After Aston Villa’s poor performance against Bolton saw the side eliminated from the League Cup, Alex McLeish had a meeting with senior players. One can assume he said something along the lines of “That’s not good enough.”
Because one can’t really imagine him saying, “Well done, lads, more of the same, please.”
Following the Rangers’ game, the manager had more to say, talking about players being scared, and how it showed in a “woeful” first half. He professed to being a bit bemused, saying it’s wonderful to be playing football and that they should be having the time of their lives.
But it’s clear that McLeish is implying the players are afraid of losing. And so, of course, we’d have to ask ourselves why that is.
There’s Negativity And There’s Negativity
Alex McLeish is often accused of being a negative manager, of setting teams up not to lose. His defenders, and McLeish himself, will say he’s simply tried to work with what he’s got as a manager in his previous jobs. His detractors say he’s a defender by trade, lacks imagination, doesn’t bring through youth, and, of course, sets up to defend and nick goals on the counter (which, of course, is very much unlike a previous manager we could name who could be called a lot of things, but negative usually wasn’t one of them).
However, as I and others have argued over the past few weeks, the lineup and setup McLeish has been employing cannot objectively be viewed as negative. Three strikers and Charles N’Zogbia going forward is not negative. Without Bent and Heskey available, we’ve seen Delfouneso, Bannan and Ireland given chances. Those aren’t negative moves either. Substituting Bannan with Albrighton isn’t negative. Bringing on Andreas Weimann is not the sign of a manager reluctant to give “kids” a chance.
The results might seem to say we’re setting up for draws. The setup and personnel suggest otherwise, never mind McLeish’s comments. The setup and personnel also show that McLeish is not afraid of bringing along youth.
The negativity that’s haunting Villa and the players isn’t coming from Alex McLeish. It’s coming from the burden of expectations and the resulting knowledge that losing will release a pent-up backlash from those who are unhappy with decisions at Villa Park, and are anxious to vent their spleen. If they’re afraid of anything, the players are afraid of having their own fans turn against them.
Don’t You Dare, Mate
Constructive, or “objective”, criticism always has its place. And McLeish’s use of the words “woeful” and “insipid” show he’s not afraid of “home truths”. However, if the players are tentative and need to be “encouraged” to go attack and play to win, it seems clear to me that Villa’s supporters have a positive role to play.
As many of AVL’s regular commenters have been saying, they’d rather see an inspired attacking performance that ends up in a loss than an poor performance resulting in a draw. The players, it seems, don’t believe them. And I don’t blame them.
Speculation that McLeish has lost the dressing room is wide of the mark. He hasn’t: look no further than the second half on Sunday past. When he’s spoken of players not doing what he wants them to, it’s clear from his recent comments that he wants them to go out from the start like they do after he’s had a few words with them at halftime. He wants wins as much as you or I do.
When Villa return home this weekend to take on Wigan, the Villa faithful have a mission: Put aside any ill feelings toward McLeish, Lerner and the board, and focus on the players. I’m not saying have a go at them, but get behind them. They don’t have anything to do with cost-cutting or who gets appointed as manager. They don’t run the PR department. They put on the shirt and try to entertain you. Regardless of the fact that they’re “professionals” and are getting paid good money to play, they’re also human. And most people react negatively to negativity. They’d love nothing more than to earn adulation.
If our players are afraid to lose, they need to know that we’ll still be there when they do, that as long as they give it their all in pursuit of three points or simple pride, we’ll be proud even if we are disappointed when they fail. Whether you like the power structure at Villa Park or not, you can have a positive or negative effect on performances. Wherever you come down on certain things, certainly we can all agree that we want Villa to win. There’s no harm or betrayal of principles in loudly getting behind the players and being steadfast.
Moreover, McLeish is being as honest as any recent Villa manager in his assessments. If you want to know what’s going on with the club, you could do worse than listen to his comments and take them at face value. McLeish isn’t afraid of being hated, and I respect him for that. But he knows the players are, and he’s telling all of us that we can hate him all we like, but the players need the supporters behind them. That sounds fair enough to me.
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