Stoke City v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[dave.woodhall]

performance aside, when it comes to the stage that a 0-0 draw with the likes of Stoke City is considered progress, one has to ask what the hell has happened to Aston Villa Football Club.

You mean as opposed to the season we won the league, and drew away at Stoke? The second division promotion season when we set a record for away wins, and drew at Stoke? The Champions League-chasing days of Martin O'Neill, when we lost then drew at Stoke? 

I think he means that Stoke should be one of those teams we expect to beat, not one that getting a point off them is acceptable.  That's what I think he means anyway...

Why should we expect to beat them? To listen to some of our supporters we're shit and we're going down, yet we should always expect to beat 'the likes of' Stoke et al. Remind me again of how many times we've beaten Stoke since they got promoted.

[Clampy]

Plus points, a good draw from a very hard place to get something from, as Spurs found out a couple of weeks ago. The defence was very good and mainly dealt with everything they threw (no pun intended) at us. Guzan and Clark were also decent again and Carlos showed he's a better right back than Hutton.

On the downside, it was another game in which we have'nt scored, although it was'nt for the lack of trying. The formation and team were fine but we did'nt test their keeper enough and that's been the story of the season so far and something that needs to be rectified.

[Greg N'Ash]

Plus points - Clean Sheet, we looked more likely to nick it.

Minus points - everything else

To be honest I think you have to view this game in isolation and not draw any conclusions from it. Stoke were awful, and not just their normal effective awful, but bad awful.

A point gained and we can be reasonably satisfied we coped with a team that make us look like 70's era Brazil.

Now let us never mention this game again.

[TimTheVillain]

Stoke are a dreadful club with dreadful supporters.

Nick Hancock.

Says it all really...

Decent point, crap game, N'Zog really is working hard now.

[Ads]

I thought that we were the better side and the only team who tried to play fotball. The created nothing from open play and had one meaningful effort all game.

As many have said, the main problem was the creative side from the middle of the park. I thought at points Clark (who I like a great deal) and Stan were sitting maybe 5 or 10 yards too deep when we were keeping possession. I'd have liked to have seen us really press the possession advantage a lot further up into the Stoke third.

That said, despite them being an awful anti-football side, they're well organised and difficult to play against. On that narrow post stamp of a pitch, wing play is difficult, but I thought Charlie did well in everything bar his final ball.

Its probably the best we've played up there, but we need to create more.

[Risso]

N'Zog really is working hard now.

He's still crap though.  Half a season and no goals, that really is dreadful from a winger.

[FatSam]

I don't have a problem with Stoke's style of play - I have more of a problem with people like Arsene Wenger claiming to be the game's moral guardian, and judging that anything outside of their parameters is not 'football'. As far as I'm concerned it's all 'football', and its incredibly pretentious to pretend otherwise in order to make youselves feel like the good guys.

Football teams don't have an obligation to play entertaining football - they have an obligation to get results. It's up to them whether they can do this more effectively playing like Stoke or like Swansea (or like Arsenal for that matter). In my opinion it is more entertaining to witness the underdog win against the favourite by hook or by crook, rather than witness the favourite win every time playing beautiful football (utilising the players only they can afford). I can't help thinking that this is wrapped up with an acceptance of the commodification of football. When on occasion I've sat amongst home supporters at the Emirates with things not quite going to plan, I've heard what has sounded like spoilt children demanding their money back for not being sufficiently entertained.

That said, Stoke do operate on the edge of fair play with respect to some of their gamesmanship. I think it was QPR who insisted on being able to use the towels that the ball boys carry for Stoke players to dry the ball before a throw in. Once Stoke realised that this couldn't easily be refused, the ball boys came out in the second half without towels. Was it me, or did anyone else notice that Ryan Shotton had a towel sewn onto the inside of his shirt last night for this purpose? I also think the body checking, persistent holding, and going through the back of a player's legs when he receives the ball, should be punished more.

[SamTheMouse]

Didn't see any of the game, but I'll be honest, if there's one fixture in the list where I'm perfectly happy for Villa to grind out a dull nil-nil draw, it's Stoke away. Substance has to triumph over style at the Britannia, surely, so I won't have a go at McLeish for any negativity.

Sounds like we withstood the aerial bombardment ok, Dunne had another good game and Guzan didn't put a foot wrong by all accounts.

I'm quite content with that result.

[Bernie Gallacher]

Poor game, great point. We've been far more solid the last couple of games, hopefully we have turned a corner.

[Dave Clark Five]

I think N'Zogbia should take more free kicks. His effort that troubled Sorensen was different to many that we have seen this season in that it was below the crossbar. Young always used to grab the ball and boot it over the bar. We need to vary things a bit. Not all Petrov, who can hit them well and not all Bannan, when he plays.

[MarkM]

I am glad of the point, the game was not very good, although we played the better of the two sides.

I am concerned with our lack of goals, had Stoke scored last night I doubt we would have been able to respond.

Gabby is playing far too deep to be able to be affective, this may work (or not) when Bent is in the team but when you have Heskey (who ends up deeper than Gabby) or Fonz up front it does not work.

Our forward line is incredibly weak, IMO Fonz is not prem class and would be better suited to the Championship, Heskey (enough has been said) and I don't think that Bent suits McLs style of play. That leaves Gabby who is for the most part our best player who gets pulled deeper to pick up the ball and becomes ineffective.

I can't see much funds being found for either or the next transfer windows so I can only see our goals for column looking pretty bare (with the results that that entails)

[kippaxvilla2]

I think the problem is we have been so so woeful in certain matches, we have now lowered our expectations to believing or at least trying to believe that a point against a very poor Stoke side was somehow an achievement and we have now transmogrified into an attacking team.  It was still painful to watch at times, they look like a team playing in 2nd gear - at times they look like they just want to burst into action but are conscious that the schoolteacher on the sidelines may tell them off and keep them in detention if they dare to be too expressive.  Boring, boring Villa.

[Legion]

Heskey is now sidelined for a while. Bent may be back for Chelsea.

[pauliewalnuts]

I think there have been plenty of times this season where "boring, boring Villa" was about right, but last night wasn't one of them.

We at least tried to play football and managed some decent possession. We didn't turn this into goals, which is a legitimate concern, but we at least didn't get drawn into a hoofing match (although Collins continues to be infuriating in that sense).

Hopefully what we will take from last night is a little bit more confidence. We have Chelsea next, from which we will get little if anything, but after that we have a run of easier games.

We must start picking up wins from those matches, no excuses, or we are going tI get sucked towards the relegation zone.

[Clampy]

We have Chelsea next, from which we will get little if anything, but after that we have a run of easier games.

I don't know, we have'nt got a bad record down there and Fulham got a point there yesterday on the back of a 5-0 drubbing by Man Utd. That said, i can't see it being a 4-4 again.