Ratings and reactions: Villa 1-1 Stoke

[bose]

I thought it was impossible for any side to have less possession than Stoke when they play away. Another feather in the cap for McLeish there.

[dudevillaisnice]

playing Gardner on the wing is ridiculous.. he doesn't have the pace or skill to get past the player so why is he there?

He is ruining them.

since when does a player get ruined by getting played out of position stop being so dramatic...he doesnt deserve to be in the middle ahead of ireland or herd end of...its good game time for him and exposure....and quite frankly just because he was out of position isnt an excuse for him to give away needless frees, miscontrol balls and give away possession....he was dire and that shouldnt be ignored

Then why not put on Carruthers instead? since when has Gardner been a player to play on the left?

It's stupid whatever way you look at it.

[switters]

Weimann MOTM for producing the only exciting moment in the match (with a slight nod to Ireland for the quick one-two assist).

The game was awful. Neither side showed any really attacking skill or took control of the match. No sustained pressure. Just scrappy and mind-numbingly boring.

The equalizer was predictable. Huth always seems to score against us. If we really did have less possession than Stoke, that should be a sackable offence right away.

[gilbertoAVFC]

The main culprit for how shite things have got still is, and always will be until something drastic is done, the Sky-Premier League partnership.

That said (for the thousandth time), in McLeish we have the least ambitious manager in the league backed by a board who are happy to justify this lack of ambition as transition.

Game was terrible. Players work hard, fair enough, but if there's no gameplan or balance or general organisation (i.e. what on earth was GG doing on the left when N'Zogbia was sat on the bench/after the first minute it was clear that Gabby was not going to be winning much against Huth and Shawcross yet this persisted for the game's entirety) or guile then what are they to do?

I would say "I can't wait for this season to be over", but really it's a case of: "I can't wait until Villa aren't so mediocre and boring" which doesn't appear to be likely under any time-scale.

I hate modern football and it makes me very depressed.

[The_Steve]

When have we ever been a possession team? We don't have the players for it.

[Spoony]

Given - 4, not much he could do about the goal but was very flappy and had a poor game by all accounts

Hutton - 3, awful delivery, just an awful player

Collins - 7, had a good, solid game. Needs to man up a tad though

Baker - 5, didn't really notice him

Lichaj - 6, solid generally, but passing let him down occasionally (plus one interesting slice to concede a corner)

Bannan - 4, his passing was waaaaaaay off and just didn't have a good game. I really don't understand the hype

Herd - 6, fully committed, does an ok job of the 'Petrov' role

Ireland - 6, as ever our only creative player but he didn't really have much of an impact

Warnock - 6, thought he was quite solid today, just a bit off the pace

Weimann - 8, lots of effort, quality finish. Exciting future for him

Agbonlahor - 6, tried hard but didn't really get the delivery he needed and then skewed the only chance he had

N'zogbia - 3, useless, no impact, want him out of the club and sure as shit wasn't injured

Gardner - 5, no impact

Heskey - 6, the few touches he did have were good and we probably could have used his physicality today

[Delphinho123]

I heard a ridiculous stat earlier this season that Stoke have only ever had more than 50% possession once in there time in the Premier League.

Someone might be able to correct me on this but it was something along those lines.

I turned the game off at half time. I just couldnt watch it. Its heartbreaking to see what a few men are doing to our great club.

Mcleish out. *sigh*

[PompeyVillan]

Given the team we have injured at the moment Im willing to put up with poor football in order to battle for points. I felt the team worked incredibly hard and deserved to win the game. We had little choice but to play several players out of position and many of them young and fairly inexperienced.

Still not the right man for the job though, cant wait for the season to end.

[smetrov]

Ive seen worse performances - not many though

Given - not much to other than pick the predicatable equalizer out of the net

Hutton - thought he was ok first half - dire second half

Lichaj - Panicky - looked a liability to be honest - couldn't really see why he played - given warnock was in the team anyway and we had the option of cuellar

Collins generally sound

Baker - not got great reviews on here - but thought he did ok today

Herd - very good - although the way plays he will spend a lot of time injured/suspended

Ireland - poor half arsed performance. strolled round like he couldn't be bothered

Gabby - well marshalled - but should have done better with his second half effort

Weinman - sublime finish - should have had a 2nd

Bannan - some good stuff but not consistent

WTF was Mcleish doing bringin yet another teenager on - when he had more experienced options. Cost us 2 points as it left Lichaj exposed, and then Gardner needlesley gave away a free kick when the player wasn't going anywhere.

Major reinforcements all over the pitch needed in the summer. Otherwise relegation is only being postponed.

