Stoke post match thread

Difficult to break down a 10 man defence tho a bit of urgency going forward might have helped
 
Akiva said:
Pep said the same thing.

Maybe Sterling looked a bit off in training, maybe not. All we know is the following:
1. We are playing 4 difficult games in 10 days and rotation is required.
2. The team was good enough to beat Stoke.
3. The team didn't play well, notable underperformers including KDB and Dinho.
4. The team still had clear cut chances to score and didn't take them.

So it's a 0-0 draw and suddenly we have all these people, some of them who haven't posted in a post-match thread since the end of January, coming in and expressing concern over Pep, ignoring all the recent results and evidence to the contrary.

People moan endlessly about how he didn't play Sterling or Silva from the start. Both were objectively shit last season and Pep has brought out the best in them, but not a word on that from any of the armchair coaches on here.



What was wrong with the team last night? No Silva? He has to play every game or we're not good enough to beat Stoke?

If that's the case, isn't that a damning indictment of the state of our squad that we are so reliant on one aging player?

That said, I don't think it's fair to players like KDB, Sane, Aguero and Yaya to say they are unable to step up and win us games against mid-table opposition. They just didn't.
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Hope you're not including me in that bracket.
The team didn't beat Stoke.
It is a sad indictment of the depth.
 
A result like this was going to happen sooner or later with the rotation we have been doing of late, we got away with v Huddersfield to a certain degree, if you have Sterling and Silva on the bench who have been our best players throughout the season it was going to happen, it put more pressure on Sane last night and it looked evident to me anyway.

The games are coming thick and fast again and last nights team had one eye on Monaco next week, Id expect KDB to get rested v Middlesborough and possibly Yaya in the FA Cup.

Lets be honest we are not winning the league even if we had won last night, cement top four, win the FA Cup and you just never know with the CL, we have arguably made our best displays this season in this competition.
 
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Living in Japan I have to wake up very, very early (5am for this one) To watch the game. Last night something magical happened and my football alarm didn't go off and so I slept right through.

Despite still being slightly annoyed that we've dropped points I have to say I feel much better than I usually do after such a shit game.
 
We had chances last night. Navas put in a couple of very good crosses in the first half but no one was able to get to them. De Bruyne's free-kick. Silva's shot that curled inches wide. Toure and KDB(?) blazing over when they should have got shots on target. Sane missing late on and Aguero trying a shot from a ridiculous angle when he should have squared it. He also hit a couple straight at the keeper, which he seems to be doing a lot recently. There were a couple of chances that flashed across the Stoke area in the second half that no one got a foot to.

It was our complete ineptitude in the first half that did for us. Spurs were 3-0 up against this lot at half-time last weekend. We were the same at Sunderland but fortunately score just before half-time. We need to start games like we mean business, unlike under Pellegrini.
 
The bit part players aint up to the standard Pep craves for. Look at some of them there slow not up to the speed of the game. Technically some are lacking. He will sort it but last night we missed a voice out there a leader to drive the team on we have been missing it all season for me. Someone to get the best out of KDB when he is having a shit game and have a word in his ear. That what we lack most. A fit Vinny is our leader but he aint fit we need to find someone to lead this team long term. And out of the squad we have its limited to who that would be.
 
Akiva said:
Pep said the same thing.

Maybe Sterling looked a bit off in training, maybe not. All we know is the following:
1. We are playing 4 difficult games in 10 days and rotation is required.
2. The team was good enough to beat Stoke.
3. The team didn't play well, notable underperformers including KDB and Dinho.
4. The team still had clear cut chances to score and didn't take them.

So it's a 0-0 draw and suddenly we have all these people, some of them who haven't posted in a post-match thread since the end of January, coming in and expressing concern over Pep, ignoring all the recent results and evidence to the contrary.

People moan endlessly about how he didn't play Sterling or Silva from the start. Both were objectively shit last season and Pep has brought out the best in them, but not a word on that from any of the armchair coaches on here.



What was wrong with the team last night? No Silva? He has to play every game or we're not good enough to beat Stoke?

If that's the case, isn't that a damning indictment of the state of our squad that we are so reliant on one aging player?

That said, I don't think it's fair to players like KDB, Sane, Aguero and Yaya to say they are unable to step up and win us games against mid-table opposition. They just didn't.
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"What was wrong with the team last night? No Silva? He has to play every game or we're not good enough to beat Stoke?" Obviously before we made changes with subs NO they werent good enough.
Playing Stoke at home was always going to be a battle to open up a locked defence, Silva is more often than not Key in these games (Pun intended) Navas as I said backed up by stats Scores few and makes few chances. In all honesty he got some crosses in. I have to admit I was genuinely shocked. They would of been Ideal for Edin to run on to but we havent got Edin. We have a hobbit from the Shire. As good as he can be when he gets the service which he mostly didnt last night. The only chance he had of getting on those high crosses was if he`d nipped to walmart and got a pair of step ladders.
I`m pissed off we tossed off another chance of silverware last night. I`ll get over it eventually. I`ve seen us wave goodbye casually to many a trophy since 1957 but in the meantime I reserve the right to whine like a bitch till I get over the disappointment.
 
