Aston Villa v Tottenham Hotspur Post-Match Thread

[SoccerHQ]

All managers say it, O'dreary was saying it after the last game of his final season. Houllier was saying it (I know his heart was a big factor but McCalister was saying it in his absence).

Things change, there's no way McLeish can survive this. The season has been a complete disaster.

[CJ]

Well I'd have gladly taken a point before the game and bar a 17 goal difference swing between us and Bolton, as well as  QPR beating Man City, we're safe.

Thought we played reasonably well first half and defended resolutely throughout, but second half we were plain awful and lacked any kind of cutting edge. Hate to see us set up with 7 defenders, with 9 men across the 18 yard line and no outlet up front. When he had the chance to change it he brought Collins on for Hutton when I'd have preferred to see Herd drop to RB and Bannan or Carruthers on to have a go at them. Yet again setting up to not lose. Most players battled well but N'Zogbia was less than useless.

Nice to see us support the team during the game then give McLeish 'sack McLeish m'lord' at the end

Worryingly on the way back he said on WM he's looking forward to rebuilding in the summer and that the fans are great! Gave the impression he'll be here next season. The board wouldn't do that...surely? Would they?

[levico]

Two shots all match at home is unforgivable. From the Radio WM interview looks like there will be big changes amongst playing staff but also that AM will be very much involved in that.

Think we'll need to get used to that. Sounds commercial suicide to me from a business perspective.

[taylorsworkrate]

As much as Eck probably wants to remain a Premier League manager I can't imagine he would put himself through the abuse for the next few months. The light at the end of the tunnel is only getting further and further away for him.

How could you manage a club where the fans are so vehemently against you. It's gotten to the point of personal insults and public defamation. Sheesh, go for your own health McLeish.

The Radio WM interview after the game made it sound like he will be/is planning for next season, which is rather worrying. Hopefully it's just a message to the club saying 'I ain't walking, so you're going to have to push me'.

Why would he walk? He knows if he's sacked he gets a substantial payoff.

[Bad English]

thank fuck that awful season is over.

last time mcleish, grant, heskey, cuellar will be seen at villa park

all players gave a fair effort today nzogbia is drained of all confidence and needs to give it all he has next pre season and lose a few pounds. im not going to lose total faith in him though as was difficult for all our attacking players this season under mcleish. lichaj was very poor I thought too. Gave the ball away constantly. wouldnt mind if that was warnock's last game either. just a very poor player. karma caught up with hutton in the end. dunne was superb aside from his brainfart in giving away the penalty. for an experienced player to dive in like that in his own box is unforgiveable.

herd gave his all and was pretty spiky in midfield. clark gave his all too. but a midfield of herd and clark is nowhere near good enough either for next season.

for next season the players we need to keep:

given, clark, bent, nzogbia, ireland, gabby, lichaj, gardner, holman,

to be honest on all evidence thus far only clark of our former youth players is good enough to be starting. gabby too just wont work with bent. he has had 2 pretty crap seasons now and maybe time for him to move on. id like to see what a decent manager would do with him but I honestly think a player like scott sinclair or a proper inside forward who can score and create would suit us better.

50/50

dunne, collins, (dont see the point in replacing these with the likes of scott dann but if a good ball playing centre half can be found like williams then replace them) hutton (cant be as bad as this season suggested). weimann (decent squad player maybe but not good enough for a decent Villa side). Baker isnt that young and if we are going for a left sided centre half it should be Clark in my view.

not good enough

bannan, albrighton, delfouneso, warnock, makoun, delph

a new manager will obviously bring in their own style of play. id love to have full backs that were comfortable on the ball. the last couple of years watching the likes of warnock, cuellar, hutton etc have been painful.

given
herd, centre half, clark, new left back
ireland---new centre midfield duo----nzogbia
keane
bent

think someone like joe allen would be a great addition for us in midfield. nzonzi is a beast in midfield and would give us much needed mobility and presence there. though if we had a few quid would be good to get milner back. adam johnson needs regular football too. id like to bring keane back too. think he combined well with the likes of ireland and bent when he was with us. maybe make him captain.

Fair comments. But why did you put 4 well-used but seemingly random capital letters in your post? Most people would have gone for the 147 break.

