
Its a pity Gabby wasn't fit. This formation would have suited him better than Bent today.
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I've been on call this weekend - rushed home to watch the game. Dull, turgid, uninspiring to the piont it became more interesting watching my wife change my 4 week old's nappies.
Why play Heskey and leave 2 who can bring attacking intent on the bench? Back to the drawing board Mr. McLeish.............
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I've just been telling my two year old that the mighty Villa were cruelly denied the points in today's top of the table clash.
I consider this a white lie
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....
Today, despite a couple of near scares, I thought the defence looked the best it's looked for a long time
....
I didn't think we defended that well to be honest, it was more a reflection of how ordinary Man City were.
With the Toure brothers in Africa, Tevez off his rocker, no Balotelli, no Dzeko, no Richards and Silva having an off day, if I were a Man City supporter I'd be thinking 'thank fuck for Alex McLeish'.
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What's happened to Mark Albrighton? When he first broke onto the scene he was like a breath of fresh air with a cross to die for. For most of this 12 months though he's been like a little boy lost. Today he was a complete and utter waste of space. I lost count how many times he lost the ball. Dreadful performance.
A big part is that he's been played on the left almost consistently this season. On the right he looks like he belongs, on the left he looks lost.
Aside from that last season, when things were going well for him, ash was playing in the hole and was giving an option on the edge of the box which was always in the thoughts of the defender, now that option isn't there they can just force him inside knowing his only option will be to pass back to petrov, who will turn and pass to dunne/collin, who will pass to Given, who will HOOF!
I'm actually quite upset with how many people are turning on the kids at the minute. They're being dumped into a side where the senior pros are hiding and making constant errors. We have a captain who's doing nothing to help them on the pitch and are palying a style that is miles from what they're used to. I can't see any of the kids being hugely successful in the current environment, that's my biggest issue with the management and club in general at the moment, we need to do everything in our power to make sure these reserve and youth players are the best they can be. We don't want big names on big money and big fees so the option is to buy young and develop a side, this just isn't happening.
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Although the streaker was funny, if it wasn't for a station-wide train delay I'd have missed my train back to Nottingham by 1 minute. I'd have been very pissed off if I'd had to wait an hour 'cos of that.
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McLeish's thoughts on the game from Pravda (http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~2608675,00.html)."Everton was good inspiration for us. We played very similar. Unfortunately for us we let one in and didn't get luck at the other end that Everton got on the night. "
He's putting it all down to bad luck.
This is worrying. The current manager of the once proud and great Aston Villa saw playing man f in city as an almost impossible task and regards another rival's performance as an inspiration.
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AMC believes in 'narrow' football. Wingers are a luxury to be avoided. How do you expect Albrighton and N'Zogiba to thrive when the football is lump it up and wait for the ball to drop and wait for Petrov and any other to shoot from distance. - Didn't he call Craig Gardner the new 'Frank Lampard' whilst at Blues?
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Where we failed today, apart from Dunne going missing for the goal, was any real threat up front.
Dunne was not at fault for the goal, that's on Collins and Cuellar. Cuellar was marking Barry and Collins was marking Cling-on.
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I never thought I'd se the day when a Villa goalie would be time wasting, at home, IN THE BLOODY FIRST HALF.
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Are Wolves worse that us at home?
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I've been on call this weekend - rushed home to watch the game. Dull, turgid, uninspiring to the piont it became more interesting watching my wife change.......
Good to see that football is normally so high on your list of priorities.
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A pointless 90 minutes. We finished with the side we should have started with and despite what the manager claims I doubt we'd have scored if the game had gone on for another six hours. Yet another lesson in how to play football with the handbrake firmly on.
Positives- Gary Gardner, didn't do a fat lot but certainly wasn't embarrassed against potential title winners.
Negatives- I'm sorry but for a £20 million pound player Darren Bent has the first touch of a drunken rapist. With Vibration White finger syndrome.
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Gutless performance... please make it stop soon!
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'All the Aston Villa fans want to see is the players sweating blood which they did today.' Alexander McLeish. 13th February 2012.
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Watching again on motd dreadful defending for their goal. Our LB, RB and CH all leave station and decend on Barry and no one left to stop Lescott.
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Watching again on motd dreadful defending for their goal. Our LB, RB and CH all leave station and decend on Barry and no one left to stop Lescott.
The amount of times I've heard something similar to this in the last few months. We must be aware of it by now, yet amazingly we don't seem to be working on improving this aspect of our game.
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I've been on call this weekend - rushed home to watch the game. Dull, turgid, uninspiring to the piont it became more interesting watching my wife change.......
Good to see that football is normally so high on your list of priorities.
Ha Ha! Nice one!
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'All the Aston Villa fans want to see is the players sweating blood which they did today.' Alexander McLeish. 13th February 2012.
Priceless.
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Just talking to the old man and he said he got in the ground early today, he watched the citeh players warming up before the game and he said they just did one touch passing at very high speed for 15 minutes. After this Milner was sacked out and had to sit on the ground, but it was like chalk and cheese compared to Villa's warm up of just shooting at the goal.
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Just talking to the old man and he said he got in the ground early today, he watched the citeh players warming up before the game and he said they just did one touch passing at very high speed for 15 minutes. After this Milner was sacked out and had to sit on the ground, but it was like chalk and cheese compared to Villa's warm up of just shooting at the goal.
He also said Hutton is shite, which I have to agree with!
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'All the Aston Villa fans want to see is the players sweating blood which they did today.' Alexander McLeish. 13th February 2012.
