Aston Villa vs Stoke Post Match Thread

[JUAN PABLO]

Dominic


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Gabby has been my pet hate for a few seasons now, he is a total chancer who has played well for a 15 minute spell every 8 games or so, misses multiple games a year with "injuries" and can sniff a manager in trouble so goes through the motions because it will always be someone elses fault. Him under Mcleish should have been enough to get rid of him but he survived another manager or 2 or 3 and still produces nothing.




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This

Always blamed the managers and not himself. Could never understand lambert keep playing him and andi. Waste of two players .    their input yesterday , was shocking . Andi's final ball was non league standard .

[Toronto Villa]

In the first season the from three of Gabby, Benteke and Weimann looked quite superb at times. I can see why he kept it going for as long as possible. Maybe he just thought the chemistry would return at some point and it never did.

[Monty]

Actually they were getting it up to Benteke from minute one. Sometimes effectively, for Benteke to bring down, but a lot of the time they were just going for the slightly desperate flick-on. I agree, though, that we played well on the wings.

They were, but again I wonder if that was just simply a tactic Sherwood had to employ seeing as he only had a short time to work with the players.  I will be disappointed if our style of play doesn't evolve from that over the next few weeks. 

One of the main problems we have with playing that way is Guzan's kicking, particularly off the floor.  If you are playing against a team employing those tactics, you make sure you drop one of midfielders in front of the target man at every goal kick, as Stoke did with Whelan yesterday.  The problem we have is that Guzan 's kicks tend to fall short, which makes it very difficult for Benteke to win the ball, especially with someone in front of him.  I watched it quite closely yesterday and Benteke was having to make up ten yards towards his own goal at times to challenge for the ball off Guzan's kicks which makes it very hard for him to win the challenge.       

I think Sherwood wanted them to hit Benteke early - in fact he's strongly intimated as much since he came here - so that seemed like a tactic to me. However, that doesn't mean he definitely wanted them to do it all the time like they did, nor to always go for the flick-on (although Gabby's 'movement', if you can call it that, indicated that the flick-on was at least part of the plan). His pretty direct response in the interview shows that he's having second thoughts, which is great - even if I'd rather not see it much in the first place.

On Guzan, I agree. His distribution with his hands is pretty good, but his kicking has never been much good.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

Chelsea get it forward to Costa as soon as possible and flood players around him. Think we may see us use this tactic with Benteke. It happened in the second half against Leicester in the cup.

[Monty]

Chelsea get it forward to Costa as soon as possible and flood players around him. Think we may see us use this tactic with Benteke. It happened in the second half against Leicester in the cup.

That's when you need three in midfield, so you can get a couple of them forward with some insurance against the counterattack. Even if Benteke doesn't win the ball his challenge could lead to a loose ball. You need the men around him, though, not flicking onto an even more isolated striker beyond him.

[john e]

We also need to work on corners
We had a few yesterday everyone of them was useless,
 a corner for Villa at the moment is just another way of giving there goalie the ball

[Toronto Villa]

We also need to work on corners
We had a few yesterday everyone of them was useless,
 a corner for Villa at the moment is just another way of giving there goalie the ball

Not that Delph was much better, but why on earth was Weimann taking a corner? We've really not had consistently good set piece delivery since Young and Barry. Get those two aiming at Benteke's nut and suddenly things start to happen as opposed to Westwood/Cleverley or Delph.

[john e]

We also need to work on corners
We had a few yesterday everyone of them was useless,
 a corner for Villa at the moment is just another way of giving there goalie the ball

Not that Delph was much better, but why on earth was Weimann taking a corner? We've really not had consistently good set piece delivery since Young and Barry. Get those two aiming at Benteke's nut and suddenly things start to happen as opposed to Westwood/Cleverley or Delph.

Well it was pretty obvious yesterday that we haven't got a clue with corners,
hopefully the new man will do something about it,
we must be the least effective team on set pieces in the prem, they are a joke

[brian green]

Apropos of nothing Jimmy Rimmer's kicks out of his hands presented the same sort of problem to our front men.  He would kick across the intended line of the flight of the ball and bend it in the air like a banana.   Managed pretty well to cope with it but we did have somewhat better players up front in them days.   The free kicks Guzan took yesterday were pretty innocuous. 

[Bad English]

Brian, that reminds me of Schmeichel's comedy throw out (vs the Dippers) which hit the ref, Andy d'Urso, in the back for Litmanen to lap it up and score. I was in the Holte for that one. Boxing Day 2001. Went on to lose 1-2 :-(

[brian green]

If you liked that one BE you would have loved us against Wolves circa 1948 when the wind across a roofless Holte was so strong Joe Rutherford could not get his kicks out of our penalty area.   Up steps Sailor Brown (dual Villa and Charlton legend) who leathered a goal kick into the teeth of a violent gust, ball boomerangs, Joe Rutherford dives and palms it into his own net.

[Ron Manager]

If you liked that one BE you would have loved us against Wolves circa 1948 when the wind across a roofless Holte was so strong Joe Rutherford could not get his kicks out of our penalty area.   Up steps Sailor Brown (dual Villa and Charlton legend) who leathered a goal kick into the teeth of a violent gust, ball boomerangs, Joe Rutherford dives and palms it into his own net.

1948  would  that be the match where Trefor Ford scored his four goals Brian?

[Holte L2]

      Given

Hutton Okore Clark Richardson (if fit)

Bacuna Cleverley  Delph  Sinclair

           Gil
                  Benteke

[Tayls_7]

I think we are so deep in the mire that it isn't really about picking the magic formation now. It is about Sherwood getting it across to the players that we are in a desperate situation and identifying 11 guys who are willing to take responsibility and dig us out of this shit. The fact that in Vlaar's absence Lambert saw fit to hand Gabby the armband tells me all I need to know about the lack of leaders we have. Personally I'd rather be stewarded by a pineapple than that f**ktard. I can see a few players still with the passion to turn things around; Guzan, Clark, Hutton and, er, oh shit. I think that's why we'll go down. Too many players with their head in the sand deflecting responsibility. Held on to Lambert for way too long. The whole place must reek of failure.

[Clark W Griswold]

I must admit this is the most concerning yet in the Lerner era in terms of going down. And that's saying something, it's looked quite probable a couple of times before.