Stoke post match thread

[Phil1]

Whether it was the rearranged game, I just don't know, but I felt seriously embarrassed.

Lol. You might want to get yourself a thicker skin, Harry.

 

[Saddleworth2]

watched the game again yesterday from the sky recording. Am I right in saying Andy Hinchcliffe was one of the commentators? Wtf is it with ex city players - a couple of times he mentioned the 'subdued' atmosphere, was praising the ref for getting the fouls against Aguero 'spot on' and was generally anti in his commentary.

In terms of the game, thought we looked a bit tired and jaded. We lacked intensity in the first half but that picked up in the second. If you leave aside the time wasting and fouling, Stoke executed their game plan very efficiently with no little skill. Positives for me were defensively thought Otamendi and Kolorov both payed well and as a unit we defended their breaks pretty well other than the incident in about the 3rd minute when Clichy completely lost his runner. David played really well when he came on. He tried to pass the ball into the net with his chance. If he had hit the target, the goalkeeper had it covered. His best chance of scoring would have been to lift the ball and hit it harder.
Thought the referee was very bad watching him live. He was worse than that when I had the benefit of slow mo and rewind. Particularly the way he refereed fouls. Letting them for Stoke and blowing for identical challenges for us. Incompetent too - missing Yaya's deliberate handball.
Its these home draws that have derailed our title challenge this year - 10 points lost.

 

[Cityfan]

Been overthinking this a lot. From a purely mathematical point of view it makes no sense to rotate against 'poorer' teams unless:

1. You're happy to not win
2. You think it's unlikely you'll win

With a full strength team you might say there's a 8/10 chance of beating a team like Stoke at home. Likewise an away game at Chelsea you might say it's a 5/10 chance.

Therefore if the goal is to get as many points as possible, from a purely probability POV by changing against Stoke you're dropping your chance of winning down to 7/10 or even 6/10. That's more like a draw than a win.

If that means you you don't rotate against stoke you may reduce your chance of winning at Chelsea down to 4/10 because your players are more tired but.. you haven't really had much of an impact on the probability of a win there and it's still most likely you'll get a draw.

Instead of getting 3 & 1 points you may end up getting 1 & 1. Given there's a relatively high chance of losing against Chelsea anyway, 3 & 0 points is still better.

Of course I know it's not that simple but from an abstract model the principal still runs true I believe within this limited context.

Forgetting draws for a minute if you change your chances of winning against Stoke and teams like Stoke from 8/10 to 7/10 your expected points total from these matches goes from 2.4 to 2.1 point ie 0.3 points that you have lost by rotating.
If your chances of winning against Chelsea drop from 5/10 to 4/10 your expected points total goes from 1.5 to 1.2 points ie 0.3 points So points gained and lost by this rather simple model are exactly the same no matter who you rotate against.
However we will almost certainly finish on significantly more points than Stoke and teams like them whereas we will probably finish on similar points to Chelsea and teams like them, points lost to our immediate competitors are also points gained by them when we play them so it makes more sense using this model to play weakened teams against opposition whose points gathering ability is unlikely to be reflected in our position in the league than against those whose points gathering ability is likely to be reflected in our final league position.

 

[OB1]

All PL stadiums have camera's round the stadium (its a TV requirement, and used for replay purposes), but the ones they use for game action have been in the same place since we moved into the stadium.

And yes the lack of attendance really was down to it being rearranged (brought forward - I can't remember that ever happening) at 7 days notice.

My ticket - and I assume Our Kid's - didn't get used as neither of us went and I know he didn't find anyone to use my ticket. If either of us can't go, we normally take someone else with us or let them go in our place. Logistics left our seats empty.

 

[murcian blue]

we had to many men in front of the ball giving our players not enough room and making to easy to be marked .

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

watched the game again yesterday from the sky recording.

Were you having trouble sleeping?

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

watched the game again yesterday from the sky recording. Am I right in saying Andy Hinchcliffe was one of the commentators? Wtf is it with ex city players - a couple of times he mentioned the 'subdued' atmosphere, was praising the ref for getting the fouls against Aguero 'spot on' and was generally anti in his commentary

Many if not all of the ex players who regularly commentate on our games were around in the Swales era, and were only ever treated as a commodity by the club. You only have to read Paul Lakes book to see how bad some of those lads were treated. It's hardly surprising that they can show some antipathy towards us; especially considering they were the heroes of their era, and effectively did the same job as our latest multi-millionaire crop of superstars.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

Obviously not.

that was one game. your telling me sane, aguero, de bruyne and yaya in attack isn't good enough to beat stoke ?

 

[We're not really here]

Keep going. Only 11 pages off The Monaco thread. What a bunch of raggy wankers we are becoming!