The only place I could get to see the game today was in a bar that showed all the Prem games at the same time, which was dominated by the Man Utd game’s commentary being blasted in our ears.
Still, you can’t have everything and I was consoled by the fact that there was an excellent Scandinavian showing of Villa fans. I met a chap from just up the road from me too, as an extra bonus.
I was in fine fettle from the off and fully expected us to take the points, with the players wound up and trying to impress the new manager.
What a mistake that was.
I’m not going to go into it too much, but I thought we were frankly awful against a Stoke side who were frankly poor too.
Sherwood dropped Cleverley and Westwood, something I couldn’t really argue with, but also started Gabby, which I didn’t agree with.
After today, it’ll be interesting if Gabby starts the next game.
Whatever, I don’t need to tell you what happened.
We were simply shocking.
Maybe someone can tell me what the gameplan was, because I just don’t have a clue.
I couldn’t see what we were trying to do, as I find that impossible when you are constantly giving the ball away, as we did throughout the game.
This was summed up quite early on, when Guzan had a free kick outside the area and just hoofed it straight out for a throw.
It’s just beyond pathetic and this sort of thing shouldn’t be happening from supposed Premier league players.
Perhaps it’s a lack of confidence.
I suspect though, it’s more than that and Sherwood has a massive task on his hands.
In short, we threw away 3 points against a decidedly average team that were in poor shape because of injuries.
What chance will we have against the top teams or even those around us who are willing to fight?
Which brings me onto that “fight” part of the side.
I didn’t see any of it today.
And that tells me we’re in serious trouble.
The only consolations at the end of the game were that Chelsea drew to Burnley and Utd lost, much to the dismay of the glory hunters who were in the bar.
Perhaps there is some justice after all.
An utter load of gutless, talentless crap today, imo.
Sorry 🙁
Timbos eyes are wide open now gabbys got to be fucked off to wherever,as I didn’t want a total anti climax imo.barcodes next up & a full weeks training hopefully starting tomorrow.
As we all know we just are not good enough. I love this club but it has been destroyed.
No one should or can blame TS for today his balls are meat not gold.
I would start with bacunna and drop gabby, hios time has come.
Wow how silly were all of us to expect sherwood to change it all over night , the fact of the matter is Lerner has left it way to late and there simy isn’t enough time , we need 5/6 wins out of the remaining 12 games and the simply isn’t going to happen .
Yes I was one of the silly ones if we don’t get 6 pts from our next 2 I’m throwing the towel in.
Ps I have a feeling we’ll lose in the league to the baggies & beat them in the cup.
Sorry Giddy – my towel was flying about 2 hours ago. We will see what Mr. S is made of over the next few weeks. Will we go down with a whimper or a bl**dy fight – I hope it’s the latter. Plan for the Championship ‘cos that’s where we will be next season.
Tbh if Lambert was still here I’d join you, but fuck knows why I’m hanging on by a thread I hope ts pulls it out the bag mate.
I think Sherwood is too little too late. I’m not saying he won’t succeed at VP but we seriously missed the boat by not getting rid sooner and getting pullis. I’m no fan of his but he’s a safe pair of hands. I think some of Sherwoods decisions today were woeful starting with the team he picked. Problem is we need someone who hits the ground running and im not sure TS is it.
A positive – Sherwood called it as he saw it and didn’t use the ‘thought we were excellent today’ line 🙂
I thought that aswell mate plus he was audible.
are we all feeling better, we can hear the excuses without subtitles….. facts ……we’re dooooooomed lambert sherwood have to sprout shit, but as ooohahaha always say,they are papering over the cracks. but now them cracks are as wide as the grand canyon
Try to stay positive! Remember when John Gregory came in around February in 1997? We won 7 out of the last nine and secured a European place! I’m not saying that’s going to happen now, but how can you can that six wins out of twelve is not possible???
TS needs to find the right 11 as quickly as possible and then I believe there is enough talent in the right 11 to stay up. There really is. For the record, my ‘right’ 11 would be:
Given (Guzan is a good shot stopper but the fact is, we’ve been fighting relegation every year since he became number 1. A goalkeeper needs to organise the team and be a leader. I think that Given can do that better than Guzan. Not to mention the fact that he’s a better goalkeeper all round. No brainer.)
Cissokho – no other option really
Hutton – no problem there
Okore and Clarke – (they were forming a great understanding earlier in the season. Okore in particular can be colossal, every bit as good as Vlaar, who is massively overrated and is injured most of the time.)
Left wing – Sinclair – thankfully, has started well and seems to have plenty to offer
Centre mid – Delph and Sanchez (both need to do more but are very good players. Delph needs to step up and show last season’s form…need goals!)
