Well we saw what a true Mcleish side is like.
After a few weeks of good games and attacking football Mcleish fell back into normal routine. I know it is difficult to decide to attack a team like City but they were poor you know. Man city in the cold actually had little threat but Mcleish wanted the 0-0, we saw Heskey on the right to protect Cuellar and Albrighton all over the place on the left. It made no sense, I know Clark was out but bloody ATTACK them.
In the end we lost again to another bloody set piece and we deserved to. I hate the fact at home after not winning for months we went for a 0-0 and who else was totally bored by it ? Few fans would have moaned if we had gone for it and lost say 4-2 because it shows ambition at home to try and win games. Looking at Man City today was tehre anything to be really worried by ?
Of course the injury to Dunne at the end of the game could be a massive blow. If it is confirmed as a shoulder dislocation that is 6 weeks out. Defensive reserves are already stretched so we hardly needed that ! For Mcleish to say the game plan worked says it all, we bloody LOST, are we playing to lose ?
OK in the end Bent could have equalised but would have hardly mattered as we enter one of the worse home runs in our HISTORY. 140 years of proud history and it comes down to the Fulham game for Mcleish not to go down in Villa infamy. Is that really the record Mcleish and Lerner want because it is coming soon ….
Aston Villa News 24/7
i could not make the game but watched on sky the last 15 we were good surprise surprise nzog and ireland were on cut your nose to spite your face I say. I really think we have the makings of a good team but need direction of a proper manager. Mctwat is not wholly to blame but we have good players let them have a go no good on the bench
In order to make our defense more stable, AM has clearly overdone it. Our wingers had to cover our backs every time, so no attacking power at all. In such games Bent is completely isolated and can´t touch a ball. It looks like we are playing with 10 men. Gardner wasn´t be ready for such a big game yet. No wonder, we have to give him time and easier games to settle in. And we need our best players on the pitch – that includes Ireland and N´Zog. In not doing so, AM made a big mistake.
Totally agree with you Joty that he over did it defensively, especially with putting Heskey on as a winger. We had absolutely no attacking intent within the team and it was poor to watch.
I disagree with you on Gardner somewhat though. I watched him throughout whole game and I believe that McCleish asked him to play a role which not only made him look like a rabbit caught in headlights but took away his whole style of play. The last few games where we have seen him he has been a box to box player popping up in the right places and has been unlucky not to have got his name on score sheet but not once yesterday did I see him break forward past halfway line. McCleish obviously told him to play Clarke holding role but also not to go forward at all which is a shame as the lad has a natural talent for getting into the box. Instead he told Petrov (who I am not slating as he has been great for us this season) to go forward then track back but he just hasn’t got the legs to keep it up. Gardner was sitting there in a role, unable to release the shakles and this it made him look poor/lost in the game. Do not blame him for that, name McClueless for piss poor tactics once again. Did you see the difference once N’ZOG was on for Heskey, we had an attacking outlet but he had to keep stopping as everytime he got forward there was no one to play the ball to.
Thought Cuellar had a great game and was unlucky not to score, at least he was making an effort.
Also don’t you find it funny that since we all said goodbye to Cuellar on Twitter about a month back he hadn’t been dropped. Strange Coincide
that was a strange case with Cuellar wasn’t it ?
my guess is that he had a deal lined up but it relied on us getting someone in that fell over