Aston Villa v Manchester United Post-Match Thread

[Louzie0]

We showed a bit of fight when heskey came on.  We were over the halfway line for a lot of the play after he came on.  Emile is not universally appreciated but my goodness I appreciate his effect on a team.

Not his fault that the forwards couldn't score.  We had chances.  He was part of the build-up to score, altho we didn't and that's not his fault as he was in the build-up not in the final shooting position.  He is a superb team player.

I am not convinced that all of our players want to win.  In the second half, on more than a few occasions when Brad |Guzan ended up with the ball and lined up for a big goal kick upfield, there were 5 or 6 players around him walking slowly in the general direction of attack.  That's not an attack. That's apathy.  Why are they even playing this match if they're not bothered what happens if the GK launches a ball upfield?

I saw (ESPN) AMc going spare in the dugout.  If he was going spare because he saw the ambling rather than any  purposeful movement then good on him.

Alex- My advice is, once you have identified the little liggers just shoot them, with non-fatal pellets of course, but enough to galvanise them into action, next match.

Otherwise I really liked the way the team played, especially Gabby.
 

[Walmley_Villa]

Very poor and laughable at times. Heskey coming on was a highlight as it livened everybody up waiting for the comedy to begin.
This really could end up very badly.

Concerned of Walmley

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Scott Murray on the Guardian minute-by-minute: "That was possibly the worst game of football ever played. No blame attached to United, who did what they had to do, away from home. Villa, however, were nothing short of an ambition-free disgrace. Premier League football isn't cheap, and their fans deserve better entertainment than that. The home fans - the ones who could be bothered to stay until the end - boo their team off. To repeat a question from the first half: I wonder how long this Alex McLeish business will last?"

And that's a neutral. Says it all really.

We are getting absolutely slated on Premier League TV and rightly so. I could forgive us if Spursaway was a one off but today confirmed it wasn't. Ferguson must love us, his players will be fresh for the CL game in the week, they never had to go out of second gear today.

We deserved to be criticised for that level of performance. We are a club founded on the ethic of competition, we saw no competitiveness or desire to compete against them. AM should be ashamed for exploiting the fans.

I am sure Ferguson is pleased with our appointment and performance. But we must remember, it is only because he managed Birmingham City that there is discontent. Fucking moron.

Fucking moron? Come again.

[Greg N'Ash]

Tonight was dire. I'm surprised AM didn't throw a white towel on the pitch at half time and get it called off. I'm sure you'll hear the  "it was manu ,we can't match them at the moment" arguement from the usual suspects but frankly they were pedestrian. hardly got into gear. The defence is crap, and they really should have been thrown out in the summer. Dunne was in the paper again today, telling how he didn't like the way his pals Warnock and Ireland were treated by GH. Well they were shit and so were you David - he can treat them/you anyway he felt fit as far as i'm concerned,. And as for claiming it was him who turned round the clubs form last season and not the management. Well, There's no GH to blame now David,  and you're still shit. Heskey, that chance he fluffed - you'd have rather it had gone to an opposition player because there's more chance of an own goal than him putting it away. Totally inept.  As for AM, well he's a dead man walking, hasn't got a chance with this squad of players and frankly he looks totally out of his depth.. I think the chickens from the last 3 years are on their way back and will come into roost about mid-Jan. Its gonna be messy.

[Tony]

Terrible first half, better second half. I don't understand why we won't mark, we won't close down and we won't tackle, for all of the negatives with McLeish's style of football, the one thing I expected him to sort out was workrate, it just wasn't there at all in the first half.

Then we do come to the tactics, I thought it was almost tactical genius as we were so utterly inept in the first half that it seemed to confuse United who seemed to forget it was a premier league game and lost their flow. We had a couple of half chances in the second half to sneak a point, from one of the worst home performances I've ever seen that would have been some result.

Why are we hoofing the ball to Bent? Why are the midfield so far away from Bent? That wasn't a negative lineup, but they made it look negative. Our passing is shocking, to be fair to McLeish this isn't his fault, but he should be making strides to sort it out, our ball retention is a disgrace, is there a worse passing side in the top two divisions?

[olaftab]

This was the worst United team I have seen at VP for a few years however they faced possibly the most inept  Villa team I have seen since  DOL's last season. The match was rubbish  and we were mostly pathetic.
I thought initially after hearing the team and the "new midfield" that Eck has accepted we would lose this game and decided to rest Petrov, Heskey and N'Zogbia. I am not sure if this selection  was influenced by SAF's comments earler in the week?
However heard later that  N'Zogbia had been left out for  a club code of conduct violation  reasons. That sounds ominous!

It's clear that our midfield can not function without Petrov. Herd  was not effective today but that is OK  however when Petrov came on we were a better team.  Jenas's injury means that he is  not the solution for that composed player we need.
We did not function as a team and possibly gave United the easiest ride thay have had here at VP for some time now. Last season was a draw and as far as I know we did not lose to them  here under MON.

