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Post by mermaidsal on Feb 27, 2016 19:59:30 GMT
So we got the points but also managed to make Villa look like a football team for much of the game and that's worrying. Plenty of positives, Wolly grows in stature every game almost this season and I enjoyed a lot of what Imbula and Shaq did... but tbh can't go higher than
7* for Sparky today
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2016 20:02:27 GMT
So we got the points but also managed to make Villa look like a football team for much of the game and that's worrying. Plenty of positives, Wolly grows in stature every game almost this season and I enjoyed a lot of what Shaq did... but tbh can't go higher than 7* for Sparky today 6* Loses a lot of marks for the dreadful sub that killed us dead and quite frankly, indirectly caused ructions in the squad. Poor management.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2016 20:05:26 GMT
8.
IMO Imbula, Shaq, Afellay and Wolly all had cracking games. Super penalty from Arnie. Bardo was pretty good. 90% there; just need that consistently good/prolific CF and less lapses of concentration.
Bo's cameo was disappointing, but not anything to make lasting decisions on. Would've liked us to turn the screw more at 2-0 as Villa looked close to capitulating.
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Post by chrisparker on Feb 27, 2016 20:09:40 GMT
He should get an 8 just for that half time team talk.
Btw I was one of the those who was screaming for Bojan to be introduced into the game but in retrospect I think that might have been the wrong call. Not really the manager's fault & not too big a deal really because in the end we won the game. But yeah, an 8 from me.
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Post by wearestoke80 on Feb 27, 2016 20:28:51 GMT
7*
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Post by Lakeland Potter on Feb 27, 2016 20:41:14 GMT
7.5* from me. Affelay looked like he was running on empty (after a good game) just before he was subbed so I understood why he was subbed. Bojan should have been the logical replacement but looked so far off the pace it wasn't true.
A strange game - as said above we made Villa look a decent team at times. Yet there were a lot of positives Aff, Imbula and Whelan all had decent games - Shaq and Arnie both varied between very good and not at the races and Wolly had another good un. Bards and Cameron had better games than I expected after long layoffs. The whole thing looked a bit disjointed - but plenty of positives.
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Post by silverdollar on Feb 27, 2016 21:39:24 GMT
Only six out of ten for me! I was disappointed with his starting eleven. I thought Bojan should have started in place of Walters. He would have picked the lock in their defence. Walters offered very little. As tired as Afellay was He should perhaps have stayed on. When Villa threw men forward, as they had to, we lost everything in midfield. 2-0 is not always the best score to try and save players for the next match. Arnautovic, Shaqiri and Stoke as a whole are better when Bojan plays.
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Post by Kjones9 on Feb 27, 2016 21:43:06 GMT
Bottom of the league?
We should've won 19 nil. 1 for me.
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Post by kurt on Feb 28, 2016 7:33:46 GMT
6 for me
Hughes is still not able to sub earlier if things don´t work. Walters should have been replaced by another striker in the break at the latest
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Post by Lakeland Potter on Feb 28, 2016 7:41:40 GMT
6 for me Hughes is still not able to sub earlier if things don´t work. Walters should have been replaced by another striker in the break at the latest Given the fragility and lack of fit players for our back four, I'm not surprised that Hughes left his subs late. Last week when we lost 2 of the back four will have been fresh in his mind. Walters didn't look on the pace, agreed, but any mistake was probably in starting him, not in failing to sub him by half time.
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Post by jarhead on Feb 28, 2016 7:44:33 GMT
Decent 8.
Job done was to get the 3pts at all costs yesterday and we did.
Same again Wednesday please.
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Post by maninasuitcase on Feb 28, 2016 8:13:02 GMT
6*
Nothing to get excited about. Good to see geoff back. Bardsley was decent.
Other than that as dull a victory as I can recall in recent memory.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2016 8:14:51 GMT
7 - he made a judgement call to take Afellay off with the Newcastle game in mind. We were 2-0 up and cruising at the time and let's be honest how many people in the ground thought Villa had any semblance of a fight back in them? But it killed our momentum and gave them a sniff. Understand why he did it but it completely backfired, partly because Bojan was so poor when he came on. These are the judgement calls you have to make as a manager, if we go on to beat Newcastle with Afellay performing well then it's job done.....
