Stoke City v Aston Villa Pre-Match Thread

[not3bad]

I must admit I'm worried it might be carnage when Stoke start launching those long throws into the Villa area, considering we aren't the best at defending corners.

[Karl Bridges]

4 centre halves, 2 wingers, 2 strikers, say
Guzan
Cuellar Collins Dunne Warnock
Albrighton Bannan Clark N'Zogbia
Bent Gabby
Subs Marshall Stevens Gardner Petrov Delph Ireland Heskey

Gabby to drop wide and N'Zog push inside to help out at times.  Clark over Petrov for height, Bannan over Ireland as he wont tire soo quickly, bring Ireland on for last half hour.

2-1 Villa, Clark and Bent.

I can just imagine the announcement. Sorry Stilyian we're going for the bigger lad in the centre, it's purely down to defending set pieces. Yes we're playing Wee Bazza because, erm er.....

[not3bad]

2-0 stoke as we revert to type. He seems to be picking teams to match the oppostion when we haven't got the squad to do it.  He should pick his best team and stick to it.

MON used do that. Same 11 every week. Same subs, same time every game.
Cue much moaning and groaning when we won again but it wasn't pretty enough.

To be fair the moaning and groaning would only really start when we moved into March and Villa started to fall down the table because that same 11 he used week in week out were either knackered, out of form or injured (or a combination of the two/three).

[LamBeast]

Massive for McLeish this game,defining in his tenure,his total philosophy about football is encapsulated in this fixture,IMO.

[Lobsterboy]

Cuellar in at RB, Collins back at CB and Bent in for Ireland.

Would hope to see us build on the midweek performance and think we will be at least good enough for a point

1-1 Bent for us, some lanky bastard for them

[Ads]

Play like we did against Arsenal and Stoke won't see any of the ball to win their throw in and be a threat.

[Bad English]

Massive for McLeish this game,defining in his tenure,his total philosophy about football is encapsulated in this fixture,IMO.

Or maybe it's just another game for him.

[Matt Collins]

Although our form against the top 6 has been hopeless, we're actually much tougher to beat when playing everyone else. We're unbeaten, in fact, when playing with eleven men. I'm taking a fair bit of comfort from this.

They'll surely be going over time on defending set pieces. We'll have 4 centre halves on the pitch which surely should help. I think Guzan is a bit of a risk, based on previous experience, but his championship experience may help here.

While we have lost 2 of our 3 games at Stoke, both were with last minute winners in games we might well have won. So let's not be too pessimistic.  I fancy us to score - N'Zogbia I reckon. We might need 2 to win though, at least.

A draw would still be a decent result, but I do think it's winnable if we can nullify them at set pieces. That's a very big if though.

[Steve R]

I see no reason to change formation, or to play a striker/wide player in midfield to accommodate Bent up front.

Let Stoke worry about us.

Collins in and Cuellar to RB is the best compromise following Hutton's suspension, but with strict instruction to look for Clark when he has the ball at his feet. I assume Ireland is injured, Bannan to carry on.

If Gabi is carrying any sort of knock I would rest him with Bent coming in. Otherwise (with Heskey on the bench as the possible replacement defender) :

Guzan
Cuellar Collins Dunne Warnock
Clark Petrov
Bannan
Albrighton Agbonlahor N'Zogbia

subs : Marshall,Heskey,Gardner,Delph,Delfouneso,Bent,Johnson

[pooligan]

Well seeing as we just cannot defend set pieces and Stoke thrive on them i can only see another defeat i am afraid. Will be amazed if Rodney Trotter fails to score.

[Jimbo]

Another defeat, I'm afraid. Sticking it up Arsenal for the best part of a game is one thing. Everybody likes to have a go at them because they're perceived as being a bit lightweight. Stoke are at the other end of the spectrum physically, and as has been noted above, they love a set piece, which is our achilles heel. I feel they'll be relishing our visit.

[Nirog72]

I'm going Villa win 3-2 with Petrov netting the first one at outrageous odds.

[Barca 2011]

The Arsenal game made me a lot more optimistic for the rest of
the season, however this is Stoke we are playing, a completely
different set of problems coming our way.
They will chew us up and spit us out. 3-0 Stoke.

[Shrek]

 -----------Guzan
Cuellar-Clark-Dunne-Warnock
-------Petrov-Delph
--N'Zogbia-Ireland-Gabby
------------Bent

Collins is shit. Bent will play so I'd rest Marc and keep Ireland who was superb against Arsenal. Gabby will have more space with Bent pulling defenders around and Delph is a good player, he just needs games.

[olaftab]

This is the time to be radical. Stick with Ireland. Go with

Guzan

Cuellar  Collins Dunne Delph

Albrighton Petrov Clark N'Zogbia

         Ireland
                          Bent

Leave Gabby on the bench as he was out of it against Arsenal as the play passed him by.