Ratings and Reactions: Villa 1-4 Stoke

[Dodgyknees]

 

At least 5 players in this team should not be anywhere near the club next season.

 

Special honourable mention to Nathan "Braindead" Baker, a player who should'nt be playing for a Premier League team. 

 

4-1 loss at home to Stoke is an utter disgrace.

Let me guess, would any of those 5 be players that Lambert has bought?

 

 

Gabby, Baker, Weimann, Sylla and KEA for me.

[roonst83]

Any chance of having Okore back for Fulham?

[Rugeley Villa]

Shocking but grateful we won our last 2 home games which has near enough guaranted us staying up. That was really bad though

[thunderball]

**** rubbish.

Zero improvement in the past two years. Might not be all lamberts fault, but just saying.

This team is just not good enough. Poor, barely premiership, quality.

Don't get to VP any more, going to stop watching on TV shortly too. Just awful.

Ground nearly empty with 5 minutes to go, says it all - can't even be bothered to stay and boo.

[The_Lions_Roar]

**** rubbish.

Zero improvement in the past two years. Might not be all lamberts fault, but just saying.

This team is just not good enough. Poor, barely premiership, quality.

Don't get to VP any more, going to stop watching on TV shortly too. Just awful.

Ground nearly empty with 5 minutes to go, says it all - can't even be bothered to stay and boo.

What a fan you are!

[Paddywhack]

Well that's ruined an otherwise perfect weekend. That was just an embarrassing display.

[dakid007]

have way too many ineffective players

[dakid007]

LB

RB

CM

CAM
WINGER

[Electric Avenue]

What sort of manager plays Albrighton down the middle

[Daniel]

What sort of manager plays Albrighton down the middle

 

Left to try and win headers against N'zonzi and Palacios. Still don't know why Bennett didn't keep his place too.

[thunderball]

**** rubbish.

Zero improvement in the past two years. Might not be all lamberts fault, but just saying.

This team is just not good enough. Poor, barely premiership, quality.

Don't get to VP any more, going to stop watching on TV shortly too. Just awful.

Ground nearly empty with 5 minutes to go, says it all - can't even be bothered to stay and boo.

What a fan you are!

So you enjoy this rubbish do you? Sub standard kids losing possession and creating nothing. Beaten at home by virtually any one these days.

The club is utterly rudderless, no plan other than barely keeping our head above water.

What can in say? I've been an active fan for 30 years and our predicament is just the terrible. at least under Doug there was a glimmer of hope.

[Rugeley Villa]

Just saw the gate. Just over 30k, 10k down on last sat. That's bad, ok I know its stoke but that's a huge drop. Way way way to many fair weather fans

[dakid007]

LB Bertrand

RB Ricahrds

CB Caulker

CM Dembele

WINGER ??

CAM sigurdsson

[Hanky]

Bloody horrendous.

[OutByEaster?]

We lost this game yesterday.

 

Some teams benefit from the release of pressure, the chance to relax and play a bit, express themselves. Ours isn't one of those teams, without that bit of pressure, or that bit of a challenge that someone like Chelsea brings, we revert to our default lazy, weak, uninspired dross - today's was all of that and less.

 

We started badly - I know we scored after five minutes, but we were rubbish for four of those - warning signs which we were happy to ignore once we went one up and decided we were good.

 

We didn't lose on the basis of ability, we lost because of our mentality - we didn't care. Without something to play for, without the big bad wolf of relegation or the carrot of a major scalp, these players don't have a week in week out winning mentality, they're timid, they hide.

 

Unfortunately Stoke didn't feel like playing out the last 85 minutes at walking pace and promptly took advantage of a couple of our errors and forced us into a couple more. Ably assisted by the quite dreadful Mr Clattenburg, they battered us without playing well - Christmas come early in the Potteries.

 

The injuries didn't help us and Sylla is as much a Premier League midfielder as I am, but the double change didn't seem to bring about any change in attitude anyway - no one cared enough to try to lift the others enough to carry him through it.

 

We could have had two penalties although I'm told that the Benteke one doesn't look it in replays and the handball has gone largely unmentioned - if it was Chelsea we'd have three weeks of Mourinho talking about that decision - here, no one cared enough to make a fuss.

 

And if the players don't care, and the media don't care, then there's ample excuse for a crowd that was too small and too quiet, much like the team - 30,000 for a club like ours is a disgrace - how do we happily point the finger at those that run the club when we live in a city that doesn't care - Newcastle has a catchment area of around 300,000 people, one in six of them go to games. If we were the same our average attendance would be a quarter of a million people a week - as it stands, of the 1.5 million people that live near enough to Villa Park to attend, only 30,000 could be arsed to go today.

 

Players don't care, owners don't care, fans don't care.

 

On days like today, you have to conclude that Mr Holloway was right.

 

Maybe next week we'll be arsed again.

[PaulC]

Nobody was up for today's match after the euphoria of last week. The crowd, the players. It's was a motivational/desire problem. It's Paul's job to sort it out.

 

Yep thats it in a nutshell. No motivation today 

[RimmyJimmer]

What sort of manager plays Albrighton down the middle

He's not good enough anywhere.

Played great for 10 mins, got ahead looked comfortable, and made them come out & play, which would normally give us a better chance of getting a second....only they came out and played too well!! :-)

Once they were 3-1 up they just put everyone behind the ball, I think most teams would have struggled to score against that. We plotted our own downfall today!

As for comments about us not being premiership standard....we certainly looked like it last week!

18 months into building a young, inexperienced side, we're on the right track.

[dakid007]

if we don't strengthen wisely in summer we could easily lose guzan delph vlaar benteke

[Chap of Steel]

if we don't strengthen wisely in summer we could easily lose guzan delph vlaar benteke

You raise a good point.

If the current budget system continues, are the best players signed under the "young and hungry" policy even going to want to stay?

[villa-revolution]

I know we we're all supposed to be generous on Acorns day but since when has Stoke City been a charity?