AVFC statement - McLeish sacked.

[ktvillan]

You see some green shoots from AM every now and then like yesterday, the first half against Blackburn, signs of good passing football, the young players getting bedded in etc.   And then you see some dreadful, ambitionless, negative anti football.   The problem with AM is you always get the feeling the latter is his natural tendency, that he is battling his natural safety first urges,  and that he will always revert to type, especially against someone he thinks is better than Villa, or when the pressure is on.   And for me that is not good enough for Aston Villa.

[markeeeebeeee2005]

Should the title of the thread be reset too?

[Legion]

If someone suggest an alternative, I'll amend it.

[RossLeach]

If someone suggest an alternative, I'll amend it.

"We need to talk about Alex..." thread?

[Greg N'Ash]

I'd go with "For those who want to slag Mcleish off but are finding it a bit awkward after yesterday" Thread.

[Legion]

I was tempted to change it to "Alex McLeish's Claret and Blue Army!" but thought better of it.

[Ad@m]

Credit where it's due - yesterday's win was a direct result of decisions AML made as all three substitutes were involved in the goal.

Despite him sticking with the 451 formation we dominated for the majority of yesterday's game and should've won by more.  Fulham were really poor.

That said, although we dominated we don't have much of a cutting edge without Bent up front.  Yesterday doesn't change AML's inherent tactical flaws.

[supertom]

As much as I dislike AM's tactics and style of football I do feel that without Bent he's got a real struggle on his hands to find goals. We don't have enough attacking quality. Debate will rage as to how well he'd use it if we did have better attacking players, but yeah, I don't see us doing much better than the odd 1 goal margin victories, and a lot of draws.
On the positive, we're starting to look resolute again. At least in his first month or two, McLeish had us looking tough to beat.

Personally we need players more consistent and reliable than N'Zogbia and Ireland. Both are mercurial, and I'd rather swap them for attacking players who can give you 7/10 every week minimum. I'd love to get Milner back. He wasn't a technical god but he always gave his all. Alby needs to be more consistent too. Plus a midfield driving force would be good. Someone experienced with plenty left in the tank. I love Stan, but his legs have gone.

Maybe once we're better sorted and AM's team becomes more his own we might see more consistent, attacking football. At the very least, if we're gonna be defence first, then we need that to be more effective. Lets face it, AM is staying. We may as well support him and keep em crossed and hope for the best. I don't want to waste so much time moaning, it's depressing.

[Des Little]

Agree that 4-5-1 was too negative for such a game, however McLeish should be given credit for the changes and not coming out and telling his dissenters to fcuk off.  It would be nice to see a truce on all this substitution booing malarkey for a while, it really doesn't help matters much *puts tin hat on and logs off*

[paul_e]

As I understand it petrov only came off because he was injured, is that a change he'd have made otherwise?  Going on the games up until then I'd suggest not.

As mentioned before we've been here before following the chelsea game where he'd stumbled onto a strategy that was effective and had us playing decent football but his natural instincts took over and we went negative as soon we came up against a side with any attacking threat.  On top of that he changed that team mainly to accommodate Keane, letting a single signing have such an effect on the setup of the team at such an important time was naive and it proved totally ineffective.

I want to see some evidence of a plan on his part of how we're going to be better next season.  The only thing i can determine is that the plan is to sell some players on big wages and get in replacements on lower wages.  If this involves the right kind of players then fine, but suggesting bosmans and the odd paid for signing doesn't fill me with optimism.

[ozzjim]

Home form needs to be the priority now. We need to build on this and turn Villa Park into a fortress and get the fans back onside.

I just looked at the table there. It's hard to fathom that with 33 points at this stage of the season we are a full 11 points clear of the relegation zone and just six points off seventh. McLeish needs to galvanise the players for a John Gregory 97/98 style finish from here. We can easily pip Liverpool to seventh if we go out looking for a few big wins.

He's had the chance to do this before - after the win at Chelsea, and he spunked away the raised spirit by reverting to type and going defensive in the very next game.

I hope he's learned a lesson from that.

Three points yesterday is the biggest relief I've felt in ages. Thank God for that. It doesn't change the fact, though, that the guy is slowly sapping the spirit out of the support. The best thing the club can do is admit they made a mistake, and sack him this summer. Another season like this one doesn't bear thinking about.

I think part of my frustration is that we are a better team, despite the issues that the squad has than the points we have on the board, and with the table so bunched up, there was a real opportunity to be up there in 6-8th this season by just getting 2-3 more home wins on the board.

[Fergal]

I was tempted to change it to "Alex McLeish's Claret and Blue Army!" but thought better of it.

keep it the same but resetting the Poll after every game and recording what it was prior to that will give us an idea of how support for him is changing over time.

[TheSandman]

Also i have been impressed with hutton and warnock over the last 3 games, they seem to have found some form and the defence has been much more secure - if we can get a win against bolton that will make us virtually safe and hopefully ease the tension a bit,would like to see gardner and weimann given a few games in the run in .

In fairness he has genuinely been pretty decent lately. Not excellent, but good enough, a somewhat dramatic transformation for the walking disaster area he had been earlier on.

As for the thread it might be worth resetting the poll though I don't think it can prove anything beyond the f*****ness of some football fans. I still think we need a clearer set of options. Sack now, Sack in the summer or Keep.

My personal opinion hasn't really changed after yesterday. A good result and a positive performance it almost certainly was but we have seen that before this season (all too rarely) and have failed to build on them. If we draw confidence and form from yesterday's result and genuinely improve over the rest of the season then I will not be unhappy to see AM continue. As it stands, being one performance, then I'm not sure it is enough evidence to justify a change of stance and would be very surprised if it has changed many people's stance. It is just that, as Greg says, it makes it more difficult to knock him or demand his sacking.

[Rigadon]

I'd say fuck the poll off altogether until the end of the season or go with "We're not fickle we might just change our minds after every single game (unless we win)."

[Legion]

Thread title amended. Poll can be added should it be required.