Incorrect, Alex.
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I didn't watch the game today as it was my lads 5th birthday party. It's unfair on me to comment on edited highlights, but the one thing I will say is..
ANOTHER GOAL CONCEDED FROM A FUCKING CORNER? What do those fucktards do all week at Bodymoor Heath?
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Handshake refusal at the villa game!
http://tinyurl.com/7hoq5b2
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Handshake refusal at the villa game!
http://tinyurl.com/7hoq5b2
Excellent!
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So if we had held on for point or nicked a 1-0 would you be happy with the performance?
I'd have been extremely worried, as the apocolypse would have been imminent.
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Handshake refusal at the villa game!
http://tinyurl.com/7hoq5b2
Excellent!
Just made it on to MoTD 2
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Watching again on motd dreadful defending for their goal. Our LB, RB and CH all leave station and decend on Barry and no one left to stop Lescott.
The amount of times I've heard something similar to this in the last few months. We must be aware of it by now, yet amazingly we don't seem to be working on improving this aspect of our game.
I'm sure we're working on it, its just we have really shite defenders. You can't polish a turd
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'All the Aston Villa fans want to see is the players sweating blood which they did today.' Alexander McLeish. 13th February 2012.
what other bollocks has he come out with?
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'All the Aston Villa fans want to see is the players sweating blood which they did today.' Alexander McLeish. 13th February 2012.
Incorrect, Alex.
Has he said this tomorrow?
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Watching again on motd dreadful defending for their goal. Our LB, RB and CH all leave station and decend on Barry and no one left to stop Lescott.
The amount of times I've heard something similar to this in the last few months. We must be aware of it by now, yet amazingly we don't seem to be working on improving this aspect of our game.
I have said it before, our central defenders are good in the air when the ball is coming straight at them but when the ball is put in from the side they haven't got any positional sense. That is why they constantly lose the oposition players in the box or fail to cover the zone they should be covering.
I can see it so why can't an ex international centre half. It is becoming a joke the number of goals we are conceding to unmarked players in and aroung the 6 yard line.
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Heskey why?
Decide to have a go at 88 minutes why?
Rubbish.
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If AM's made one mistake in the transfer market so far its spending 10m on a mediocre player like N'Zogbia when we should have thrown the entire lot at the defence.
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I can see why he set us up like he did and Heskey really put a shift in but after the encouraging signs over the last few weeks, I was hoping we'd play to our strengths rather than trying to nullify Man City's. Looking at Man City's record, if you can shut the up for the first 25 minutes, you're in with a chance. Today, despite a couple of near scares, I thought the defence looked the best it's looked for a long time, although it could be argued with Petrov and Gardner playing so deep, we had 6 across the back line.
Where we failed today, apart from Dunne going missing for the goal, was any real threat up front. As a few mentioned on the Match thread, we really should have introduced Ireland and N'Zogbia immediately after they scored and played to OUR strengths. In the end we were unlucky not to equalise, Carlos really should have buried that header and Bent his shot. Hart did very well but in a game with so few opportunities, he really needs to be more clinical.
Hopefully in the next four games we'll get back to playing to our strengths and if the players show the same level of commitment as they showed today and they'll need to, I really can see us picking up a few, long overdue wins.
That's more or less my take on things.
Apart from it was Collins marking Lescott who then decided to follow the ball instead and leave his man unmarked inside the 6 yard box. Dunne had kept with his man who had gone near post.
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If AM's made one mistake in the transfer market so far its spending 10m on a mediocre player like N'Zogbia when we should have thrown the entire lot at the defence.
Well he threw £4 million on Hutton, so I wouldn't trust him in that regard either.
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If AM's made one mistake in the transfer market so far its spending 10m on a mediocre player like N'Zogbia when we should have thrown the entire lot at the defence.
Well he threw £4 million on Hutton, so I wouldn't trust him in that regard either.
True, but 10m could have got us a decent centre half and a left back. I reckon we've had half a match out of N'Zogbia so far this season altogther, at most a match. And to think i said he turned it on once every 10 games
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Well I expect a back four of Hutton, Collins, Cueller and Warnock next game if Dunnes Collar bone is broken. Will Rays spinning head give odds on whose fault the next goals from Wigan will be?
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gotta look on the positive side and i don't think Dunne being out is particularly bad news. Hopefully someone will adjust and shine in there and we can fuck the big lummox off
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McLeish's thoughts on the game from Pravda (http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~2608675,00.html).
"Everton was good inspiration for us. We played very similar. Unfortunately for us we let one in and didn't get luck at the other end that Everton got on the night. "
He's putting it all down to bad luck.
He should stop digging. I think he's in personal crisis actually. Not what we need right now.
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If AM's made one mistake in the transfer market so far its spending 10m on a mediocre player like N'Zogbia when we should have thrown the entire lot at the defence.
HE bought Hutton and Given.
His focus, though, was trying to cover for the loss of Downing and Young, hence the N'Zogbia signing.
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McLeish's thoughts on the game from Pravda (http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~2608675,00.html).
"Everton was good inspiration for us. We played very similar. Unfortunately for us we let one in and didn't get luck at the other end that Everton got on the night. "
He's putting it all down to bad luck.
He should stop digging. I think he's in personal crisis actually. Not what we need right now.
Up until now he has generally talked a good game but his post-match comments today are of a manager who has lost the plot. He looks and sounds like the pressure has got to him. If the next 4 matches do not go right for him, I can see him walking.
