Stan Petrov

[Somniloquism]

Weren't most of of them penalties for Fat Baz though?

Apart from when he was off the pitch.

[Neil Hawkes]

For so long Stan has been the 'cover me' player, giving others licence to roam.
He has shown, (as he did on his first game for us at Wet spam), he is perfectly capable of doing the roaming himself.
With two apparent gems of holding players, in Clarke & Herd, he no longer has to worry about being caught up front and what a difference that has made to his overall contribution.

[TheStinger]

Did he pick up an injury yesterday or did he go off because of cramp?

[fredm]

Anyone think he who shall not be named did not do Stan any favours by insisting he played a holding only role?  He came with a reputation for scoring goals and in his first game looked great at getting forward but that was soon knocked out of him.
Now he is given licence to get forward if he wants, and being such a good reader of the game he knows when that is, and is looking to score much more often.  Also, because he has such composure on the ball, when he gets the chance, like yesterday, you know he is going to hit the target/put it into the net.

[ozzjim]

He is quality, and for me is almost Mr Aston Villa. There is no way he can be allowed to leave the club. We need to have a long term plan for his replacement.

[Toronto Villa]

He is quality, and for me is almost Mr Aston Villa. There is no way he can be allowed to leave the club. We need to have a long term plan for his replacement.

Agreed. He is a solid person on top of proving that he is a top player. Makes you also realize that we was wasted playing a holding role for all those years when in fact, had we bought a proper holding midfielder he could have scored many more goals for us in the past few years. The irony of all of this is off course the man who bought him knew this better than everyone else yet didn't use him in that capacity.

He will prove to be a really good influence on a group of very talented kids coming through. We need to keep him and have him retire in our colours.

[paul_e]

He is quality, and for me is almost Mr Aston Villa. There is no way he can be allowed to leave the club. We need to have a long term plan for his replacement.

Gardner will be his replacement in my opinion.  Over the next year I'd like to see Gardner coming on in that role more and more.

I like petrov but he's a difficult one for me as I thought at timkes in the earlier part of the season his lack of movement in deeper positions was one of the main reasons that our players never had an out ball.  I still think that's a big weakness but clark is excellent at making himself available in there so it's not being exposed now.  It was the same when he was alongside Barry, Petrov then looked a very good player (and got player of the year if I remember rightly) because that part of his game wasn't being exposed.

[Toronto Villa]

He is quality, and for me is almost Mr Aston Villa. There is no way he can be allowed to leave the club. We need to have a long term plan for his replacement.

Gardner will be his replacement in my opinion.  Over the next year I'd like to see Gardner coming on in that role more and more.

I like petrov but he's a difficult one for me as I thought at timkes in the earlier part of the season his lack of movement in deeper positions was one of the main reasons that our players never had an out ball.  I still think that's a big weakness but clark is excellent at making himself available in there so it's not being exposed now.  It was the same when he was alongside Barry, Petrov then looked a very good player (and got player of the year if I remember rightly) because that part of his game wasn't being exposed.

Paul, this might be an odd statement but a lot has changed in the past 3 games and the players look completely different. It's as if a light has come on and they now can see the game better. Petrov, with others are now moving off the ball better and creating openings. We are a million miles from the finished article, but were starting to believe again. We just have to keep this up.

[martin o`who??]

When he got substituted against Newcastle and we were a goal down and came back to slap their little geordie arses without him, i thought that`s it, to come back the way he did, shows quality in his heart and his feet, respect to him, absolute, utter, total quality footballer.

[paul_e]

He is quality, and for me is almost Mr Aston Villa. There is no way he can be allowed to leave the club. We need to have a long term plan for his replacement.

Gardner will be his replacement in my opinion.  Over the next year I'd like to see Gardner coming on in that role more and more.

I like petrov but he's a difficult one for me as I thought at timkes in the earlier part of the season his lack of movement in deeper positions was one of the main reasons that our players never had an out ball.  I still think that's a big weakness but clark is excellent at making himself available in there so it's not being exposed now.  It was the same when he was alongside Barry, Petrov then looked a very good player (and got player of the year if I remember rightly) because that part of his game wasn't being exposed.

Paul, this might be an odd statement but a lot has changed in the past 3 games and the players look completely different. It's as if a light has come on and they now can see the game better. Petrov, with others are now moving off the ball better and creating openings. We are a million miles from the finished article, but were starting to believe again. We just have to keep this up.

I don't disagree, but petrov has had problems with that part of the game before.

Don't get me wrong I think he's a very good player and he's very important to the way we're playing now but he does need to right player alongside him (which isn't unusual for a midfielder, there's only a handful of genuine all round great midfielders in the world), in Clark he has a partner who is allowing him to really shine, herd also did to an extent but herd looks inexperienced whereas clark looks like he's been playing there all his life (bar a silly challenge against arsenal).

[Bad English]

What happened to all the crab comments?

[not3bad]

Petrov, Clark and Ireland could develop into a very good midfield.

[seanthevillan]

I love that trick where he drops a shoulder and flicks the ball over a player's head, as they charge past him. Think he first brought it out at Bramall Lane, when he scored his first goal for us.

[SoccerHQ]

He is quality, and for me is almost Mr Aston Villa. There is no way he can be allowed to leave the club. We need to have a long term plan for his replacement.

Maybe Clark or Herd?

[Clampy]

Anyone think he who shall not be named did not do Stan any favours by insisting he played a holding only role?  He came with a reputation for scoring goals and in his first game looked great at getting forward but that was soon knocked out of him.

I have to agree, that was one of MON's faults, buying players then changing their game, he did the same to Sidwell.

Stan's been great this season, on a par with Gabby for player of the season so far.