Aston Villa v Stoke City post match thread

[PeterWithe]

Vertout certainly took a few on the TR side.

[kippaxvilla2]

The one in the last minute of injury time just summed us up in my opinion.  To go short was laughable.  To go short and give the ball straight to a Stoke player was barely believable were it not Villa doing it.

[aj2k77]

See even the minute detail like corners, throw ins, goal kicks, it's all bloody wrong. What do they do all week? Does he have the running around trying to build up this legendary fitness level that he requires for them to play his bizarre formations? We need to start getting angry.

[walsall villain]

Another doomed coach trip for the London Lions, 3 defeats all 0-1 to Swansea, Burnley and Stoke. We almost had a Only fools and horses moment when the adaptor the driver purchased from a local shop for his mobile phone caught fire, we also managed to get him a ticket for the game......don't think he'll want to take us again.

The last corner was a Pu-lonker special. More Mike Bassett

Is there another team in Britain who would make such a mess of a corner deep in stoppage time?
We have loads of new players yet Westwood still takes most of them. Why don't we try something different? Perhaps Amavi to take one with pace?
Thought I wasn't letting that shower get to me this season but feel really depressed and demoralised this morning, bet I'm not alone.

[silhillvilla]

Stoke hadn't won away since February and guess who that was against.

[Chris Smith]

The one in the last minute of injury time just summed us up in my opinion.  To go short was laughable.  To go short and give the ball straight to a Stoke player was barely believable were it not Villa doing it.

I said something similar after the game. If you wanted to take one moment to sum us up that was the perfect example; the wrong decision poorly executed.

[Richard]

The way forward :

Guzan

Richards
Okore
Clark
Amavi

Sanchez
Veretout
Gueye

Gill or Traore
Grealish
Ayew or Sinclair

[olaftab]

No not Sinclair.

[joe_c]

I'm trying to remain brightside about things. I'm convinced we are one win away from putting a good run together that will take us up the table and our next game, against a club in an advanced state of meltdown, coukd provide it. Every defeat has been by a single goal and Liverpool have been the only side we've played who looked far superior to us.

There have been sweeping changes in the personnel available and the players brought in will take time to adjust and gel. This a slower process than I anticipated or would have liked but I have seen encouraging signs from the new players, albeit fleeting in some cases.

Goals scored and conceded are of course the major issue but it took us until December last season to accumulate the same number of goals while the goals against column is similar. 

I am also concerned that Sherwood is learning on the job and that the mistakes he's making in terms of tactics and what he says you would hope would have been out of system by now but that's not the case. However when he says things like "shuffling the pack" it's immediately seized upon as evidence of him not knowing what he's doing which does him no favours.

Would him sticking with the same side that had performed so poorly the week before been preferable?  Of course not. There is I'm sure a more astute way of vebalising a change in line up and formation and he needs to find it raher than make rod for his own back with ill considered soundbites.

As I said on another thread, alarm bells may be ringing but let's make ample use of the snooze button before we have to get out of bed and go to work.

[LeeB]

As I say every week now, what is there left to say that hasn't been said a 1000 times already?

My position too Richard. I'm exhausted by getting this worked up, and I try hard not to. But 5 years and counting and even being one of the most optimistic ones I feel beaten to shit by it all.

It just saps your energy doesn't TV? I feel drained by 5pm every week now even though, bizarrely, they make me care less and less. I actually watch hardly any football now at the weekends or in the week and it's all down to year after year after year now of this unremitting shit. I sat in Bath in the sun in the week and thought how much I wished I could live there, go and watch the rugby every week, and forget all about this f*cking drain on my life

I've learned to deal with it by switching off from football entirely and trying real hard not to give a Fuck.

The problem is it happens so often that I'm starting to genuinely not give a fuck, and I'm clearly not alone.

I'm starting to think we need a relegation. We are incapable of building any momentum, this consistent purgatory could cripple us long term.

[Walmley_Villa]

Personally I see no reason why Jack gets on before Gil? Jack still doesn't deliver the killer pass or cross. Gil gets the team moving whilst Jack slows us down and often takes a touch too many, inexperience. It was Jack that went over for the short corner, Gil should have ignored him.

[Clampy]

I thought a point was a much as we deserved and if Richards had put that header in, who know what would have happened?

The team selection was a bit odd but he's obviously had Stoke watched and it's something he wanted to do. As for our lot, despite his goals, I can't help feeling Gestede is someone who we're trying to fit in to how we're playing but it's seems to be holding us back. I know that's a strange thing to say seeing as he's got 4 goals in 8 games so I expect people to disagree.

I thought Veretout had a good game yesterday as well. As for Westwood, he shouldn't be allowed anywhere near corner's again.

[Des Little]

The one in the last minute of injury time just summed us up in my opinion.  To go short was laughable.  To go short and give the ball straight to a Stoke player was barely believable were it not Villa doing it.

I said something similar after the game. If you wanted to take one moment to sum us up that was the perfect example; the wrong decision poorly executed.

Totally and utterly clueless. A short corner with practically the last kick of the game. It defies all belief really.

[Clampy]

Two things from yesterday as well. The chap in front of me who slaughtered Guzan for being off his line for Charlie Adam's long range effort. I've honestly never heard such bollocks.

Also, after returning to my seat from visiting the little boys room, the chap who refused to let me get past him despite me and his mate nudging him and asking him several times. He just sat there in a trance like state and refused to budge, it was weird.

[Legion]

He was probably in shock.