Aston Villa v Manchester City Post-Match Thread

[Walmley_Villa]

McLeish has just not learnt any lessons. Arsenal home should have been the catalyst. We had a go and the team were clapped off. Why the hell has he not stuck to that approach?
I thought Gardner did ok yesterday but he should not have been put in that kind of game with Silva running the show. To be fair I though Barry was excellent for them and made Petrov look like my grandad breathing out of arse chasing shadows.
I have come to the conculsion that McLeish will never win the fans over and the sooner this sorry affair is over the better.

[mrfuse]

Once again a team beats us at Villa park without having to get out of 1st gear.

I wouldn't have minded if City had played slick attacking football and beat us with flair and skill but they didn't have too, we just rolled over! Exactly the same as the Man united game.

It looks like our game plan was to was to tell shay to kick it too Heskey and then just hope we get a set piece which would give us an attempt on goal.

[andrew08]

I haven't read the thread so my apologies if this has already been said. I don't think the manager got much wrong tactically. Heskey was a good selection as he plays the defensive covering in front of the full back role better than Nzogbia who hasn't got the discipline to play in any position consistantly enough, and,conversely Mcleish also put him on at the right time when we were trying to to equalise. Ditto Ireland and Albrighton. No one will argue about the dropping of Warnock I assume.

It could be argued that we were unlucky not to get a point with Carlos's miss and Harts save from Bent which was England quality.

I thought AM was tactically spot on, for a match against an obviously better side.

[PaulWinch again]

I haven't read the thread so my apologies if this has already been said. I don't think the manager got much wrong tactically. Heskey was a good selection as he plays the defensive covering in front of the full back role better than Nzogbia who hasn't got the discipline to play in any position consistantly enough, and,conversely Mcleish also put him on at the right time when we were trying to to equalise. Ditto Ireland and Albrighton. No one will argue about the dropping of Warnock I assume.

It could be argued that we were unlucky not to get a point with Carlos's miss and Harts save from Bent which was England quality.

I thought AM was tactically spot on, for a match against an obviously better side.

Disagree you should never set up at home not to win the game, especially given that we desperately need a win at home. We were not remotely unlucky.

[AvFc4eVeR]

I haven't read the thread so my apologies if this has already been said. I don't think the manager got much wrong tactically. Heskey was a good selection as he plays the defensive covering in front of the full back role better than Nzogbia who hasn't got the discipline to play in any position consistantly enough, and,conversely Mcleish also put him on at the right time when we were trying to to equalise. Ditto Ireland and Albrighton. No one will argue about the dropping of Warnock I assume.

It could be argued that we were unlucky not to get a point with Carlos's miss and Harts save from Bent which was England quality.

I thought AM was tactically spot on, for a match against an obviously better side.

Are you related to AM?

OR

Are you from the same planet as him?

[garyshawsknee]

You can't blame Heskey as he tries hard,puts a shift in,but he should never have been picked. When you play against City its gonna be tight in midfield,you need players with quick feet and quick brains,Emile has neither of these,Bannan,Ireland or Nzogbia would be better.

I just couldn't see what our tactics were,we were so deep,Keane and Bent were miles away from the rest of the team,and always surrounded by City players.

We probably only need three wins to give us a good cushion but all the confidence of the team is being sucked out by the managers negative tactics.

[LeeB]

I haven't read the thread so my apologies if this has already been said. I don't think the manager got much wrong tactically. Heskey was a good selection as he plays the defensive covering in front of the full back role better than Nzogbia who hasn't got the discipline to play in any position consistantly enough, and,conversely Mcleish also put him on at the right time when we were trying to to equalise. Ditto Ireland and Albrighton. No one will argue about the dropping of Warnock I assume.

It could be argued that we were unlucky not to get a point with Carlos's miss and Harts save from Bent which was England quality.

I thought AM was tactically spot on, for a match against an obviously better side.

I agree.

[CJ]

With Heskey in the team you know the tactics will be hoof, flick, concede possession. I thought we'd moved on from that - against QPR Given didn't kick a single long ball and we retain possession. How hard can it be?

[Brend'Watkins]

I haven't read the thread so my apologies if this has already been said. I don't think the manager got much wrong tactically. Heskey was a good selection as he plays the defensive covering in front of the full back role better than Nzogbia who hasn't got the discipline to play in any position consistantly enough, and,conversely Mcleish also put him on at the right time when we were trying to to equalise. Ditto Ireland and Albrighton. No one will argue about the dropping of Warnock I assume.

It could be argued that we were unlucky not to get a point with Carlos's miss and Harts save from Bent which was England quality.

I thought AM was tactically spot on, for a match against an obviously better side.

I agree.

I do too.  Where AM went wrong was not bringing Heskey off earlier for N'Zog.  We offered a threat when he was on the pitch.

