Houllier / Villa

[Bill]

Villa finished 6th last season and made one cup final and one semi final. Houllier might well be relegating them if their poor form continues. 1-0 down at home to Wolves as I type. What a shit job he's done.

Are we going to see one of the ever present Premiership sides finally fall from grace? Never quite understood why O'Neill wasn't given a fair whack of dollar from the Milner sale yet they then allow Houllier to spend big money on Darren Bent.

to be fair to him he just doesnt have the players.he'd do well at our place if they fancied a swop.

won almost everything in europe.

 

[Squatter]

They were really unlucky with injuries for the first few months of the season. Collins and Dunne have been in and out the team for one reason or another, which hasn't helped. They could easily win 3-4 matches on the bounce and get right up the table. Don't understand why they sent Barry Bannan on loan though, he looked a good player so hope they don't fuck his progress up.

 

[peoffrey]

to be fair to him he just doesnt have the players.he'd do well at our place if they fancied a swop.

won almost everything in europe.

Surely Milner was the only significant player Villa lost in the summer? They gave Houllier silly money to spend on Darren Bent in the transfer window. He could've signed 3 players from the Continent for that.

Houllier has done a poor job at Villa so far.

 

[Villan10]

wankers ;)

Were you absolutely gutted when O'Neill went?

Hmmm a little bit, I always knew with O'Neill we'd be top 6/7 sorta team. However..

1. Wages were ridiculous and it seemed he wasn't willing to change the way he worked, meaning it couldn't work long term.

2. Football, pretty dire, although I'd take that now of course if it meant winning matches!

3. Tactically, same team every week, same way of playing every week, always a target man, in his time, we played 17 games in 4-5-1 formation, we won 12, drew 5...lost 0.....including wins at Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton etc...it was a perfect formation for the way he set up, yet he barely ever used it!! 08-09, we were 3rd in the league, 7 points above Arsenal who were 5th. We were unbeaten in 11/12 games, won about 8, when he changed from 4-5-1 to accomodate Carew/Heskey and then we proceeded to win 2 out of last 12 games.

4. Youth, barely ever got a chance. Likes of Albrighton had a brilliant pre-season in 2009, named our player of tournament for peace cup vs likes of Juve/Porto etc... going into the season and he made 2 sub appearances all prem season! more amazing as when Downing was fit, we finally dropped a woeful Sidwell and moved Milner CM......he could have just done that start of season with Albrighton right and Milner CM. He also wanted Barry Bannan gone as he said he was too small. In his 4 years, he only gave one debut for a younger player and that was because he was very late to do business in transfer market and he was only one of two CB's fit (Clark)

Good manager but limited, frustrating and spent a lot of money on average players. He'll always do a good job somewhere but I think we could get someone in who could progress the club in more ways, cut down the wage bill, more attractive football, more use of the squad and youngsters!

Houllier has done a really poor job and should probably go now. However that doesn't mean Mon was that great, just means that Houllier is poor.

I feel slightly sorry for Houllier, only partly because in general, he's been dire....but he's took over a team who are so different from the sort of philosophy he's looked to bring in, not to mention that O'Neill basically had players he played week in week out, whatever form, training was a doss under him, very much the 'as long as your fit for saturday' sort of thought. So Warnock, Dunne, Carew didn't take well to him especially and his methods. I think his philosophy is right, the way he wants to work, the way we look to try football, however the gap is so different from O'Neill to Houllier in terms of style of management that it just hasn't worked, especially as a lot of the main players liked O'Neill. It's no surprise to see the players who didn't thrive under O'Neill like Reo-Coker, Downing, Heskey etc...have thrived, but then the players who did so well under O'Neill, Petrov, Dunne, Collins, Gabby have struggled.

I think on a long term, Houllier could do quite well, get rid of 7/8 in the summer and build from there, but I'm not sure the risk of being relegated is worth it. Then again, which manager is going to come in to save us? I'd love to see Martin Jol but whether he'd be interested right now, I don't know.

Urgh, frustrating, as long as we get through this season, I think we'll be ok.

 

[roslers number plate]

to be fair to him he just doesnt have the players.he'd do well at our place if they fancied a swop.

won almost everything in europe.

Surely Milner was the only significant player Villa lost in the summer? They gave Houllier silly money to spend on Darren Bent in the transfer window. He could've signed 3 players from the Continent for that.

Houllier has done a poor job at Villa so far.

Watched last weekend and thought they were awful so called at bookies and had a tenner on them at 7s to be relegated-what have they done with the Milner cash? MM Bent only scores against us and Dunney is back on the pop-Get down the bookies quick!!