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

[taylorsworkrate]

If I'm proven wrong, I'm proven wrong, but I think he is building something good at VP.

Based on what exactly?

Based on the fact he wants to be at the club, the Football can be extremely good to watch at times (admittedly at others it is appalling) and the fact that he is blooding our youngsters in the right way.

I think a lot of it is just positive feeling I have for some reason. I could well be proved wrong, I'd rather not be, but I can see us doing something pretty good this season. Position doesn't say that at the moment, but optimism is a fantastic thing.

The football has been good to watch in a very small percentage of the games. The norm though has been for it to be abysmal. The "performances" against Spurs, Man U, Liverpool and Swansea were as painful to watch as anything served up in the last 20 years.

The showing against Chelsea was outstanding, but is definitely starting to look the anomaly.

[JUAN PABLO]

still makes me laugh when people talk about us losing are best twp players, admittedly Young was a super player who we cant replace straight away, but Downing ?

in the pub watching Liverpool last night, packed out with Liverpool fans, absolutley hated Downing, they were going mad at the useless article, far worse than any stick we give our players, at times it was almost violent abuse, LOL

 the bloke is the biggest waste of 20 mill ever, i know we didnt reinvest so it makes it all academic, but to talk about Downing as though he would make any difference to our current team is rubbish, he would be totally invisable in our team this year, he had no bottle anyways, he would be of no use at all.

my mate just posted me this ..

Alright John… slowly but surely, i'm starting to see your point of view… game by game, Downing has got worse!! He is so safe and is really wet. He was bloody awful tonight, and doesn't like a risk…

[ROBBO]

Finally got to watch the replay, was struck by the crowd response to Ireland being subbed, it was all round the ground. How does a manager come back from something like that, it must weaken his position with the players.

[TonyD]

Downing cost more that CNZ and should be delivering the goods for LFC considering they have a 10ft giant in the box for him to aim at

I couldn't give a stuff what Downing is or isn't doing at Liverpool.  The fact is that other than two or three half decent games, N'Zogbia has delivered diddly squat in a Villa shirt so far.

There are quite a few players underperforming this season.  I wonder why that is?

[Chris Smith]

If I'm proven wrong, I'm proven wrong, but I think he is building something good at VP.

Based on what exactly?

Based on the fact he wants to be at the club, the Football can be extremely good to watch at times (admittedly at others it is appalling) and the fact that he is blooding our youngsters in the right way.

I think a lot of it is just positive feeling I have for some reason. I could well be proved wrong, I'd rather not be, but I can see us doing something pretty good this season. Position doesn't say that at the moment, but optimism is a fantastic thing.

The football has been good to watch in a very small percentage of the games. The norm though has been for it to be abysmal. The "performances" against Spurs, Man U, Liverpool and Swansea were as painful to watch as anything served up in the last 20 years.

The showing against Chelsea was outstanding, but is definitely starting to look the anomaly.

Of recent games most performances have been better; Bolton, Arsenal, Stoke and Chelsea and even the Swansea game was not as bad as you're suggesting. Terrible goals conceded but in the first half in particular we played some good football.

We're an improving team but we're miles from being the finished article and it is inevitable that there will be ups and downs along the way.

[Chris Smith]

Finally got to watch the replay, was struck by the crowd response to Ireland being subbed, it was all round the ground. How does a manager come back from something like that, it must weaken his position with the players.

It was a daft reaction. Ireland has hardly played any football recently, the Chelsea game was his first 90 minutes and he was visibly tiring.

[not3bad]

The showing against Chelsea was outstanding, but is definitely starting to look the anomaly.

Not really.  Villa were unlucky not to get anything against Arsenal, a match in which they played just as well as they did against Chelsea.  That's two good performances against the so-called 'big six' - teams which many people were saying we wouldn't even bother trying against this season.

[JUAN PABLO]

I thought we were rubbish against Swansea to be honest and I thought Stoke were awful .

[Concrete John]

If I'm proven wrong, I'm proven wrong, but I think he is building something good at VP.

Based on what exactly?

Based on the fact he wants to be at the club, the Football can be extremely good to watch at times (admittedly at others it is appalling) and the fact that he is blooding our youngsters in the right way.

