Where will we finish?

[eastie]

Fulham won't be any pushover especially with their advanced match fitness. I'd take a draw now frankly. I hope AM has rebuilt the morale because a bad start and all the tensions could re-surface.

There are no pushovers as you well know gregory , but we should go to fulham believing we can get a result there , they are far from unbeatable and we have on paper a decent start fixture wise , lets hope we take advantage and pick up some points .

[Chris Smith]

Fulham won't be any pushover especially with their advanced match fitness. I'd take a draw now frankly. I hope AM has rebuilt the morale because a bad start and all the tensions could re-surface.

Funnily enough Jol was saying the other day that it wasn't the ideal preparation as playing competitive games hadn't allowed him to get all his squad up to speed.

Fulham is always a difficult place to go, so I wouldn't read too much into one result. Give it 6 or 7 games and we'll ave a better idea.

[Toronto Villa]

I saw very little new team spirit against Chelsea or Derby.   I think the whole thing of McLeish turning problem players into stars is a myth with no evidence to support it.   As has been posted many times already there will be players who think McLeish is the dog's bollocks when they get a pat on the back for putting the ball into Row ZZ and there will be others who will get pissed at bonding breaks and want to fight the staff because they are not first name on the team sheet every week.   There never was a manager who was popular with everybody in the squad.   The talent a manager has to have is to get the best out of the players who hate his guts.

So are you tipping Liverpool to go down Brian? They've spent massive amounts this summer and got battered at Hull and Galatasaray, and let a 3-1 lead slip at Valerenga. Where was their team spirit, because they all talk about how great it is to play for Liverpool and then went out and shit the bed? Or are we going to treat friendlies as what they are, and realize they are exercises, not real games?

[ASHTONVILLA]

So you think we're worse than Wolves and one of Wigan or Blackburn.

I watched us out play Blackburn just over a week ago.

McLeish is a worse manager than the managers of all those clubs. He proved this by taking Blues down, despite having had more to spend than any of them. He proved that when in the shit he did not have the management and motivation skills to pull them out of it. Whereas by contrast Martinez (who was a preferred choice for the Villa job by our board), McCarthy and Kean all did.

I woud say Blues had a better squad than all those teams last season. That Blues team looked gutless, which is why I doubt McLeish as a motivator.

I also doubt McLeish as a polisher of turds extraordinaire. He couldn't get Bentley and Hleb back to past form, so why do so many think he will get Ireland and Warnock back to past form?

Then there is the McLeish as a fantastic defensive organiser myth. That Blues team shipped more goals than us last year. There is no evidence that he is a good defensive organiser whatsoever. He put a lot of men behind the ball sure. Problem is the men he can put behind the ball at villa can't tackle, and are short. That approach wont work as well with our squad, and it didn't work that well in the past for him anyway (two relegations).

Sure we have some really good players, but as a squad we can't put out a team which doesn't have gaping flaws as regards winning the ball.  Frankly our team looks gutless, and that worries me.

[itbrvilla]

we're Aston Villa. We'll fuck it up some how x

There are not 15 clubs with better squads than us.

No but there are 15 squads with better managers and squads on par with ours.

How many managers in the league have won a trophy in England? Ferguson, Wenger, Dalglish, Mancini, Redknapp and...McLeish - can't think of any others (unless I've missed someone out).

The majority of the league would want Given, Dunne, Collins, Young, Warnock, N'Zogbia and Bent, with possibly a few others as well.

[eastie]

So you think we're worse than Wolves and one of Wigan or Blackburn.

I watched us out play Blackburn just over a week ago.

McLeish is a worse manager than the managers of all those clubs. He proved this by taking Blues down, despite having had more to spend than any of them. He proved that when in the shit he did not have the management and motivation skills to pull them out of it. Whereas by contrast Martinez (who was a preferred choice for the Villa job by our board), McCarthy and Kean all did.

I woud say Blues had a better squad than all those teams last season. That Blues team looked gutless, which is why I doubt McLeish as a motivator.

I also doubt McLeish as a polisher of turds extraordinaire. He couldn't get Bentley and Hleb back to past form, so why do so many think he will get Ireland and Warnock back to past form?

