Villa Striker Has Fewest Premier League Touches

[mrfuse]

I know from a totally reliable source that he didn't buy Zigic, it was a "gift" from the owners, he wanted to spend the money elsewhere.

Still he seems to suit McLeish's current style of play

[Greg N'Ash]

So we have a manager who may be worried about dropping some of senior guard or telling them to stop hoofing it according to some, and also lets his chairman buy players for him. If any of that is true he's needs to grow some balls and quickly if he wants a viable career as a manager. He may not have noticed but his career prospects weren't exactly A1 when he joined us and if he fails here there's nowhere to go and he'll be standing on a pitch next to Southgate and Keane doing pre-match summarising for the rest of his life. If you're gonna get the sack, you might as well get it managing the team your way Alex.

[Simba]

Seems to me that he is managing the team his way. And that way is the same way he Managed Birmingham, irrespective of the totally different squad of players. Apparently it was the same turgid stuff at Rangers.

I am still smarting from Barnes's comment after the Utd game:

" You can play that kind of football at Birmingham but not a Club like Aston Villa. "  Quite right too.

[Greg N'Ash]

well the players ignoring his instructions bit doesn't ring true but then certain individuals tried it with Houllier last season by their own admission so who knows.

[SoccerHQ]

I'll refrain away from the McLeish basing for a bit to just ask...why oh why didn't we sign Bent at any time under MON?!

I think if we'd have him, we'd have got 4th in 2009 or 2010.

People slagging him off are missing the point, he's absolutely the right forward for us, we've just signed him at the wrong time. He would've been brilliant in an MON team imo with all the crosses flying in every 5 seconds.

[Chris Smith]

Seems to me that he is managing the team his way. And that way is the same way he Managed Birmingham, irrespective of the totally different squad of players. Apparently it was the same turgid stuff at Rangers.

I am still smarting from Barnes's comment after the Utd game:

" You can play that kind of football at Birmingham but not a Club like Aston Villa. "  Quite right too.

Have you just made that up about Rangers? They won the title scoring over 100 times in the process.

[JUAN PABLO]

Seems to me that he is managing the team his way. And that way is the same way he Managed Birmingham, irrespective of the totally different squad of players. Apparently it was the same turgid stuff at Rangers.

I am still smarting from Barnes's comment after the Utd game:

" You can play that kind of football at Birmingham but not a Club like Aston Villa. "  Quite right too.

Have you just made that up about Rangers? They won the title scoring over 100 times in the process.

Wigan could probably score 100 goals in that league

[Chris Smith]

Then how come it doesn't happen every season?

[pauliewalnuts]

Getting a team playing decent football when managing Rangers in that tin pot league is one thing, being able to do it in our league is another thing entirely.

As AM found out when he came down here.

[ktvillan]

From Yahoo website:  "Bent's five goals have come from just 11 shots on target, giving him a conversion rate that is actually slightly better than the league's top scorer Robin Van Persie." 

Now if we could only find a midfiled and some tactics capable of delivering the ball into the box a bit more often....

[Lobsterboy]

From Yahoo website:  "Bent's five goals have come from just 11 shots on target, giving him a conversion rate that is actually slightly better than the league's top scorer Robin Van Persie." 

Now if we could only find a midfiled and some tactics capable of delivering the ball into the box a bit more often....

I read on Twitter this morning that Cavani has scored 4 Champions League goals for Napoli from only 4 shots on target, sounds like the sort of conversion rate we need if this lack of creativity continues...

[SoccerHQ]

I remember McLeish was getting untold stick at Rangers at one point, didn't they finish 3rd under him one season?

And if you look back I'm sure some of Rangers champions league performances were probably pretty negative although maybe not as much as the one that got to the Uefa cup final under Walter Smith a few years ago.

In defence of McLeish though, he did bring Arteta to Britain and got him playing well so it's not like he can't identify creative players, he just has trouble forming a team that can do it.

[Simba]

Seems to me that he is managing the team his way. And that way is the same way he Managed Birmingham, irrespective of the totally different squad of players. Apparently it was the same turgid stuff at Rangers.

I am still smarting from Barnes's comment after the Utd game:

" You can play that kind of football at Birmingham but not a Club like Aston Villa. "  Quite right too.

Have you just made that up about Rangers? They won the title scoring over 100 times in the process.

I said " apparently it was the same turgid stuff".  I didn't quote his stats and thus it was not a definitive attack. However, I stick by it, as according to both Rangers fans and pundits the footy was poor, in the same "turgid' sort of style as Blues and us and finishing third in that league didn't win him plaudits. That is not making anything up is it.

 I am more interested in how he has managed to turn us into Aston Heath.

[SamTheMouse]

I don't think Alex McLeish is very good as this football management lark.

As any fule kno, Heskey plays best with his back to goal, and Bent is best facing the goal. But every single game McLeish sends them out to do the opposite.

Now I'm just an armchair fan. And maybe I (and hundreds of other fans) are thick and no nothing about football, whereas McLeish being a former footballer himself is actually the holder of some arcane knowledge and is confident that Bent will turn into a target man and Heskey will morph into Francesco Totti. 

But somehow I doubt it.

[mal]

If the highlight of the season so far is a game where we let 2 in against a newly promoted Norwich team. But managed to score 3. We are going to be in big trouble.

Chatting to a Man U fan at work and he said the recent game was the worst they had played all season, and yet we could barely muster a shot.

Is an astute observation. On balance, I thought  the united game was the better watch. I expected to lose by 3 or 4 and up to Hernandez going off we were great. Even when they were on top they never looked like scoring several and unusually it was the red supporting fools I was watching with who were bricking it in the last 10 minutes - they were sure we were going to score (god knows why).  We did however nullify the 2nd best team in England for most of the game - the 'worst' they had played all season says something about our efforts - they had only 11 attempts 5 on target to our 7 and 3 and 11 attempts is not running riot.  Against Norwich they had 9 & 7 and we had 12 & 6.  and 12 attempts at home when you are winning is poor. We may have played some better football, but against inferior players.