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Post by jaybee on Feb 28, 2016 9:33:14 GMT
6* Agree with all said above, but Wooly on the ball still scares me. Also way too much tip-tap stuff with no end product ![:(](//storage.proboards.com/800541/images/4tzqvp1fxEemag_TAXLJ.gif)
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Post by sheikhmomo on Feb 28, 2016 11:05:12 GMT
Pretty turgid display but who cares. 7.
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Post by Pugsley on Feb 28, 2016 12:25:53 GMT
9*
Squad riddled with injuries, right back who hasn't played for a while and forced to put a still injured Geoff Cameron in as centre half. New player in the middle of the park still bedding in (although he is mustard). One mark off for picking the hapless Walters. Right substitutions - he can't help it if they didn't play well when they came on.
Another win and safe by end of Feb. Looking to push on with a place in Europe up for grabs. It's all gravy.
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Post by Sergeant Muttley on Feb 28, 2016 12:27:39 GMT
It wasn't great far from it infact but I've been wanting us to win this type of game for a while when not playing well so I'll give him a 7
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Post by AlbertTatlock on Feb 28, 2016 13:45:41 GMT
6* I wouldn't have started Walters and bringing 2 subs on together rather killed any momentum we were building. A win and 3 points but I can't say I was excited or entertained by the performance. Gouranga. ![8-)](//storage.proboards.com/800541/images/ibnJJzaA6ZhfTOIekEAf.gif)
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Post by cobhamstokey on Feb 28, 2016 14:04:35 GMT
I think the problem was at 2-0 we were too comfortable and became complacent. A silly goal and we nearly threw it away. I think we could have left the subs another 10 mins and maybe just the one. 7 from me
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Post by capto on Feb 28, 2016 21:00:15 GMT
They were crap and we didn't dominate; too much pretty football that leads to bugger all ; too much passing back tippy tappy; no support or running off the ball for the player in possession; if villa had been focused and had the work rate of everton we would have lost three nil again; the quality of football is turgid; it has been for weeks and nothing changed ; plus = Arnie back; imbalance looks class; Geoff back & looked good ; woolly good; bards did well at f/b - but we were playing a team that were already relegated in their heads. - to sum up, I'm not happy!
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Post by robstokie on Feb 28, 2016 21:32:01 GMT
8* - The result was the most important thing yesterday, considering we wanted another win to back up a return to winning ways, plus these kind of games have been our Achilles heel over the last few seasons.
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Post by samba :) on Feb 28, 2016 21:35:54 GMT
6
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Post by silverdollar on Feb 28, 2016 21:57:29 GMT
6* Agree with all said above, but Wooly on the ball still scares me. Also way too much tip-tap stuff with no end product ![:(](//storage.proboards.com/800541/images/4tzqvp1fxEemag_TAXLJ.gif) "Tip Tap Stuff" I hate that expression! It comes from the soul of a Pulis disciple. There is always a major point in passing the ball to your own players. When the opposition do not have the ball they cannot score! I agree with you that we all want to see a cutting edge to our team but Hughes is working on that I'm sure. For now I'll satisfy myself with 8th position with the hope that he will achieve greater in the near future. And all done with "Tip Tap Stuff"
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Post by GrahamHyde on Feb 28, 2016 22:18:27 GMT
I felt he picked the right team, but they were pretty lackadaisical in the first-half, as has been the case quite often this season. A better team may have punished us, but in reality our make-shift backline was rarely tested and, to be honest, they were lucky to score the goal that they did.
It was clear that he got in to them at half-time and second half was a far, far better performance. More direct and incisive. Once we got the first goal there only looked to be one winner. Substitutions were poor in my opinion and handed some initiative back to them - we had played well enough second half to keep the same lads on for a good ten minutes more. Afellay looked very impressive as well, so not quite sure what the thinking was behind that one.
It's nit picking really though. We came away with a comfortable 2-1 win and for that reason he'll get a 7.5 from me.
