AVFC statement - McLeish sacked.

[pauliewalnuts]

well i still think he's in credit on that game. If we'd gone to Liverpool with the likes of Petrov, Bent, N'Zog, Carlos, Dunne etc.. and defended for 90 minutes then fair enough, it would have shown no ambition, but given who we have to select from currently i think he made a decent show of it. Liverpool may be poor but they'll still finish near enough best of the rest

The thing is, there have been plenty of games this season when we were at full strength and did largely defend for 90 mins.

The point on Saturday was an unexpected bonus but we rode our luck massively. That can not be a viable tactic on an ongoing basis because more often than not, it won't work.

[woody4866]

I blame Sid for the kids doing well. How dare he be a Villain through and through and get the lads playing good stuff.

This

Sid should get the kids playing shite if we want AM out

[pauliewalnuts]

Great quote:

Can I be the first to say that if Villa win today, it changes nothing and McLeish out. If we draw, it's the same old McLeish and McLeish out. And if we lose, it's the worst defeat ever in the history of football (even before Rupert Murdoch invented football in 1992) and as a consequence, McLeish out. Can I also be the first to say that I support Villa whoever the manager/owner is and want them to succeed, unlike a number of my fellow "supporters".

It really isn't, though.

I've no idea who said it, but for starters, it falls into the pontificating trap of referring to "supporters" (note inverted commas), which always has a great big dollop of "betterer fan than yow"about it.

It's really not a big surprise that people get pissed off by shit results and poor performances. No, it's not the worst thing in the world, there are plenty of other things way worse than that - from starving children, unemployment, diseases downwards - but it is something which all of us care a lot about, otherwise we wouldn't waste hundreds of hours posting on here about it.

Isn't complaining about people coming on here moaning that we've lost and making a big deal out of it a bit like walking into a funeral do and wondering why people have got such long faces and look so down in the dumps? It's hardly the greatest of surprises, I would have thought.

To suggest there are a number of us who don't want the club to succeed is really the ultimate in "better fan than yow" - what, just because we're not happy with mooking around in 15th place, playing a brand of football than generally makes Stoke look like Barcelona?

Utter nonsense, I'm afraid. Maybe the reason so many people sound like they're not expecting anything from this manager is because he's not given us anything to make us believe he can deliver.

[caster troy]

Great quote:

Can I be the first to say that if Villa win today, it changes nothing and McLeish out. If we draw, it's the same old McLeish and McLeish out. And if we lose, it's the worst defeat ever in the history of football (even before Rupert Murdoch invented football in 1992) and as a consequence, McLeish out. Can I also be the first to say that I support Villa whoever the manager/owner is and want them to succeed, unlike a number of my fellow "supporters".

It really isn't, though.

I've no idea who said it, but for starters, it falls into the pontificating trap of referring to "supporters" (note inverted commas), which always has a great big dollop of "betterer fan than yow"about it.

It's really not a big surprise that people get pissed off by shit results and poor performances. No, it's not the worst thing in the world, there are plenty of other things way worse than that - from starving children, unemployment, diseases downwards - but it is something which all of us care a lot about, otherwise we wouldn't waste hundreds of hours posting on here about it.

To suggest there are a number of us who don't want the club to succeed is really the ultimate in "better fan than yow" - what, just because we're not happy with mooking around in 15th place, playing a brand of football than generally makes Stoke look like Barcelona?

Utter nonsense, I'm afraid. Maybe the reason so many people sound like they're not expecting anything from this manager is because he's not given us anything to make us believe he can deliver.

Totally agree, I don't like that quote because it insinuates that if you criticise the manager you don't want the club to succeed which makes no sense whatsoever.

[paul_e]

The thing is, it's not that he's overly defensive or negative that really gets to me.  It's that we play negative football in such an old-fashioned way.

Watch the sides that are considered negative in spain or italy and you'll see they press much higher up the pitch and maintain a gap between midfield and defence.  It means they do have players in position to launch a counter attack and pose some attacking threat.  We see the midfield draw deeper and deeper meaning our only counter attack is to punt it long and hope that Gabby (or Bent when he was fit) gets there first and manages to get away from his man, or hold it up until someone joins him.

The opposition just sit 1 defender in front of our striker and 1 behind and, if the ball comes their way they crowd him out making it easy for them to get the ball back and move it through midfield unopposed until they get back to our defensive third.  Against most premier league sides if you sit with 8-9 players defending your box you can be sure they're going to create at least 3-4 decent chances, which is normally enough to score at least once.