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If AM's made one mistake in the transfer market so far its spending 10m on a mediocre player like N'Zogbia when we should have thrown the entire lot at the defence.
HE bought Hutton and Given.
His focus, though, was trying to cover for the loss of Downing and Young, hence the N'Zogbia signing.
Said at the time N'Zogbia was massively overpriced. He was never a decent replacement for either of them whether that was in ability or workrate as well in Young's case. Could have got someone abroad with the same or better potential for half what we paid, and thats our problem - we buy the foreign players after they've come to the UK and not have a punt before when they're cheap
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36% possession... at home.
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McLeish's thoughts on the game from Pravda (http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~2608675,00.html).
"Everton was good inspiration for us. We played very similar. Unfortunately for us we let one in and didn't get luck at the other end that Everton got on the night. "
He's putting it all down to bad luck.
He should stop digging. I think he's in personal crisis actually. Not what we need right now.
Up until now he has generally talked a good game but his post-match comments today are of a manager who has lost the plot. He looks and sounds like the pressure has got to him. If the next 4 matches do not go right for him, I can see him walking.
His media handling had also impressed me. As I have said, he always seemed composed and realistic. He usually comes across as a man I could see footballers having respect for.
Today was like some sort of meltdown by comparison. Like he has lost confidence and can't believe where we have been sucked down to.
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Their is no way McLeash will walk.
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I'm going to sound like a miserable twat now thats moaning for the sake of it but what were all those giant sponge hands all about? I felt like I was at Gladiators or something, and the drum? Fuck me we're not Bolton, Villa Park must be the least intimdating ground in the league, no wonder our home record has been crap for years because away teams must love coming here.
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McLeish looked calm to me. Well, apart from when the interviewer asked how to win the next game and he kept tripping over his words. Caught him out there.
But does anyone think he has huge pressure from the board? Really? These are the guys who hired him after coming from a relegation. These are the guys who wouldn't sack Houllier when we was in the bottom 3. These are the guys who flat out ignored the protesters and went ahead to get their man.
They would probably shake his hand even if he relegated us. They're a bunch of soft clowns.
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'All the Aston Villa fans want to see is the players sweating blood which they did today.' Alexander McLeish. 13th February 2012.
Incorrect, Alex.
Has he said this tomorrow?
He said it on MOTD2.
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I can understand McLeish realising that we'd have to defend monumentally at times but having your starting position as a ''Be prepared to defend most of the time and make the most of the set-pieces we get'' is incredibly disappointing and a bit embarassing.
It was like a cup tie with Man City playing a League Two side. And yet we have the quality in attack to actually cause any team problems. There's a big difference between going gung-ho while getting murdered by them on the break and being positive and pressing them high up the pitch. We did it against Arsenal at home and were very unlucky to lose. We all thought that would be a seachange in how we play at home to the ''elite'' teams (as he calls them) after the tepid displays against Spurs, Liverpool and ManUre. Obviously not.
The midfield line-up was hopelessly wrong. Albrighton on the left is not his strong position and after being out for a few games the brawn of Zabaleta and De Jong was too much for him. Heskey worked hard but contributed so little going forward. Gardner and Petrov in the middle didn't work against Wolves with Clark being added in there for the second half. When you have Petrov and a young lad in the middle we need to go with a three in there. Barry completely ran the show in there today.
I felt bad for Robbie Keane aswell. His last home performance and he barely had a touch.
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I've spent the last week defending McCleish, then he goes and picks that god fucking awful formation with Heskey as some sort of Ormondroydesque target man on the wing, It was a miserable failure. He brought the subs on and had a go, but by then it was too late. Boooooooo!!!!
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'All the Aston Villa fans want to see is the players sweating blood which they did today.' Alexander McLeish. 13th February 2012.
Incorrect, Alex.
Has he said this tomorrow?
Ha ha, just taken me 8.5 hours to realise. What a tool I am.
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McLeish's thoughts on the game from Pravda (http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~2608675,00.html).
"Everton was good inspiration for us. We played very similar. Unfortunately for us we let one in and didn't get luck at the other end that Everton got on the night. "
He's putting it all down to bad luck.
He should stop digging. I think he's in personal crisis actually. Not what we need right now.
Up until now he has generally talked a good game but his post-match comments today are of a manager who has lost the plot. He looks and sounds like the pressure has got to him. If the next 4 matches do not go right for him, I can see him walking.
I don't think he will walk at all nor will he be sacked in the near future. Why walk away from £4million per annum?The only end to this nightmare is when Mr. Lerner admts he made a BIG mistake and gets rid of Faulkener and McLeish. In a year or two perhaps when crowds have dwindled and we've been fighting relegation (or been relegated) every season.
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When McLeish said "that we had a good game plan" does that mean at every time the ball went out of play that we slowed the game down. I watched Given take up to 45 seconds to take every goal kick - unbelievable i could understand it if we were playing at City...but surely not when we are at home!!!!
For me the performances of the team are getting worse, the next 4 games are the real test for McLeish
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I could never understand how my friends who support Small Heath hated McCluess when he had given them their highest postion for years,won a trophy and never lost at home. Now i know,as was feared the guy is so negative.I fear things are going to have get a lot worse before we are rid of him.Even if we were relegated i belive our also clueless chairman would not sack him and he would not quit.I wish there was some light at the end of the tunnel in this ever depressing season.
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Wigan away
Fulham at home
Bolton at home
Blackburn away
12 points there for the taking and under any other manager i would expect them
Useless muppet has not got a clue - the minute i saw heskey's name on the team sheet my heart sank
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Nightmare on Trinity Road continues :(
When will this 18 month saga end.
