AVFC statement - McLeish sacked.

[rob_bridge]

With the likes of Reading and Saints coming up, we will see fewer fans at Villa Park as they are not the best supported clubs in the world. Every penny will be gratefully accepted.  As someone said in another thread, how long will it take for Randy to realise that McLeish isn't financially viable.  Losing fans etc.  No wonder Stan is telling us that Randy will spend heavily.  It's the only chance he's got of getting the fans back on board.

Don't think that's relevant at all, with the exception of Wolves none of the clubs in danger who they'll replace are likely to bring many fans or attract many casual Villa fans.

I have seen Southampton and Reading in the flesh this season and they will be two more teams who play much better football than us as long as McDuff is still in charge.

I wouldn't trust McLeish to get the best out of any attacking players he buys. And I mean any.

[Fergal]

Regardless of today's result I still want him out.

[Monty]

Let's not get carried away about today, we scrapped our way to a draw at one of the most out-of-form teams in the league, a side who are barely a shadow of what they were. If we'd got that draw at, say, Everton or Newcastle (better sides than Liverpool this season, certainly in better form) people would be much more sceptical about that performance and result. The name 'Liverpool' is deceptive here - they have well and truly fallen. It certainly hasn't changed my mind about the manager.

[olaftab]

This was a draw against a team  that has lost 6 out of last 7. It is not really any redemption.

[pauliewalnuts]

Just caught the highlights, and crikey, we battled for that point.

The problem is, you can't play like that week in, week out, because you won't hold on often enough.

Most important thing today was to get something out of the game, but this bloke has got to be removed from the club as soon as possible, because regardless of who he buys this summer, and how much money he gets backed with, next season is going to be more of the same.

[dave.woodhall]

Let's not get carried away about today, we scrapped our way to a draw at one of the most out-of-form teams in the league, a side who are barely a shadow of what they were. If we'd got that draw at, say, Everton or Newcastle (better sides than Liverpool this season, certainly in better form) people would be much more sceptical about that performance and result. The name 'Liverpool' is deceptive here - they have well and truly fallen. It certainly hasn't changed my mind about the manager.

Remind us again of your prediction for this match against an out of form team who are a shadow of their former selves.

[PeterWithesShin]

I'm no fan of AM, but getting a point in a game where few thought we'd get anything other than a battering and still slaughtering him seems a tad OTT to me. 

[pauliewalnuts]

Let's not get carried away about today, we scrapped our way to a draw at one of the most out-of-form teams in the league, a side who are barely a shadow of what they were. If we'd got that draw at, say, Everton or Newcastle (better sides than Liverpool this season, certainly in better form) people would be much more sceptical about that performance and result. The name 'Liverpool' is deceptive here - they have well and truly fallen. It certainly hasn't changed my mind about the manager.

Remind us again of your prediction for this match against an out of form team who are a shadow of their former selves.

Why does it matter, though, that lots of us thought we'd get tonked, and we scraped a draw? In the wider picture it doesn't change anything, does it?

If Liverpool are out of form and a shadow of their former selves, what are we, slugging it out with Wigan and Bolton at the bottom?

[Greg N'Ash]

Let's not get carried away about today, we scrapped our way to a draw at one of the most out-of-form teams in the league, a side who are barely a shadow of what they were. If we'd got that draw at, say, Everton or Newcastle (better sides than Liverpool this season, certainly in better form) people would be much more sceptical about that performance and result. The name 'Liverpool' is deceptive here - they have well and truly fallen. It certainly hasn't changed my mind about the manager.

thats fair comment, but by the same token thats the weakest team we've taken up there in donkey's years. If they're a shadow of the old Liverpool then we're practically a ghost of our former selves. They're playing crap but frankly in terms of money spent and proven ability in their team they would expect to turn us over every time.  They didn't.

[Monty]

Let's not get carried away about today, we scrapped our way to a draw at one of the most out-of-form teams in the league, a side who are barely a shadow of what they were. If we'd got that draw at, say, Everton or Newcastle (better sides than Liverpool this season, certainly in better form) people would be much more sceptical about that performance and result. The name 'Liverpool' is deceptive here - they have well and truly fallen. It certainly hasn't changed my mind about the manager.

