Stoke City v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[eastie]

Ash is wasted in that role and much more effective out wide, I was impressed by downing as he showed some fight tonight as well,much better from him.

The lack of a striker in the transfer window will haunt us I'm afraid and with carew and heskey injury prone and hardly top quality I feel January will seem a ling way off- the miss by young was awful and just shows he's not the man for that role.

The team battled well and I thought we showed plenty of balls but in the end Stoke had so many set pieces they just had to score, much better than Newcastle though.

agree with many that warnock is hugely overrated and needs to get his act together fast- houllier sold heskey, warnock and Carew so maybe there is hope after all!

[Dazvillain]

Gutted as is everyone else.
 Didnt buy new striker in summer.
 Not got a 25 goal a season forward still.
Missed chances in front of goal
Were left in a shit timing of a situation by MON
The board were happy to spend weeks recruiting and not spend money
The board knew what squad we did/didnt have and where priorities were
Business plan for this year....stay top half until Jan
Buy couple  of players in Jan but also let a couple go...try for 8th'ish

Tonight....Downing, NRC 1 of their better games. No one to convert old fashioned instinct type chances in 6 yard box
 

[Nev]

Makes you wonder big time that if pulis can make it to the touchline, wtf is happening with us and houllier.

Although it doesn't look good, Pullis obviously came by choice. From a contractual point of view Houllier can't. I agree it is a shitty way of doing things and after the last 4 years comes as a big surprise. But then so was MON leaving just a week before the start of the season, and the shirts fiasco.

As you said, makes you wonder.

[Reality]

The contract issues should have been sorted out weeks ago. We should have paid the appropriate compensation and moved on. But the Yanks, have shown again that they don't have a clue when it comes to this.

It may work like that in America, but not here in the UK. This summer has been a serious fucking disaster from start to finish, and it has even carried on into September. Fucking hell.

[taylorsworkrate]

Stoke should be banned from the Premier League.

For showing us how inept a lot of our players are?  Then i think a few teams will have cause to be banned from the league come the end of the season.

It is absolutely no secret how Stoke play, yet we seemed all too happy to accommodate them in the second half.

[DANNYG]

same shit different season why when were on sky do we concede so many late goals fucking sick of it now as is someone else I imagine ..........That was gutting they robbed us would of been delighted with even a point argghhhhhhhhhh !

[Apyadg]

Makes you wonder big time that if pulis can make it to the touchline, wtf is happening with us and houllier.

Although it doesn't look good, Pullis obviously came by choice. From a contractual point of view Houllier can't. I agree it is a shitty way of doing things and after the last 4 years comes as a big surprise. But then so was MON leaving just a week before the start of the season, and the shirts fiasco.

If the club are convinced Houllier is the best choice, then they're in a pretty tough position. Do they announce Houllier is the manager, to stop us moaning about the time it's taking, or do they keep it quiet until they know when he will actually be taking over. It's not an easy decision, but I think they've got it wrong. Appointing Houllier and leaving MacDonald in charge, when we know he was another candidate, is a disaster. It undermines any authority he has with the squad.

I'd hope it'd motivate the players to make an impression before the new manager comes, but clearly that hasn't worked.

[Somniloquism]

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.

I think Mac did that because Warnock was getting slaughtered on our left and thought Albrighton would supply better protection.

Well attack is the best form of defence as the 15 mins before half time showed. They had very little threat because the dangerous players were having to defend against us and couldn't attack.

Or he should have done point two earlier. Ok, If Ireland is injured still then he shouldn't have been on the bench. He could easily have put Beye in midfield, it would have offered some defensive protection and someone who can win things in the air when the ball was being played up there solidly from 60 odd mins.

[villa `cross the mersey]

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.

Isn't this pretty much what we laughed at West Brom for last season? Playing pretty Arsenal-style football, but lacking the results to make it worthwhile? There's no point playing nice passes and moving the ball about with flair if you're going to get bent over by Stoke.

Maybe it'll all seem less awful in the morning.

Surely the time to play pretty football is when you are 3 -0 up!!

[pauliewalnuts]

The unfortunate thing is that, with Pulis turning up tonight after his mother had died, it casts the club's pissing around with Houllier and his previous appointments in stark relief.

They've asked for it, to be honest, though.

The press conference was badly handled. It was rank amateurism to have it come out, in drips and drabs, that he couldnt start today, he wouldn't be in the dugout for Bolton, he might be here for Wolves, but he couldn't guarantee that, he could be forced to work three months notice, and even then he might have to go back for the odd day.

And all this at a press conference to announce the appointment of a manager who hadn't actually signed a contract.

I think the board get a lot of unfair stick on certain issues, but it is hard to see the managerial appointment process as anything but a bit of a mess, and the worrying thing is it doesn't even seem to be over.

[sfx412]

The question re Houllier is do the Board know when he will be 100% in charge.
I'd suggest not.
The gamble to keep KM in charge is failing it hasn't worked.

[JJ-AV]

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

It really is not on for a professional footballer like him to come back from the summer looking like he's spent the last three months in the pub all day.

He's a fat fucking joke. Let's not beat around the bush here. We've got another 3 years of him on 55k a week. The sign's aren't good.

[KevinGage]

Stoke should be banned from the Premier League.

For showing us how inept a lot of our players are?  Then i think a few teams will have cause to be banned from the league come the end of the season.

It is absolutely no secret how Stoke play, yet we seemed all too happy to accommodate them in the second half.

Aye.

An alien beamed down from planet Zog could probably tell you how they're set up.

It's no secret, launch the ball into the box from throw-ins, try to get crosses into the box from out wide and maximise set pieces. A side packed with Huth, Faye, Collins, Jones and all the other blockheads is going to do very little else - and they did very little else tonight.

But some side with a consistent lack of awareness keeps on playing against Stoke each time like it's the first, fails to neutralise their (limited) threats, and throws in a rich assortment of unforced errors into the bargain.

Not Stoke's fault that we seem to possess such little cop on.

[Phil from the upper holte]

I know Mon is taking a lot of the blame but at least he could motivate them, if he was manager would we have lost today? Im starting to wonder??

[The Situation]

Stoke should be banned from the Premier League.

For showing us how inept a lot of our players are?  Then i think a few teams will have cause to be banned from the league come the end of the season.

It is absolutely no secret how Stoke play, yet we seemed all too happy to accommodate them in the second half.

They're a disgusting, cheating team with racist fans. Hopefully they're not allowed to be dirty and cheat in future which will mean only one thing for them - relegation.

Our players were not inept, we defended really well against the only thing they can do which is long throw ins and long balls into the box; a dive and cheating won the game for those BNP lovers.