Ten Minutes Away From Our Worst EVER Result

[Trouserdog]

Good God, that was shocking.

Anyone just casting their eye down the scores probably wouldn't realise just how close we came to being dumped out of the cup by a Conference side. It looks like a routine win, but 3-1 absolutely flattered us, and any credit from this afternoon has to go Wrexham's way.

What went wrong? We played a strong side, took the game seriously, but just couldn't get going. Their keeper (who was absolutely awful) wasn't tested until at least 70 minutes in, and we just didn't look like we were going to score. When Wrexham took the lead I'd have settled for a replay there and then on the basis that it wouldn't be possible for us to ever play as badly again.

If there is a silver lining (other than the fact that we're in the 4th round and the rest of the football world might not have noticed how close we came to embarrassing ourselves), it's that Hughes might have learned something about certain members of his squad. Things like:

1. The fact that he's right not to play Huth alongside Shawcross. The big German might be good at recognising transgender porn stars, but his passing just isn't composed enough to cut the mustard in this style of play. I appreciate there could be some rustiness there, but I think Muniesa, with his vastly superior ability on the ball, is the correct option to compliment Ryan's more old-school centre-back play.

2. Charlie Adam being, on his worst days, an absolute liability. Seriously, his passing and general play was absolutely atrocious this afternoon. For me, Adam now has one use and one use only. To bring off the bench with 20 minutes left when we're desperate for someone who can do something unexpected. The rest of the time, he's just dangerous.

3. Steve Sidwell being a bog standard midfield plodder. I can't believe we're dithering over a 2 year-contract for Glenn Whelan when this guy is the alternative? Get Whelan signed up immediately!

4. Geoff Cameron- see above really. Time to restore Cameron to permanent right-back, as I'm also hoping that Phil Bardsley's appearances will be increasingly rare events.

5. If there's any chance of ending Assaidi's loan spell then we should take it. He's like the kid at school who just played for himself- beating the same man about four times before dribbling into a cul-de-sac all the time. Thank God we didn't spunk £6m on him.

6.Jon Walters is absolutely integral to our game plan. Along with Crouch and Ireland, we looked ten times better when he came on. He might not be that quick or particularly skillful but he bullies defenders and gives us the option to throw it into the mixer when we need to. We wouldn't have that with Lennon or any other nippy, slightly-built winger.

7. Mame Diouf is an absolute waste of space as a lone front man and as a footballer. I can't bear to watch him anymore, and as we're not going to play 4-4-2 (and with Bojan in the side, we shouldn't), and possess three better options than him for the N0.10 role- Bojan, Ireland, Walters, maybe even Adam- then what purpose is he serving exactly? If someone was daft enough to give us a million quid for him in January- or even just have him off us- I'd send him packing. People will keep making excuses for him, but he's just fucking rubbish. Admit we fucked up and replace him ASAP.


So, we're somehow through and today's result will barely warrant a mention on tonight's MOTD. Christ, how different it could have been though.

[Deleted]

RE: Diouf. We nearly spunked 7m on him!! If we had done that then I would have been ready cry. Ive said from day one he's ade akinbiyi mark 2! Very fast, quite powerful but the touch of a rhino

[Deleted]

Jan 4, 2015 19:01:32 GMT Trouserdog said:

Good God, that was shocking.

Anyone just casting their eye down the scores probably wouldn't realise just how close we came to being dumped out of the cup by a Conference side. It looks like a routine win, but 3-1 absolutely flattered us, and any credit from this afternoon has to go Wrexham's way.

What went wrong? We played a strong side, took the game seriously, but just couldn't get going. Their keeper (who was absolutely awful) wasn't tested until at least 70 minutes in, and we just didn't look like we were going to score. When Wrexham took the lead I'd have settled for a replay there and then on the basis that it wouldn't be possible for us to ever play as badly again.