Gil (I’d play him in a ‘free’ role behind Benteke and tell him to cause chaos for the opposition – can do everything attacking wise from what I’ve seen)
Benteke (he’s not turned into a bad player overnight – he needs service! The goals he scored against United and Palace prove that it’s not the injury – he’s a young guy and needs confidence and service. I hope TS can get him back to his old self. If he does, we’ll be fine)
Keep the faith and support the team and manager! They will need it!
Short memory. Along with Bentekes goals, Guzans immense shot stopping is the reason we aren’t already in the Championship!!!
His kicking has been shite but I don’t see much else wrong!!
Am I missing something or is that 10 men?
I know it seems like we’ve been playing with ten men every week (and we have some weeks!) but most weeks we’ve actually had eleven on the pitch! Hard to believe, I know!
*how can you say
And there’s still room for one more player! Haha! Would have to be Weiman, although if we could have Bent back, I’d put him up there with Benteke with Gil supplying…
Oops sorry, just got to this post. Probably our best 11 at the moment. Maybe if we can get Kozak back we might be more potent up front. Probably going to be too late for him to make a difference though.
After today I feel that we are fucked. Sherwood got his eyes opened and knows now the players he has are not good enough. I am gutted we lost. We can just hope Sherwood pulls the wins that we need out of the bag.
I’m disappointed by today’s result. BUT, there are three teams in there, maybe more. We just need to do better than the other two. Leicester are down already. TS needs to do something radical which includes ditching some of the useless dicks out there today. I hope Lerner realises what complete shit we are in because of him. Come On Villa!!! For some reason I still believe we can do this, but many of the players will have to perform beyond their capabilities. It’s a tough job for Sherwood and maybe we were a bit too optimistic over the last few days.
UTV!!!
I put my money where my mouth was today. I said I would be there with my family, back in the Holte as soon as Lamberk went and I went with optimism. I thought we looked decent for the first half and we committed players forward. As much as the crowd seemed shocked to see Richardson playing at left back, I thought he did ok.
Quite rightly, Gabby is getting a ‘doing’ on this sight but I’m afraid that he wasn’t the worst striker on the pitch today. Benteke should hand his wages back in. He never won a header and I doubt very much whether his kit will need a wash. If we’ve got any chance this season, he has to put in more of a shift than I saw today. If he put as much into a challenge as Hutton he’d have bossed a very average Stoke team today.
The fact was that as soon as Stoke equalised we looked like we’d gone in to shock.
As for Vlaar…………..
Erm, never won a header?? A single header?? Suggest you watch it back fella.
I never saw him challenge for one let alone win one. I flatly refuse to watch that back so i will have to go with my initial assessment. Did your eyes tell you he put in a right shift then? No one I’ve spoken to did.
i remember him flicking one ball on and not one villa player gambled on that. but other than this, he lost all the challenges in the air as i recalled. if this is the big tactic which will save us. then it needs loads of working on cos, wimbledon or stoke we are definitely not
Correct Nath. How many times did the midfield have the ball and not one of the front three (when Weimann came on) made a move? Thought we looked dire up front in the 2nd half.
SEB remember when I said Benteke was the new Heskey!!…
Watched it in Valencia with a few Valencia fans, they asked two important questions…. Who is this gabby Ambonlo and why is vlaar on the pitch he is dangerous…. It was 1-1 all day until the cart horse put his stilts in…. TS has a job on his hands
Agree iv been slated for ages in my criticism for Vlaar but now people are finally waking up to smell the coffee
Vlaar is such a weak link, far too slow and far too clumsy – it was a draw all over and something to kick off from……But still think we will not be relegated, all the game has done is made TS realise who he can rely on and made him realise there are a few who can be ‘on fire’ in training but on the pitch don’t give a stuff !
I notice Martin Atkinson’s trying his best to see us down!! Ha. Had a stinker
The only Premier League team not to win in 2015. Great.
Another unwanted record by Sherwood this time
Lol!
Ya I have to say, I was encouraged by the opening 20 mins but then we just seemed to lose all cohesion and purpose, just seemed piss about with the ball, lose it a lot, hoof it a lot and while you could see we were clearly committing more men forward, it looked like we scored as a coincidence more than anything.
I didn’t think stoke were great at all, overall i has accepted this game for 2 poor teams under performing and seeing out a draw. then Vlaar pressed the self destruct button.
well at least TS won’t have to drop him, he has done that himself for a game with his suspension for a game.
Ya, we are exactly where we were before this game, nothing confirmed but all indicators pointing towards the drop ….until proven otherwise. We need a major course correction.
and its still possible. But we will have to wait and see if it happens.
I am pretty sure 37 points will be safety this year. 15 more to go from a possible 36.
We’re doomed Mr. Mainwaring….but not quite yet!
Ditch the non-performers and bring some youngsters in. At worst they’ll be playing next year if we go down and the drones f*** off.
Play for survival but keep an eye on the players we might need next year.