My Stoke City vs Manchester United summary.
de Gea - decent enough
Evans - Dicey
Smalling - VERY dicey
Jones - dicey
Rooney - hahahahaaa, shite
Young - ineffective (Rafael - 75' ) ditto
Mata - who?
Shaw - absent (Januzaj - 64' ) ineffective
Carrick - very quiet
van Persie - whiner and marked out of the game
Falcao - dirty twat off the ball a lot of very snidey fouling. (Herrera - 64' ) ineffective
Oliver - Excellent stopper, saved his teams blushes on many occasions.
Although the possession stats will show that the shite had more of it, Stokes possession was much more effective. On virtually every attack from them they were stopped by decent tackling and poor decision making from the away team(!). Rooney and van Persil were chatting to their number 12 at every and any opportunity. Obvious fouls for Stoke were totally ignored, even when they were happening mere yards in front of him. Excellent, but excellent work by Oliver, the shite were lucky to have him on the pitch.
What looked like two 'good' penalty shouts were denied by Oliver. He came to the rescue several times, fine fine work from the chap.
Overall it was a good match, Stokes back four were dealing with most of the attacks coming their way, whereas the shites backline were arguing amongst themselves, quite regularly. In the second half the away team started their tactic of diving whenever the opportunity arose. All in all Stoke coped quite easily at times and mopped up ninety percent of the attacks that were coming at them. It must be a very satisfying point for the away team, who, when questioned, looked nothing like previous teams from Old Tartford that have visited in seasons gone by. Long may it continue....
HAPPY NEW YEAR