If there is a silver lining (other than the fact that we're in the 4th round and the rest of the football world might not have noticed how close we came to embarrassing ourselves), it's that Hughes might have learned something about certain members of his squad. Things like:

1. The fact that he's right not to play Huth alongside Shawcross. The big German might be good at recognising transgender porn stars, but his passing just isn't composed enough to cut the mustard in this style of play. I appreciate there could be some rustiness there, but I think Muniesa, with his vastly superior ability on the ball, is the correct option to compliment Ryan's more old-school centre-back play.

2. Charlie Adam being, on his worst days, an absolute liability. Seriously, his passing and general play was absolutely atrocious this afternoon. For me, Adam now has one use and one use only. To bring off the bench with 20 minutes left when we're desperate for someone who can do something unexpected. The rest of the time, he's just dangerous.

3. Steve Sidwell being a bog standard midfield plodder. I can't believe we're dithering over a 2 year-contract for Glenn Whelan when this guy is the alternative? Get Whelan signed up immediately!

4. Geoff Cameron- see above really. Time to restore Cameron to permanent right-back, as I'm also hoping that Phil Bardsley's appearances will be increasingly rare events.

5. If there's any chance of ending Assaidi's loan spell then we should take it. He's like the kid at school who just played for himself- beating the same man about four times before dribbling into a cul-de-sac all the time. Thank God we didn't spunk £6m on him.

6.Jon Walters is absolutely integral to our game plan. Along with Crouch and Ireland, we looked ten times better when he came on. He might not be that quick or particularly skillful but he bullies defenders and gives us the option to throw it into the mixer when we need to. We wouldn't have that with Lennon or any other nippy, slightly-built winger.

7. Mame Diouf is an absolute waste of space as a lone front man and as a footballer. I can't bear to watch him anymore, and as we're not going to play 4-4-2 (and with Bojan in the side, we shouldn't), and possess three better options than him for the N0.10 role- Bojan, Ireland, Walters, maybe even Adam- then what purpose is he serving exactly? If someone was daft enough to give us a million quid for him in January- or even just have him off us- I'd send him packing. People will keep making excuses for him, but he's just fucking rubbish. Admit we fucked up and replace him ASAP.


So, we're somehow through and today's result will barely warrant a mention on tonight's MOTD. Christ, how different it could have been though.

Agree with everything above with the exception of Sidwell. Only just back from injury and has been playing well prior to that. Happy to leave the jury out on him.

[Stokiedokie]

Spot on, except for Diouf. He was isolated today and is a better player than people give him credit for.

[mywaydesolzan]

We are in the hat

[Deleted]

Both Sidwell and Cameron are alright they have showed that in the prem. Instead of highlighting how bad those two were I thought this showed how important Fonzy is.
Other then that I agree on most to be honest, especially Assaidi. Such a limited player... Diouf I'm not writing off yet however.

[FullerMagic]

It's a struggle to argue with any of that - so I won't!

If you'd have told me in July that Jonny Walters would be as integral as he is proving this year, I would have laughed.

I'm struggling to work out what the end game is with Mame Diouf. And I'm increasingly baffled as to how he notched 35 in 63 in the Bundesliga.
If the answer is "as part of a 4-4-2, playing off a big man", it's not one we can really replicate if Bojan is the main creative man?

Which leads us somewhere but I'm not entirely sure where when the only alternative is a 34-year-old with 6 months left on his deal

[mywaydesolzan]

Jan 4, 2015 19:06:15 GMT Stokiedokie said:

Spot on, except for Diouf. He was isolated today and is a better player than people give him credit for.

How do you make that out?

[estrangedsonoffaye]

Jan 4, 2015 19:01:32 GMT Trouserdog said:

Good God, that was shocking.

Anyone just casting their eye down the scores probably wouldn't realise just how close we came to being dumped out of the cup by a Conference side. It looks like a routine win, but 3-1 absolutely flattered us, and any credit from this afternoon has to go Wrexham's way.