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No Alex we expect the players to sweat blood, that's a given. However we expect to try and win games as well.
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I usually try and leave it 24 hours after a match to see things clearly.
But I'm still seething. I will reiterate that I have no ill feeling towards McLeish but I cannot accept some of the things said and I will never accept a team trying to eek out a bore draw against anybody at Villa Park.
Apart from being naive, that a team so famously inept at defending recently could hold out for an entire match and keep a clean sheet against one of if not the best team in the league, it's just not acceptable to Villa fans to pay good money to see such unadventurous torturously dull sport. We are not Bolton or whoever. Our standards are a bit higher than this surely?
Running around sweating with barely an idea what to do is not what Villa fans expect Alex, no.
The frustrating thing is that Man City were actually sloppy and there for the taking had we shown more adventure. Other teams have had success against them recently by having a go at them. What they needed was a routine away victory with hardly a scare and thats what they got.
It makes my piss boil that we are so soft and obliging.
Where was the type of football we have seen against QPR, Chelsea, Arsenal etc? We know they can play so why not let them? Why are they so inconsistent?
And three (our best three perhaps) ball playing midfielders were on the bench with the team on the pitch having little idea what to do with the ball. Just a lack of direction from top to bottom. It all smells a bit rotten.
A big month ahead. If something doesn't improve drastically there will have to be major changes and gentleman or not, he'll have to go.
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I usually try and leave it 24 hours after a match to see things clearly.
But I'm still seething. I will reiterate that I have no ill feeling towards McLeish but I cannot accept some of the things said and I will never accept a team trying to eek out a bore draw against anybody at Villa Park.
Apart from being naive, that a team so famously inept at defending recently could hold out for an entire match and keep a clean sheet against one of if not the best team in the league, it's just not acceptable to Villa fans to pay good money to see such unadventurous torturously dull sport. We are not Bolton or whoever. Our standards are a bit higher than this surely?
Running around sweating with barely an idea what to do is not what Villa fans expect Alex, no.
The frustrating thing is that Man City were actually sloppy and there for the taking had we shown more adventure. Other teams have had success against them recently by having a go at them. What they needed was a routine away victory with hardly a scare and thats what they got.
It makes my piss boil that we are so soft and obliging.
Where was the type of football we have seen against QPR, Chelsea, Arsenal etc? We know they can play so why not let them? Why are they so inconsistent?
And three (our best three perhaps) ball playing midfielders were on the bench with the team on the pitch having little idea what to do with the ball. Just a lack of direction from top to bottom. It all smells a bit rotten.
A big month ahead. If something doesn't improve drastically there will have to be major changes and gentleman or not, he'll have to go.
Yep this was no different to the Spurs game and it is completely unacceptable and Mcleish's comments after the game show how desperately out of touch he is.
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I have been a vehement defender of AM, not because of any particular fondness of him or his managerial style, but as someone willing to give someone a chance and see gradual improvement but now I'm worried.
Continual goals conceded from set plays, Heskey on the right wing? a right footed player on the left?
The body language of the players yesterday spoke volumes and whilst they should be playing for their own pride and inflated wages I can't help but think this is going to end in tears for us.
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McLeish has just not learnt any lessons. Arsenal home should have been the catalyst. We had a go and the team were clapped off. Why the hell has he not stuck to that approach?
I thought Gardner did ok yesterday but he should not have been put in that kind of game with Silva running the show. To be fair I though Barry was excellent for them and made Petrov look like my grandad breathing out of arse chasing shadows.
I have come to the conculsion that McLeish will never win the fans over and the sooner this sorry affair is over the better.
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Once again a team beats us at Villa park without having to get out of 1st gear.
I wouldn't have minded if City had played slick attacking football and beat us with flair and skill but they didn't have too, we just rolled over! Exactly the same as the Man united game.
It looks like our game plan was to was to tell shay to kick it too Heskey and then just hope we get a set piece which would give us an attempt on goal.
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I haven't read the thread so my apologies if this has already been said. I don't think the manager got much wrong tactically. Heskey was a good selection as he plays the defensive covering in front of the full back role better than Nzogbia who hasn't got the discipline to play in any position consistantly enough, and,conversely Mcleish also put him on at the right time when we were trying to to equalise. Ditto Ireland and Albrighton. No one will argue about the dropping of Warnock I assume.
It could be argued that we were unlucky not to get a point with Carlos's miss and Harts save from Bent which was England quality.
I thought AM was tactically spot on, for a match against an obviously better side.
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I haven't read the thread so my apologies if this has already been said. I don't think the manager got much wrong tactically. Heskey was a good selection as he plays the defensive covering in front of the full back role better than Nzogbia who hasn't got the discipline to play in any position consistantly enough, and,conversely Mcleish also put him on at the right time when we were trying to to equalise. Ditto Ireland and Albrighton. No one will argue about the dropping of Warnock I assume.
It could be argued that we were unlucky not to get a point with Carlos's miss and Harts save from Bent which was England quality.
I thought AM was tactically spot on, for a match against an obviously better side.
Disagree you should never set up at home not to win the game, especially given that we desperately need a win at home. We were not remotely unlucky.
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I haven't read the thread so my apologies if this has already been said. I don't think the manager got much wrong tactically. Heskey was a good selection as he plays the defensive covering in front of the full back role better than Nzogbia who hasn't got the discipline to play in any position consistantly enough, and,conversely Mcleish also put him on at the right time when we were trying to to equalise. Ditto Ireland and Albrighton. No one will argue about the dropping of Warnock I assume.
