Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Stoke

[AVTuco]

Why were we more negative than before?

[Dale]

McLean was very lucky to be on the pitch, on a yellow, he spent an extended break in play arguing with fourth official and sent me abuse Smith's way... 

[KJT123]

Very clear to see that we missed Grealish. Nearly all of our attacks came through wide areas and crossing rather than Jack making runs through the middle of the opposition's midfield and defence. It meant that we were more reliant on Hutton and Elmo, and that's never going to work is it, particularly when Stoke were playing for the draw until they got the first goal.

I think if Jack isn't back for the next match, O'Hare needs to come in, or at least someone that can play in the same position.

Edited December 15, 2018 by KJT123

[kiltorken]

2 minutes ago, AVTuco said:

Why were we more negative than before?

Well Whelan for Grealish for one but Stoke set their stall up to stifle us and it worked. Probably have to get used to teams doing this. 

[Dale]

Stoke were effective at stopping us by fouling us every time we broke... 

[TheAuthority]

Just now, AVTuco said:

Why were we more negative than before?

I think we lost impetus in the middle of the park. Grealish just carries the ball with him and there is no-one else who can do that in our team. 
Hourihane, Whelan, Elmo are all going to play safety first and check back losing momentum.

Combine that with the atrocious conditions and Stoke Rugby Football Club managed by the next Englishman going for "dour football of the decade" award. Then you get what we just watched.

[jim]

Very poor.

[AVTuco]

Yeah, we need Grealish back badly.

[DaveAV1]

1 minute ago, Demitri_C said:

Two points dropped. Have to say we were very very poor today. We struggled and looked way off the pace. Glad we got a point, but the gap gets bigger and bigger and now I think people need to be realistic and see we are not going to get top two

Getting top two is always a challenge when you start the season poorly, it leaves little room for error. However, whilst difficult we can’t right off the possibility when there are still 24 games to go. It sounds like we didn’t play so well today, but we had injuries and our defence can hopefully be improved next month. 

All teams, no matter how good, have off days, to hear some of the comments on here you’d think we had just lost 4-0. We’ve just played two of the form teams in the division and drawn them both, one because an extraordinary piece of poor refereeing. It doesn’t sound like the ref did is any favours today either. 

People are disappointed because Dean Smith has very quickly set the bar very high, but we need a little balance. He’s a very good coach, the club is much better set up on and off the pitch. The future looks very bright, but let’s not get carried away, these are the same players that started the season, we’ve turned a corner, but not performed a miracle. There’ll be set backs, we have to hold our nerve and if things go well, then perhaps we can make the top two, or if not hit the playoffs in top form. 

[mottaloo]

8 minutes ago, kiltorken said:

Shite performance and fortunate to get a point.  Need to be a lot sharper against Leeds.

Funnily enough, I think we'll be a lot better against Leeds. I mean, stoke are perennial thugs and did what they do. The likes of Leeds, sheff utd and derby will play in a more positive way which in turn will let us play better too.....well, the midfield and strikers anyway 

[MaVilla]

i didnt see the game, but i would have taken a draw before hand if you offered me one.

personally i think some ppl need a reality check, if at the start of this "difficult Nov/Dec run of games", you had offered pretty much anyone here 4 wins and 3 draws with 0 losses so far, im pretty confident most would have bitten your hand off.

lets remember, we are only 10 games in to DS's project, lets not get too carried away, or too downbeat, lets hope we do some good business in Jan, i still think and have thought for all those 10 games, playoffs are our realistic target, top two was and is more of a pipe dream.

The next 5 games in 13/14 days are gonna be a test, thats a bloomin congested list.

Edited December 15, 2018 by MaVilla

[VillanousOne]

17 minutes ago, pacbuddies said:

A rock solid defence that conceeded the same amount of goals as us!

yep, but that is more about the fact we are capable of scoring goals against anyone but we can't always out score teams.

both penalties were soft

[villalad21]

Not  bad result. 

