This Stoke defeat?

[nowantads]

I thought stoke defended really well. Usually other teams who do this brickwall strategy will make mistakes allowing us to score, but they didn't (and we did instead). It will be much worse if we lose against liverpool, though! They'll make poems about it!

 

[leighton]

Its a good thing and its better it happend so early in the season. It gives the players the kick up the arse they need. Maybe they took Stoke for granted. We will always be up for the big games and generally do well in those games. Its the game against some of the teams we are to steam roll we can mess up at times. I cant see us getting beaten again at home. I think we will bounce back and take 4 points from Arsenal and Chelsea in our next 2 games. Think Arsenal is a winable game but we need to bed in Mangala and the sooner the better him and Kompany need to start the next 2 games. Were lucky with this international break that hopefully Mangala will get a game for France and comes back match fit to slot in with Kompany in the Arsenal game. We started last season poorly and still won the league. Its a long hard season and it will be a roller coaster ride.

 

[BobKowalski]

Had a look and still have it filed under "Shit happens..."

Pretty much how I feel. The annoying thing was the goal they scored, after pretty well not having another decent attack, and a keeper of Harts quality should have stopped it.

I look at us and see a better squad than last year, more settled, and I look at Stoke's anti football, and feel very grateful we have what we have, defeat or not.

Hopefully we won't have that bellend Mason refereeing us for a while either, how he managed to give only 5 fouls to us, and 14 to them, when they pretty well fouled us every time they got near us I have no idea.

Its disappointing that we have this damned international week in the way.

Yep. There were a host of 'ifs' and 'buts' and 'should haves', its just that sometimes you get out of bed and put your pants on the wrong way round and its downhill from there.

 

[cleavers]

Its a good thing and its better it happend so early in the season. It gives the players the kick up the arse they need. Maybe they took Stoke for granted. We will always be up for the big games and generally do well in those games. Its the game against some of the teams we are to steam roll we can mess up at times. I cant see us getting beaten again at home. I think we will bounce back and take 4 points from Arsenal and Chelsea in our next 2 games. Think Arsenal is a winable game but we need to bed in Mangala and the sooner the better him and Kompany need to start the next 2 games. Were lucky with this international break that hopefully Mangala will get a game for France and comes back match fit to slot in with Kompany in the Arsenal game. We started last season poorly and still won the league. Its a long hard season and it will be a roller coaster ride.

I don't think its "a good thing", but its better it happened now, I don't think its fair to say that our players needed a kick up the arse either, I might be in a minority of one, but I didn't think they did that much wrong (other than the stupid goal), we just couldn't get the ball in the goal, we could easily have won it anyway, and while nobody really played well, I still think we did more than enough to win, and a bit of luck and we would have (and not having Mason in charge would have helped).

No game against these teams that play anti football like Stoke played will be pretty (unless we get an early goal), but we'll win the vast majority and that's all that really matters in these games.

 

[ForzaMancini]

Surprised by the media reaction to the defeat. Seems to have been brushed under the carpet. The Daily Mirror's backpage had the focus on United spending exorbitant money yet still failing to score at Burnley as opposed to our defeat to Stoke. If it was the other way round this place would have been in meltdown. I've managed to forget about it for the most part. I think we just need to accept that every now and then our formidable home record will come undone by a lesser side; after all, who isn't a lesser side?

 

[kaz7]

My feeling was they thought 0-0 at half time was alright as they would step it up and win in the 2nd half
Hopefully they will get a kick up the arse

 

[supercity88]

It's football and these games do come along from time to time. It was harder to take because the majority of us look at Chelsea as direct rivals and their start has been excellent, particularly that result against Everton at Goodison. A blip will come for them, Costa has scored 4 goals from 8 shots which is incredible really but teams will park the bus against them and so far they've played two promoted teams and a side that at home looks to win every game it plays.

Newcastle were tough and we weren't 100% fit. Liverpool we looked better and took our chances and to follow up that result with a loss to Stoke with Arsenal away and Chelsea at home to come... well it's just a bit of a sore point. All it really means though is that we need to get positive results from the next two. Namely a minimum of 1 point from Arsenal and 3 points at home to Chelsea. But then I am looking at things scientifically. Last season two losses to Chelsea and other blips yet we still won the league... I think considering the number of games last season and World Cup we were always going to have a stuttering start whilst integrating new players. It's not been perfect but to beat Liverpool and lose to Stoke is the better way around. It was just one of those days and we couldn't break them down. That is a rarity these days and that shows how far we have come. Unfortunately as Tolmie says, we don't have a game for a while now. We need to pick ourselves up and go and get a result at Arsenal. If we win that then fantastic, and should we beat Chelsea then it's a cracking start. From those 5 games a return of 10points would be very good if it includes beating Chelsea, Liverpool and taking a point from Arsenal. We play well in the big games and it's a long season. How will Chelsea cope with competing in all competitions? We are the side best equipped on that front in recent seasons and still should be strong. A striker down is a worry though particularly with Aguero and Jovetic being less than reliable in fitness terms over recent seasons.

 

[Rammyblues]

Stoke got the three points, but if we win our next two games then we will be two points better off than last season over exactly the same fixtures. :-)

 

[Questy]

Simply need to learn to switch formations to suit teams like Stoke camping out in their box, teams know how to stifle us when we tippy tappy it around outside the box.. Mere blip and nothing else

 

[Sir peace frog]

Simply need to learn to switch formations to suit teams like Stoke camping out in their box, teams know how to stifle us when we tippy tappy it around outside the box.. Mere blip and nothing else

I agree,it was the same as last season when we struggled to score goals,if we could figure that problem out then maybe we would of pipped Liverpool to the league.