Aston Villa v Stoke City post match thread

[PaulWinch again]

I would disagree that gabby is pretty good most of the time - as a villa fan I think he's cut a lot more slack but his poor performances far outweigh his good ones .

Useful impact player off the bench maybe but not a regular first teamer for me.

He's definitely not a great force at home on the whole, saying that neither are the whole team. Our goal today showed how to open up teams who sit back, but we didn't learn from it.

[Chris Jameson]

I'd say Agbonlahor is barely average most of the time.

[Clark W Griswold]

I would disagree that gabby is pretty good most of the time - as a villa fan I think he's cut a lot more slack but his poor performances far outweigh his good ones .

Useful impact player off the bench maybe but not a regular first teamer for me.

Well i think we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. He's presently our second best attacking player after Benteke and 90% of the time looks easily good enough to be playing for us in our current state. We're hardly friggin Real Madrid. I would have said when we were challenging for top 4 a few years ago he looked a weak link with the likes of Young, Downing, Milner, Barry, Carew, Petrov etc but those days are well and truly gone.

[PaulWinch again]

The major frustration is that for 10 minutes we played how a team should play at home, unfortunately we then abandoned that and got battered.

[eastie]

Of course people will be happy after beating Chelsea but one swallow doesn't make a summer - I said then lets see where we finish before any decision is made on his future and credit was given to lambert and all concerned for last weeks display - however we have had too many false dawns under him - we know what these players are capable of and it is his job to get them performing at that level on a regular basis .

It is no good him saying he doesn't know what happened today or why it happened - he is the motivator , he chooses, coaches and buys the players and he has failed to deliver too many times .

[Legion]

We were outstanding at the start then fell apart after we scored.

[Nev]

Sir Graham said it, football is about results, nothing else.
Lambert might be getting a few notable ones, but tellingly, not enough good ones.

[eastie]

I would disagree that gabby is pretty good most of the time - as a villa fan I think he's cut a lot more slack but his poor performances far outweigh his good ones .

Useful impact player off the bench maybe but not a regular first teamer for me.

Well i think we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. He's presently our second best attacking player after Benteke and 90% of the time looks easily good enough to be playing for us in our current state. We're hardly friggin Real Madrid. I would have said when we were challenging for top 4 a few years ago he looked a weak link with the likes of Young, Downing, Milner, Barry, Carew, Petrov etc but those days are well and truly gone.

Saying he is our 2nd best attacking player doesn't say much for the others in that case.

[PaulWinch again]

We were outstanding at the start then fell apart after we scored.

Yep we were and we actually played how a home team should, the goal highlighted that. The fact we fell apart so badly shows a lack of tactical awareness and leadership.

[Clark W Griswold]

I would disagree that gabby is pretty good most of the time - as a villa fan I think he's cut a lot more slack but his poor performances far outweigh his good ones .

Useful impact player off the bench maybe but not a regular first teamer for me.

Well i think we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. He's presently our second best attacking player after Benteke and 90% of the time looks easily good enough to be playing for us in our current state. We're hardly friggin Real Madrid. I would have said when we were challenging for top 4 a few years ago he looked a weak link with the likes of Young, Downing, Milner, Barry, Carew, Petrov etc but those days are well and truly gone.

Saying he is our 2nd best attacking player doesn't say much for the others in that case.

True, but they're way better than our bastard defenders. Which says a hell of a lot.

[brian green]

Just home from the game.   Where to begin.   That was one of the worst performances collectively of any Villa side I have seen since the days of DOL.   I am not a Lambert out man because I am a realist and do not think it is going to happen.   There are enough downers following Villa without building up your hopes pointlessly.   Stoke outplayed us in every department today.   They muscled us and we capitulated.   In my opinion the reason we can beat the better teams is because they come to play football and our players are not scared of them.   Lesser sides come and play to get points at all costs and too many of our players have no stomach for the fray.