You lot need to get a reality check.  We weren't playing Rotherham today.

Player for player Stoke match us very well, quality squad they got. Most important thing today is we didn't lose

[Hanky]

We were poor today but at least we got a point. Badly missed Grealish.

[foreveryoung]

I think Grealish would have got kicked to bits in this game. Might be a blessing he stayed out, a bad injury to Grealish is the last thing we need.

Missed him today though.

[Stockport_Villain]

Bit of huff and puff today, ball didn’t quite stick and final ball was just off. Still like the style of play and the speed with which we’re moving the ball around. Stoke are a horrid team and break up play every which way possible. 

Leeds next and I fancy we’ll get a good result which could see us in the top 6.

[MaVilla]

am i correct in believing that we are 5th in the form table? (for the last 10 games - aka DS in role)

5 wins, 3 draws, 2 losses, and in that run we have played Swansea, Derby, Boro, WBA, Stoke, Blose & Forest, basically 70% of our games under DS were versus promotion contenders or teams around us.

Not too bad overall

 

FYI the teams above us in the form table (last 10 games) are Norwich, Leeds, Derby & PNE, but i bet none of those have had played the teams we have in that run.

 

P.S - in the last 7 games we are third in the form table (4 wins, 3 draws, 0 losses), with only Norwich and Leeds above us. (and 6 of those 7 games were versus promotion contenders/teams immediately around us)

Last 7 games our goal difference is 10, which is second only to Norwich with +11, the next best team is only +5 (WBA).

Edited December 15, 2018 by MaVilla

[briny_ear]

In terms of the last few seasons, a home draw with Stoke is not a bad result.

[VILLAMARV]

Nice to see Davis and Bree back on the bench.

[OutByEaster?]

Stoke gonna Stoke.

I thought the result was fair. Stoke are horrible, they want to slow the game down, reduce it to set pieces and be bigger than you, Rowett is very, very Pulis. That said, if it was easy to do that, then everybody would be doing it. I thought Stoke Stoked really, really well today.

For us, we missed Grealish's willingness to always be available for the ball and his ability to knit things together - that was nowhere more apparent than in the lack of movement from our throw ins. We looked awkward at full back, where Hutton's desire to commit to doing things can sometimes leave space and Elmohamady's desire not to commit to doing things can sometimes leave us exposed. The centre halves were okay, but Tuanzebe has got a massive howler in him waiting to happen - he got away with it a couple of times in the game.

We lost a couple of key battles, Ryan Shawcross pocketed Abraham for most of the game and I thought Allen won out in his duel with McGinn - that left us short of ways to beat Stoke and meant we looked a little less fluent in attack. When we look less dangerous going forwards, the gaps at the back are that bit more noticeable. 

Whelan did okay, Hourihane I thought was excellent, Bolasie looked a threat all game without much luck, El Ghazi started brilliantly and faded and Kodjia changed things when he came on - a terrific goal-and-assist combo cameo.

The ref got both the penalties right from where I was, although I thought Joe Allen was lucky to stay on after pushing the ref in the stomach with both hands as Stoke protested ours. The decision to book McGinn for a perfectly legitimate challenge at the end was absolute garbage and I thought for a moment he might present Ince with a second yellow for his ridiculous dive in the first half.

Ultimately, this was two very different teams with two very different ideas on how to play the game - in the opening 34 seconds we had the ball in their six yard box twice and put them under quick pressure - it was noticeable that is took them another 30 seconds to take the goal kick that resulted. It was very much a statement of "No, we're not playing that game". They looked to do that from the opening minute, taking time out of throw ins and goal kicks. Stoke did not come to entertain, or to allow us to, and in the end I felt we played their game a little bit too much.

Hogan could have won it, but we'd have been a little lucky to have done so.

We had players missing today, we'll get stronger, we didn't play well, we still scored two goals and we didn't lose to a Stoke team with good individuals and bad intention. 

Bring on Leeds.