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Post by reddipotter on Feb 28, 2016 22:49:42 GMT
6* Agree with all said above, but Wooly on the ball still scares me. Also way too much tip-tap stuff with no end product ![:(](//storage.proboards.com/800541/images/4tzqvp1fxEemag_TAXLJ.gif) "Tip Tap Stuff" I hate that expression! It comes from the soul of a Pulis disciple. There is always a major point in passing the ball to your own players. When the opposition do not have the ball they cannot score! I agree with you that we all want to see a cutting edge to our team but Hughes is working on that I'm sure. For now I'll satisfy myself with 8th position with the hope that he will achieve greater in the near future. And all done with "Tip Tap Stuff" The opposition can't score if they don't have the ball, as you say. However, the team with the ball won't score either if they are just keeping possession a long way from the goal. And what's more, the result of this is a slow, boring spectacle. Football needs to involve taking some risks (watch how often our players pass the ball back rather than take responsibility) and trying to move forwards with purpose. Personally, I'd like to be entertained for my money, and that hasn't happened anywhere near enough this season.
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Post by fca47 on Feb 29, 2016 8:04:52 GMT
7 - motivation against the lower teams does seem to be a problem.
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Post by jaybee on Feb 29, 2016 8:42:50 GMT
6* Agree with all said above, but Wooly on the ball still scares me. Also way too much tip-tap stuff with no end product ![:(](//storage.proboards.com/800541/images/4tzqvp1fxEemag_TAXLJ.gif) "Tip Tap Stuff" I hate that expression! It comes from the soul of a Pulis disciple. There is always a major point in passing the ball to your own players. When the opposition do not have the ball they cannot score! I agree with you that we all want to see a cutting edge to our team but Hughes is working on that I'm sure. For now I'll satisfy myself with 8th position with the hope that he will achieve greater in the near future. And all done with "Tip Tap Stuff" I'm very happy with our 8th place, but I went to be entertained - I even wondered if we would finally give someone a good thrashing (I know, we are Stoke!) I came home disillusioned with our 2-0 victory.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 29, 2016 8:47:21 GMT
"Tip Tap Stuff" I hate that expression! It comes from the soul of a Pulis disciple. There is always a major point in passing the ball to your own players. When the opposition do not have the ball they cannot score! I agree with you that we all want to see a cutting edge to our team but Hughes is working on that I'm sure. For now I'll satisfy myself with 8th position with the hope that he will achieve greater in the near future. And all done with "Tip Tap Stuff" I'm very happy with our 8th place, but I went to be entertained - I even wondered if we would finally give someone a good thrashing (I know, we are Stoke!) I came home disillusioned with our 2-0 victory. Did you leave on 75 minutes they scored you know? It wasn't a classic but I was still entertained, we're not the finished article and our final ball is frustratingly bad at times but some of our pass and move triangles are still very good to watch and when it clicks and we hopefully find that level of consistency who knows what we can achieve......
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Post by PB1863 on Feb 29, 2016 9:06:16 GMT
7.5. Too much tinkering with the strikers for my liking. We need to stick with one for the next 3 games at least and I'd say Joselu
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Post by silverdollar on Feb 29, 2016 9:56:17 GMT
"Tip Tap Stuff" I hate that expression! It comes from the soul of a Pulis disciple. There is always a major point in passing the ball to your own players. When the opposition do not have the ball they cannot score! I agree with you that we all want to see a cutting edge to our team but Hughes is working on that I'm sure. For now I'll satisfy myself with 8th position with the hope that he will achieve greater in the near future. And all done with "Tip Tap Stuff" The opposition can't score if they don't have the ball, as you say. However, the team with the ball won't score either if they are just keeping possession a long way from the goal. And what's more, the result of this is a slow, boring spectacle. Football needs to involve taking some risks (watch how often our players pass the ball back rather than take responsibility) and trying to move forwards with purpose. Personally, I'd like to be entertained for my money, and that hasn't happened anywhere near enough this season. After watching Pulis football for too many years I know everything about "boring spectacles"! In order to achieve our present position we have to win matches and score goals and so far this season I have witnessed some terrific goals! It seems to me that your expectancy level for Stoke when they play sides in the bottom places in the league are too high. It is never a forgone conclusion in the Premiership! Stoke got the three points against Villa very comfortably and that is good enough for me! Villa passed the ball about in front of the Stoke defence and rarely were incisive. Butland had very little to do at all. Stoke scored two goals- job done!
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