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Author Topic: McLeish:No Regrets  (Read 31174 times)

Offline nigel

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Re: McLeish:No Regrets
« Reply #75 on: August 23, 2012, 10:37:34 AM »
Thanks Alex, but the regrets are all ours.
Very good ;D


Offline Chris Smith

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Re: McLeish:No Regrets
« Reply #76 on: August 23, 2012, 10:49:30 AM »
Why shouldn't the bloke stick up for himself? I'm sure we'd all do the same in the face of criticism. Until the injuries really hit we were comfortably mid table so the stuff about the kids outperforming the youngsters isn't backed up by results.

He was the wrong appointment and the football was mostly horrible but I don't see why people have to manipulate the facts.

Rubbish Chris.  Bent was obviously a big loss, but it was senior players like Hutton, Agbonlahor, Warnock and Collins etc who were amongst our worst performers last season.  After Bent's injury, Weimann outscored Gabby in any case, and players like Herd contributed far more to the cause than the likes of Warnock.

It's only rubbish if you ignore the facts.

We spent most of the season around mid table, over the last 2-3 months we suffered a bad run of injuries and were forced into playing an inexperienced and disjointed side, performances dipped accordingly and we dropped down the league. Of course certain individuals might have done OK in that time but results don't lie, they were better when we had our more experienced players available.

I'm not trying to stick up for the bloke, I'm glad he's gone, but injuries played a huge part as we didn't have the squad to cope with them. It's a lesson I hope we've learned for this season.

Offline not3bad

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Re: McLeish:No Regrets
« Reply #77 on: August 23, 2012, 11:24:37 AM »
We spent most of the season around mid table, over the last 2-3 months we suffered a bad run of injuries and were forced into playing an inexperienced and disjointed side, performances dipped accordingly and we dropped down the league.

This might be true but Villa's worse, most gutless performances, the ones which made you ashamed to support the club (Spurs away, Man Utd, Liverpool, Man City at home, Arsenal away) were before the worst of the injuries struck.  As has been mentioned earlier the only reason we didn't get worse beatings in these games was because once a lead was established the other teams were treating the games more like training sessions, such was the lack of threat from Villa.

Offline Risso

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Re: McLeish:No Regrets
« Reply #78 on: August 23, 2012, 11:32:23 AM »
Why shouldn't the bloke stick up for himself? I'm sure we'd all do the same in the face of criticism. Until the injuries really hit we were comfortably mid table so the stuff about the kids outperforming the youngsters isn't backed up by results.

He was the wrong appointment and the football was mostly horrible but I don't see why people have to manipulate the facts.

What's he "sticking up for himself" for anyway?

I haven't heard anyone from the club slagging him, and he's hardly got the world's press on his back as they don't give a fuck about us.

He's the one touting for work through the press, giving his inexplicable performance with us some teflon sheen so some other mug will pay him vast sums for a job he can't do.

He's a wanker, David O'Leary with a little more charm but less talent.

Spot on Lee, as ever.

Offline pestria

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Re: McLeish:No Regrets
« Reply #79 on: August 23, 2012, 12:54:46 PM »
Why shouldn't the bloke stick up for himself? I'm sure we'd all do the same in the face of criticism. Until the injuries really hit we were comfortably mid table so the stuff about the kids outperforming the youngsters isn't backed up by results.

He was the wrong appointment and the football was mostly horrible but I don't see why people have to manipulate the facts.

Rubbish Chris.  Bent was obviously a big loss, but it was senior players like Hutton, Agbonlahor, Warnock and Collins etc who were amongst our worst performers last season.  After Bent's injury, Weimann outscored Gabby in any case, and players like Herd contributed far more to the cause than the likes of Warnock.

It's only rubbish if you ignore the facts.

We spent most of the season around mid table, over the last 2-3 months we suffered a bad run of injuries and were forced into playing an inexperienced and disjointed side, performances dipped accordingly and we dropped down the league. Of course certain individuals might have done OK in that time but results don't lie, they were better when we had our more experienced players available.

I'm not trying to stick up for the bloke, I'm glad he's gone, but injuries played a huge part as we didn't have the squad to cope with them. It's a lesson I hope we've learned for this season.

I don't think anyone on here ever considered us 'comfortable' in mid-table.  My feelings were that the we underpeformed in the early part of the season when we had the more experienced players available. 

If he hadn't been happy to settle for the high % of home draws against beatable teams in the first half of the season he would have had sufficient good will in the bank to over come the problems in the last few games.