It could be argued that we were unlucky not to get a point with Carlos's miss and Harts save from Bent which was England quality.
I thought AM was tactically spot on, for a match against an obviously better side.
Are you related to AM?
OR
Are you from the same planet as him?
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You can't blame Heskey as he tries hard,puts a shift in,but he should never have been picked. When you play against City its gonna be tight in midfield,you need players with quick feet and quick brains,Emile has neither of these,Bannan,Ireland or Nzogbia would be better.
I just couldn't see what our tactics were,we were so deep,Keane and Bent were miles away from the rest of the team,and always surrounded by City players.
We probably only need three wins to give us a good cushion but all the confidence of the team is being sucked out by the managers negative tactics.
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I haven't read the thread so my apologies if this has already been said. I don't think the manager got much wrong tactically. Heskey was a good selection as he plays the defensive covering in front of the full back role better than Nzogbia who hasn't got the discipline to play in any position consistantly enough, and,conversely Mcleish also put him on at the right time when we were trying to to equalise. Ditto Ireland and Albrighton. No one will argue about the dropping of Warnock I assume.
It could be argued that we were unlucky not to get a point with Carlos's miss and Harts save from Bent which was England quality.
I thought AM was tactically spot on, for a match against an obviously better side.
I agree.
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With Heskey in the team you know the tactics will be hoof, flick, concede possession. I thought we'd moved on from that - against QPR Given didn't kick a single long ball and we retain possession. How hard can it be?
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I haven't read the thread so my apologies if this has already been said. I don't think the manager got much wrong tactically. Heskey was a good selection as he plays the defensive covering in front of the full back role better than Nzogbia who hasn't got the discipline to play in any position consistantly enough, and,conversely Mcleish also put him on at the right time when we were trying to to equalise. Ditto Ireland and Albrighton. No one will argue about the dropping of Warnock I assume.
It could be argued that we were unlucky not to get a point with Carlos's miss and Harts save from Bent which was England quality.
I thought AM was tactically spot on, for a match against an obviously better side.
I agree.
I do too. Where AM went wrong was not bringing Heskey off earlier for N'Zog. We offered a threat when he was on the pitch.
I thought we defended very well for large parts and looked solid from set pieces up until the goal.
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I haven't read the thread so my apologies if this has already been said. I don't think the manager got much wrong tactically. Heskey was a good selection as he plays the defensive covering in front of the full back role better than Nzogbia who hasn't got the discipline to play in any position consistantly enough, and,conversely Mcleish also put him on at the right time when we were trying to to equalise. Ditto Ireland and Albrighton. No one will argue about the dropping of Warnock I assume.
It could be argued that we were unlucky not to get a point with Carlos's miss and Harts save from Bent which was England quality.
I thought AM was tactically spot on, for a match against an obviously better side.
I agree.
I do too. Where AM went wrong was not bringing Heskey off earlier for N'Zog. We offered a threat when he was on the pitch.
I thought we defended very well for large parts and looked solid from set pieces up until the goal.
Add me to the list.
Some games you have to make sure you stay in them before you think about winning them. We defended as well as we have done all season and had chances.
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I haven't read the thread so my apologies if this has already been said. I don't think the manager got much wrong tactically. Heskey was a good selection as he plays the defensive covering in front of the full back role better than Nzogbia who hasn't got the discipline to play in any position consistantly enough, and,conversely Mcleish also put him on at the right time when we were trying to to equalise. Ditto Ireland and Albrighton. No one will argue about the dropping of Warnock I assume.
It could be argued that we were unlucky not to get a point with Carlos's miss and Harts save from Bent which was England quality.
I thought AM was tactically spot on, for a match against an obviously better side.
I agree.
I do too. Where AM went wrong was not bringing Heskey off earlier for N'Zog. We offered a threat when he was on the pitch.
I thought we defended very well for large parts and looked solid from set pieces up until the goal.
Add me to the list.
Some games you have to make sure you stay in them before you think about winning them. We defended as well as we have done all season and had chances.
That's pretty much exactly what I said to my brother post match, and it's an approach that's yielded positve results for both Everton and Sunderland against them recently.
It's not really want you want to see, but it is reality I'm afraid.
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I thought Heskey had a very good game ( except he won little in the air). He certainly put in a hard working shift and did exactly what he was asked to do. Defend the defenders.
But..... He should not have been asked to. He should not have been on the park. We should have had a formation designed to take the game to them. Whoever they are. We did it against Arsenal. And this team actually looks good when we go forward and we showed that when Heskey went off. Why wait to go behind before applying pressure? The chances came after he went off and we became more creative, faster and more positive.
So, sorry I cannot agree. Lee , John , Andrew.
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I thought Heskey had a very good game ( except he won little in the air). He certainly put in a hard working shift and did exactly what he was asked to do. Defend the defenders.
But..... He should not have been asked to. He should not have been on the park. We should have had a formation designed to take the game to them. Whoever they are. We did it against Arsenal. And this team actually looks good when we go forward and we showed that when Heskey went off. Why wait to go behind before applying pressure? The chances came after he went off and we became more creative, faster and more positive.
So, sorry I cannot agree. Lee , John , Andrew.
I can understand the points of view of Lee, John and Andrew, but at the same time, I cannot agree-And are we not forgetting-Heskey is a striker who never scores. Or creates a goal. So why on earth would he ever play?
