Stoke City v Aston Villa Pre-Match Thread

[TonyD]

2.3

[David_Nab]

Only beat Reading in last 10 games so hardly most confident going into the game against us.We coped with them well at Villa Park would have won with better finishing so fancy us on the break but as always the set pieces could be a  worry.Baker should keep place even at LB as he is the strongest at defensive headers.

[Des Little]

1-1, although this lot are there for the taking and we owe them one.

[robbo1874]

Avoiding defeat is the minimum requirement. Not quite a must win, but almost.

You could argue that if we can't beat teams like Stoke then we deserve to go down.

I've gone for a win, more out of blind faith than any other reason.

[tomd2103]

Very few our players have the physique for the sort of crypto-sumo wrestling which is required for all dead ball situations against Pulis's Sterk. Expect a new record for the time is in the air or out of play.

We dealt quite comfortably with their set pieces at Villa Park earlier in the season.  Although their pitch is narrow, I don't think they are particularly good in the full-back areas and we can get some joy there.

[JUAN PABLO]

we cant defend so they will score but so will we

2-2

[KRS]

Their take on things:

http://oatcakefanzine.proboards.com/thread/211300/why-stoke-beat-villa

Interesting read...they seem to be shitting it as much as we are! From what the Stoke fans are saying, if we get an early goal then the crowd will turn and they dont think they will score unless one of our "defenders" is feeling charitable again. Common sense suggests that if we do get an early goal, then we stand a good chance of doubling our lead on the counter the longer the game goes on without them scoring.

A nice quote from that thread worthing noting...

Here's an interesting stat.

Villa have only kept one clean sheet this season...

... that was against us.

...time for another clean sheet please!

[PeterWithesShin]

In the league we had clean sheets against Swansea, Arsenal, Reading and Sunderland as well.

[eamonn]

We've kept more than one clean sheet. 2-0 v Swansea off the top of my head.

[neo_Villan]

What that poster probably meant was that the last clean sheet we kept was against them. To be honest, if we are to break our 20 games without a clean-sheet duck, then it will be against these lot. Lowest league scorers last season (Yes, even lower than us under TSM!!) and lowest so far this season. On the flipside, they have the perfect defence to face if they want to put that right.

[Ads]

We definitely need Weimann back for this.

Not a game for Bannan, so I would go with a midfield of Westwood, Sylla and Delph, which should give us an extra man in there as Pullis is fairly rigid in his four across the midfield at home.

[nigel]

I am pessimistic about this one. I think we will lose 2-0. They will bully our fragile defence into submission.

I can see where you're coming from, but, they tried that at Villa Park and failed.

[levico]

I'd love to go for a Villa win but our frailties are still very obvious. A draw for me, probably 2-2.

[CJ]

We've done pretty well at defending set pieces lately (kiss of death) but I can't see us keeping their lumps up to their lampposts out for 90 minutes. 2-2, with Tiny Penis bemoaning the fact that his breathtaking brand of high tempo, entertaining football didn't deliver them 3 points

[Clampy]

We definitely need Weimann back for this.

Not a game for Bannan, so I would go with a midfield of Westwood, Sylla and Delph, which should give us an extra man in there as Pullis is fairly rigid in his four across the midfield at home.

I'd agree with this, or maybe Clark in the middle in place of Sylla which would give us a bit more height in the box defending corners?