Stoke City v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Apyadg]

On the bright side, if we can keep Houllier in his current job until February 1st, we can get away with the next transfer window without signing anyone, which will help, considering the lost revenue from the kit fiasco.

I'm not sure if I intend to parody the doomsday prophets, or if I've just become one.

[john2710]

Firstly, I hate Stoke, horrible team, place & fans. I thought what football was played we played it. If Ash had put that header away they would have been out of it. Apart from Dunne and Albrighton (sorry I'm not convinced) I thought we played well, it's a fucking hard place to play. Disappointing & annoying yes but nothing to be ashamed of, unlike the performance at Newcastle.

Some of the comments on here are way, way off the mark.

[Nev]

To have a pop at Kmac is unfair. Having been overlooked for the managers job, he could have told the club to stuff it, but he looked more comfortable and fired up than in any of the previous games.

The ref was conned by Pennant, but until a post match review is bought in, the ref takes the blame and the guilty party walks free. Whatever, we should have defended better but I didn't think the performance was bad and the players showed commitment.

But I would get used to the likes of Stoke and their like being our major rivals over the next few years.

[pauliewalnuts]

There were plenty of positives to take from the match.

We just quite desperately need leadership at the moment, and all we're getting is drift.

[avfc_1874]

Our inept ability to keep hold of the ball cost us today. Instead of a simple pass, we opt for a 40 yard hoof to a Stoke player which then resulted in more pressure or a silly foul.

I hope to god Houllier sorts this out.

[CT]

As soon as they equalised I just said "I'd take 1-1 right now".

You just sort of knew that was going to happen.....

[john2710]

I agree with a lot you say paulie- randy is lucky to have escaped much criticism having seen some of the things that have happened since the summer began.

It seems frankly ridiculous that we gave houllier the job not knowing when he could take it.

So we should give it Sven or Southgate because they are available now?

[Apyadg]

There were plenty of positives to take from the match.

We just quite desperately need leadership at the moment, and all we're getting is drift.

Apart from the meandering wuss getting another injection of confidence I can't think of any positives.

[Somniloquism]

Can't believe this twonk has another match in charge with us. Fuck off MacDonald.

Warnock = Stupid, rash challenges that mostly lead to freekicks. Also gets stranded and caught out of position time after time, and has to run back which he never does on time. Wouldn't be surprised if Houllier chops him. Wouldn't miss the prick.

In fairness to MacDonald (and with the Heskey sub and the Newcastle game, I'm finding this difficult), once the players are out there in the second half, winning the game, if they collapse, they need to take the brunt of the blame. Especially conceding in the last minute again. As something that continues, regardless of the current manager, it points to the players having no focus, or simply not caring.

Two things he did wrong in the second half.

One
He decided that even though we ripped stoke to pieces down the wings and both wingers had the making of their fullbacks he decided that they should swap wings. They pretty much played that way all the second half. Albrighton couldn't get past Huth cause he wanted to come inside every time and Downing didn't have the pace against Collins.

Two
It was obvious from 60-70 minutes that unlike the first half, the Stoke players were up for it with Pullis return and changes. He should have subbed Albrighton, moved Ash to the wing where he could track back and brought Ireland on to give more energy in the midfield.

Instead his first reaction to the wrongness on the pitch was to bring on Heskey after they had scored and were in the ascendency. If he was only going to make one change at that time he should have brought on Cueller for  Albrighton as at least we would have had more height in the box to fight off these balls in the air.

[sfx412]

Naive totally naive another tired team of players concede a late late goal.

Why on earth would they be tired?

You tell me I've no idea, perhaps its not tiredness, perhaps they just keep bottling it after 60 minutes.
One thing any opposition knows against Villa play until the 99th minute a goal will come

[DaveD]

Oh crap, you can't blame the ref, he gave the foul 'cos we were on the ropes and had been hacking for ten minutes. We packed in at 70 mins.

Be honest, we're playing with four wingers, all of whom do one clever thing every fifteen minutes AT BEST. Any half decent side is going to take us apart through the middle.

[taylorsworkrate]

There were plenty of positives to take from the match.

We just quite desperately need leadership at the moment, and all we're getting is drift.

\

Positives? 

I can only assume you are refering to the new series of The Inbetweeners that starts tonight.

[KevinGage]

But I would get used to the likes of Stoke and their like being our major rivals over the next few years.

That really is a depressing thought.

Fortunately, they can't play us every week and have looked cack in their other games.

I might stick a lazy £20 on them going down when the odds are better. Kenywne Jones is hardly a goal machine and not many sides will go there and defend as naively as we did tonight.

Richard Dunne needs to get rid of that spare tyre, it seems to be affecting his concentration and basic common sense too.

[pauliewalnuts]

There were plenty of positives to take from the match.

We just quite desperately need leadership at the moment, and all we're getting is drift.

Apart from the meandering wuss getting another injection of confidence I can't think of any positives.

We played very well for 45-50 minutes. We kept the ball, moved off it, passed excellently, and looked like the cultured side showing the proles how the game is meant to be played.

Unfortunately, their manager made a couple of substitutions that changed the game, and whilst it was running away from us, we changed nothing.

[Apyadg]

So we should give it Sven or Southgate because they are available now?

Sven now, or Houllier in November, maybe. It's tempting.

I'd rather we just, you know, bought out Houllier's contract, as other clubs seem able to do. Maybe we couldn't as we hadn't cut the wage budget. So maybe we shouldn't have announced things, until we at least had a firm idea of when he takes charge. As it happens, we went for the worst possible scenario, give him the job, and shout about it from the roof-tops, without knowing when he starts. It's a circus.