Then there is the McLeish as a fantastic defensive organiser myth. That Blues team shipped more goals than us last year. There is no evidence that he is a good defensive organiser whatsoever. He put a lot of men behind the ball sure. Problem is the men he can put behind the ball at villa can't tackle, and are short. That approach wont work as well with our squad, and it didn't work that well in the past for him anyway (two relegations).

Sure we have some really good players, but as a squad we can't put out a team which doesn't have gaping flaws as regards winning the ball.  Frankly our team looks gutless, and that worries me.

absolute drivel-mcleish has been a success at rangers and managed at international level, yes blues went down under him but you forgot to mention he also took them to their highest finish in 50 years and to their 1st trophy in 50 years as well, along with european qualification.

[Archie]

I am not too optimist, I must confess.
Apart from the manager, that brings us back to the Pre-history of football, where do we want to go with this defensive line: Young - Dunne - Collins - Warnock?
Our CB are ridicolous, I don't want to be disrespectful with a Villa player, so I won't say that, but the most famous commentator of the Italian Sky TV says that Dunne looks like a pub player.

I hope to be wrong but honestly I'm very very disappointed at the moment, never I would have espected to see again the most error-prone player in the world with the claret and blue shirt.

And the other defenders are not much better.

And our best youngsters, Supermark Albrighton and Barry Bannan were on the bench in the last friendly.

[citizenDJ]

http://www.football365.com/f365-features/7080282/Villa-Preview

Not a bad preview piece there from Football365.

[NeilH]

I think we will end up somewhere around 12th. We have lost our two most creative players and you do not bounce back easily from that. N’Zog is a good signing, but I have a bad feeling that Albrighton is going to struggle with the expectation this season and that will leave Bent very short of service to get the goals. It’s not all doom and gloom of course and maybe a good cup run will lift the mood, but I do have a very bad feeling that come May next year we are not going to be top dogs in the Midlands as the Stripy Filth finish higher than us.

[Risso]

Cheer up, we're up to the giddy heights of 2nd as it stands!

[Greg N'Ash]

In the Mail on Sunday, they reckoned the bookies had us finishing 8th. Their own preview was like the F365 one in that it predicted a stormy ride

[Matt C]

I went for 8th which is probably just about where we sit in the pecking order at the moment.

[hilts_coolerking]

absolute drivel-mcleish has been a success at rangers and managed at international level, yes blues went down under him but you forgot to mention he also took them to their highest finish in 50 years and to their 1st trophy in 50 years as well, along with european qualification.

That 9th was their highest finish for 50 years says a lot more about SHA than it does about McLeish.

I've gone for 12th by the way.

[Chris Smith]

So you think we're worse than Wolves and one of Wigan or Blackburn.

I watched us out play Blackburn just over a week ago.

McLeish is a worse manager than the managers of all those clubs. He proved this by taking Blues down, despite having had more to spend than any of them. He proved that when in the shit he did not have the management and motivation skills to pull them out of it. Whereas by contrast Martinez (who was a preferred choice for the Villa job by our board), McCarthy and Kean all did.

I woud say Blues had a better squad than all those teams last season. That Blues team looked gutless, which is why I doubt McLeish as a motivator.

I also doubt McLeish as a polisher of turds extraordinaire. He couldn't get Bentley and Hleb back to past form, so why do so many think he will get Ireland and Warnock back to past form?

Then there is the McLeish as a fantastic defensive organiser myth. That Blues team shipped more goals than us last year. There is no evidence that he is a good defensive organiser whatsoever. He put a lot of men behind the ball sure. Problem is the men he can put behind the ball at villa can't tackle, and are short. That approach wont work as well with our squad, and it didn't work that well in the past for him anyway (two relegations).

Sure we have some really good players, but as a squad we can't put out a team which doesn't have gaping flaws as regards winning the ball.  Frankly our team looks gutless, and that worries me.

He's the only one of those managers to win any trophies, where does that fit with your "proof"?

Your whole post is just nonsensical cherry picking of things that suit your ultra negative posturing while ignoring anything that doesn't fit.

[russon]

Some goon's put us as champions and others have us relegated but we're nailed on mid-table if you ask me, which you did, so there. 12th at best but could be lower. Crap season awaits, sorry for the negativity but we've an average squad and Given will need to be player of the season to keep our points total respectable.

Happy holidays, up the Villa!