Remind us again of your prediction for this match against an out of form team who are a shadow of their former selves.

Well, I thought they'd have the vast majority of the play, we'd sit back and they'd win 2-0. We had a decent start, worked a half-chance, got ourselves a goal from it, they pushed basically the rest of the game, missed a few sitters, we scrapped a 1-1 draw.

PWS, I'm not slaughtering him, I just don't think the performance today was that good, we got a draw playing a way which has brought us defeats throughout the season and it hasn't really changed my opinion about the manager. I think this is a rational and objective response (not to say that all other responses are irrational).

[paul_e]

Let's not get carried away about today, we scrapped our way to a draw at one of the most out-of-form teams in the league, a side who are barely a shadow of what they were. If we'd got that draw at, say, Everton or Newcastle (better sides than Liverpool this season, certainly in better form) people would be much more sceptical about that performance and result. The name 'Liverpool' is deceptive here - they have well and truly fallen. It certainly hasn't changed my mind about the manager.

Remind us again of your prediction for this match against an out of form team who are a shadow of their former selves.

I voted for a draw personally, and I'm probably more disappointed than anyone on here.  I didn't think they'd beat us mainly because they've been shit since christmas, but I didn't think we'd even try to beat them.  I got that a little wrong as we started very well, just perplexing that we then let them take control by sitting deep and punting in long for the rest of the game.

The players have to take some responsibility but the more I see of the team the more I think the vast majority of our training involves defence vs attack where the defenders 'score' by clearing it to halfway.  Whoever plays and whoever we're playing we seem to fall back to that pattern as soon as teams put us under any pressure.  The problem being that it just invites more pressure, too often we look like we're not even interested in trying to mount a counter-attack, let alone try to keep the ball and calm the game down.

Look at my posting history prior to this season, I'm not a negative person usually (in fact look at my post on the rugby and cricket threads) I just don't see any future for us playing this way.  Some games we will do well and scrape a win but it's just not going to happen regularly enough to ever see us move above midtable at best.  However you try to measure it this season hasn't been good enough, we're not likely to go down as we've done just enough all season to never be in great danger but I just can't be happy with doing just enough to get by.

[pauliewalnuts]

I'm no fan of AM, but getting a point in a game where few thought we'd get anything other than a battering and still slaughtering him seems a tad OTT to me. 

The point we took is the most important thing by far. I'd happily watch us spend every minute of every match shitting ourselves as the ball pinged off the woodwork of our goal if it meant we stayed up.

However, people are hardly going to massively re-evaluate their opinion of him based on today. He's not getting slaughtered for today, either, he's getting discussed in the negative terms he's been discussed all season, which isn't massively surprising.

[pauliewalnuts]

PWS, I'm not slaughtering him, I just don't think the performance today was that good, we got a draw playing a way which has brought us defeats throughout the season and it hasn't really changed my opinion about the manager. I think this is a rational and objective response (not to say that all other responses are irrational).

That's my standpoint, which I didn't really explain in the post above.

We could quite easily have lost that game 4-1. We didn't, which is easily the most important thing, but it's still not really a blueprint for the remainder of the season, as we'll fail to get away with it far more than is advisable.

On the bright side, I reckon the kids learned more in those 90 minutes than lots do in a season.

[ktvillan]

Although the youngsters deserve credit it was a classic McLeish performance today, backs to the wall, desperate defending, hope to nick a goal and avoid conceding too many.  This time it worked,  to an extent at least, in part due to some good luck, in part due to some poor Liverpool finishing, in part due to a brave battling performance.  But as Paulie said it doesn't work week in week out and McLeish has already proved that with his dreadful Blues teams and too often with us.  How he managed to spawn a cup win playing like that I'll never know.  If he stays, I think we can "look forward" to a lot more of the same, whoever he signs.

[Monty]

Ktvillan, you raise a very important point - Liverpool's famous profligacy this season. If this, as you say, very 'McLeish' performance was going to yield a result against anyone in the top half this season, it's Liverpool.