Are We Alex McLeish's Claret & Blue Army Now?

[ez]

Clearly its not working. We are relying on McLeish becoming a better manager and theres no real evidence he has improved as one at our club. Still a shocking appointment all these months later.

[PeterWithesShin]

There's a potential 12 points there as none of those sides impress me at the moment. But I wouldn't be surprised if we only managed 1 or 2.

[Ad@m]

Just like Chelsea didn't change anything, today doesn't change anything either.

He's just got too defensive a mindset.  That worked at Chelsea because Chelsea wanted the 3 points and left gaps at the back chasing them.  Today, two defensive howlers left us chasing the game and at no point did we ever look like pushing Swansea back.  That is down to the manager's tactics and not individual errors.

With the squad we have and the current level of ambition shown by the owner we're not going to do better than midtable but with a different manager we might at least have more regular entertainment along the way. 

You also have to think about the owner's financial ambitions.  Four home defeats in a row and three home wins from 10 home matches is hardly going to either inspire new fans to attend VP or keep the ones who do go.  I couldn't make the Man U game so gave my ticket to a neutral friend of mine - the experience has put him off going to VP again this season.  This manager is going to do a lot of damage to the club in more ways than just poor results against poor teams like Swansea.

[Legion]

Swansea were not a poor team in comparison to us this afternoon.

[Ad@m]

Swansea were not a poor team in comparison to us this afternoon.

You're absolutely right but that's a bad comparison.  They are a poor side, they've just been promoted, they hadn't won away from home before today, and we shouldn't be giving them the easiest ride of their life.

[pauliewalnuts]

Just like Chelsea didn't change anything, today doesn't change anything either.

He's just got too defensive a mindset.  That worked at Chelsea because Chelsea wanted the 3 points and left gaps at the back chasing them.  Today, two defensive howlers left us chasing the game and at no point did we ever look like pushing Swansea back.  That is down to the manager's tactics and not individual errors.

With the squad we have and the current level of ambition shown by the owner we're not going to do better than midtable but with a different manager we might at least have more regular entertainment along the way. 

You also have to think about the owner's financial ambitions.  Four home defeats in a row and three home wins from 10 home matches is hardly going to either inspire new fans to attend VP or keep the ones who do go.  I couldn't make the Man U game so gave my ticket to a neutral friend of mine - the experience has put him off going to VP again this season.  This manager is going to do a lot of damage to the club in more ways than just poor results against poor teams like Swansea.

Hard to disagree with that.

[D.boy]

Swansea were far from poor and played some great football and deserved the 3 points. Dyer ran us ragged.

[KRS]

There's a potential 12 points there as none of those sides impress me at the moment. But I wouldn't be surprised if we only managed 1 or 2.

I'm looking at those fixtures and seeing 3 or 4 pts maximum. Everton will come to VP looking to win and dominate the game with Moyes looking up the table rather than down, Wolves away is always going to be a tough derby fixture so a draw is probably realistic, we will have a chance of beating QPR even if we play shit, and the away trip to Newcastle could be painful.

Its the games against Wolves and QPR that are really important...we're half way through the season and already looking at results against these 2 teams to keep us out of a relegation battle.

[pauliewalnuts]

Swansea were not a poor team in comparison to us this afternoon.

You're absolutely right but that's a bad comparison.  They are a poor side, they've just been promoted, they hadn't won away from home before today, and we shouldn't be giving them the easiest ride of their life.

We should at least have tried to press them to get the ball off them.

The only player i saw doing that with any regularity was Gabby.

[Phil from the upper holte]

Swansea were not a poor team in comparison to us this afternoon.

You're absolutely right but that's a bad comparison.  They are a poor side, they've just been promoted, they hadn't won away from home before today, and we shouldn't be giving them the easiest ride of their life.

We should at least have tried to press them to get the ball off them.

The only player i saw doing that with any regularity was Gabby.

Again, what would we do without him?

[andyh]

so, we have lost the last 4 games, big deal.
What do you expect when we keep coming up against giants (are Swansea considered giants ?)

[Toronto Villa]

Swansea were not a poor team in comparison to us this afternoon.

You're absolutely right but that's a bad comparison.  They are a poor side, they've just been promoted, they hadn't won away from home before today, and we shouldn't be giving them the easiest ride of their life.

We should at least have tried to press them to get the ball off them.

The only player i saw doing that with any regularity was Gabby.

It was a mirror image of the Chelsea game. We pressed Chelsea for pretty much 90 minutes, and today we did exactly the opposite. We were 2 yards off the pace to everything, and almost every player at some point miscontrolled the ball. Players like Petrov who are generally excellent at controlling the ball just weren't at the races. It's like every player took the night off. Very disappointing.

[nick harper]

We were just about the only side today  didn't make a significant number of changes to personnel. That was a gamble by AM and it backfired. You can't legislate for what Warnock did in the first 5 mins but the side looked like they were playing their second game in 2 days.

In fairness most of us wouldn't have changed anything, but it looked a bigger misjudgment the longer the game went on.

[Irish villain]

Did we have a hangover from Chelsea?

[Dante Lavelli]

He's just got too defensive a mindset.  That worked at Chelsea because Chelsea wanted the 3 points and left gaps at the back chasing them.  Today, two defensive howlers left us chasing the game and at no point did we ever look like pushing Swansea back.  That is down to the manager's tactics and not individual errors.

A month ago I would have agreed with that but today and versus chelsea I remember occasions where one of either Collins or Dunne went marauding forward.  So it strikes me that there has been a change of mentality from the team especially compared to the matches vs Spurs and Man U.   This has also coincided with an attempt to play better football.

Today we obviously fucked up but I'd still say the intent of the team was better than previous months.  I just hope we don't return to being the funless team that we saw originally under AMc.