Eric Black

[brian green]

I can't speak for anybody else but I would have appreciated a bit of hope for next season.

[brian green]

Besides there are going to be a lot more familiar faces around next season than most expect.

[sickbeggar]

Still don't get it. He's like the bloke from accounts who's been asked to stand in and do whatever the office manager does for a few weeks while they put the advert on Indeed. He has no power or influence over his bosses or his colleagues, and lets face it, the last 3 clowns in charge DID have that and couldn't do jack shit so he's supposed to ressurrect "hope" or play certain players who've been shite all season but are suddenly good or slightly better than who's he playing (in some of our opinions), while getting them to play attractive attacking football which of course is what Aston Villa have been known for till now *splutter*.. And all while knowing he's just about to be tintacked as soon as the season finishes. Now to me THAT smacks of wildly over-optimistic expectations.

I don't rate him as a Manager and if there was a chance he'd get the job i'd be moaning too but there isn't at all. Just makes us look small time attacking someone who had literally nothing to do with anything that's happened in the last 5 years and  is probably lower on the "who's fault is it list" than a lot of Villa fans. Lets face it, most of us have been pretty much silent partners with Lerner in the pursuit of relegation for the last 5 years or more.

[Nunkin1965]

Sinclair for Traore down the middle with 30 mins left. Its that simple.

WE MIGHT, JUST MUGHT, HAVE BEEN ENTERTAINED FOR FUCKS SAKE.

[Nunkin1965]

Here's another one. It's just come to me.

How about Grealish for anyone of our limp, negative, boring midfield 3 for 30 minutes?
Or maybe Hepburn-Murphy for 30 in place of Sinclair.

What seismic damage would any of these changes have made?
We were barely getting out of our own half for most of the game so why not try something, anything.

[sickbeggar]

yeah i'm sure if Traore had come on and done his usual  running into blind corners, losing the ball, and not tracking back bit and they scored from one of the inevitable chances, this thread would have been full of congratulatory posts commending Black's commitment to entertainment, rather than the usual "worse manager evoh" posts ..... *winky face*

[Nunkin1965]

Yes but we will never know will we?
Because our great caretaking tactician decided to do NOTHING.

So even in a no lose situation, He's failed miserably week after week and we've been forced to endure the footballing equivalent of watching oil based Satinwood dry. (Other oil based finishes available).

I think he's had more than enough opportunity to get some positives out of these games even though its a poor side but he's failed big time resorting to the old pro safe mode which he will be remembered by.

Look at the line-up yesterday? That says it all to me.

[tomd2103]

yeah i'm sure if Traore had come on and done his usual  running into blind corners, losing the ball, and not tracking back bit and they scored from one of the inevitable chances, this thread would have been full of congratulatory posts commending Black's commitment to entertainment, rather than the usual "worse manager evoh" posts ..... *winky face*

Yeah because it would have had a massive impact on our season wouldn't it? 

[Nunkin1965]

yeah i'm sure if Traore had come on and done his usual  running into blind corners, losing the ball, and not tracking back bit and they scored from one of the inevitable chances, this thread would have been full of congratulatory posts commending Black's commitment to entertainment, rather than the usual "worse manager evoh" posts ..... *winky face*

Yeah because it would have had a massive impact on our season wouldn't it?

Switching things around, in my opinion, would have enabled me to say that at least he'd tried something different.

In a more crucial situation, fine, be safe.

But we were relegated weeks ago.

[sickbeggar]

Yes but we will never know will we?
Because our great caretaking tactician decided to do NOTHING.

So even in a no lose situation, He's failed miserably week after week and we've been forced to endure the footballing equivalent of watching oil based Satinwood dry. (Other oil based finishes available).

I think he's had more than enough opportunity to get some positives out of these games even though its a poor side but he's failed big time resorting to the old pro safe mode which he will be remembered by.

Look at the line-up yesterday? That says it all to me.

well you plays the odds. Chances of Traore scoring or creating an assist  is a hell of a lot longer odds than him gifting the ball to the opposition and putting pressure on a midfield and defence who have proved catagorically they can't defend long before Black appeared. I'd have liked him to have played the kids when he took over, but my view has changed because frankly he's not going to be here and possibly damaging the progress of a decent youth player for the sake of short term progress or hope is stupid. His hands are tied - he could blood 5 youngsters and find the new manager doesn't want them or won't play a way that suits them or stick in a kid too early and destroy their confidence all in the name of making us feel happier. Nah, I personally think rather than a no-lose situation, he's in a no-win one.

