Stoke post match thread

well actually it is not you just play with three up front, a few years back fergis scoffed at city`s seven strikers, the year after we ravaged the league.
last night it was like ten man defense against ten man midfield absolute ugly football only pep to blame


Yeah you're right, fuck it Pep out
 
on the night only one player played below his ability De Buyrne . pep should have seen sanga and clichy are not wing backs and changed to a back three putting on Ieanacho, he should have seen Navas had no space to run into with stoke playing so deep, and brought Silva on both a lot lot earlier , instead he left them to get hung
 
Yep, although getting and keeping him fit is another matter. If Isco is indeed available I'd hope we'd be in for him (again).
Oh I do hope so:
1/ He'd make a great addition to the team.
2/ I miss the D'Isco thread : (
 
Surely Pep has to find a solution to break up deep defensive teams at home who don't come to play football.
Pep has to find answers here.
It was much easier in Germany, EPL is more defensive and physical.

You won't get many chances and have to be efficient.
Score first and you win 4-0. If not you're losing points.

KDB was suffering last night. He was left alone to create something. Yaya (too slow) and Dinho didn't help much going forward, sadly. Especially Dinho turns out to be unable to play creative passes between the lines as he simply doesn't have the eye. He is no offensive player (anymore?).

Navas was not an option for KDB to break up the defence. He is sticking to his side line, no runs behind the defence line.

So Stoke were able to concentrate on Sané and Sergio, and they massively did.
Keeping in mind our team was tired, Stoke got what they came for, but only by playing much deeper than they usually do (admitted by Hughes).

KDB is worldclass when he can move or pass into open space. Nothing like that available yesterday! He also didn't have options to play behind the defence as nobody was moving up front or was being covered tightly.

It got better when KDB replaced Navas on the right wing and we had 1 more option for Silva to deliver.
It nearly did work, just nearly. Shite.

So please don't get on KDB's back, there are much more factors and players involved than just him.
It's a team sport.
 
The worst thing about last night was it was preventable. Just what is Guardiola thinking when assumes that playing a weakened team against a side coming for a draw is going to work! If anything it gives them initial hope they can last 90 minutes without conceding, and then as the game progresses it cements that hope into absolute belief.

In short, squad rotation (weakening your team in a calculated gamble) doesn't work. Play your best team all the time.

On pitches like ploughed fields, Forest won the League over a 42 game season using just 14 players. It was the days of little protection for players.

Our squad change gamble last night was about appeasing squad players who seldom play rather than servicing any supposed tiredness in those rested.

If I thought we'd learn from it then I'd be philosophical and accept it as a case of Pep not understanding Stoke City's ideology and Mark Hughes' dogged determination to get at City, however I'm not convinced.
 
Slow build up killed us till silva came on we was crying out for someone with a bit of physicality up top (Nolito) if he was on bench? That said we still made enough chances to win the game but our finishing was way off!!!!
 
What does this even mean? We've won plenty of games this season against such teams, including Stoke.

Players missing sitters isn't the manager's fault. Silva, KDB, Sane, Aguero and Kelechi all missed tap ins.

Means exactly what I posted apart from the "at home" element I missed in the text
 
Well if you want to make an issue out of being a "long term Blue" then I go back to 1964/65, but seeing that you think that Navas is really shit,then over the years i have seen so may worse players than him and even more who don`t give a fuck about working for the team.
I agree that he may not be the greatest of players, but to suggest he doesn`t put "his foot in" and help the team out is nothing more than ludicrous.He was nowhere near the worst player on the pitch tonight but to suggest he`s shit because he doesn`t score is just plain daft.
Do you think that last nights game showed that he was worse than Sane,KDB,Toure and the likes ? Was he hell,but every team needs a whipping boy,but not tonight was it Navas.
Not my fault I was born in 82 and not 1960 or whenever you were born. I love City and that loyalty shouldn't be questioned when I point out that in my opinion Navas is shite.

Not saying he doesn't help the team but we need wingers to do more than help, they need to score goals. It has been three years that he hasn't scored in the league! He is a winger! We laugh about fullbacks and centre half a with that kind of goal scoring form. Why does Navas escape criticism?

He doesn't score, can't cross, can't think, rarely makes the right decisions when we have an opportunity, won't shoot when he should, crosses when he shouldn't, cuts inside when he should cross. Yes he runs a lot but so would a headless chicken. Sick and tired of watching him run in circles before giving it to the right back for the 50th time.

He is only useful as a sub in the last minutes of a game when we are already 3-0 up.

Look at his stats.

Shite
 
you think sheik Mansour takes the piss,?
It is obvious that the best atmosphere at home was v Hamburg in 2009 £5 a ticket. When people are paying 50 quid for a league game like that are you expecting them to celebrate wiping their arse with their hard earned? Ticket pricing is in a big way responsible for shit atmospheres at games.
 
I'd say you know fuck all about football after reading this, changes for the sake of it ffs. You have no idea what the sports science and back room teams will have discussed, hell even David may have said he's not got a full 90 minutes in him.The fact we didn't win last night isn't down to Pep resting Silva and Sterling, it's because KDB and Fernandinho played shite and forced him to put Silva on when he really shouldn't fucking have to, this isn't down to play a couple of kids and it costing us points, but top class players who are main players in Brazil and Belgium being below par.

The constant he's dropped a bollock by resting whoever it is that particular game we don't win is becoming tiresome.




Again proving you know fuck all, how many headers did we lose on Sunday without Otamendi? Last night was always going to be an aerial bombardment, could have been worse if Crouch had played, so he picked a back four to counter it, if you can't see why Stones didn't start then......
Agree with your analysis but what about this. Why did we spend a large shed full of money on a central defender who is not fit to face half the teams in the league because he is shite in the air?
 
Weren't they flagged offside anyway?

Where they? If not, I'd love to know how this is not a penalty:

GettyImages-649687172.jpg
 
The worst thing about last night was it was preventable. Just what is Guardiola thinking when assumes that playing a weakened team against a side coming for a draw is going to work! If anything it gives them initial hope they can last 90 minutes without conceding, and then as the game progresses it cements that hope into absolute belief.

In short, squad rotation (weakening your team in a calculated gamble) doesn't work. Play your best team all the time.

On pitches like ploughed fields, Forest won the League over a 42 game season using just 14 players. It was the days of little protection for players.

Our squad change gamble last night was about appeasing squad players who seldom play rather than servicing any supposed tiredness in those rested.

If I thought we'd learn from it then I'd be philosophical and accept it as a case of Pep not understanding Stoke City's ideology and Mark Hughes' dogged determination to get at City, however I'm not convinced.

Ffs, you can't play your best team week in week out!! Players need rest or they burn out just as semis and finals appear, just when you need your best players.
Also how the fuck was last night a 'weakened ' team?? Silva was rested for KDB and Sterling was the only left out. Personally I'd rather never see navas and would prefer a kid to get a game but if you call last nights team weak I fucking despair. And you think he picked it just to appease squad players lol. That takes the fucking biscuit.
Not surprised this place is called bluemoan at times.
 

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