What went wrong? We played a strong side, took the game seriously, but just couldn't get going. Their keeper (who was absolutely awful) wasn't tested until at least 70 minutes in, and we just didn't look like we were going to score. When Wrexham took the lead I'd have settled for a replay there and then on the basis that it wouldn't be possible for us to ever play as badly again.

If there is a silver lining (other than the fact that we're in the 4th round and the rest of the football world might not have noticed how close we came to embarrassing ourselves), it's that Hughes might have learned something about certain members of his squad. Things like:

1. The fact that he's right not to play Huth alongside Shawcross. The big German might be good at recognising transgender porn stars, but his passing just isn't composed enough to cut the mustard in this style of play. I appreciate there could be some rustiness there, but I think Muniesa, with his vastly superior ability on the ball, is the correct option to compliment Ryan's more old-school centre-back play.

2. Charlie Adam being, on his worst days, an absolute liability. Seriously, his passing and general play was absolutely atrocious this afternoon. For me, Adam now has one use and one use only. To bring off the bench with 20 minutes left when we're desperate for someone who can do something unexpected. The rest of the time, he's just dangerous.

3. Steve Sidwell being a bog standard midfield plodder. I can't believe we're dithering over a 2 year-contract for Glenn Whelan when this guy is the alternative? Get Whelan signed up immediately!

4. Geoff Cameron- see above really. Time to restore Cameron to permanent right-back, as I'm also hoping that Phil Bardsley's appearances will be increasingly rare events.

5. If there's any chance of ending Assaidi's loan spell then we should take it. He's like the kid at school who just played for himself- beating the same man about four times before dribbling into a cul-de-sac all the time. Thank God we didn't spunk £6m on him.

6.Jon Walters is absolutely integral to our game plan. Along with Crouch and Ireland, we looked ten times better when he came on. He might not be that quick or particularly skillful but he bullies defenders and gives us the option to throw it into the mixer when we need to. We wouldn't have that with Lennon or any other nippy, slightly-built winger.

7. Mame Diouf is an absolute waste of space as a lone front man and as a footballer. I can't bear to watch him anymore, and as we're not going to play 4-4-2 (and with Bojan in the side, we shouldn't), and possess three better options than him for the N0.10 role- Bojan, Ireland, Walters, maybe even Adam- then what purpose is he serving exactly? If someone was daft enough to give us a million quid for him in January- or even just have him off us- I'd send him packing. People will keep making excuses for him, but he's just fucking rubbish. Admit we fucked up and replace him ASAP.


So, we're somehow through and today's result will barely warrant a mention on tonight's MOTD. Christ, how different it could have been though.

Careful mate, you'll be accused of being a "big girl's blouse" or the particularly articulate "thundercunt" for pointing out completely relevant points.

[Trouserdog]

Jan 4, 2015 19:06:15 GMT Stokiedokie said:

Spot on, except for Diouf. He was isolated today and is a better player than people give him credit for.

There's always an excuse with Diouf- isolated, poor service, unlucky etc etc ad infinitum.

People used to do that a lot with the likes of Greenacre and Dadasson et al. It's the sign of a bad player.

[Deleted]

Bardsley's reign didn't last long.

[tazi]

I dont know what some people expect from a free transfer, I really don't.

[mywaydesolzan]

Jan 4, 2015 19:07:20 GMT FullerMagic said:

It's a struggle to argue with any of that - so I won't!

If you'd have told me in July that Jonny Walters would be as integral as he is proving this year, I would have laughed.

I'm struggling to work out what the end game is with Mame Diouf. And I'm increasingly baffled as to how he notched 35 in 63 in the Bundesliga.
If the answer is "as part of a 4-4-2, playing off a big man", it's not one we can really replicate if Bojan is the main creative man?

Which leads us somewhere but I'm not entirely sure where when the only alternative is a 34-year-old with 6 months left on his deal

It is coming mate, Hughes stumbles across a team through trial and error.

