McLeish upset by Villa´s poor start

Manager Alex McLeish says he is frustrated by Aston Villa’s start to the Premier League season ahead of Saturday’s clash with Norwich.

Villa have drawn six of their opening 10 matches in the league, and McLeish’s men are ninth with 12 points.

Their last league victory was on October 1 against Wigan, and McLeish said he had been left annoyed by his team’s inability to capitalise when in winning positions.

“I’m a bit frustrated, I think we should be maybe four points better off at least,” McLeish said.

“That’s down to that ruthlessness, that mental toughness to see things through. (We need) to get that strength to see you over the line in certain moments.”

“I just want the guys to have a real winning mentality and go right to the end of every game every week.”

“We also want to attack teams, but it’s not a compromise between attacking and defending, there’s got to be 50-50 measure. We want to be equally good defensively. Teams that don’t lose goals are normally the teams who triumph in the end.”

McLeish is hopeful on-loan midfielder Jermaine Jenas is nearing a debut for the club after an injury-blighted spell in Birmingham, and the Scot said he would not push the 28-year-old too hard, too soon.

“He is an experienced player and if he plays I’d expect that experience to shine through,” he said.

“He will obviously be a little bit short of match fitness. Hopefully in the coming weeks we’ll work hard on that to get Jermaine to a level where he goes on a roll, and he steers clear of injury and he gets himself to top match fitness.”

McLeish paid tribute to Norwich boss Paul Lambert, who he managed for a brief time at Motherwell in the mid 90s, although he said he had no inkling his former charge would one day be in a managerial hot seat of his own.

“You never really think that players at that stage when you’re managing them are going to go into the same profession,” McLeish said.

“I think probably Paul was turned on a wee bit and lured into the coaching and management after his spell in Europe with (Borussia) Dortmund.”

“Doing superbly there, winning the European Champions League (in 1997) and then coming back to Celtic, playing for Scotland – that whetted his appetite to stay in the game.”

“I’m not so sure that when he was at Motherwell, when you’re young like that, you have those kind of dreams, that game plan, but he certainly took to management fantastically.”