A tired performance last night and frustrating at times, but we are still involved in at least two competitions if not three (but the last one is a big if)
 
r.soleofsalford said:
"What was wrong with the team last night? No Silva? He has to play every game or we're not good enough to beat Stoke?" Obviously before we made changes with subs NO they werent good enough.
Playing Stoke at home was always going to be a battle to open up a locked defence, Silva is more often than not Key in these games (Pun intended) Navas as I said backed up by stats Scores few and makes few chances. In all honesty he got some crosses in. I have to admit I was genuinely shocked. They would of been Ideal for Edin to run on to but we havent got Edin. We have a hobbit from the Shire. As good as he can be when he gets the service which he mostly didnt last night. The only chance he had of getting on those high crosses was if he`d nipped to walmart and got a pair of step ladders.
I`m pissed off we tossed off another chance of silverware last night as slim as it was. I`ll get over it eventually. I`ve seen us wave goodbye casually to many a trophy since 1957 but in the meantime I reserve the right to whine like a bitch till I get over the disappointment.
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Starting off it felt very rushed too me. Lots of misplaced or sloppy passing. Not a tempo thing but a inability to assess properly. Sane had a chance the same as his goal against Sunderland but then with Silva on the ball he checked his run and stayed onside. This time with KdB on the ball he kept the pace of the run consistent and strayed just off. Clichy had time to put in a cross and hits it first time but no one is yet making the run. The same is true of Navas' crosses. He rushes them in rather than letting the strikers make the runs. They are decent crosses but the players aren't making the movements. Silva comes on and things slow down a little chances are made. With the movement our team needs to do to be successful you can't force it. You have to wait for the moves to be made. If the ball forces the movement the defender has the advantage especially when it is agricultural. They just have to clear it rather than do anything meaningful with it. It's not a tempo thing it is a timing thing and our timing was far too forced and rushed yesterday because our movement wasn't quite right
 
Firstly you have to credit stoke who defended well and were tactically very smart. They swamped us in our attacking third and hence nothing came off. Sane and Navas were often up against 2 or 3 defenders and Aguero was tracked around all night. The addition of Silva and Nacho made the difference as we had more options in the middle and space started to appear but it was just too late.

Credit to Otamendi and Kolarov who defended the long ball and direct attacks with little trouble. Another clean sheet.

We had some great chances toward the end (Aguero, Silva and Sane all had great opportunities), if one had gone in this would be a very different thread.
 
De Bruyn given the Silva role and failed miserably, his passing was awful.

Gave him a chance to atone in the 2nd half and he was just as bad.

Silva brought on and things improved but even he contrived to miss the best chance, if only he could finish he would be one of the worlds best ever players.

All in all a waste of an evening and to think I missed the Barcelona game to watch that turgid display.
 
Haven't gone through the post-match thread yet but I would be interested to know how long the ball was active for throughout the match. I'd be surprised if it's anything north of 60 minutes.

I know it's down to us to break stubborn teams down and we didn't do that last night but the amount of time taken for "injuries", throw-ins and dead ball situations was ridiculous. I think this was a deliberate Stoke tactic. If you think about it, we have ground teams down by moving them around over the 90 mins and eventually most teams have tired, creating the space for us to exploit. By stopping and starting like Stoke did last night, they never tired as much as others have this season.

Awful match to watch and a frustrating performance by us. Ultimately, I don't understand why you would break up Sterling Aguero and Sane at the moment but i suppose that's why I'm sat here typing and Pep is getting paid the big bucks.
 
The team was tired. Our total squad is still not good enough to compete for four trophies at once. We need to rest people like Silva but our second string is not up to it. We will get there. Next season will be the one. That said we still had enough chances for a clear win. It was frustrating to watch. De Bruyn has been off the pace recently but I thought he finished the game strongly last night with some superb crosses from the right. I don't think he is suited to this deeper position he has has been asked to play. Us fans need to keep the faith.
 
cookster said:
Come on, do you expect Stoke to arrive at the Etihad and play us at football. Blame our 200m plus team or manager not the likes of Ryan Shawcross and Glenn Whelan for playing to their strengths.
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No, of course I didn't expect them to come and play football. But neither did I expect them to go to Spurs and do so either.
I don't recall Hughes saying he was going to Spurs to be an irritant...
 
Three big bonuses-
A clean sheet
Six points into the top 4
Resting Sterling/Silva suggests that we're going full strength at Boro.

We're really starting to get Pep's style. Next season, when we have four or five more players, we will be much closer to where we need to be. By the third season we'll be easily the best in England.
 
Akiva said:
Pep said the same thing.

Maybe Sterling looked a bit off in training, maybe not. All we know is the following:
1. We are playing 4 difficult games in 10 days and rotation is required.
2. The team was good enough to beat Stoke.
3. The team didn't play well, notable underperformers including KDB and Dinho.
4. The team still had clear cut chances to score and didn't take them.

So it's a 0-0 draw and suddenly we have all these people, some of them who haven't posted in a post-match thread since the end of January, coming in and expressing concern over Pep, ignoring all the recent results and evidence to the contrary.

People moan endlessly about how he didn't play Sterling or Silva from the start. Both were objectively shit last season and Pep has brought out the best in them, but not a word on that from any of the armchair coaches on here.



What was wrong with the team last night? No Silva? He has to play every game or we're not good enough to beat Stoke?

If that's the case, isn't that a damning indictment of the state of our squad that we are so reliant on one aging player?

That said, I don't think it's fair to players like KDB, Sane, Aguero and Yaya to say they are unable to step up and win us games against mid-table opposition. They just didn't.
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Agree with all of this.
 
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