Stoke City v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[pooligan]

Hey ,don't forget he also played for the rags before he went to the Baggies .

[villan from luton]

Only read the last page after posting last night. It is not about Baker, I said I do not think he is good enough for the premiership, but to blame him is wrong. If he had been marking Crouch instead of Herd , it is unlikely we would have gone one down. Absolute nonsense to lose a goal from a free kick from that area. We are missing Vlaar massively and I hope his critics accept that. I think him and Clark together are a decent partnership, though cant wait till Okore is back. I thought Bacuna has been bought as a midfielder, didnt he compare himself to Lampard? He has shown a bit about him, give him a fecking chance instead of Tonev, who is out of his depth at the minute. Weiman has to stop moaning at the refs and fecking start playing, he has been amongst the worst and there are a few. Cant believe he makes a comment today about not worrying about lack of goals, he fecking well should. Spuds went 4-4-2 today and went for it, we should against Palace, but the forwards have to be the first line of defence. Dont sit back, be in their fecking faces and give them some

[David_Nab]

Baker is all blood and guts able to make great blocks and get his head on cross's ..but his postioning s very suspect especially when Vlaar is nto next to him.The other issue with him is his passing it poor put Herd next to him ,who I read had a 36% success rate for passing yesterday
and you have a recipe for disaster.

Clark has improved yet I still think be has played best for us as a DMF

[silhillvilla]

Baker is not the problem.

[olaftab]

Liam Ridgewell had posters lining up to slag him off but he turned out a lot better than he was given credit for in many quarters.

He made a career at the Baggies. I'd argue that proves he wasn't good enough.

Ridgewell was an inadequate top flight defender  with us and has gone on to prove that with Blues and Albion.

[tomd2103]

Baker is not the problem.

He has been a big part of the problem for the last two seasons.  Did you see the ease with which Charlie Adam turned him to score yesterday?  Week before, a terrible pass leads to Man Utd scoring.  He is a liability I'm afraid.   

[supertom]

Liam Ridgewell had posters lining up to slag him off but he turned out a lot better than he was given credit for in many quarters.

He made a career at the Baggies. I'd argue that proves he wasn't good enough.

Ridgewell was an inadequate top flight defender  with us and has gone on to prove that with Blues and Albion.

Ridgewell is a better player than Baker, and he's not very good. Bakers being used more than he should be, but the injuries can't be helped sadly. Had Okore and Vlaar been fit all season, I don't think we'd have seen Baker in the league by now..

[JUAN PABLO]

well Lambert needs to get them to actually pass the ball to each other .

We have the worse passing completion in the league , other than Palace

what a great passing game thats going to be

[Dave Clark Five]

Baker is not the problem.

He has been a big part of the problem for the last two seasons.  Did you see the ease with which Charlie Adam turned him to score yesterday?  Week before, a terrible pass leads to Man Utd scoring.  He is a liability I'm afraid.   

Charlie Adam is one of those players who will beat even the most experienced defenders. I said that he would score when he ran past us at half time. Those type of players always do. I regretted us letting Kevin Phillips go. He carried on scoring goals for years and I knew that he would.

[Chinchilla Bathhouse]

A. Basics are still appalling (free kicks, throw ins, corners). All show no sign of any work during the week.

B. Signings. Bar the obvious one no others I would say have been a success and the majority of them are now among the first players we should be looking to sell.

C. Limited tactics. Sometimes baffling selections.

D. Style of play. Or actually no style of play. 11 players on a pitch chasing the ball around hoping something will happen with no plan from game to game as to how to make it happen. It really is as basic as that right now.

E. Substitutions. Rarely have any effect. We don't have strength in depth? Well wasn't that what his summer signings were touted as being?

Even his dour demeanour bugs me, he comes across as inspirational as Howard Wilkinson in his latter years and the team resembles him. Theres more reasons aswell which i'm sure your aware of seeing as you know when I post and at what minute of a particular game but I can't be bothered repeating them anymore.

£43m quid and he's produced this turd of a team and i'm sure theres no one salivating at the prospect of sticking the boot in after another dismal day. 99.9% would rather be arguing about who we should sign to solidify our champions league push rather than how the hell has Chris Herd managed to sneak back into the side again.

Well no, I happened to note that particular post of yours from that particular minute of that particular game because it was particularly appalling.  As was your input last night/early this morning.  This, your latest riposte, highlights exactly what I'm saying.  You make some fair and valid points and then you spoil it all by having a snarling dig at me.  Why so hostile all the time?  This will shock you, but I actually agree with some of your comments.   

I don't want to prolong this theme, I felt I needed to make a point so I made it.  I'm glad to see that a few people have agreed and I'm not on my own here.  To be clear, I'm not saying I think we should all be happy clappy on here and turn a blind eye to our problems.  I'm not expecting us all to agree with each other, far from it; I like a debate, I think it's healthy to be able to thrash out our worries and get things off our chests.  That's what this forum is for.  All I'm asking is that people behave with a little decorum and remember that, ultimately, we're all on the same side. 
     

[richard moore]

Completely agree with aj2k77, it's utterly appalling and I think we're entitled to be as angry about it as we want to be. Without of course being derogatory to other posters

[eastie]

Completely agree with aj2k77, it's utterly appalling and I think we're entitled to be as angry about it as we want to be. Without of course being derogatory to other posters

I can see some valid points on both sides of the argument - we are all n the same side but we sure as hell need to get some points over these 3 games  as the last few weeks have been very poor .

[ciggiesnbeer]

I completely disagree with aj2k77.  We were easily the better team versus stoke, we lost, it happens but we played the better football. We won against Southampton playing much worse. Thats football, a lot of luck involved.

I like our team , I like our owner and manager. I find Lambert's tactics to be astute and flexible. As for his substitutions.. yeah he blew it not reacting to Adam, but he sure nailed it against West Brom.

We will be fine this season, we all hate losing but I choose to get over it and look forward to watching Villa play the next game.

And I like being a happy clappy. Life is a lot more fun. Tonev to score and UTV

[Mortimer's Bear]

Baker is not the problem.

He's certainly not the answer either.

[eastie]

Baker is not the problem.

He is one of several problems in the side - defence , midfield and attack all have problems.