[richard moore]

Thank goodness for that. Spent the afternoon in spitalfields market in London glued to my my radio. Several arsenal fans spotted my villa t shirt and celebrated with me. So relieved, but awful that it came to this....

[Bad English]

Thank goodness for that. Spent the afternoon in spitalfields market in London glued to my my radio. Several arsenal fans spotted my villa t shirt and celebrated with me. So relieved, but awful that it came to this....

Did you go to the chocolate shop?

[russon]

The season’s record is worth repeating.

- Villa's worst-ever league home record.

When you consider we've been going for 138 years you really have to take your hat off to the man for achieving this

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Absolute relief mixed with anger. Not just anger at this season but that 2nd half - it was an absolute scandal and sums up what this abject excuse for a manager has been about.  We played almost the entire 45 minutes with an extra man. I can accept us losing the half 1-0, ten men often make up and can do that. But for them to be having most of the game and possession and us not carving out a single opportunity in the 2nd half is criminal and shameful. 

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Is there a link to his post-match interview anywhere, I missed it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17976740

[johncvilla88]

Look at it this way without Bent being injured we may not have been in this position. What this season has shown us is that there are too many cracks in the team if big players get injured. If the club do decide to keep McCleish we need buy 3 top quality players and turn 10/17 games into wins which would give us 20 points more not great but a start. Not 100% confident any more that replace a manager of either Lambert or Rodgers would do much better. They only got 6 more points so far this season.

[KevinGage]

Well, this game really sums up why we are where we are in the league. Although we defended stoutly and with some passion today, there were long periods where we just were not good enough.
Credit to Herd and Clark; well done Lichaj and Cuellar in defence. Credit to Ireland for his first half effort; pity he faded so badly in the second. Well played, Warnock, for the effort down the  left.
I thought N’Zog looked low on confidence, out of sorts and poor on decision-making. He has been a real disappointment.

The season’s record is worth repeating.
Re McLeish:
- 2 relegations from three seasons, with a third threatening in four.
- His three outfield-player purchases (including Jenas) have failed to ignite the team.
Re the season:
- Highest number of draws in the division: 33% more than the next team (Sunderland).
 - Lowest number of goals-scored in the bottom 6 clubs (and only surpassed by Stoke in the whole division).
- Worst record in the league for losing from winning positions – 20 points lost (equal with Wolves).
- Villa's worst-ever league home record.
- A numbing style of football.
- VP crowds down by 9% (I think) this season.

On this basis, McLeish should leave the club tonight.

I find it hard to disagree with that.

Yes those stats should be sent to the board and that alone should justify his departure.

Send it to James Nursey, Stan Collywobbles, Jeff Stelling, Alan McInally and Paul Merson too.

[Concrete John]

I thought the red card actually hurt us more as it meant Heskey going off, which took away our pattern of play, such as it was.  There were of course huge problems of our own making after that, but it was a turning point.

[LeeB]

I thought the red card actually hurt us more as it meant Heskey going off, which took away our pattern of play, such as it was.  There were of course huge problems of our own making after that, but it was a turning point.

The last two home games have turned on their head once Heskey has gone off.

That Emile has become our key man says everything.

[The Situation]

Unlike a lot of people here my anxiety was too much for me and made myself busy from 2-5pm so I avoided what was happening in our game and in the other two crucial games. After I watched Spurs put in a really good performance at bolton on Wednesday I was happy and sad at the same time because I knew that result really helped us but was kind of nervous about playing them today and thought a draw would be more realistic than a win. During the week I must of told myself over 1000 times "just equal or better what bolton or qpr do and we are safe"... So when I finally decided to tune into sky sports an hour ago (after being told we were winning 1-0 at one point but didn't know what the final score was) I was grimacing as I saw the presenters read out all of todays drama, after I saw us draw there was a big sigh of relief but I was still oblivious to what went on with qpr and bolton. Finding out qpr scored in the last minute nearly put me into an anxiety attack but when seeing bolton had drawed I finally felt at peace, it was an even better feeling knowing bolton choked after going 2-0. Thank God I avoided the events of today as it would have been awful if I followed what was going on especially when qpr got the winner with bolton still winning... I can't even imagine what my anxiety levels would be like, I would be at breaking point lol.