Aston Villa v Stoke City Post-Match Thread

[eastie]

Stoke were dreadful and they barely crossed the half way line till the last 20 mins. Benteke was very poor.
The only positive is that we didn't lose, but we really should have won yesterday. We could really regret that what with a really difficult Xmas fixture list.

Bit harsh that on benteke, I thought he played ok but could have done better with his early 2nd half shot - not his best game but certainly not very poor either .

I think with this new wing back system we will see joe Bennett flourish down the left side and hope he will be back for the Liverpool game .
Vlaar , baker and Clark should provide a solid back three with herd proving himself a very capable deputy .

[LeeB]

Loved Clarke's tackle, he got pushed but there was no way he was ending up nobbled, and Lihaj with his forearm smash on shitty Shotton.

[nigel]

Westwood must be one of the first names on the teamsheet at the moment.Thought Baker was very solid aswell.One of the most pleasing things about the game was that our young side weren't bossed about by Stoke's Alehouse football mentality.Clark's tackle on Kenwyne Jones, just before halftime, epitomised this when the whole Villa team jumped into the melee to defend their team mate.

You mean the tackle on Showcross and Jones had a go him ... Yes Clarky "did" him!

Yes, I stand corrected.Clark and Baker seem to have a knack of taking out a player and still winning a freekick for themselves.That was one of the instances today when the Ref's poor display went in our favour.

Watch it on MotD, Jones pushed Clark in the back, which was what we got the foul for, and Clark lost his footing and went into Shawcross.

It looks like I stand to be corrected twice ! I sat at the very top of the Trinity in my defence , looking foward to MOTD now.

Ha Ha, not to worry, I think we've been in the same position as you.
I've said what 'I saw' and been told from a different position it looks a totally different thing.
I'll probably watch MotD and it will look different again 

[nigel]

Stoke players generally (and Jones in particular) were squaring up to and trying to provoke our players all afternoon - Guzan, Clarke, Baker, etc. Don't remember them trying to provoke Benteke though. Cowards !

Yes, I noticed that too.
The best thing was our boys never backed down once.
I noticed during the Clark/Jones incident Jones got quite brave with Benteke........................... maybe the 3 or 4 players in between them helped a tad? 

[nigel]

Having had a bit of time to reflect, we dominated the game, kept a notoriously physical side extremely quiet with an inexperienced defence and should really have won.  Lets not forget, they beat the stripy Brazil in their last away game...

That's stretching it a little!

Think he's pretty much correct.
Apart from a couple of 5 minute spells they didn't really threaten.
The only negative from that game was we didn't score. A pretty important one I agree, but the positive column must be overflowing

[AVFCRob]

Having read through most of the replies I'm a little surprised by the degree of positivity about that performance. To be clear though, Stoke were wretched and the Villa defence was superb. Stoke didn't get a sniff.

However there was never any tempo about our play. The attacks were slow and any momentum from a break was invariably curtailed by slowing down the play or a backwards pass.

It's easy to see why we don't score many goals. How many times did full-backs overlap to provide a forward pass when we broke? When the ball was played up to Benteke how often did a midfielder seek to run past him to receive a flick or pass? Never, not once that I can recall.

The pretty passing was all in safe, unthreatening areas. The Stoke defence were rarely turned or taken out of position.

All in all I thought it was a safety first performance from us. No risks.

We will not score if we don't try to give attacking options and based on what 16 games have shown the season's going to be a long and hard one to watch.

Didn't Lambert say that the Villa fans wouldn't put up with the first shot on target happening in the 41st minute or something? Well crowds of 28 then 30k suggest exactly that.

[Dante Lavelli]

I really think we have 5 or 6 future legends we just need the other 5.

That's true, Benteke, Westwood, Guzan, Lowton, Baker and Clark are all likeable players and starting to look top quality too.
If Lambert can add two or three more this window or a similar ilk then we really could be onto something good.