[Morpheus]

Predicted a draw and thats what we got. Another point towards safety but two very, very poor teams.

Massive rebuilding job needed in the summer.

[villa4europe]

how tall is weiman? so playing long ball did make sense to be fair...

the match report could have been written last week sometime, weak ref, gabby man handled, we won nothing in the air but decided not to play it on the ground anyway, pennant dive, 1-0 nil lead lost, conceed from a set piece, awful game to watch

i would say weimann's performance is the big plus, superb goal, lichaj played well too IMO but rushed a few clearances, ireland was good in the 1st half but im not sure if he slows the play down too much and our movement is so bad it doesnt work, bannan is the same but his ball to gabby in the 2nd half was sublime

[foreveryoung]

Predicted a draw and thats what we got. Another point towards safety but two very, very poor teams.

Massive rebuilding job needed in the summer.

With McLeish at the helm aye Morpheus!

Can't Wait!!!

[KHV]

horrendous

poor crowd, poor football, poor team, poor manager.

I didnt watch all of it properly, I was paying more attention to west ham blues which was much better.

I cannot believe I now find the blues more entertaining to watch than villa. watching us is like pulling teeth. utter bollocks from start to finish yet again. rapidly becoming the worst football team to watch in the world. no wonder only 30,000 turned up.

stoke are a dirty team, it was a horrible match. we are gash and seem to run around most of the time without any shape or idea what is going on. it really is quite embarassing.

[The_Steve]

McLeish criticising our pedestrian attitude to attacking play. Critical of Stoke's goal since Huth had both hands on Collins shoulders giving him no chance to defend. Critical of the freekick which Pennant won, said Gardner did nothing wrong.

[Hanky]

More tripe served up from both sides. Lucky the only bit of quality we produced in the game lead to a goal.

Hutton was awful (again) and was a complete waste of little money we had in the summer (as the value for N'Zogbia has been). How we can trust McLeish with any form of investment in the summer is a joke.

Played for the draw at home to Stoke and got it so I guess we should be pleased with that (no I don't think so either).

Little positives were the performances of Lichaj, Baker and Weimann.

[pacbuddies]

Good effort from the youngsters but it is way past a joke now. Yet again we were made to look like the away side as we conceded the midfield to the opposition and let them have the majority of possession.

Thank **** Bolton lost again.

Will we ever win another game under this idiot?

[steve-67]

Great goal but the rest of it was shit. 120 mile round journey and £60 for me and my 13 year old son. What a waste of money. 30,000 in the crowd, no chance!! I'd say much less than that. Huge gaps in the crowd, it was never three quarters full, never!

I predicted a draw and got it right. Reasonable first half with just three efforts on goal, two Collins headers and the goal. Second half, not a single shot on goal. Gabby should have done a lot better when put through, he managed to miss the corner flag. Why didn't Wiemann shoot when he had the chance a little later on. They work fairly hard but the movement is still shit and there is no creativity whatsoever.

I hate what we have become. I hate Alex McLeish.

[VillanousOne]

The ref and his assistant were shocking, we had so few decisions go our way and Stoke fouled with almost every touch, Huth is a **** word removed.

I didn't think we played that badly today, but we have very little in the final third, Gabby gets too heavily marked and without Albrighton we have no width on the right.

Given 6: Did ok bit still doesn't command his box nearly enough

Baker 7: Really coming on well of late

Collins 6: Fouled all over the shop but needs to stay on his feet more when challenged

Lichaj 7: I think he is looking a really quality defender

Hutton 4: Appalling every pass seemed to go straight to the opposition

Herd 6: Tidy if unspectacular

Ireland 7: Another strong performance

Bannan 5: Too many wasted balls and wasted out wide, no disgrace though

Gabby 6: Showed good industry as ever but fluffed a good chance

Weimann 7: Great goal and should've had a second

subs: Gardener 5: Out of position so couldn't offer much

Nzogbia 5: Looked ok but too little time on the pitch

Heskey 6: Won a lot of headers and offered some physical presence up front.

we miss Zog and Albrighton out wide.

[villa4europe]

McLeish criticising our pedestrian attitude to attacking play. Critical of Stoke's goal since Huth had both hands on Collins shoulders giving him no chance to defend. Critical of the freekick which Pennant won, said Gardner did nothing wrong.

agree with all of that, no doubt he'll add our pedestrian attitude to the list of things he'll fix in training this week, just like set pieces...

[Jimzk5]

I just want this sorry season to end, 2 of the empty seats today were from me and my missus, looking at the weather, the opposition and our generL style of play I took the decision to save the petrol and parking costs. And we concede from a set piece again. Surely we have conceded a record number of goals from free kicks in a season.