Aston Villa News 24/7We were promised an announcement confirming Alex McLeish’s appointment by now*, but that’s about as timely as everything else connected to the search for a manager, so I thought I’d share something I was just looking at instead.
For one reason or another, it doesn’t matter why, someone put it to me on Twitter that all MON’s Villa side did was hoof it up the pitch; the old long ball. It’s not a new charge, of course, or particularly accurate though. Were we stroking it around Brummie tiki-taka style? No, of course not. Were we just lumping it and chasing it as some like to portray us. No, that’s not true either.
So, since we’re also interested in a certain Scotsman’s brand of football at the moment, here are the stats for the last two Premier League seasons sorted by percentage of long balls to total passes made on average per game. The “propensity to hit it long” if you like.
I wish I’d had this data to hand when we played Stoke; a fan picked me up on my characterisation of his team as long ball team. As the kids like to say: “PWND”. Or something.
As you can see, Birmingham got fractionally worse in terms of resorting to the long ball from 2009/10 to 2010/11 while we, unsurprisingly, improved somewhat under Gerard Houllier. Otherwise, it’s all pretty much as you’d expect. The bigger teams can hold the ball better, they can pass it around while they dominate possession. The smaller teams need to use the possession they get more efficiently.
*Just as this post was due to be published the news broke that Aston Villa have agreed to compensate Birmingham City to the tune of £2m for Alex McLeish’s services and the official announcement should follow in the morning. I believe an actual press conference will not be until next week, but who can say for sure these days?
So, basically, it’s just a matter of time, there’s no doubt any longer.
EDIT: The claim about compensation has been dismissed, but confirmation of the appointment is still expected tomorrow.
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8 Comments to “Anyone for long ball?”
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It’s easy to use statistics to back up a point of view but stats don’t tell the whole story do they.Unfortunately i think mccleishs biggest weakness as a manager is that he’s just far to negative and this shines through in the way the team plays.Why try to win when 38 draws might keep you up.As a blues fan i hoped he would have been sacked in the summer but knowing that he’d get a nice compensation package i think thats why the board kept him on.It’s a bonus for us that given the chance (which looks odds on now)your fans will suffer his dross like we’ve had to.
We pass it better than Spurs. I may get a T-shirt made….
From now on I will be mostly known as (sorry Nan), SamWasAFan, to quote my dear old mom “it’ll all end in tears!
LET the PROTESTS CONTINUE! we don’t want AM. Randy and the general are just takin the Pee out of the fans. 1) didn’t want Hughes because he walked out on Fulham. 2) didn’t want McClaren because of fans protest. Hmmmmm AM walks out of B9, then fans rightly protest what do they do??????????? 3 other managers didnt want the job 1 prefered to holiday for 12 months, 1 prefered to stay at Wigan? and the other turn Randy down. WHERE is the Ambition????
oh shut the fuck up with your negativity , you twats protesting isnt gona do anything , mcleish is going to be manager so get over it (:
Bang on. Lerner has showed you all who’s in charge and guess what? It’s not you. Either support the team or eff off. i get sick of the negativity that surrounds VP with “fans” just there to let off steam not support them.
so it looks a certainty. not really my first choice and now i am going to have to get into my happy place and look for the positives…….
hopefully the truth is you play to what you have and mr b. eck can be more expansive with a better pool of talent. we can hope, support and wait – let him prove us wrong. obviously he does not feel a dying passion for birmingham because he has left.
one question – what are peoples thoughts on foster and dann coming long for the ride? are they bluenoses too? or is foster really watford/man u who happened to play in birmingham as a stepping stone?
mr lerner has taken a big risk and is putting a lot of faith in his judgement – trying to step back and ignoring the bigotry. the glass half-empty brigade out there will always moan. lets see where the ambition and judge him on how he performs. maybe you are destined to lose with ridgewell and his turning circle of an articulated lorry.
it is our club after all…and we are supporters…..and if he sells beye in the first week he will show promise. oh and please try and avoid signing rapists or racist thugs – we do not like that at VP.
maybe we tapped him up after the carling cup – it would explain things?
…..always look on the bright side of life!
i cannot help but support my team – i was born this way. i love her and i just hope she does not end up going out on a saturday afternoon looking like a cheap tramp….but if she does we will defend her chastity and agree that she will still be my cheap tramp……sigh!
Oh, that’s good.
Villa – my Saturday afternoon cheap tramp.
Great work.