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I do think we missed Clark yesterday.
The worrying thing for me was that Carlos looked better than Warnock and axctually got forward quite a lot in the second half. Unfortunately his left leg is that of a dead mans so any opportunities to deliver a decent cross was never there.
Petrov though for me looked so off the pace and out of his depth and the midfield was where we lost it. Ireland needed to start as we couldn't hold a ball.
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The chances we had were in the last few minutes. Apart from that there was nothing. No intention of attacking, counter attacking or keeping the ball. I'm strugging to see what the tactics were apart from defend and hope for the best.
So no, I can't accept we were tactically anything other than naive and negative. What if we'd had a go at them with more intent?
We had our skirt lifted and they left with easy 3 points. At Villa Park.
They had appalling amounts of space to play in front of us. We retreated with so readily we made the Republican guard look like Spartans. I can not accept this.
Yes, I know they're a good team and we couldn't be cavalier but cavalier was the complete other end of the spectrum to what we were.
Why can other teams with no more ability than we have, let's call them Everton for example, have a go at them and yet we decide we cannot, when it has already been clearly established this season that we are not a team that can defend and that if we do have a strong suit, it's attacking?
How many times do we have to learn this lesson? How many times does McLeish have to learn it?
I've been advocating patience with regards to him but it's that kind of stupidity, naivety and negligence that makes any defence of him very difficult indeed.
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The chances we had were in the last few minutes. Apart from that there was nothing. No intention of attacking, counter attacking or keeping the ball. I'm strugging to see what the tactics were apart from defend and hope for the best.
So no, I can't accept we were tactically anything other than naive and negative. What if we'd had a go at them with more intent?
We had our skirt lifted and they left with easy 3 points. At Villa Park.
They had appalling amounts of space to play in front of us. We retreated with so readily we made the Republican guard look like Spartans. I can not accept this.
Yes, I know they're a good team and we couldn't be cavalier but cavalier was the complete other end of the spectrum to what we were.
Why can other teams with no more ability than we have, let's call them Everton for example, have a go at them and yet we decide we cannot, when it has already been clearly established this season that we are not a team that can defend and that if we do have a strong suit, it's attacking?
How many times do we have to learn this lesson? How many times does McLeish have to learn it?
I've been advocating patience with regards to him but it's that kind of stupidity, naivety and negligence that makes any defence of him very difficult indeed.
Pretty much how I see it. We should be playing to our strengths, which at the moment is scoring goals. Going out with that mentality against them yesterday gave us hardly any hope of succeeding considering we can't defend.
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I'm past being angry but when we can only be bothered to play football with 5 minutes left on the clock we will lose the game. And yes I know the tactics the team were sent out with were so negative it is untrue!
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I'd also like to add that I didn't think Heskey played well at all. A few flick ons from long punts and covering his full back, excuse me if I keep the bunting and ticker tape in the drawer. The rest of the time he was so pedestrian and lacking in movement he did a good imitation of a lampost.
However, thats a minor incidental, yesterdays result was down to the Manager running scared of the opposition and reverting to type rather than following up on the encouraging performances of the last 8 weeks. Pathetic and he'd better not repeat it at Wigan or Blackburn or I'm firmly moving into the get him out camp.
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I'd also like to add that I didn't think Heskey played well at all. A few flick ons from long punts and covering his full back, excuse me if I keep the bunting and ticker tape in the drawer. The rest of the time he was so pedestrian and lacking in movement he did a good imitation of a lampost.
However, thats a minor incidental, yesterdays result was down to the Manager running scared of the opposition and reverting to type rather than following up on the encouraging performances of the last 8 weeks. Pathetic and he'd better not repeat it at Wigan or Blackburn or I'm firmly moving into the get him out camp.
Agree with the first bit.
Get him out and replace him with who?
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But wasn't he right to be 'scared' of the opposition ?
It's easy to be wise after the event as well, and we lost anyway, but if we'd gone 'gung ho' from the start, picked N'zogbia,Bannen, Ireland and Warnock (he attacks better than Carlos but big deal eh) we would have been battered, they would have picked us off easily and Warnock would have contrived for them a soft goal.
But I agree if he sets up the same next time against Wigan, then that would be unacceptable.
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There are many many degrees of seperation between gung ho and scared.
And no, he was not right to be scared. Wary, certainly but terrified to the point of no ambition (at home?) and trusting in keeping a clean sheet (something we manage to avoid against lesser teams) is stupidity.
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Has it ever worked when he's taken this approach?
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Why does it have to be either '10-man defence' or 'gung-ho'? Is there nothing in between? I was very dismissive of the protesters, but if we don't start trying to win games against the decent teams, I might be joining them soon.
As others have said, McLeish is completely wrong to say that all Villa fans want is hard work (sweating blood or whatever). That nonsense didn't even wash with the bluenoses & it's completely missing the point.
Hard work is a given, it's the positive attitude that we want to see. Someone needs to tell him, as he's obviously under the impression that we clapped them off after Arsenal just because we worked hard.
Edit:- Posted before I saw Mazrim's
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If we were going to keep things tight he should of gone with 5 in midfield like them becuase Keane was a waste of time yesterday due to the tactics.How did he expect Bent and Keane to single handly break through city's defence.
An extra midfielder would have at least helped us keep possession.Heskey tracked back well but when he is on the pitch we hoof alot more.
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'All the Aston Villa fans want to see is the players sweating blood which they did today.' Alexander McLeish. 13th February 2012.
Incorrect, Alex.