[FullerMagic]

Diouf's got three and a half yrs left on supposedly £50k-a-week plus.

So he's not one that's going to be easy to shift, is he?

[johnnysoul60]

Not a fan of rotation but poor balance to side for me today too defensive considering the opposition hopeful lessons will have been learned

[mywaydesolzan]

Jan 4, 2015 19:10:48 GMT FullerMagic said:

Diouf's got three and a half yrs left on supposedly £50k-a-week plus.

So he's not one that's going to be easy to shift, is he?

The current managers Palacious. He signed him, he will have to play him. There are no favours as with the previous manager.

[trigger]

Totally agree with every point but think you're being a tad complimentary towards Diouff, he's a really, really poor player and robbing a living as a so called professional footballer.

He can't even get the really basics right which is controlling the football, glad there was no fee paid for him but dread to think what we paid for the signing on fee.

[Deleted]

Mr Dog. I was at the back of row 23 in the boothen next to a bloke who had supported stoke from the matthews days. We both had attended the blythe horror show. When they scored we both looked at each other and said. We've been here before. Doesn't matter who manages stoke this shit happens. We got a get out of jail card today.

GD

[Pugsley]

Result never in doubt

[foster]

We could afford to try players who had not played much and when we looked like losing we notched it up a gear.

[redwhite]

There's Diouf completely written off then. Add him to Bojan, N'zonzi, Arnie, Sidwell to sell in Jan.

[slother]

I'm not going to draw any conclusions on the back of a freak game against a conference side at the end of a long run of games. Judge them on their performances over a season ffs.

We're through - that's all the autopsy you need.

[2004]

Good to be in the 4th round

[Deleted]

Jan 4, 2015 19:07:50 GMT estrangedsonoffaye said:

Jan 4, 2015 19:01:32 GMT Trouserdog said:

Good God, that was shocking.

Anyone just casting their eye down the scores probably wouldn't realise just how close we came to being dumped out of the cup by a Conference side. It looks like a routine win, but 3-1 absolutely flattered us, and any credit from this afternoon has to go Wrexham's way.

What went wrong? We played a strong side, took the game seriously, but just couldn't get going. Their keeper (who was absolutely awful) wasn't tested until at least 70 minutes in, and we just didn't look like we were going to score. When Wrexham took the lead I'd have settled for a replay there and then on the basis that it wouldn't be possible for us to ever play as badly again.

If there is a silver lining (other than the fact that we're in the 4th round and the rest of the football world might not have noticed how close we came to embarrassing ourselves), it's that Hughes might have learned something about certain members of his squad. Things like:

1. The fact that he's right not to play Huth alongside Shawcross. The big German might be good at recognising transgender porn stars, but his passing just isn't composed enough to cut the mustard in this style of play. I appreciate there could be some rustiness there, but I think Muniesa, with his vastly superior ability on the ball, is the correct option to compliment Ryan's more old-school centre-back play.

2. Charlie Adam being, on his worst days, an absolute liability. Seriously, his passing and general play was absolutely atrocious this afternoon. For me, Adam now has one use and one use only. To bring off the bench with 20 minutes left when we're desperate for someone who can do something unexpected. The rest of the time, he's just dangerous.

3. Steve Sidwell being a bog standard midfield plodder. I can't believe we're dithering over a 2 year-contract for Glenn Whelan when this guy is the alternative? Get Whelan signed up immediately!

4. Geoff Cameron- see above really. Time to restore Cameron to permanent right-back, as I'm also hoping that Phil Bardsley's appearances will be increasingly rare events.

5. If there's any chance of ending Assaidi's loan spell then we should take it. He's like the kid at school who just played for himself- beating the same man about four times before dribbling into a cul-de-sac all the time. Thank God we didn't spunk £6m on him.

