Aston Villa v Stoke

Shawcross and Muniesa are both out for the Villa match. That's a bonus!

villabromsgrove wrote:Shawcross and Muniesa are both out for the Villa match. That's a bonus!

Deffo Shawcross out?? That's good news if so, I genuinely thought he was fit and available.

They have some shocking injury problems.

Dunno if I'm allowed to say this or not as they are almost local rivals, but I like Stoke, always have and I've a couple of mates who are Stoke fans and every one I've met from Stoke without exception have always been good as gold, so although obviously they are "the enemy" come the weekend, I actually have no problem with them as a club - and - I think they have great fans as well.

Love-in over

We have the occasional Stokie visit us and he's sound.

You know what's just occurred to me? I've not seen anyone in months say "Villa are due to give someone an absolute hiding!" so, despite my earlier post, I'll say it!

Stoke are gonna be on the end of a hiding. 4-0 win!

Trotters wrote:You know what's just occurred to me? I've not seen anyone in months say "Villa are due to give someone an absolute hiding!" so,  despite my earlier post, I'll say it!

Stoke are gonna be on the end of a hiding. 4-0 win!

This is one of those games where I really wouldn't be surprised by any outcome. It could all go horribly wrong just as much as it could all go wonderfully well, and it could just as much all be a bit 'meh'.

But I love the not knowing, rather than, "Well we probably won't score, we'll have a lot of pointless possession and we'll have to work extremely hard to keep a clean sheet, but if we do we'll probably get a point. Oh and the lads will have been fantastic, and we'll go again."

As I said earlier though, with them being depleted and coming off the back of two 4-1 defeats, it really feels like an early goal could be huge in the way the game goes.

Plus, when was the last time we scored a first half goal? Can we just bloody get that done please?! 

A comment was made during our last game that Villa are the only team in the top flight not to score in the last 15 mins of a game. Then suddenly, there it is!

I cannot wait for it to come out exactly what Lambert told these players tgat had them so full of nerves and doubt.

I want to see us play with 2 up front, 4-4-2 or 3-5-2. I think if we stick to playing Benteke up top on his own we won't flood the box with enough of our players like we did against Leicester in the second half (which was a joy to watch, and the first time I've seen players storming the box in a long time). The problem is who to play alongside him. I'd like it to be Sinclair, but although his confidence will be high, I don't think he'll be fit enough for a premier league start. Weimann trys too hard sometimes and having him as co-striker might be counter-productive. Which leaves Gabby, who I'm not a huge fan of, but might feel he has something to prove to Sherwood and go on his annual 2 or 3 game purple patch.

De Kuip wrote:

villabromsgrove wrote:Shawcross and Muniesa are both out for the Villa match. That's a bonus!

Deffo Shawcross out?? That's good news if so, I genuinely thought he was fit and available.

They have some shocking injury problems.

Dunno if I'm allowed to say this or not as they are almost local rivals, but I like Stoke, always have and I've a couple of mates who are Stoke fans and every one I've met from Stoke without exception have always been good as gold, so although obviously they are "the enemy" come the weekend, I actually have no problem with them as a club - and - I think they have great fans as well.

Love-in over

Deffo out according to the Stoke Sentinel (the local rag) Shawcross has had a set back in the last couple of days, and Muniesa could be out for another few weeks.

villabromsgrove wrote:

De Kuip wrote:

villabromsgrove wrote:Shawcross and Muniesa are both out for the Villa match. That's a bonus!

Deffo Shawcross out?? That's good news if so, I genuinely thought he was fit and available.

They have some shocking injury problems.

Dunno if I'm allowed to say this or not as they are almost local rivals, but I like Stoke, always have and I've a couple of mates who are Stoke fans and every one I've met from Stoke without exception have always been good as gold, so although obviously they are "the enemy" come the weekend, I actually have no problem with them as a club - and - I think they have great fans as well.

Love-in over

Deffo out according to the Stoke Sentinel (the local rag) Shawcross has had a set back in the last couple of days, and Muniesa could be out for another few weeks.

That helps us!

Cheers VB

De Kuip wrote:

villabromsgrove wrote:

De Kuip wrote:

villabromsgrove wrote:Shawcross and Muniesa are both out for the Villa match. That's a bonus!

Deffo Shawcross out?? That's good news if so, I genuinely thought he was fit and available.

They have some shocking injury problems.

Dunno if I'm allowed to say this or not as they are almost local rivals, but I like Stoke, always have and I've a couple of mates who are Stoke fans and every one I've met from Stoke without exception have always been good as gold, so although obviously they are "the enemy" come the weekend, I actually have no problem with them as a club - and - I think they have great fans as well.

