Stoke (Away) Saturday March 17th

[pete0]

12 minutes ago, Shukes said:

Watched the replay.

sending off was 100% correct. Feet off the ground studs first.... can’t believe commentators get paid. Adams knew it to give him some credit and just walked.

They had a 15 minute period where they scored and had a bit off possession. But they didn’t create anything to win.

Sinple fact is that we were wasteful with our chances and scored two. We even gave away a very simple goal to defend.

Our first goal was offside and we struggled to create anything against 10 men and only had 56% possession, Stoke done enough to deserve a draw,  we got very lucky. 

[Shukes]

6 minutes ago, pete0 said:

Our first goal was offside and we struggled to create anything against 10 men and only had 56% possession, Stoke done enough to deserve a draw,  we got very lucky. 

Sorry mate but I don’t agree. You can stat me as much as you like, but anyone that watched knows we wasted a lot of good opportunities, while at the same time, Stoke really created naff all.

Walcott wasted two very good chances. Cenk could have had a hat trick. DCL had an absolute shite touch where he was clean through.....

what did Stoke do again?

[Palfy]

We lacked the cohesive play we had last week, we lacked believe we were a shadow of the team that played last week, it wasn't just down to missing Gylfi although when in the middle he is a big presence.

I would have liked to have seen Klaassen get an opportunity I think in a team that has more possession and is set up to be more attacking he would come in to his own.

The biggest disappointment for me was Rooney being moved from the role he played last week, he got us ticking with his passing short and long he had vision and from that holding position he could see everything in front of him, and with his vision and ability he got us playing and helped us keep possession, for me that was the biggest difference from last week to this.

[pete0]

2 hours ago, Shukes said:

Sorry mate but I don’t agree. You can stat me as much as you like, but anyone that watched knows we wasted a lot of good opportunities, while at the same time, Stoke really created naff all.

Walcott wasted two very good chances. Cenk could have had a hat trick. DCL had an absolute shite touch where he was clean through.....

what did Stoke do again?

Had the linesman had his glasses on we'd only have got one point from today and people would be moaning their heads off. Neither keeper made any saves of note. 

10 men and we barely tested their keeper, we let them back in the game and never really had hold of possession. No stats necessary the game was terrible, only people to ever bother rewatching that will be Tosun's kids. 

[Hafnia]

45 minutes ago, pete0 said:

Had the linesman had his glasses on we'd only have got one point from today and people would be moaning their heads off. Neither keeper made any saves of note. 

10 men and we barely tested their keeper, we let them back in the game and never really had hold of possession. No stats necessary the game was terrible, only people to ever bother rewatching that will be Tosun's kids. 

Are you just gutted that it was a game logged as  a win against gana playing?

[pete0]

31 minutes ago, hafnia said:

Are you just gutted that it was a game logged as  a win against gana playing?

We won in spite of him. He made Joe Allan look like David Silva. 

[Palfy]

5 hours ago, hafnia said:

Are you just gutted that it was a game logged as  a win against gana playing?

More to the point are you insinuating we won because of Gana?

[Btay]

Honestly haven’t read the thread so apologies if I touch on something that’s been said - tough rough conditions for football, having an extra man is an advantage but it’s kind of lessened in that in my opinion, harder to move the ball around quickly. We won, we have some momentum and Cenk is looking a proper player that finishes his chances.

[Shukes]

7 hours ago, pete0 said:

Had the linesman had his glasses on we'd only have got one point from today and people would be moaning their heads off. Neither keeper made any saves of note. 

10 men and we barely tested their keeper, we let them back in the game and never really had hold of possession. No stats necessary the game was terrible, only people to ever bother rewatching that will be Tosun's kids. 

Football doesn’t work like that and you well know it.

if the first doesn’t go in, the game is different. It doesn’t end the same way with the same chances. But it’s very simple, the goal did stand and we won. 

Did you see Walcott blast the ball I to the side netting when there was a very simple roll across the box for a tap in?

Dod you see Walcott miss control the ball when he would have been clean through?