I think he has a point, we've never been like say Spurs who despite achieving next to nothing over the last 30 years have always insisted their team play 'the right way'. The only positive I can take from yesterday is that more and more Villa fans are now demanding we play better football. Hopefully this will in future be an important factor when it comes to recruiting the next manager and the type of players we buy.
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Anyone watch the big screen which showed us beat City 4-2? Gabby's 7 minute hat trick. I was watching that and thought to myself "them were the days" and "look where we are now". Now I just get depressed the more and more I watch us play. I fully blame the manager.
Also, did any one see the 2 banners held up in the north stand lower? wasnt too far from where I was sitting. I thought of of the guys was gonna kick of big time with one of the stewards who asken them to take it down.
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I've been away all weekend and thought we must have done pretty well to only lose 1-0 when I heard the result. Coming on here this morning is a shock to the system finding out how bad we played, the team selection and the negative tactics used by AM.
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'All the Aston Villa fans want to see is the players sweating blood which they did today.' Alexander McLeish. 13th February 2012.
Incorrect, Alex.
I think he has a point, we've never been like say Spurs who despite achieving next to nothing over the last 30 years have always insisted their team play 'the right way'. The only positive I can take from yesterday is that more and more Villa fans are now demanding we play better football. Hopefully this will in future be an important factor when it comes to recruiting the next manager and the type of players we buy.
I don't think anyone's asking for 'carpet' football, or to play in some sort of pre-defined style, such as Spurs. The complaint is that we're not going out there with the right attitude to win the game - it's a totally different argument.
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I've been away all weekend and thought we must have done pretty well to only lose 1-0 when I heard the result. Coming on here this morning is a shock to the system finding out how bad we played, the team selection and the negative tactics used by AM.
I think McLeish is hoping the same thing -
With Randy not attending games, to have only lost 1-0 we must have played well....
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Wasn't Randy supposed to be in attendance?
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Lerner will watch the games whether he's there or not and whatever you think of him will not be impressed at all. I'm not sure what he'll do about it but he won't just accept it. Nor should he.
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I'm past being angry but when we can only be bothered to play football with 5 minutes left on the clock we will lose the game. And yes I know the tactics the team were sent out with were so negative it is untrue!
At least when fans are angry I suppose they are still passionate. Surely the worry the club should have is if fans move from angry into not bothered territory. That's when they stop buying tickets.
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I haven't read the thread so my apologies if this has already been said. I don't think the manager got much wrong tactically. Heskey was a good selection as he plays the defensive covering in front of the full back role better than Nzogbia who hasn't got the discipline to play in any position consistantly enough, and,conversely Mcleish also put him on at the right time when we were trying to to equalise. Ditto Ireland and Albrighton. No one will argue about the dropping of Warnock I assume.
It could be argued that we were unlucky not to get a point with Carlos's miss and Harts save from Bent which was England quality.
I thought AM was tactically spot on, for a match against an obviously better side.
I agree.
I do too. Where AM went wrong was not bringing Heskey off earlier for N'Zog. We offered a threat when he was on the pitch.
I thought we defended very well for large parts and looked solid from set pieces up until the goal.
Add me to the list.
Some games you have to make sure you stay in them before you think about winning them. We defended as well as we have done all season and had chances.
That's pretty much exactly what I said to my brother post match, and it's an approach that's yielded positve results for both Everton and Sunderland against them recently.
It's not really want you want to see, but it is reality I'm afraid.
I'm in your camp! :)
I tried convincing the faithful last night, however i quickly retired to watch wild at heart to keep the missus happy!
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It's also how we played against Man U, Spurs and Liverpool, where we also lost meekly. Conversely when N'Zogbia and Ireland both started we beat Chelsea at the bridge 3-1 and performed admirably v Arsenal. I cannot understand why we didn't follow suit in our approach v City.
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Playing for a draw is a sure fire way to get beaten. I'd rather we had a go at the opposition and get stuffed than suffer the garbage that was served up yesterday. It was a pathetic display against a strangely, out of sorts Man City. The manager's defeatist attitude ensured an easy afternoon for them.
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It's also how we played against Man U, Spurs and Liverpool, where we also lost meekly. Conversely when N'Zogbia and Ireland both started we beat Chelsea at the bridge 3-1 and performed admirably v Arsenal. I cannot understand why we didn't follow suit in our approach v City.
Especially when you look at their recent away results.
I'm not saying we should have beaten them. I am saying we should have at least tried. The lack of ambition was really embarassing to watch.
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Players don't like playing for draws. It's not motivating at all. It's basically saying to them "We dont trust you to be able to beat these guys. You are impotent and substandard but try and get something at least." How can we expect players to go out and express themselves after that?
To me, playing for a draw is somthing you might decide during a match, not prior to it. Every game is different. How do you know your players wont be "on it" and your opposition "having a mare" before a ball is kicked?
It is anathema to me in particular. I've always despised defeatist pessimistic attitude.
Whatever our fortunes, Aston Villa should never fear an opponent and certainly not at Villa Park.
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It's all about winning though isn't it and then if not winning not losing. I want Villa to play free flowing attacking footy, who wouldn't, but I want wins more than anything. Which is why I tolerated much of the MON era. I want wins first I don't care how we get them, in fact although I've posted differently above I'd settle for a bag of shite, negitive dross performance at Wigan and a one nil win. In fact I'd settle for that always.
I watched Everton beat Man City recently and they played almost the same as we did yesterday, except they had a deflected winner and held on. No one from Everton complained about the style of the win.