Love-in over

Deffo out according to the Stoke Sentinel (the local rag) Shawcross has had a set back in the last couple of days, and Muniesa could be out for another few weeks.

That helps us!

Cheers VB

Cameron suspended too...things must be bad, they've even highlighted defensive woes on their website!

Great time to be playing them, no Bojan either, who was at hear of most of their good results earlier in season.

Let's just hope Walters fails to recover in time too!

Sherwood's come at a good time. We have six matches before we play a top team. We're playing a weakened Stoke team, so no excuses.

villabromsgrove wrote:Sherwood's come at a good time. We have six matches before we play a top team. We're playing a weakened Stoke team, so no excuses.

I was thinking about that, I bet he couldn't believe his luck. Chance to get in the FA Cup quarter finals with a home game against Leicester, then a run of 'winnable' games before playing one of the top teams. Throw in the types of teams left in the FA Cup, the run-ins of some of the other teams around us, and the possibility that come the summer he'll have a bit more money available with some of the players leaving and what not...

People always used to say that Martin O'Neill was a lucky manager and I think in some ways he was, and not just at Villa - a lot of things at Celtic went his way, for instance having Henrik Larsson and Stan Petrov already at the club (players he would never have signed himself, but they turned out to be just about his two most important players), and taking over from the ridiculous Venglos/Barnes/Dalglish era. Timing is one of the biggest things in life, and Sherwood may have really landed on his feet here. Of course it's up to him to make the most of it - it could still all go horribly wrong, we have been in a mess for a long time - but he's surely got to know just how lucky he is.

Really feel that we shall win this as the optimistic mood continues!

These are the games we should be targeting to win especially with Stoke's injury problems.

I hope that Sherwood goes 4-1-4-1 which gives up greater flexibility:
              Guzan
Hutton, Vlaar, Clarke, Cissokho
              Sanchez
Gil, Cleverley, Delph, Bacuna
               Benteke

Sherwood and Ferdinand both disliked holding midfielders at Spurs. They thought that it was an excuse for a midfielder to stay in his own half and avoid the responsibility of getting over the half way line. It will be interesting to see how Sanchez and Westwood are used.

I just noticed that there's only one vote for a loss on Saturday. It's good to see everyone so positive.

villabromsgrove wrote:Sherwood and Ferdinand both disliked holding midfielders at Spurs. They thought that it was an excuse for a midfielder to stay in his own half and avoid the responsibility of getting over the half way line. It will be interesting to see how Sanchez and Westwood are used.

It's fine in theory. In an ideal world, there should be no 'set' jobs amongst midfielders, because if they can all fill in each role then it keeps the opposition guessing rather than just tracking a Lampard type.

But how many midfielders are good enough to do that?

It's true though, I would imagine we'll be playing 4-4-2 under Sherwood and I expect the defenders to be busy!

Really looking forward to going down to villa park on saturday, I have not felt like this for ages. Normally its a trudge to the ground knowing we were going to lose.  Not on Saturday,  a spring in my step confident and happy that we have a chance. Come on tim lets show  the Midlands whats been missing.  

I thought TS's press conference was good today. He might not be experienced as a manager but he says all the right things at the moment. Hope his confidence carries onto the players and we see a different attitude to the previous months. This team is better than 8th place and a confident and committed group will win tomorrow.

I'm really excited to be going to this game & when I sit & think about it the last time I felt like that before a game was under MON!!
Gonna be a big 3 points UTV

Villa_Dan wrote:I thought TS's press conference was good today. He might not be experienced as a manager but he says all the right things at the moment. Hope his confidence carries onto the players and we see a different attitude to the previous months. This team is better than 8th place and a confident and committed group will win tomorrow.

The game has been brought forward then!

I'm wishing the week away clearly. It's been a long one so it felt like fucking friday!

For the first time for so long, I'm looking forward to this game, I have proper man love for Sherwood - what he says and what I would like is what he says!

Did anybody think the Gabby comment in the press conference today was a genuine "he's on fire and been scoring for fun in training" or "he's actually injured but I'm not letting Stoke know that" ?

mefromhere wrote:Did anybody think the Gabby comment in the press conference today was a genuine "he's on fire and been scoring for fun in training" or "he's actually injured but I'm not letting Stoke know that" ?

Maybe he's actually set gabby on fire to try and coax some sort of reaction from him?

25 hours before the new fit for purpose Villa team takes to the pitch. Pressure? What pressure!