6.Jon Walters is absolutely integral to our game plan. Along with Crouch and Ireland, we looked ten times better when he came on. He might not be that quick or particularly skillful but he bullies defenders and gives us the option to throw it into the mixer when we need to. We wouldn't have that with Lennon or any other nippy, slightly-built winger.

7. Mame Diouf is an absolute waste of space as a lone front man and as a footballer. I can't bear to watch him anymore, and as we're not going to play 4-4-2 (and with Bojan in the side, we shouldn't), and possess three better options than him for the N0.10 role- Bojan, Ireland, Walters, maybe even Adam- then what purpose is he serving exactly? If someone was daft enough to give us a million quid for him in January- or even just have him off us- I'd send him packing. People will keep making excuses for him, but he's just fucking rubbish. Admit we fucked up and replace him ASAP.


So, we're somehow through and today's result will barely warrant a mention on tonight's MOTD. Christ, how different it could have been though.

Careful mate, you'll be accused of being a "big girl's blouse" or the particularly articulate "thundercunt" for pointing out completely relevant points.

There's a difference between spitting you're dummy out and saying "we're fucking shit, we're out of the cup" and taking the time to put some critique together with thought and reason.

[benjaminbiscuit]

Drama drama

It would no have been amongst the top 10 of our worst results

for a start
Reading 2-0 that sent us down and saw people giving Peter coates hoe address out , Swindon 6-0 Oxford 5 stoke 2 ( Kevin Francis ) Stoke 2 Blythe 3 , 7 at home to birmingham 9 to Liverpool 2-0 at home to Leicester then villa park away that sent s to 30 years of oblivion those are the bad results and I'm sure there are many more

[localloser]

Jan 4, 2015 19:17:44 GMT @guernseydave said:

Mr Dog. I was at the back of row 23 in the boothen next to a bloke who had supported stoke from the matthews days. We both had attended the blythe horror show. When they scored we both looked at each other and said. We've been here before. Doesn't matter who manages stoke this shit happens. We got a get out of jail card today.

GD

Exactly. Remember Nuneaton? Worst ever result? I don't think so.

[Paul Spencer]

Jan 4, 2015 19:23:58 GMT slother said:

I'm not going to draw any conclusions on the back of a freak game against a conference side at the end of a long run of games. Judge them on their performances over a season ffs.

We're through - that's all the autopsy you need.

I think quite a bit of what Trousers has said, was perfectly relevant before today's game.

[FullerMagic]

Jan 4, 2015 19:27:32 GMT benjaminbiscuit said:

Drama drama

It would no have been amongst the top 10 of our worst results

for a start
Reading 2-0 that sent us down and saw people giving Peter coates hoe address out , Swindon 6-0 Oxford 5 stoke 2 ( Kevin Francis ) Stoke 2 Blythe 3 , 7 at home to birmingham 9 to Liverpool 2-0 at home to Leicester then villa park away that sent s to 30 years of oblivion those are the bad results and I'm sure there are many more

I think a top-half Prem team with a wage budget of £60m losing at home against a team half way down Division 5 would have been down there, Ben!

[Davef]

Jan 4, 2015 19:27:32 GMT benjaminbiscuit said:

Drama drama

It would no have been amongst the top 10 of our worst results

for a start
Reading 2-0 that sent us down and saw people giving Peter coates hoe address out , Swindon 6-0 Oxford 5 stoke 2 ( Kevin Francis ) Stoke 2 Blythe 3 , 7 at home to birmingham 9 to Liverpool 2-0 at home to Leicester then villa park away that sent s to 30 years of oblivion those are the bad results and I'm sure there are many more

You've got four of those games/results wrong.

Great effort.

[stokemark]

Totally unfair re Diouf

He was stuck on the left wing against the Baggies but still managed to score twice

He has rarely been utilised in the most effective manner and was massively isolated today without any decent service

TOP strikers cost tens of millions and we don't have that to spend - we need to make sure this lad feels wanted at Stoke as he is a confidence player - writing him off already is totally unfair