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I haven't read the thread so my apologies if this has already been said. I don't think the manager got much wrong tactically. Heskey was a good selection as he plays the defensive covering in front of the full back role better than Nzogbia who hasn't got the discipline to play in any position consistantly enough, and,conversely Mcleish also put him on at the right time when we were trying to to equalise. Ditto Ireland and Albrighton. No one will argue about the dropping of Warnock I assume.
It could be argued that we were unlucky not to get a point with Carlos's miss and Harts save from Bent which was England quality.
I thought AM was tactically spot on, for a match against an obviously better side.
Are you related to AM?
I've just noticed this, lol.
It's bad enough being a Villa fan at the moment let alone Scottish, how very dare you !
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The reason he tried those tactics yesterday, and also why he's tried them frequently before, is because of the Carling Cup win of last year.
He seems to ill understand that those sort of tactics will let you down 9 times out of 10.
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I don't want to discourage anyone from trying to be positive about the performance, but the best I can say is: that was yesterday. We have the rest of the season to show that we've learned from it.
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It's all about winning though isn't it and then if not winning not losing. I want Villa to play free flowing attacking footy, who wouldn't, but I want wins more than anything. Which is why I tolerated much of the MON era. I want wins first I don't care how we get them, in fact although I've posted differently above I'd settle for a bag of shite, negitive dross performance at Wigan and a one nil win. In fact I'd settle for that always.
I watched Everton beat Man City recently and they played almost the same as we did yesterday, except they had a deflected winner and held on. No one from Everton complained about the style of the win.
Everton have a capable defence of holding on, but lack attacking options so it made sense. We on the other hand have a circus defence, but have attacking quality in the team, yet McLeish thought it was a good idea to neglect them and stick with his circus who has let him down time and time again?
He's absoutely stupid and out of his depth in this league because he's just wasting our potenial threat. I wonder what Ireland must have thought sitting on the bench despite being in good form lately, while watching Heskey being played ahead of him against his former club and he gets called a few minutes left in the game where we need to get an equaliser, not a winner, an actual equaliser at home. It must have been soul destroying.
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I don't want to discourage anyone from trying to be positive about the performance, but the best I can say is: that was yesterday. We have the rest of the season to show that we've learned from it.
True enough.
Although yesterday wasn't the first time we've tried that, and he didn't learn anything from that. Oh, and his inteview after the game sounded like he thought it went excellently.
I am trying to work out if two weeks till the next game is a good thing or a bad thing.
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I don't want to discourage anyone from trying to be positive about the performance, but the best I can say is: that was yesterday. We have the rest of the season to show that we've learned from it.
Its not 'we' who have to learn from it, its the management
If it was the first time it had happened I would say that maybe they can learn from it, but its not.
How much more evidence do they need before they change things?
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Sometimes reading threads on this site, I get the feeling that people take pleasure in the Villa losing just to bolster their argument.
So very sad.
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I don't want to discourage anyone from trying to be positive about the performance, but the best I can say is: that was yesterday. We have the rest of the season to show that we've learned from it.
Its not 'we' who have to learn from it, its the management
If it was the first time it had happened I would say that maybe they can learn from it, but its not.
How much more evidence do they need before they change things?
You are right of course, and as soon as the line-up appeared on the pre-match thread plenty of people saw it coming.
But I say `we' because Aston Villa is always `we'.
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I don't want to discourage anyone from trying to be positive about the performance, but the best I can say is: that was yesterday. We have the rest of the season to show that we've learned from it.
True enough.
Although yesterday wasn't the first time we've tried that, and he didn't learn anything from that. Oh, and his inteview after the game sounded like he thought it went excellently.
I am trying to work out if two weeks till the next game is a good thing or a bad thing.
Couldn't agree more Paulie. Hopefully the one good thing about the next game being 2 weeks off is that Gabby's got a better chance of being fit
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Someone mentioned that they thought Randy was over yesterday, and I believe he was over for Liverpool and Manure. I wonder if it is a ploy by AMc to show how poor his team is to get money out of Randy in the summer. So if Randy is over, expect a containment team plan, and if he isn't we go out a bit more attack minded.
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Liverpool, Manure and City ...so Randy turns up for for GIANTS Alex does not.
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Brilliant,i think Bent was a bit deeper though!
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I didn't watch it or listen to it (thank god) but read the whole of the match thread on here whilst watching the rugby. The one thing that stood out for me is after a very poor season with some of the worst football I have witnessed as a villa fan, the attempt at pre match positivity by posters on here.
But boy does a Villa game do the trick for draining that positivity out of people.
I think despite popular opinion Villa fans aren't negative but more realists. We call a spade a spade and can spot a turd a mile off. And Alex McLeish is definitely a turd, he is not up to it. The 'silent majority' spotted this when he was appointed, but stayed silent. But he should go now, I was willing to give him time, and of course wanted him to do well (why wouldn't I?). If Randy can't see that then he should pack off too.
Football should be there to keep us interested and offer some entertainment to take our minds off the more difficult things life throws our way. TBH I'd rather be at work than watch a Villa game at the moment (hell I have had more fun at funerals), and that's saying something.
McLeish has to go, and if its not quickly Randy should go too. I don't think this would be too much of a hardship for him as he doesn't seem that interested in turning up to the games of the football team that he owns. When the going gets tough, he seems to find a big rock somewhere in America to crawl under.
And don't even get me started on Faulkner, he has a house on my parents road in Sutton, and I have a nagging urge to post printed off match threads from here through his letter box. Inept.