Did you see DCL make an absolute mess of his control while five yards ahead of any defender for a clean one on one?

No? Like I said, you should have watched the match rather than read stats.

Gana! Gana! Gana! What a worldie we have!

[Palfy]

13 minutes ago, Shukes said:

Football doesn’t work like that and you well know it.

if the first doesn’t go in, the game is different. It doesn’t end the same way with the same chances. But it’s very simple, the goal did stand and we won. 

Did you see Walcott blast the ball I to the side netting when there was a very simple roll across the box for a tap in?

Dod you see Walcott miss control the ball when he would have been clean through?

Did you see DCL make an absolute mess of his control while five yards ahead of any defender for a clean one on one?

No? Like I said, you should have watched the match rather than read stats.

Gana! Gana! Gana! What a worldie we have!

Your right football isn'tt always black and white we had decisions go our way and we made the most of them, the win is great if we're gonna play shite I'd still want to win than lose to prove a point, but I'm not happy with the way we played we were poor and that is the concern and on another day with the big decisions not going our way that could have been a loss and not many would have disagreed that we deserved it.

On the question of Gana being a worldie I'm not sure why you said that but I wish he would go and be a worldie somewhere else, he was poor yesterday with no positional sense and lazy at one point I he nearly broke into a jog.

[Hafnia]

2 hours ago, Palfy said:

More to the point are you insinuating we won because of Gana?

No but despite the fact that he had a poor game - we won.

It basically makes your stat about him playing in 7 of our 9 losses a load of shit. Because the same argument would say that he was involved in our win..... when admittedly he had a poor game.

[Palfy]

4 minutes ago, hafnia said:

No but despite the fact that he had a poor game - we won.

It basically makes your stat about him playing in 7 of our 9 losses a load of shit. Because the same argument would say that he was involved in our win..... when admittedly he had a poor game.

Good at least we are starting to agree on something. 

[Shukes]

59 minutes ago, Palfy said:

Your right football isn'ttt always black and white we had decisions go our way and we made the most of them, the win is great if we're gonna play shite I'd still want to win than lose to prove a point, but I'm not happy with the way we played we were poor and that is the concern and on another day with the big decisions not going our way that could have been a loss and not many would have disagreed that we deserved it.

On the question of Gana being a worldie I'm not sure why you said that but I wish he would go and be a worldie somewhere else, he was poor yesterday with no positional sense and lazy at one point I he nearly broke into a jog.

I agree Palfy that the football still isn’t at the level that we want it to be.

But watching the match, we were never going to lose it, a draw would have been the worst result as Stoke created the square root of nothing. 

The sending off was an easy decision. Studs first and boot off the floor. Commentators can say it was harsh... but any knowledgable football brain knows it wasn’t hash.

The offside wasn’t cut and dry, and you see those week in week out as the human eye can’t make those desicions correctly on a regular basis. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes wrong.

But the chances I listed DID happen, I did t make it up. Surely we were all groaning when we made the wrong decisions in the box? And surely we could all see how the right ball could have easily gave us some excellent chances. Tosun would have had a literal tap in if Walcott would have squared.

The Gana comment was just sarcasm obviously as it seems because he played we have to play the win down... again.

We do have some real miserable fans on this site that each win has to be broken down and pulled apart. It’s as if some of feel that our opposition should let us play our own game instead of competing. This is the premier league! There aren’t any teams that will just roll over for you.

A cold snowy day in Stoke and we come away with a win. Improvement to be made no doubt, but an away win is still an away win.

[Palfy]

4 minutes ago, Shukes said:

I agree Palfy that the football still isn’t at the level that we want it to be.

But watching the match, we were never going to lose it, a draw would have been the worst result as Stoke created the square root of nothing. 

The sending off was an easy decision. Studs first and boot off the floor. Commentators can say it was harsh... but any knowledgable football brain knows it wasn’t hash.

The offside wasn’t cut and dry, and you see those week in week out as the human eye can’t make those desicions correctly on a regular basis. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes wrong.

