MaineRoadBlue said:
Dribble said:
Stoke were absolutely brilliant today and I've got no complaints. They defended as a team and attacked as a team and played as if they were high on crack from minute one to minute 94.
They came with a game plan and executed it perfectly so credit where credit’s due to Hughes. The bloke I was sat next to kept making mindless comments like 'Oh come on City, its Stoke FFS’ as if we had a god given right for them to just bend over whilst we stiffed them up the crease which just sounded Raggish to me. At one point I asked him what he'd do differently if he were Pellegrini but all he could keep saying was its Stoke FFS. During one of our attacks I counted 9 Stoke players in their area and when they broke from our attack I counted 6 of their players in or around our area. This wasn't a team who just turned up to fulfill the fixture, they came for a result and got it make no mistake about that.
What was strange for me was for the first time this season we looked fit and ready to start the season proper, but we ran into a Stoke team possessed. I spoke to a Rag earlier who was expecting me to make excuses like he was about Burnley saying Stoke only came to defend. I told him straight, Stoke looked us in the eye and took us on and thoroughly deserved their win and I don't think we had an off day either. When we raised the tempo, they matched us and although we were generally better in possession, when they had the ball it was evident that the days of Pulis's Stoke had been consigned to history because Stoke attacked us in an controlled fashion and with pace as if they knew what they were doing.
There wasn't one of our players who played that didn't deserve to be on the pitch and which ever team won today would have deserved it imo. Perhap Hart could have done better for the goal and Kolorov got left dead for pace wben trying to catch Diouf, but Diouf has been tearing it up in Germany recently with a 1 in 2 goal average and is no slouch either. IIRC Ferndinho had already been booked and was the last man, so he couldn't touch Diouf or we'd have been down to 10 men.
The only thing I would have done differently today is I'd have probably brought on Navas earlier because the middle was so congested we needed the ability to change tactics in game. We were also too slow on the break. Time after time I noticed that we seemed to lack the blistering pace to get beyond them on the break and we kept holding up our own play waiting for players to join in which gave Stoke the opportunity to get back into position.
On the left they kept doubling up on Kolorov to ensure he rarely got near the by-line so he had to keep slinging in crosses from long range which was never gonna help with those column like defenders Stoke had. Perhaps an out and out left winger would have been advantageous to us today, who knows, all I say is we played well and were beaten fair and square. We just need to wipe our mouths and move on to the next match and start preparing for other teams using this Stoke template to combat us with.
First game missed for some considerable time yesterday. Had to listen to Radio 5 for commentary as I was at work.
Their assessment, much like yours I must add, is of a focussed Stoke who operated as a team unit.
What never ceases to amaze me, and why I opperate a complete media blackout after any negative result is all the post match psychics, who it would appear knew from the team being released that the wrong team had been selected.
To steal a phrase from Mancini 'this is football' and sometime you have to accept other teams are better on the day and you lose. In fact in the last 2 seasons of football we had only previously lost a league game to Chelsea. In that same period Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and United have lost on multiple occasions to mid table sides at home.
Accept it, Analyse it and Improve on it.
For me, this was our best performance of the season so far and we looked as near as damn it up to speed fitness wise.
What also needs to be considered is the opposition. Whilst Liverpool are undoubtedly a better team than Stoke or Newcastle, Stoke didn't start to fade after the break Like the Dippers did, they kept it going right until the final whistle. If we'd played like we did against Newcastle and Liverpool yesterday, Stoke would have had a way easier time against us because I thought our first 2 matches of the season had a distinctly 'not yet up to speed' feel about them and I was just grateful for the 6 points whilst not being too arsed about the performances. Yesterday was different though because we looked fitter and sharper overall and Stoke dealt with everything we threw at them.
How many times was Moses at left back fighting to stop our attacks only to appear on the edge of our box moments later as part of their counter attack? They fought the whole game and got what they deserved and overall have put up the best performance against us this season, hence their win.
Fair do's, they beat us at home fair and square, the issue now is we now need to find a way to counter Stoke's successful tactics against us because make no mistake, we're gonna be coming up against more of this as the season progresses and we need to be able to adapt our play and switch formations and tactics to suit.
