Aston Villa v Manchester City Post-Match Thread

[Jockey Randall]

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.

Pretty much how I see it. We should be playing to our strengths, which at the moment is scoring goals. Going out with that mentality against them yesterday gave us hardly any hope of succeeding considering we can't defend.

[Simon Ward]

I'm past being angry but when we can only be bothered to play football with 5 minutes left on the clock we will lose the game. And yes I know the tactics the team were sent out with were so negative it is untrue!

[AV82EC]

I'd also like to add that I didn't think Heskey played well at all.  A few flick ons from long punts and covering his full back, excuse me if I keep the bunting and ticker tape in the drawer.  The rest of the time he was so pedestrian and lacking in movement he did a good imitation of a lampost.

However, thats a minor incidental, yesterdays result was down to the Manager running scared of the opposition and reverting to type rather than following up on the encouraging performances of the last 8 weeks.  Pathetic and he'd better not repeat it at Wigan or Blackburn or I'm firmly moving into the get him out camp.

[Pete3206]

I'd also like to add that I didn't think Heskey played well at all.  A few flick ons from long punts and covering his full back, excuse me if I keep the bunting and ticker tape in the drawer.  The rest of the time he was so pedestrian and lacking in movement he did a good imitation of a lampost.

However, thats a minor incidental, yesterdays result was down to the Manager running scared of the opposition and reverting to type rather than following up on the encouraging performances of the last 8 weeks.  Pathetic and he'd better not repeat it at Wigan or Blackburn or I'm firmly moving into the get him out camp.

Agree with the first bit.

Get him out and replace him with who?

[andrew08]

But wasn't he right to be 'scared' of the opposition ?

It's easy to be wise after the event as well, and we lost anyway, but if we'd gone 'gung ho' from the start, picked N'zogbia,Bannen, Ireland and Warnock (he attacks better than Carlos but big deal eh) we would have been battered, they would have picked us off easily and Warnock would have contrived for them a soft goal.

But I agree if he sets up the same next time against Wigan, then that would be unacceptable.

[Mazrim]

There are many many degrees of seperation between gung ho and scared.

And no, he was not right to be scared. Wary, certainly but terrified to the point of no ambition (at home?) and trusting in keeping a clean sheet (something we manage to avoid against lesser teams) is stupidity.

[pauliewalnuts]

Has it ever worked when he's taken this approach?

[Tony Boucher]

Why does it have to be either '10-man defence' or 'gung-ho'?  Is there nothing in between?  I was very dismissive of the protesters, but if we don't start trying to win games against the decent teams, I might be joining them soon.

As others have said, McLeish is completely wrong to say that all Villa fans want is hard work (sweating blood or whatever).  That nonsense didn't even wash with the bluenoses & it's completely missing the point.
Hard work is a given, it's the positive attitude that we want to see.  Someone needs to tell him, as he's obviously under the impression that we clapped them off after Arsenal just because we worked hard.

Edit:- Posted before I saw Mazrim's

[David_Nab]

If we were going to keep things tight he should of gone with 5 in midfield like them becuase Keane was a waste of time yesterday due to the tactics.How did he expect Bent and Keane to single handly break through city's defence.

An extra midfielder would have at least helped us keep possession.Heskey tracked back well but when he is on the pitch we hoof alot more.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

'All the Aston Villa fans want to see is the players sweating blood which they did today.'  Alexander McLeish.  13th February 2012.

Incorrect, Alex.

I think he has a point, we've never been like say Spurs who despite achieving next to nothing over the last 30 years have always insisted their team play 'the right way'. The only positive I can take from yesterday is that more and more Villa fans are now demanding we play better football. Hopefully this will in future be an important factor when it comes to recruiting the next manager and the type of players we buy.

[Rick_avfc]

Anyone watch the big screen which showed us beat City 4-2?  Gabby's 7 minute hat trick.  I was watching that and thought to myself "them were the days" and "look where we are now".  Now I just get depressed the more and more I watch us play.  I fully blame the manager.

Also, did any one see the 2 banners held up in the north stand lower?  wasnt too far from where I was sitting.  I thought of of the guys was gonna kick of big time with one of the stewards who asken them to take it down.

[KRS]

I've been away all weekend and thought we must have done pretty well to only lose 1-0 when I heard the result. Coming on here this morning is a shock to the system finding out how bad we played, the team selection and the negative tactics used by AM.

[Tony Boucher]

'All the Aston Villa fans want to see is the players sweating blood which they did today.'  Alexander McLeish.  13th February 2012.

Incorrect, Alex.

I think he has a point, we've never been like say Spurs who despite achieving next to nothing over the last 30 years have always insisted their team play 'the right way'. The only positive I can take from yesterday is that more and more Villa fans are now demanding we play better football. Hopefully this will in future be an important factor when it comes to recruiting the next manager and the type of players we buy.

I don't think anyone's asking for 'carpet' football, or to play in some sort of pre-defined style, such as Spurs.  The complaint is that we're not going out there with the right attitude to win the game - it's a totally different argument.

[Walmley_Villa]

I've been away all weekend and thought we must have done pretty well to only lose 1-0 when I heard the result. Coming on here this morning is a shock to the system finding out how bad we played, the team selection and the negative tactics used by AM.

I think McLeish is hoping the same thing -
With Randy not attending games, to have only lost 1-0 we must have played well....

[Tony Boucher]

Wasn't Randy supposed to be in attendance?