[olaftab]

Having had a bit of time to reflect, we dominated the game, kept a notoriously physical side extremely quiet with an inexperienced defence and should really have won.  Lets not forget, they beat the stripy Brazil in their last away game...

That's stretching it a little!

Yes we didn't stretch em enough

[olaftab]

Having read through most of the replies I'm a little surprised by the degree of positivity about that performance. To be clear though, Stoke were wretched and the Villa defence was superb. Stoke didn't get a sniff.

I think our team had something to do with that. To curtail an inform team to barely 1 shot not on target all through the game takes some doing.

[onje_villa]

AVFC Rob, spot on for me that. Seems like our defence has come on leaps and bounds, Westwood and Bannan are neat and tidy, Benteke is physical and a real threat but someone has to get forward from midfield.

It's all very well people coming on saying such and such's pass completion is 98% but these were nearly all backwards. The amount of times we got the ball in the opposition half then proceeded to play it backwards was alarming. I don't mind keeping hold of the ball but unless people improve their movement off the ball, we're going to be faced with a choice: lump it forward and invariably lose it or keep the ball by passing backwards.

I really think we should have gone all out for the win yesterday. Throw bodies forward, that's what positive teams would do at 0-0 at home. I do however agree with some of the positives others have pointed out.

[Summers]

Just watched the MOTD highlights. Thought it was great to see our boys fighting for each other. Annoyed none of the panel picked up on Jones pushing Clark into the tackle they condemned him for. Benteke had some good chances, Shawcross' block saved a goal for sure.

If we're gonna push on with 352 Delph at LWB could be a great plan.

[Clampy]

I was more disapointed with drawing last week than yesterday. I thought we matched them physically and did'nt let them bully us which was good to see. We just lacked a bit of cutting edge up front although i think Weimann would have been a better choice of sub than Bent.

[Mazrim]

Having read through most of the replies I'm a little surprised by the degree of positivity about that performance. To be clear though, Stoke were wretched and the Villa defence was superb. Stoke didn't get a sniff.

I think our team had something to do with that. To curtail an inform team to barely 1 shot not on target all through the game takes some doing.

None. Zero. Nada shots on target. And only one attempt.

This is the team Hansen reckons is easily top 10.
He 's probably right but that's a new set of wrong of all by itself.

[mr woo]

Well we're looking more solid but still wanting up front. Amazed how many times a midfielder looks up and has to go backwards/ sidewards because there isn't a pass on. Lack of movement or failure to commit an extra man forward?

And after nearly 3 years of fuck all I've come to the conclusion that Stephen Ireland is the only footballer I know with a deceptively GOOD first touch.

[Monty]

Having read through most of the replies I'm a little surprised by the degree of positivity about that performance. To be clear though, Stoke were wretched and the Villa defence was superb. Stoke didn't get a sniff.

I think our team had something to do with that. To curtail an inform team to barely 1 shot not on target all through the game takes some doing.

None. Zero. Nada shots on target. And only one attempt.

This is the team Hansen reckons is easily top 10.
He 's probably right but that's a new set of wrong of all by itself.

I thought when he said that that it says more about the state of the Premier League than about Stoke's particular qualities.

The MOTD coverage of the mysteriously uncautioned fouls was a disgrace. What about Jones taking down Guzan? What about the midfielder who just grabbed Westwood off the ball and flung him backwards? What about elbows flying in from Jones every time the ball went near him? Anyone watching MOTD would have seen a physical game where Stoke were a little hard done by, whereas the reverse was the case. But they've decided they're not criticising Stoke for some unknown reason, so that's that. Disgusting, miserable, soul-destroying, eye-hurting team.

Well we're looking more solid but still wanting up front. Amazed how many times a midfielder looks up and has to go backwards/ sidewards because there isn't a pass on. Lack of movement or failure to commit an extra man forward?

Lack of movement I think. If anything, too many players standing around up front, not moving into space. There was one point in the second half where Bannan was looking for options and kept having to exchange passes with Lichaj and Westwood and looked frustrated about it.