Offline pedro25

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Re: McLeish:No Regrets
« Reply #80 on: August 23, 2012, 01:03:33 PM »
Performances didn't dip towards the end of the season, they improved slightly if anything, Spurs away for example was before Christmas and worse than anything in the final couple of months.

Offline PaulTheVillan

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Re: McLeish:No Regrets
« Reply #81 on: August 23, 2012, 01:50:14 PM »
I thought we were inconsistent.

We would play Ok, then be toss.

Chelsea away, then swansea at home. etc

Offline ktvillan

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Re: McLeish:No Regrets
« Reply #82 on: August 23, 2012, 02:35:42 PM »
Why shouldn't the bloke stick up for himself? I'm sure we'd all do the same in the face of criticism. Until the injuries really hit we were comfortably mid table so the stuff about the kids outperforming the youngsters isn't backed up by results.

He was the wrong appointment and the football was mostly horrible but I don't see why people have to manipulate the facts.

Rubbish Chris.  Bent was obviously a big loss, but it was senior players like Hutton, Agbonlahor, Warnock and Collins etc who were amongst our worst performers last season.  After Bent's injury, Weimann outscored Gabby in any case, and players like Herd contributed far more to the cause than the likes of Warnock.

It's only rubbish if you ignore the facts.

We spent most of the season around mid table, over the last 2-3 months we suffered a bad run of injuries and were forced into playing an inexperienced and disjointed side, performances dipped accordingly and we dropped down the league. Of course certain individuals might have done OK in that time but results don't lie, they were better when we had our more experienced players available.

I'm not trying to stick up for the bloke, I'm glad he's gone, but injuries played a huge part as we didn't have the squad to cope with them. It's a lesson I hope we've learned for this season.

I don't think anyone on here ever considered us 'comfortable' in mid-table.  My feelings were that the we underpeformed in the early part of the season when we had the more experienced players available. 

If he hadn't been happy to settle for the high % of home draws against beatable teams in the first half of the season he would have had sufficient good will in the bank to over come the problems in the last few games.


Some people on here certainly felt we were comfortable in mid-table back then, I recall a fairly lengthy debate about it.  I took the opposite view, along with quite a few others, believing we were heading for trouble, because the signs were there if you considered the bigger picture.   Signs such as:  the difficulty of our run-in;  the recent history of teams like Wigan and Wolves picking up wins in the final third of the season; the negativity of our tactics and tendency to surrender against any decent team; the track record of the manager regarding relegation and piss poor finishes to seasons;  and, as Pestria points out,  the fact that we had struggled to win games with a full strength squad against some dreadful opposition.   Injuries or not, we would have struggled with McLeish's brand of anti-football.     

Offline pauliewalnuts

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Re: McLeish:No Regrets
« Reply #83 on: August 23, 2012, 03:29:02 PM »
The problem was that, on our relatively long unbeaten run at the start of the season, when we had a relatively "easy" run of fixtures, we should have made hay whilst the sun was shining, and bagged a few more wins.

Online Toronto Villa

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Re: McLeish:No Regrets
« Reply #84 on: August 23, 2012, 03:40:51 PM »
Fucking hell Chris. You'll need to dig up Johnny Cochran for this one if you are planning on defending McLeish. Most rational people gave him every chance to succeed despite the circumstances of his appointment. He then set about proving every doubter right and blamed everyone but himself along the way. He was complete car accident and had he been afforded an extra two games it would have us playing Coventry or Barnsley and not Everton this weekend.

Offline PaulTheVillan

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Re: McLeish:No Regrets
« Reply #85 on: August 23, 2012, 03:53:25 PM »
Our home form just wasn't good enough.

Offline The Left Side

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Re: McLeish:No Regrets
« Reply #86 on: August 23, 2012, 04:44:14 PM »
I just get the feeling he will end up at they sty again one day.

Offline Mortimer's Bear

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Re: McLeish:No Regrets
« Reply #87 on: August 23, 2012, 05:27:32 PM »
I just get the feeling he will end up at they sty again one day.

They were made for each other.

Offline Rigadon

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Re: McLeish:No Regrets
« Reply #88 on: August 23, 2012, 05:27:47 PM »
Why do some people get so wound up when other posters don't want Alex McLeish castrated?  He just wasn't good enough, that's all.  He never slagged the club, or the fans.  He was just shit. 

Offline Steve R

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Re: McLeish:No Regrets
« Reply #89 on: August 23, 2012, 05:30:45 PM »
I don't care which club he goes to as long as they have enough money to buy Hutton.

 


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