Eck is really turning us into a Bolton/Sunderland/Stoke stay in PL and job done type of team. It is very depressing.

[MarkM]

When the Manchester fans sang "you support a load of shit" I couldn't really argue with them

[Phil from the upper holte]

I was speaking to a guy in the pub who reckons he knows the kit man..he reckons all the players are unhappy well its probably Bollocks but I'm unhappy. These clowns are a disgrace to the shirt. Mcleish is a disgrace. Did anyone see Dunne go mad saying to mcshit what do you want me to do. ??

I'm starting to hate bein a villa fan

[Legion]

Terrible first half, better second half. I don't understand why we won't mark, we won't close down and we won't tackle, for all of the negatives with McLeish's style of football, the one thing I expected him to sort out was workrate, it just wasn't there at all in the first half.

Then we do come to the tactics, I thought it was almost tactical genius as we were so utterly inept in the first half that it seemed to confuse United who seemed to forget it was a premier league game and lost their flow. We had a couple of half chances in the second half to sneak a point, from one of the worst home performances I've ever seen that would have been some result.

Why are we hoofing the ball to Bent? Why are the midfield so far away from Bent? That wasn't a negative lineup, but they made it look negative. Our passing is shocking, to be fair to McLeish this isn't his fault, but he should be making strides to sort it out, our ball retention is a disgrace, is there a worse passing side in the top two divisions?

This.

[CJ]

Just back. I'm almost lost for words. I was encouraged when the team was announced but all that happened was different names doing the same shit jobs following the same shit tactics. Manure didn't need to break sweat. First half it was everyone behind the ball so every time we cleared an attack it was hoofed away and came straight back. I thought with that midfield we might play it out from defence. I was wrong. Second half was better (how low have my expectations dropped?), but the miss from Heskey when Bent was free in the area to his left just summed it all up. Fall over and send the shot for a throw-in.

Pathetic, gutless, talentless shite - and this is all he knows to serve up

I've given McLeish the benefit of the doubt to take us through a transition season, but the football he serves up is just dross. With him in charge there's only one place we're going - the Championship. My patience has worn out. I want him gone from my club

[swiss1968]

Was in the lower holte next to some turd tourist who had to look at the scoreboard to see who the Villa players were,apart from watching heskey be motm !!!roll on Bolton next week lol..

[olaftab]

It's not that I don't care (which I'm sure/I hope you aren't suggesting). But to get worked up about individual performances you have to at least harbour some hope about the outcome. I would have put my house on us losing today and playing crap football. We don't have the players, or the tactics, or the collective will, to do anything else.

No I would not suggest that.  Hope is dying for me as well. Yes I also had an indifferent view about the match. I thought we would lose and hey presto  our players and manager did nothing to prove me wrong and delight me.

[KevinGage]

Another gutless, ambition-free performance against the worst Man United side in years.

The second half was marginally more bearable than the first. The first half was like watching a constant loop of us defending corners in which we don't leave a single man up field, Collins hoofing it 40 yards up field and the ball coming back at us.

If it isn't the depressing negativity of it, it is the fact we look utterly clueless as to what we want to do.

Randy needs to wake up and stop deluding himself that there is a chance this will work. It will not. It was a bewildering appointment, and he has dropped a gigantic bollock here. Today was the first time I have felt real widespread anger in the crowd, and that is going to get worse.

Five points from the last seven games is not just relegation form, it is relegated by March form.

The club is sleepwalking towards disaster, alienating the fans while it does so, and the chairman is utterly fucking oblivious.

A shambles from top to bottom.

As usual Paulie spot on with that. I can't take that sort of performance, what on earth has Randy done. Mcleish seems like a decent man, but he is absolutely 100% certainly not the right man to manage Aston Villa on any level. He must go and Villa need a football man on the board to sort this mess out and get the right man in. He doesn't fucking need Premier League experience either, that is a load of bollocks and completely unnecessary.

Well quite.

How does pretty underwhelming Premier League experience in the form of two relegations trump that of a guy coming in with a degree of success from a foreign league?  (A strong, competitive one, before anyone mentions Scotland).

To me, PL experience may be desirable, may be preferable even.   But it shouldn't be essential.  As the folly of this appointment has proved.

[Ads]

When the Manchester fans sang "you support a load of shit" I couldn't really argue with them

And they support a shit Man City.

One crumb of comfort is to know that finally those wankers are nowhere near good enough to the league and won't be for many years.

[PeterWithesShin]

My biggest concern over AM right now is that as the season is progressing we are looking more and more inept and I can't see anything that indicates he or we can turn things round.
Our passing is still shit, as is our movement off the ball. We rarely shoot, our main tactic still seems to be, close you eyes, lump it forward and pray a miracle happens.