[PaulWinch again]

yeah i'm sure if Traore had come on and done his usual  running into blind corners, losing the ball, and not tracking back bit and they scored from one of the inevitable chances, this thread would have been full of congratulatory posts commending Black's commitment to entertainment, rather than the usual "worse manager evoh" posts ..... *winky face*

Yeah because it would have had a massive impact on our season wouldn't it? 

Also Traore is a 19 year old who has struggled with injuries and is in his first year in a foreign country. He may have given the ball away a bit, but he's also shown that with nurturing he has immense talent. We'll probably lose him, but I reckon there's a 90% chance we'll all be regretting him not being given a chance when he is a star in 5 years time.

[sickbeggar]

yeah i'm sure if Traore had come on and done his usual  running into blind corners, losing the ball, and not tracking back bit and they scored from one of the inevitable chances, this thread would have been full of congratulatory posts commending Black's commitment to entertainment, rather than the usual "worse manager evoh" posts ..... *winky face*

Yeah because it would have had a massive impact on our season wouldn't it? 

Also Traore is a 19 year old who has struggled with injuries and is in his first year in a foreign country. He may have given the ball away a bit, but he's also shown that with nurturing he has immense talent. We'll probably lose him, but I reckon there's a 90% chance we'll all be regretting him not being given a chance when he is a star in 5 years time.

what are you basing this on? Really? A future star? On this season? He's shown glimpses of having raw  talent but someone's gonna come in and pay 60K a week for him if his payrise rumours are correct? Whom?

[Fasth56]

Black's stupidity in team selection is matched only by the mongrels down the road thinking we will be looking up at the sky whilst a game of football (loose description) is being played on the pitch.

[PaulWinch again]

yeah i'm sure if Traore had come on and done his usual  running into blind corners, losing the ball, and not tracking back bit and they scored from one of the inevitable chances, this thread would have been full of congratulatory posts commending Black's commitment to entertainment, rather than the usual "worse manager evoh" posts ..... *winky face*

Yeah because it would have had a massive impact on our season wouldn't it? 

Also Traore is a 19 year old who has struggled with injuries and is in his first year in a foreign country. He may have given the ball away a bit, but he's also shown that with nurturing he has immense talent. We'll probably lose him, but I reckon there's a 90% chance we'll all be regretting him not being given a chance when he is a star in 5 years time.

what are you basing this on? Really? A future star? On this season? He's shown glimpses of having raw  talent but someone's gonna come in and pay 60K a week for him if his payrise rumours are correct? Whom?

I'm basing it on the bits I've seen of him.

[paul_e]

Yes but we will never know will we?
Because our great caretaking tactician decided to do NOTHING.

So even in a no lose situation, He's failed miserably week after week and we've been forced to endure the footballing equivalent of watching oil based Satinwood dry. (Other oil based finishes available).

I think he's had more than enough opportunity to get some positives out of these games even though its a poor side but he's failed big time resorting to the old pro safe mode which he will be remembered by.

Look at the line-up yesterday? That says it all to me.

well you plays the odds. Chances of Traore scoring or creating an assist  is a hell of a lot longer odds than him gifting the ball to the opposition and putting pressure on a midfield and defence who have proved catagorically they can't defend long before Black appeared. I'd have liked him to have played the kids when he took over, but my view has changed because frankly he's not going to be here and possibly damaging the progress of a decent youth player for the sake of short term progress or hope is stupid. His hands are tied - he could blood 5 youngsters and find the new manager doesn't want them or won't play a way that suits them or stick in a kid too early and destroy their confidence all in the name of making us feel happier. Nah, I personally think rather than a no-lose situation, he's in a no-win one.

Sorry but you're just outright wrong in the first line, with your odds, which makes everything after it menaingless.  In just over 4 hours of competitive football for the club (1 hour in the cup, 3 hours and a few miuntes in the league) he has 2 assists and a goal and has also put a couple of balls across the 6 yard box that we should've done better with so I'm going to go with 5 key chances, roughly 1 every 48 minutes.  In that same time I don't believe there has been a single goal we've conceded that you could point to him as the culprit.  I can think of 1 where he was the last villa player to touch the ball before they scored though so I guess we'll count that, so 1 every 240 minutes.

You mentioned odds, the odds are that adama on the pitch for half an hour gives us more chance of scoring a goal that Sinclair being on for that period so no that isn't an acceptable argument unless you're of the mindset that getting a clean sheet is the top priority and scoring is less important.  Black has that mindset, so did McLeish.  The problem is there's enough quality in top-flight football that even if you're defensively perfect for 89 minutes and 50 seconds a mistake or 2 in the other 10 seconds can be punished and ruin your game plan.