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Post by expectedtoulouse on Apr 8, 2008 15:55:18 GMT
Yes, it was a big disappointment last night, but its not the end of the world. Hull City, Watford and West Brom may have games in hand, but the pressure is on them to win now. It is hard to convince myself that none of these teams will capitalize on stoke's failings lats night, but you never know with this league anything could happen.
When I heard the team on Radio Stoke on the way to the game I thought oh no...what's Pulis doing. I didn't mind that Fuller wasn't starting because David Kemp explained that he had been away on international duty and that wouldn't last the whole match. I thought, he was brilliant when he came on at Wolves and he was electric when he came on against Cardiff at the Brit last season, so it wouldn't be a problem.
The annoying thing was that Pugh was selected over Carl Dickinson. Pugh is not a left back nor is he a left winger. He is a left midfielder and is USEFUL at centre midfield. He is not great in centre mid, he is useful. People go on about how good he is when he plays centre mid. Just because he played well against Newcastle United like the other 10 players on the pitch doesn't mean to say he's an excellent central midfielder. Dicko is a good, solid defender he has heart and cares for the club, doesn't back out of a challenge and can be relied upon to raise the teams spirirt by running around and making crunching tackles when the heads are down. This is what is needed when things aren't going well. Someone who does the simple things right and isn't scared of putting his boot in. For me Pugh cannot do this. He can seems to find it difficult to make a tackle when someone is coming towards him. Last night he backed off and backed off Scott Sinclair gave him too much space got skinned and his cross set up Clinton Morrison's goal. Both Griffin and Pugh seem to jockey a winger from the halfway line back into THE PENALTY AREA without making a tackle. How many times will this cost us???
Why oh why did Pulis start with Sidibe and Ameobi. It should have been either or. Not both. Sidibe has scored 2 this season and Ameobi hasn't scored in 18 months. Hardly the partnership that is likely to get you goals is it. Kemp claimed to have seen Palace a few times already this season so he and Pulis would have known well that they had Mark Hudson, Matt Lawrence, Jose Fonte and Clint Hill who were all more than competent in the air. So what do we do? Lump it up to Mama and Shola. Great idea! They passed it along the floor, over ran our midfield and won the game despite playing with a lone target man in Clinton Morrison. Also their 'keeper Julian Speroni commanded his area really well, so why did we still lump balls in there.
We should have started with:
Simonsen - Nash's kicking is woeful
Griffin
Cort
Riggott
Dickinson - We need consistency and he is better than Pugh
Gallagher
Delap
Whelan
Pearson
Ameobi
Cresswell - Consistency again
Gallagher would have given us a bit more width and some quality set pieces/balls into the danger areas.
Delap didn't have his best of games last night and played a bit too deep although he must be praised for that excellent run down the right and that cross in the 1st half and his form since just before Christmas.
I thought Whelan had an excellent game. He ran around in midfield tackling picking up the pieces, won some good headers, took some decent corners and scored a good goal. He should have got man of the match.
Cresswell deserves lots of praise for his recent performances. He may not have delivered the goods recently in terms of goals or crosses, but his work rate is outstanding. Him and Wilko and Dicko should be an example to the rest of the team. Whelan alos made a tremendous effort last night. Cresswell doesn't give up on balls down the channels, he runs his socks off every game. He also CARES, unlike some of the team. You could see it when he put a ball about 2 inches over the bar in the second half. He was so angry yet he carried on running and was unlucky with a few breaks down the left. He also tracks back and isn't scared to put his foot in either.
We absolutely murdered Crystal Palace in the second half though. Someone who watched it on Sky said we had 85% of the possession in the second half. We were desperately unlucky though not to score another. I feel sorry for Cort - he had 6 headers on goal and that one that hit the inside of the post. If we play like we did second half against Cov then we will thrash them.
On Saturday Pulis needs to play our strongest team and really needs to give a few individuals a kick up the backside. For example Griffin, and I would like to see Simonsen back in goal as I think Nash is too prone to mistakes.
All 11 players need to show the work rate and commitment that Whelan did last night and Cresswell, Wilkinson, Dickinson do every single game.
If we win the next 2 games we have a great chance...
UP THE POTTERS
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Post by bayernoatcake on Apr 8, 2008 15:57:22 GMT
Drop Griffin.
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Post by expectedtoulouse on Apr 8, 2008 16:00:13 GMT
the only reason I have Griffin in there is because no one else can be captain really. Although I would actually give it to Dicko, but Pulis wouldn't even dream of that.
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Post by mumf14 on Apr 8, 2008 16:02:29 GMT
A very good post ....there are many issues there which most can agree with.
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Post by Cityfullergoals on Apr 8, 2008 16:22:44 GMT
Here here
Dicko would be one of the first names on the sheet for me
Beats me why we sign loan players like Gallagher and Bothroyd and they get 15 minutes between them
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