The tactic just isn't an effective way to play in this league but McLeish has come out after a couple of performances and stated that the tactics have worked excellently which just further reinforces the idea that, even if he buys some great players his fall-back tactic will always be the stuff we've seen so often this season and, as we found under MoN any tactic like this will see you hit a glass ceiling.

[PaulWinch again]

According to Iain Dowie, Mcleish's criticism has been unfairly harsh. Yeah right.

[SamTheMouse]

I don't think McLeish is especially negative. I don't think he's anything. He doesn't seem to have a tactical plan at all. Every game I watch, I get the firm impression that the players just go out onto the pitch and make it up as they go along.

Under MON and Houllier, you could see the players knew what their roles were and that they were trying to follow some sort of game plan, even though it didn't always work.

With McLeish, I just can't fathom what he's trying to do. And I don't think the players can, either.

[Monty]

I don't think McLeish is especially negative. I don't think he's anything. He doesn't seem to have a tactical plan at all. Every game I watch, I get the firm impression that the players just go out onto the pitch and make it up as they go along.

Under MON and Houllier, you could see the players knew what their roles were and that they were trying to follow some sort of game plan, even though it didn't always work.

With McLeish, I just can't fathom what he's trying to do. And I don't think the players can, either.

Nail on bonce. People without plans (we all do, I think), in high-pressure situations, will always default to conservative and protectionist practices. Eck may say, during a game, 'push up! keep possession!', but they need to put in the work in an intelligent and consistent way in training for that to happen. I don't get the impression he really thinks about how, just what, and that will always be his downfall as a manager.

[achilles]

Quite honestly I don't care about his future as long as it doesn't involve AV!

[Villanation]

The point for anybody saying in spite of the current result McLeish is out the door and this reference to how that reflects on how you see your support for Villa in general has nothing to do with it.

I said yesterday or whenever despite the Liverpool result and whatever happens v Stoke McLeish must still go, i base that on the season as a whole and its been dire. simple as and I can't for a second see how its going to get any easier or better next season, its way to late and one swallow doesn't make a summer, said the bishop to the actress.

The only thing that's is immediately important is that we stay up, if Mcleish can do that, then that's worth the 2ML we have paid him this far, and I would settle for that result, then we move onward and upwards for next season, new manager and new regime and get excited for the next season with lots of hope, unless somebody on here can actually explain to me how you can get hopeful and excited about next season with AM at the helm, because that really is a special skill.

[mikeb1982]

According to Iain Dowie, Mcleish's criticism has been unfairly harsh. Yeah right.

Iain Dowie is one of very few managers with a worse PL record than McGinge!

[ez]

well i still think he's in credit on that game. If we'd gone to Liverpool with the likes of Petrov, Bent, N'Zog, Carlos, Dunne etc.. and defended for 90 minutes then fair enough, it would have shown no ambition, but given who we have to select from currently i think he made a decent show of it. Liverpool may be poor but they'll still finish near enough best of the rest

The thing is, there have been plenty of games this season when we were at full strength and did largely defend for 90 mins.

The point on Saturday was an unexpected bonus but we rode our luck massively. That can not be a viable tactic on an ongoing basis because more often than not, it won't work.

This is what drives me mad. He keeps parking the bus especially in second halfs. It has rarely worked but he keeps on doing it.

[jembob]

I don't think McLeish is especially negative. I don't think he's anything. He doesn't seem to have a tactical plan at all. Every game I watch, I get the firm impression that the players just go out onto the pitch and make it up as they go along.

Under MON and Houllier, you could see the players knew what their roles were and that they were trying to follow some sort of game plan, even though it didn't always work.

With McLeish, I just can't fathom what he's trying to do. And I don't think the players can, either.

I've argued for quite a while that Mcleish is not negative - for him to be negative implies that he has some sort of plan and I've seen little to suggest that he does.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

According to Iain Dowie, Mcleish's criticism has been unfairly harsh. Yeah right.

I think the facial features that fate dealt Dowie are unfairly harsh, but hey thats life.

[Boz]

According to Iain Dowie, Mcleish's criticism has been unfairly harsh. Yeah right.

Iain Dowie is one of very few managers with a worse PL record than McGinge!

Which is why he's out of work, as AM should be