I thought we defended very well for large parts and looked solid from set pieces up until the goal. 

[Concrete John]

I haven't read the thread so my apologies if this has already been said. I don't think the manager got much wrong tactically. Heskey was a good selection as he plays the defensive covering in front of the full back role better than Nzogbia who hasn't got the discipline to play in any position consistantly enough, and,conversely Mcleish also put him on at the right time when we were trying to to equalise. Ditto Ireland and Albrighton. No one will argue about the dropping of Warnock I assume.

It could be argued that we were unlucky not to get a point with Carlos's miss and Harts save from Bent which was England quality.

I thought AM was tactically spot on, for a match against an obviously better side.

I agree.

I do too.  Where AM went wrong was not bringing Heskey off earlier for N'Zog.  We offered a threat when he was on the pitch.

I thought we defended very well for large parts and looked solid from set pieces up until the goal. 

Add me to the list.

Some games you have to make sure you stay in them before you think about winning them.  We defended as well as we have done all season and had chances. 

[LeeB]

I haven't read the thread so my apologies if this has already been said. I don't think the manager got much wrong tactically. Heskey was a good selection as he plays the defensive covering in front of the full back role better than Nzogbia who hasn't got the discipline to play in any position consistantly enough, and,conversely Mcleish also put him on at the right time when we were trying to to equalise. Ditto Ireland and Albrighton. No one will argue about the dropping of Warnock I assume.

It could be argued that we were unlucky not to get a point with Carlos's miss and Harts save from Bent which was England quality.

I thought AM was tactically spot on, for a match against an obviously better side.

I agree.

I do too.  Where AM went wrong was not bringing Heskey off earlier for N'Zog.  We offered a threat when he was on the pitch.

I thought we defended very well for large parts and looked solid from set pieces up until the goal. 

Add me to the list.

Some games you have to make sure you stay in them before you think about winning them.  We defended as well as we have done all season and had chances. 

That's pretty much exactly what I said to my brother post match, and it's an approach that's yielded positve results for both Everton and Sunderland against them recently.

It's not really want you want to see, but it is reality I'm afraid.

[Simba]

I thought Heskey had a very good game ( except he won little in the air). He certainly put in a hard working shift  and did exactly what he was asked to do. Defend the defenders.

But..... He should not have been asked to. He should not have been on the park. We should have had a formation designed to take the game to them. Whoever they are. We did it against Arsenal. And this team actually looks good when we go forward and we showed that when Heskey went off. Why wait to go behind before applying pressure? The chances came after he went off and we became more creative, faster and more positive.

So, sorry I cannot agree. Lee , John , Andrew.

[Axl Rose]

I thought Heskey had a very good game ( except he won little in the air). He certainly put in a hard working shift  and did exactly what he was asked to do. Defend the defenders.

But..... He should not have been asked to. He should not have been on the park. We should have had a formation designed to take the game to them. Whoever they are. We did it against Arsenal. And this team actually looks good when we go forward and we showed that when Heskey went off. Why wait to go behind before applying pressure? The chances came after he went off and we became more creative, faster and more positive.

So, sorry I cannot agree. Lee , John , Andrew.

I can understand the points of view of Lee, John and Andrew, but at the same time, I cannot agree-And are we not forgetting-Heskey is a striker who never scores. Or creates a goal. So why on earth would he ever play?

[Walmley_Villa]

I do think we missed Clark yesterday.

The worrying thing for me was that Carlos looked better than Warnock and axctually got forward quite a lot in the second half. Unfortunately his left leg is that of a dead mans so any opportunities to deliver a decent cross was never there.

Petrov though for me looked so off the pace and out of his depth and the midfield was where we lost it. Ireland needed to start as we couldn't hold a ball.

[Mazrim]

The chances we had were in the last few minutes. Apart from that there was nothing. No intention of attacking, counter attacking or keeping the ball. I'm strugging to see what the tactics were apart from defend and hope for the best.
So no, I can't accept we were tactically anything other than naive and negative. What if we'd had a go at them with more intent?

We had our skirt lifted and they left with easy 3 points. At Villa Park.
They had appalling amounts of space to play in front of us. We retreated with so readily we made the Republican guard look like Spartans. I can not accept this.
Yes, I know they're a good team and we couldn't be cavalier but cavalier was the complete other end of the spectrum to what we were.
Why can other teams with no more ability than we have, let's call them Everton for example, have a go at them and yet we decide we cannot, when it has already been clearly established this season that we are not a team that can defend and that if we do have a strong suit, it's attacking?

How many times do we have to learn this lesson? How many times does McLeish have to learn it?
I've been advocating patience with regards to him but it's that kind of stupidity, naivety and negligence that makes any defence of him very difficult indeed.