One Man, One City, Two Clubs......and Millions Baffled!

A manager has a tough job when it comes to balancing the need to win with entertaining the paying customers, commonly known as the fans. Arsene Wenger, Sir Alex Ferguson, and Pep Guardiola have all managed to find that balance, which brings joy to their fans and football enthusiasts in general. On the other end of the scale you could say Jose Mourinho has struggled to find that balance. Winning is his forte but some of those performances have not been pleasing to the watching eye. Mourinho is a legend and his trophy cabinet backs up that point, but one former defender who is currently a manager in the Premier League has struggled to put teams out that win or entertain the fans. That man is Alex McLeish, the ex Aberdeen centre half who is currently the manager at Aston Villa. I am shocked he still has a job and I will tell you why.

So Scared!

McLeish as I mentioned was a centre half and was your typical British defender, tough, rough, hard working, and it has been said he was not great on the ball.  The Scot will probably be remembered most for his time spent at Aberdeen, under the management of the great Sir Alex Ferguson.  His managerial career started at Motherwell and Hibernian, before earning one of the biggest jobs in British football signing for Glasgow Rangers. McLeish had a relatively successful time at Ibrox before taking on the Scotland job, where he narrowly missed out on qualifying for the World Cup in South Africa. He soon left to take over Birmingham City, who was in the Premier League at that time. This is where I want to start talking about McLeish and how he is a prime example of a British manager.

West Country Entertainer!

McLeish was appointed the new Aston Villa manger in the summer from fierce rivals Birmingham City. He led his Birmingham City side to Wembley in the League Cup, where they beat Arsenal and won their first trophy for a while. The success was short lived because three months later they were relegated from the top tier of English football. So why did Randy Lerner pick a man who led a very competitive squad to relegation as his new manager? The worrying thing for Villa fans is the fact that Birmingham had some very talented players in that side, a side that should have seen mid table as standard. We are seeing ex Birmingham players flourish at their new clubs this season, especially Sebastian Larsson. Now at Sunderland, the Swedish winger has been the Black Cats most outstanding player this season so far and McLeish left him out? The Glasgow born manager plays a 4-5-1 and after watching both of his midlands teams, there is no flexibility to his formation where creative minds can roam or find pockets of space to cause problems for the opposition. The tactics he deploys are based on hard work and not losing and having a striker that defines the position, lone striker. Blackpool manager, Ian Holloway really opened my eyes as I was travelling down to Wembley to watch his side beat Cardiff in the 2010 Playoff Final. After being sacked by Leicester City he watched and studied the game of football, due to this his philosophy on the game changed.  Holloway, previously put out sides not to lose and look to put a big, strong forward up top to use as an outlet. If you have ever seen Blackpool play, you will know that they are one of the most entertaining teams in England to watch. Maybe he has over done it by making his sides over play or over commit going forward, which cost them at times in the Premier League last season. The Seasiders were also relegated from the Premier League, but made a huge impression on the watching world. Holloway did not have players like Larsson, Dann, Ridgewell, Johnson, or Hleb at his disposal. Hleb was on loan from the mighty Barcelona and McLeish left him out because he focused more on the attacking side of the game, rather than defending. After watching Villa play Manchester United, I fear that the the Villans will be doomed to the same fate. It may not be this year, but sometime during his reign. Darren Bent, an England international has no chance of scoring 20 plus goals this season, due to the lack of creativity at Villa Park. Gabby Agbonlahor and Charles N’Zogbia are meant to be part of a front three but very much like Larsson, play too deep to be able to cause any real damage. I know he was a defender (the reason we are writing about him) but surely one of his assistants was an attacker and could point out that they need to score goals to stay in the Premier League?

Looking for help Darren?

McLeish is like many other managers in Britain who put teams out not to lose, which stifles creative players like Hleb or Agbonlahor. We need more managers like Guardiola, Ferguson, and even Holloway or Brendan Rogers who let their teams play and entertain the fans. To sum it up, anyone who plays the three goals a season man, Cameron Jerome and leaves out the likes of Larsson or Hleb should not be hired by a so called bigger club.