But the chances I listed DID happen, I did t make it up. Surely we were all groaning when we made the wrong decisions in the box? And surely we could all see how the right ball could have easily gave us some excellent chances. Tosun would have had a literal tap in if Walcott would have squared.

The Gana comment was just sarcasm obviously as it seems because he played we have to play the win down... again.

We do have some real miserable fans on this site that each win has to be broken down and pulled apart. It’s as if some of feel that our opposition should let us play our own game instead of competing. This is the premier league! There aren’t any teams that will just roll over for you.

A cold snowy day in Stoke and we come away with a win. Improvement to be made no doubt, but an away win is still an away win.

Don’t get me wrong Shukes I’m behind what you’ve said I’ll take any win. 

[Shukes]

36 minutes ago, Palfy said:

Don’t get me wrong Shukes I’m behind what you’ve said I’ll take any win. 

We didn’t play well, but a win is a win and on a day like that... that was all that mattered. We need to improve, but maybe results can help us breed a bit of confidence and allow the players to relax and play their own game.

[Bailey]

When the conditions are like they were yesterday you just need players to do their job, especially when they are down to 10 men. I thought we were easily looking second best before Adam got sent off, they had more fight and desire and they actually looked like a team whereas we didnt. Lambert looks like he is doing a good job, with what is actually a very average squad.

Pickford was his usual solid self, the commentator I had was bashing him every time he didnt cant the ball cleanly, but in those conditions he did everything he needed to do. Stop the shot and control the ball enough to get your hands on it before anyone else does. At the other end Butland was poor. Im not sure what he was doing for our first, he should have done better with the second and he also tried punching that Keane shot which was right at him. He had no control over where that ball was going and it could have even gone in the back of the net if he wasnt careful. Of those two, Pickford is definitely the better keeper.

Baines and Coleman were solid and dependable as always. Nothing special, just doing their jobs in tough conditions.

Jags and Keane showed themselves to be forming some form of partnership. I was underwhelmed by Keane again at time, Jags covered him at least 3 times in open play where he had been beaten and Crouch had pinned Keane just outside the 6 yard box before Jags came in and nicked the ball off him. He is still a risk IMO. Jags was not foot perfect himself, I havent watched their goal back again but my first impression was that he was at least partly responsible for it, but you could see he was the leader at the back, he was doing his job and helping those around him.

Gana and Davies were as bad as each other, although I at least had sympathy for the latter who was trying to press, trying to get forward, trying to make something happen. Gana only seemed to want to know in the last 10-15 minutes and he seemed content to let the game pass him by. The moment that typified him was when he gave the ball away with a shocker of a pass only to jog back after it when Stoke countered. If that was Schneiderlin he would have got slaughtered. Both Gana and Davies are better than they showed today and I back them to bounce back.

Rooney was a bit quiet early but he slowly started to run the game for us. With Gana and Davies below par, he was doing everything in midfield, but doing it simply. It was the exact type of performance we needed in the circumstances and on most weeks he would have been MOTM. When you talk about leaders on the pitch, that was him and Jags all game.

Walcott and Bolasie were also much of a muchness. Walcott did a lot more between the thirds but when he came to the big moments, where I would expect Walcott to outshine Bolasie all day, there wasnt much between them. I have mentioned Walcott in his own thread, so I wont go into him any further but, Bolasie did f*ck all for most of the game bar whip in 2 almost unplayable balls, one of which we scored from, and one which we probably should have. He probably has one of the wickedest deliveries in the side, real pace and whip, but my God you have to go through a lot of head banging to get one.

Cenk scored to good goals, he maybe should have done better with the first bite of the cherry for the first goal, but his second goal was a really brave header. The ball wasnt meant for him but he gambled, something where a certain previous striker would have sat on his heals with his head in his hands, but Cenk got in there, ahead of the defender in case it fell to him. He was slow to get going but he just improved minute after minute.

The subs didn't really do much, DCL missed a great chance and ultimately tried hard but lacked quality and Schneiderlin and Holgate barely had a kick.