It's hit or bust for McLeish next season. So, what's his plan?

[Steve67]

I think McLeish will continue to buy/gather players who work hard but have no flair at all.  This Brett Holman character, all I've read about is how hard he works, not about how creative he is and how he's gonna rip defences apart.  I think we in for more grinding out of results rather than flair, attractive football under this Manager.  In fact, anything with flair is likely to be sold, as McLeish will think they don't work hard enough for him.

[Vanilla]

Now we are safe, in the remaining games this season i'd like McLeish to show us why he should be our manager next season. 15th place doesn't do it for me.

If you peruse opinions at the moment, it seems most Villa fans are singing 'Happy Days Are Hear Again' just because we got an Australian freebie.

[VillaBobby]

Cuellar is an enigma for me, he looks like a good defender but his distribution is seriously lacking. Though we have not seen enough of him at centre half and if he is genuine about staying he will need to take a pay cut as the current MON salary could be better spent and only Rangers came in for him last summer I believe?

We need to build on the younger players and add some quality as well as experience in the summer to support their development.

Dunne and Warnock cost the club around £100k per week and IMO are not good for the squad. They exposed themselves under Houllier last season as not committed to Villa and Dunne has been critical this season during live games which again, sends out the wrong message.

I would keep Ireland as he still has a lot to prove before his career, and earning potential, goes down the pan.

2/3 good attacking players, a true holding midfielder, get Makoun fit and motivated and allow the manager to sign Dann and another centre half and I think we can build on the current young crop coming through in Clark, Lichaj, Albrighton, Herd and Weimann.

Jury on Bannon is still out for me as he does not have a major impact on games in the Premiership.

[Steve67]

I also think he'll get rid of any of the older players this summer so he can lose their influence over the younger players.  Throw the deck of cards up in the air, bring in a load of cheap bosmans and see how it all fits together.  No plan, just get rid of the current older players so he can put his own influence on the squad. In other words, more shit, turgid football to watch, although we may not lose a lot.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Now we are safe, in the remaining games this season i'd like McLeish to show us why he should be our manager next season. 15th place doesn't do it for me.

If you peruse opinions at the moment, it seems most Villa fans are singing 'Happy Days Are Hear Again' just because we got an Australian freebie.

There seems be a confusing volte face stance concerning McLeish on the basis of one good game against Fulham.

It will need a good run between now and the end of the season to convince me that the green roots are there.

Let's not forget that we're 15th, which is a sub standard performance from McLeish, to put it mildly.

[Percy McCarthy]

I think it's more than the Fulham game Fletch. For me, there have been intermittant flashes of good football since before Christmas. Bolton away, Arsenal twice, Chelsea, Bristol Rovers, Wolves, QPR, Newcastle, Blackburn, Fulham - all games within which we've looked like a decent side for at least one half. As DW said in one of the fanzines this season 'Its a straw - clutch it'.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

I think it's more than the Fulham game Fletch. For me, there have been intermittant flashes of good football since before Christmas. Bolton away, Arsenal twice, Chelsea, Bristol Rovers, Wolves, QPR, Newcastle, Blackburn, Fulham - all games within which we've looked like a decent side for at least one half. As DW said in one of the fanzines this season 'Its a straw - clutch it'.

Be interesting to see what approach he takes in the Arsenal, Chelsea games.
Shut up shop and keep the score down, or go for it?

I think if it's Spurs away style tactics, he'll lose whatever good faith he has left.

[Clampy]

Before scoring in the 93rd minute against Fulham, we'd played a decent first half against Blackburn and created 2 chances against Wigan. The 11 point gap has taken the pressure off him but he's still got a lot of convincing to do.

[nigel]

Cuellar needs to stay and we need to adopt a passing game to make us progress and actually be entertaining. If he doesn't do the latter he is absolutely guaranteed to fail.

To be honest Paul, I actually think AMcL does try and play a passing game, It's just that some of our players aren't comfortable with it, so it looks poor.
We had the same last season, Houlier tried to change the style and was met with rebellion.
You have to remember that the majority of the squad is still MO'N's.

[PaulWinch again]

Well let's hope that's the case and once he gets more of his own players in we can do it, but I'm sceptical.

[picicata]

I suspect that McLeish's plan doesn't extend far past making us a tighter unit, drawing alot and hoping to nick the odd win here and there. That appears to be the way he likes to set up his teams.

[WA Villan]

Get rid of our older players,ie Dunne, Collins, Warnock, Heskey, Petrov and replace them with some caring nicer older players. Play the kids that we have.

[ktvillan]

Cuellar needs to stay and we need to adopt a passing game....

Is that what they call an oxymoron?  I know what you mean though, the defence has looked more solid with Carlos in, but ultimately we could do with players in every position who are comfortable with a ball at their feet and know what to do with it. 

I'd like to think McLeish will get his own players in and adopt an attacking, passing style.  I have grave doubts that he has the capacity or the will to do it, even if backed financially.  He just doesn't seem to have a consistent plan except to revert to "keep it tight".  Unfortunately the only way he will leave over the next couple of years is if things go completely pear shaped, and even then it might not happen.  After all he is such a nice man and Randy likes nice men.  Perhaps we should prepare to be satisfied with mid-table mediocrity with the occasional decent performance.

[Concrete John]

It's an interesting question.

Some good points already raised here, but I think one key is the issues raised in the N'Zogbia thread.  We have a manager that values work ethic, and rightly so, so wants his flair players to work as hard as his 'water carriers'.  If they don't, he'll err on the side of caution and try to keep us tight.  Ashley Young, and not just due to ability, is a great example of this as he'll score and create, but also work just as hard running back towards his own goal.  Brett Holman has a reputation for working hard also, yet is a creative outlet for his side.

Another issue is the dodgy defence and lack of a natural holding player.  Both mean we lack a 'safety net' should we commit too many men forward.  He's had to work with the defence he has due to money restrictions, so I'm hopeful Randy will back him in bringing a couple of new faces in there, with Warnock and Dunne going.

So what's his plan?  I hope it's to build a more solid side that does the basics right, which should then allow the better players to go win us games.

[DB]

I think it's more than the Fulham game Fletch. For me, there have been intermittant flashes of good football since before Christmas. Bolton away, Arsenal twice, Chelsea, Bristol Rovers, Wolves, QPR, Newcastle, Blackburn, Fulham - all games within which we've looked like a decent side for at least one half. As DW said in one of the fanzines this season 'Its a straw - clutch it'.

Teams below us have shown similiar flashes, we need to do this for whole games and turn them into wins. Problem is that there is more bad stuff than good currently.

1 scrambled win against Fulham won't get my juices flowing.