Aston Villa v Stoke City post match thread

[brontebilly]

Alan Hutton's efforts to play wing back in the first half were entertaining in the car crash sense.

Had a solid second half in fairness to him back in his regular position

[Percy McCarthy]

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.

Were you sitting in the home dugout?

Haha, very good.

A rare light hearted moment in a cloud of resignation.

RESIGNATION!?

Oh, I see.

Never mind.

[darren woolley]

It's going to be another long hard season again for us.

[Pete3206]

It's going to be another long hard season again for us.

Cheer up, we get to kick start Chelsea's season in a fortnight.

[ciggiesnbeer]

It's going to be another long hard season again for us.

Cheer up, we get to kick start Chelsea's season in a fortnight.

Thank goodness for that. Chelsea fans have suffered so much and with such dignity.

[Chap]

It's going to be another long hard season again for us.

Cheer up, we get to kick start Chelsea's season in a fortnight.

Wishful thinking but maybe Chelsea can kick start ours!, we did for the special one once, can only live in hope!

[JD]

How very depressing. That line up was a WTF moment. We should have gone for Stoke's jugular bet instead Villa lined up with no flair and with all the best creative players on the bench. Is Sherwood that scared of losing already? I thought he was going to play decent attacking football, but it's starting to look like he has no idea how to set a team up.

Absolute garbage. 

[PaulTheVillan]

The players look so shot of confidence.
Sherwood is getting things majorly wrong now every single game.
We need to go back to basics.
The lack of width is just shocking.

[Des Little]

it's getting worse by the week.Please God lets not leave it as long as we did with Lambert to change it.  Do it now.

[seanthevillan]

We had to waste all our substitutions just to put our best 3 attacking players (on current form) on the pitch.

We played 5 defenders, yet allowed space out wide to their two wingers by relying on Hutton and Amavi to push forward - brainless.

Its understandable that some players are getting used to playing with each other, but the systems we are playing doesn't help them at all. We're neither solid at the back, or threatening going forward, and have no identifiable game plan most of the time.

Sanchez isn't that popular (not really sure why), but for me when we played well this season (Leicester first half for example, and Palace), he shone in the midfield. A three in midfield should be him flanked by Veretout and Gana who have shown they are willing to break forward, but I would prefer to see him next to another midfielder, and Grealish, Gil and One Other (Traore if fit) ahead of them.

Sherwood is losing the plot - and I didn't think that until this week.

[aj2k77]

I can't believe how docile we've been as a fan base for 5 years. You see other clubs fans throwing hissy fits after a run of 5-10 bad games, that's standard for us. We've won 20 of the last 80 at home and the fans have turned once, against Bolton.

[rob_bridge]

I can't believe how docile we've been as a fan base for 5 years. You see other clubs fans throwing hissy fits after a run of 5-10 bad games, that's standard for us. We've won 20 of the last 80 at home and the fans have turned once, against Bolton.

Well an average of 30,000+ Villa fans turn up for home games. The planned 'protest' last season floundered last season with a participation of what 2%? Even Police Commissioner Elections get better turnouts.

We threw a major(ish) hissy fit when the board made the most inexplicable decision in the club's history in hiring McLeish and 99% of us knew how it would end and about how quickly.

[saunders_heroes]

I can't believe how docile we've been as a fan base for 5 years. You see other clubs fans throwing hissy fits after a run of 5-10 bad games, that's standard for us. We've won 20 of the last 80 at home and the fans have turned once, against Bolton.

Well an average of 30,000+ Villa fans turn up for home games. The planned 'protest' last season floundered last season with a participation of what 2%? Even Police Commissioner Elections get better turnouts.

We threw a major(ish) hissy fit when the board made the most inexplicable decision in the club's history in hiring McLeish and 99% of us knew how it would end and about how quickly.

I think Lerner has kicked the life out of the fans over the last 5 years.

[Witton Warrior]

We threw a major(ish) hissy fit when the board made the most inexplicable decision in the club's history in hiring McLeish and 99% of us knew how it would end and about how quickly.

But we didn't actually do anything until the Bolton match - 1 home game from the end of the season wasn't it?
I said on another thread I now await the interminable row about how/when to protest and how some people "need to grow a pair" or are "wetters" etc. Doesn't help really.

It doesn't matter of I turn up or not as I have an ST so will be counted regardless like lots of others.

[Ads]

We did not play too badly when in possession in the second half. We were never under any pressure, but by then we had scarified a half of football, when we could have really pressed on Stoke and maybe been a goal or two up by the time Richards lost his mind for their goal.

It was odd. When you are bedding in new players and trying to get a result to stem the flow of bad ones, to build confidence, then you need to deal with something the players know. 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 as it became ultimately cost us the match, as much as any of our inept forward play.