I think a lot of it is just positive feeling I have for some reason. I could well be proved wrong, I'd rather not be, but I can see us doing something pretty good this season. Position doesn't say that at the moment, but optimism is a fantastic thing.

The football has been good to watch in a very small percentage of the games. The norm though has been for it to be abysmal. The "performances" against Spurs, Man U, Liverpool and Swansea were as painful to watch as anything served up in the last 20 years.

The showing against Chelsea was outstanding, but is definitely starting to look the anomaly.

Of recent games most performances have been better; Bolton, Arsenal, Stoke and Chelsea and even the Swansea game was not as bad as you're suggesting. Terrible goals conceded but in the first half in particular we played some good football.

We're an improving team but we're miles from being the finished article and it is inevitable that there will be ups and downs along the way.

I'd agree with most of that, but the common thread running through those games is that comedy defending has cost us the points our performances might otherwise have deserved.  Whatever McLeish may or may not be building at VP, we'll never see the finished article until he and the team start getting the basics right. 

[Chris Smith]

I thought we were rubbish against Swansea to be honest and I thought Stoke were awful .

Then I don't think you were paying proper attention. We weren't great but then "great" and "rubbish" are not the only options. We nullified Stoke and played the better football on the night.

 

[Mazrim]

I'd say we were comfortably better than Stoke and should have nicked it.

[JUAN PABLO]

I thought we were rubbish against Swansea to be honest and I thought Stoke were awful .

Then I don't think you were paying proper attention. We weren't great but then "great" and "rubbish" are not the only options. We nullified Stoke and played the better football on the night.

 

yes we did , which wasn't actually hard to play the better football.  I just thing think AMC should have had the balls to get the 3 points instead of settling for a draw .  Yes , a point normally is good at Stoke , but they were rubbish.

[not3bad]

I thought we were rubbish against Swansea to be honest and I thought Stoke were awful .

Then I don't think you were paying proper attention. We weren't great but then "great" and "rubbish" are not the only options. We nullified Stoke and played the better football on the night.

 

yes we did , which wasn't actually hard to play the better football.  I just thing think AMC should have had the balls to get the 3 points instead of settling for a draw .  Yes , a point normally is good at Stoke , but they were rubbish.

Mcleish could have been more positive in his substitutions towards the end of the Stoke game.  However he was more postive in the Chelsea match so it could be argued he learned his lesson.  Then again it was back to square one against Swansea.

[JUAN PABLO]

I thought we were rubbish against Swansea to be honest and I thought Stoke were awful .

Then I don't think you were paying proper attention. We weren't great but then "great" and "rubbish" are not the only options. We nullified Stoke and played the better football on the night.

 

yes we did , which wasn't actually hard to play the better football.  I just thing think AMC should have had the balls to get the 3 points instead of settling for a draw .  Yes , a point normally is good at Stoke , but they were rubbish.

Mcleish could have been more positive in his substitutions towards the end of the Stoke game.  However he was more postive in the Chelsea match so it could be argued he learned his lesson.  Then again it was back to square one against Swansea.

maybe two steps back

[Dave Clark Five]

I thought we were rubbish against Swansea to be honest and I thought Stoke were awful .

Then I don't think you were paying proper attention. We weren't great but then "great" and "rubbish" are not the only options. We nullified Stoke and played the better football on the night.

 

yes we did , which wasn't actually hard to play the better football.  I just thing think AMC should have had the balls to get the 3 points instead of settling for a draw .  Yes , a point normally is good at Stoke , but they were rubbish.

Mcleish could have been more positive in his substitutions towards the end of the Stoke game.  However he was more postive in the Chelsea match so it could be argued he learned his lesson.  Then again it was back to square one against Swansea.

There was never a draw option against Chelsea. It was shit or bust and McLeish got it bang on at the right time.
It is debatable whether the inclusion of Bent instead of Albrighton against Swansea was our downfall.
If McLeish had dropped Bent he would have been wrong in many eyes. A classic case of 'damned if you do and damned if you don't'. My own view remains that Bent does not do enough, service or no service. He had a half chance in front of the Holte End and should have done better. Those sort of chances are where serious goal poachers need to get results. They can't just be tap ins.
On a superstitious point, I think we were doomed when we lost the toss and had to kick towards the Holte in the first half. If anybody has the analysis of what percentages of games we don't win, where we kick towards the Holte in the first half, I would like to see it.