Wigan Athletic v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Cuz]

terrible!! needs a change wrong man for the job, bringing Heskey on sums it up for me, WTF!!!!!

[pauliewalnuts]

The board are responsible for McLeish's contract.   They agreed it.   If you employ a chimney sweep to remove your appendix don't be surprised if you come out of hospital with a brush sticking out of your arse.

Ha ha, marvellous stuff, Brian.

[enigma]

That was awful stuff. We were outplayed for large parts of the match by fucking Wigan!

The football we play is just so dull to watch. We must play the the most turgid stuff in the league.

[KRS]

I don't feel angry anymore. Just resigned. Which is exactly what I want McCleish to do.

I'm the same. He's sucked my passion from this club.

Same here. Cant be arsed to be angry or upset by this latest pathetic performance.

[tarzansbrother]

The board are responsible for McLeish's contract.   They agreed it.   If you employ a chimney sweep to remove your appendix don't be surprised if you come out of hospital with a brush sticking out of your arse.

Fair enough but it's Emile Heskey sticking out of his arse. I could have accumalated the same amount of points as this joker. Get rid and start thinking of next season, staying up would be a good start.

[ktvillan]

I don't think McLeish deserves this.

It's like attacking Anne Widdecombe for not winning Strictly.

He is just a poor prat promoted above his abilities by an incompetent board of directors who know very little about football and care even less.

Alex McLeish is just a decent bloke totally and completely out of his depth and hung out to dry by his employers.   I feel very sorry for him.   He must go of course but the board will even screw up the timing of his departure.

Jesus Brian no-one is forcing him, he can sod off any time, the sooner the better as far as most of us are concerned.  The fact is he's getting a couple of million pounds a year, more than most of us will earn in a lifetime,  to be utterly, completely, undoubtedly incompetent. It's a dream job, massive pay, and even if you fail you're set up for life.  How can you possibly feel sorry for him?

[PeterWithesShin]

The board are responsible for McLeish's contract.   They agreed it.   If you employ a chimney sweep to remove your appendix don't be surprised if you come out of hospital with a brush sticking out of your arse.

Ha ha, marvellous stuff, Brian.

Nice one Brian, that is the first thing to make me smile since I logged onto the site during the game.

[CJ]

I fully expect his post match view will be that we played expansive, dynamic football - you know, the stuff he told us about in his letter - and were exceptionally unlucky not to win, but were outstanding defensively to keep a clean sheet against a powerful, total footballing, free-scoring side like Wigan.

[Simmons]

Well, that was pretty mediocre, wasn't it? I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the starting line-up. No-one played particularly poorly but there's just nothing there, is there? What's the problem? McLeish picked a decent side. Are some of the players not as good as we think/hope? Is it the way he's telling them to play? We are crying out for better off-the-ball movement. Never thought I'd say it but we're really going to miss Keane when he goes. Also can't help feeling we still really need a bastard in midfield.

On the stream I was watching, one of the commentators expressed their surprise that Gabby was captain today. He reckoned that either Collins or Hutton should be. Seriously? What kind of research do these guys get paid to do?

It's worrying. Some combination of the players we have, the staff and the general air of decline around the club really spells trouble. You can't see Lerner getting rid of McLeish either so I'm afraid it's only going to get worse. And it's not going to get immediate-relegation worse, it's going to get increasingly dull, grinding out draws, regularly finishing in 14th worse.

Given - 7 - stayed alert and made a couple of decent stops at the end.
Hutton - 7 - I don't rate him and think his crossing is terrible but he was very good today.
Collins - 6 - meh. Didn't do anything wrong but doesn't inspire confidence.
Cuellar - 7.5 - MOTM - looked solid, dependable, and a step up from Dunne. Hope he gets that contract.
Warnock - 6 - a better performance.
Albrighton - 6.5 - I like him. He tries and looks a threat. Tracked back well.
Gardner - 6 - he's going to be a good player and needs the game time so we should stick with him throughout. He battled well.
Bannan - 6.5 - anything good we were going to do was going to come through him or Keane. Good vision and just like Gardner needs a run of games.
Agbonlahor - 6 - didn't show much but I don't think sticking him on the left wing is the answer to anything.
Keane - 7 - always looking for opportunities for one-twos and through balls. The kind of player we need.
Bent - 6 - he really is one-dimensional. Poor in general build-up play and if the ball isn't running for him doesn't look like that great a finisher either. In his defence, he was really feeding off scraps again today. Injury looked worrying.

Heskey - 6 - why, why, why, why? I don't want to be a Heskey-basher but his star clearly waned some time ago. And he's not a right winger. Or an attacking midfielder. Or much of a striker anymore. Waste of a sub. I know N'Zogbia didn't do much when he came on but it would have been preferable.
Ireland - 6 - didn't get into the game.
N'Zogbia - 6 - didn't get into the game.

I think you have been EXCEPTIONALLY generous with those ratings.  3's and 4's t best I reckon.  You really think we were 6.5 out of 10 today?

I don't think any individual player was particularly poor - it's the side as a whole. Something to do with the way they are being set up maybe. No-one was really crappy, it's just that no-one was particularly good. If Bent and Cuellar had scored their chances you'd look at it as a decent away performance. Don't misunderstand me - I don't think for a moment that we played well. It's just... you can only expect so much from the players within what they're being told to do. Putting Gabby at left wing isn't going to turn him into Cristiano Ronaldo. It's going to make him the same player we see every week giving it a go upfront struggling a bit in a position that is less than ideal.

[villadelph]

I fully expect his post match view will be that we played expansive, dynamic football - you know, the stuff he told us about in his letter - and were exceptionally unlucky not to win, but were outstanding defensively to keep a clean sheet against a powerful, total footballing, free-scoring side like Wigan.

but he's managed bunches of free-flowing attacking sides!

[Dave Cooper please]

Its like we have a huge python wrapped around our club and its squeezing the life out of us.

I prefer the analogy of a sucking gunshot wound to the chest, slowly filling our lungs with blood. But your python is OK.

I prefer to think of it as a big ginger man taking a giant shit on all of us, one after another. All the while demanding that we pay him £30 each for him to do it.

There used to be a club upstairs at a pub behind London Bridge station where it was only £15. Inflation sucks

Brvo!

[olaftab]

Clean sheet ... How often can we say that!

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

At the final whistle, McLeish's men celebrated a point towards ensuring end of season survival.

[CJ]

At the final whistle, McLeish's men celebrated a point towards ensuring end of season survival.

What a bunch of helmets

[Hopadop]

"Let's not pretend a 3-0 win against Bolton means Chelsea have solved any of their problems."

Some Chelsea supporter tweeting at the BBC. Puts it all into perspective.