Alex McLeish wants a tougher Villa
Monday 26th September 2011, 11:00AM BST.
Aston Villa boss Alex McLeish has urged his players to become “mentally tougher” after they missed the opportunity to take all three points against Queens Park Rangers.
Richard Dunne put through his own net in the third minute of injury time to cancel out Barry Bannan’s opener at Loftus Road, as QPR put the Villa defence under severe pressure late in the game.
It was Dunne’s ninth Premier League own goal – the most a player has ever scored in the top division.
But the draw ensured the claret and blues stretched their unbeaten start to the season in the Premier League to six games having banked eight points, courtesy of one victory and five draws.
However, McLeish wants more out of his players, whom he felt were “frightened” during the contest.
He said: “I’m not happy. I still feel that we should have ground out another four points, that’s the mark of a team with real mental toughness and we have got to put that into the guys.
“I am gutted that we threw it away in the dying embers of the game, after a second-half performance which is much more what I expected from these players.
“The first half was pretty woeful and I let them know that at half-time. I thought we restricted QPR to only a few gilt-edge chances in the first half and defended well.
“The irony was that two of our best players – Richard Dunne and Stephen Warnock – ended up contributing to their equalising goal which both were involved.
“I really felt for them.”
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We don’t need more toughness, we need more creative and attacking football to create goals. We need to score 2+ goals every game.
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I am afraid, that the villa are going to struggle under Mr. Mcleish. Not just that, but also his tactical approach is killing the natural flair of the players he has at his disposal. It could be that he was ‘cannibalised’ from the Blues and his footballing acumen will not suit Villa, as it did not Blues.
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