I was not surprised by the result because my diagnosis of the crux of our shortcomings is the gulf between how we can play and how we do play.   We never play poorly, we never have an off day.   When we are bad we are unspeakably bad and that is down to coaching and man management.

On the way to the game we heard Pat Murphy's interview with Lambert and on being told that we have not won three home games back to back for seven years his reply was "I expect I shall get blamed for that"   I think he sees himself as a victim when so much of what goes wrong on the pitch is directly his and his staff's responsibility.

One thing which I found inexplicable was the complete absence of any greater effort or urgency in the second half.   After a first half like that you would expect that they came out fresh from the mother of all bollockings but if anything they were more slap happy and lethargic than they had been in the first half.

If we scrape to survival nothing is going to change.   We are going to go into next season on a wing and a prayer with most of the bomb squad bombed out and Hoolahan, Holt and a couple of bargain buys brought in.   What we have seen in recent times is going to be the norm for the foreseeable future.   If you are an optimist you will continue to be an optimist, if you are a pessimist you will continue to be pessimistic.

[Ger Regan]

If you read what I put I said that from the over dramatic reaction from some "It seems like" some were "Almost hoping" for something like this. I have no problem with people like Paulie for example who make many valid points about Lambert's reign on the whole and have consistently said the same thing after both good and bad results. If anyone calling for him to go was as keen for him to go this time last week after the Chelsea result then fair play and today they will feel vindicated in their lack of faith. If anyone has jumped directly from happy to give him more time to sack him after today they are fickle. And trust me, I don't have rose tinted specs. I have missed one home game in all competitions since Lambert took over so like many others I have witnessed more than enough slow motion car crashes at Villa Park in such a relatively short space of time, with the added bonus of having to exit the North stand and walk up Witton Lane seeing and hearing celebrating away fans. Ger, I promise you I wasn't trying to be deliberately confrontational. And cheers to Olaftab for having my back.

Fair enough, damo. I just get a bit twitchy when I see that type of post put up (similarly to when I see "happy clapper" or some other nonsense posted). Tempers can flare easily on a night like tonight, I really doubt that there's very many on here who actually take pleasure in a game / result like today.

[eastie]

Just home from the game.   Where to begin.   That was one of the worst performances collectively of any Villa side I have seen since the days of DOL.   I am not a Lambert out man because I am a realist and do not think it is going to happen.   There are enough downers following Villa without building up your hopes pointlessly.   Stoke outplayed us in every department today.   They muscled us and we capitulated.   In my opinion the reason we can beat the better teams is because they come to play football and our players are not scared of them.   Lesser sides come and play to get points at all costs and too many of our players have no stomach for the fray.

I was not surprised by the result because my diagnosis of the crux of our shortcomings is the gulf between how we can play and how we do play.   We never play poorly, we never have an off day.   When we are bad we are unspeakably bad and that is down to coaching and man management.

On the way to the game we heard Pat Murphy's interview with Lambert and on being told that we have not won three home games back to back for seven years his reply was "I expect I shall get blamed for that"   I think he sees himself as a victim when so much of what goes wrong on the pitch is directly his and his staff's responsibility.

One thing which I found inexplicable was the complete absence of any greater effort or urgency in the second half.   After a first half like that you would expect that they came out fresh from the mother of all bollockings but if anything they were more slap happy and lethargic than they had been in the first half.

If we scrape to survival nothing is going to change.   We are going to go into next season on a wing and a prayer with most of the bomb squad bombed out and Hoolahan, Holt and a couple of bargain buys brought in.   What we have seen in recent times is going to be the norm for the foreseeable future.   If you are an optimist you will continue to be an optimist, if you are a pessimist you will continue to be pessimistic.

I fell even more depressed after reading this brian

[Legion]

Ger, I can vouch for Damo70 being a level-headed, intelligent poster.

[PaulWinch again]

Lambert's response of 'I expect I'll get blamed for that' would explain why we have such a petulant side. We were pathetic and had no character today.