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Post by luke45 on Sept 10, 2017 10:24:23 GMT
Full credit to Hughes and his team for recognizing the need to add more games to our pre-season schedule, Bowen said only a few weeks ago he was confident we could hit the ground running and get off to a positive start because of it.
Without those eight games, all against decent opposition, I doubt we would've had the fitness levels to see out the victory against Arsenal and come from behind against West Brom and Man Utd to achieve well deserved points. In comparison to around this time last season where we'd shipped four against Man City, Palace and Spurs before the end of September we look much fitter and much more balanced.
One thing I thought we did extremely well yesterday was marking on throw-ins, we were tight to our opponents the minute the ball went out of play and that forced them to throw the ball backwards and allowed us to keep a good shape. It's a simple task to do but it's very important when you are up against opposition who are likely to dominate the ball.
We've now achieved more points against the ' big 6 ' in two games than we managed in twelve last season, a very pleasing stat which hopefully we can build on. I'm enjoying watching this Stoke team at the moment, bring on Newcastle next week!
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Post by cooper67 on Sept 10, 2017 10:27:52 GMT
It did take him 4 years to work out.
But at last we got there.
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Post by bayernoatcake on Sept 10, 2017 10:30:12 GMT
It wasn't even strenuous was it?
It was just a normal pre season done like most clubs do with games against good sides.
It took him a while to get there but thank fook he did.
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Post by Jimm on Sept 10, 2017 10:39:54 GMT
I think the pressure put on him forced him in to changing his ways. Good job he did
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2017 14:05:57 GMT
Hughes always has his teams starting slowly and finishing the season strong, presumably when other teams are weakening after a long season. I think last seasons poor start, half decent run towards the new year before finishing awfully proved his strategy wrong.
An increase in tempo pre season has certainly seen us start stronger than normal, the problem will now be sustaining it throughout the season. I can't understand it myself, surely any professional player can manage one or two games a week and sometimes no games at all without feeling 'tired' after a few months ?
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Post by loosestools on Sept 10, 2017 14:19:50 GMT
Squad strength is what its all about. And a good pre-season to gain momentum. Who would have predicted our results so far?
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Post by superheroantonius on Sept 10, 2017 14:45:42 GMT
Leipzig is a proper game
Playing orlando B is not
Who would have thought, playing proper football teams in pre season would be the way to go?
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Post by terryconroysmagic on Sept 10, 2017 15:01:46 GMT
Were almost half the team even involved in pre season, Jesé, Choupo, Bruno, Wimmer, and Zouma so not sure it that relevant?
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Post by StatesideStokie on Sept 10, 2017 15:13:42 GMT
Were almost half the team even involved in pre season, Jesé, Choupo, Bruno, Wimmer, and Zouma so not sure it that relevant? You make a great point. As much as we've been piss poor starters under Hughes in seasons past, I think our impressive opening to the season has far more to do with a very solid back-line and him having a well thought out formation and game plan. I'm not saying pre-season has nowt to do with it, because we do look fitter, but we now look to be far more organized in our approach. It's taken a lot of the pressure off Hughes, changed to outlook of the support and put the whole club in a more positive frame of mind. We now have something to build on instead of hanging to dig ourselves out of a hole. I've enjoyed these first few games more than I enjoyed the whole of last season and looking forward now with optimism. |
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Post by cheeesfreeex on Sept 10, 2017 17:43:38 GMT
3 is the magic number.
The two previous preseasons were disjointed affairs with the Singapore sling and then the Euros.
Nevertheless last season's poor start was less to do with being 'under cooked', more about balance/form of personnel, sucker punched chasing games etc..
This preseason did look more focused and coherent, without too much crazy travelling, but the improvement is down to more than that.
Last season added some much needed 'nuts & bolts', added grit and upgrades in quality with the recruitment.
And choosing the flexible 343.
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Post by harryburrows on Sept 10, 2017 20:42:50 GMT
Hughes always has his teams starting slowly and finishing the season strong, presumably when other teams are weakening after a long season. I think last seasons poor start, half decent run towards the new year before finishing awfully proved his strategy wrong. An increase in tempo pre season has certainly seen us start stronger than normal, the problem will now be sustaining it throughout the season. I can't understand it myself, surely any professional player can manage one or two games a week and sometimes no games at all without feeling 'tired' after a few months ? I've heard this theory mentioned before , in actual fact we were poor at both ends of the season , |
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Post by Olgrligm on Sept 10, 2017 21:10:45 GMT
We look much more prepared for the season ahead than we have at any time under Hughes, I think. We're much, much more competitive than we were for most of last season. In fact, I've enjoyed our last two home games more than most of last season put together. It augers well.
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Post by march4 on Sept 10, 2017 21:45:18 GMT
Full credit to Hughes and his team for recognizing the need to add more games to our pre-season schedule, Bowen said only a few weeks ago he was confident we could hit the ground running and get off to a positive start because of it. Without those eight games, all against decent opposition, I doubt we would've had the fitness levels to see out the victory against Arsenal and come from behind against West Brom and Man Utd to achieve well deserved points. In comparison to around this time last season where we'd shipped four against Man City, Palace and Spurs before the end of September we look much fitter and much more balanced. One thing I thought we did extremely well yesterday was marking on throw-ins, we were tight to our opponents the minute the ball went out of play and that forced them to throw the ball backwards and allowed us to keep a good shape. It's a simple task to do but it's very important when you are up against opposition who are likely to dominate the ball. We've now achieved more points against the ' big 6 ' in two games than we managed in twelve last season, a very pleasing stat which hopefully we can build on. I'm enjoying watching this Stoke team at the moment, bring on Newcastle next week! Well said. I totally agree. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2017 21:55:11 GMT
Would love to agree, but conceding in the 45h minute -again - shows that we stil dont have the right mentaliy.
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Post by bayernoatcake on Sept 10, 2017 22:14:49 GMT
Would love to agree, but conceding in the 45h minute -again - shows that we stil dont have the right mentaliy. Agree that it's poor but it shows that the mentality is poor not fitness. They switched off again and that needs to be worked on but it's difficult. |
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Post by luke45 on Sept 10, 2017 22:19:16 GMT
Were almost half the team even involved in pre season, Jesé, Choupo, Bruno, Wimmer, and Zouma so not sure it that relevant? You make a great point. As much as we've been piss poor starters under Hughes in seasons past, I think our impressive opening to the season has far more to do with a very solid back-line and him having a well thought out formation and game plan. I'm not saying pre-season has nowt to do with it, because we do look fitter, but we now look to be far more organized in our approach. It's taken a lot of the pressure off Hughes, changed to outlook of the support and put the whole club in a more positive frame of mind. We now have something to build on instead of hanging to dig ourselves out of a hole. I've enjoyed these first few games more than I enjoyed the whole of last season and looking forward now with optimism. I do agree, the pre-season schedule is only one of many factors in the reason we have had such a good start to the campaign. In the 2016/17 pre-season campaign we alternated between using 3 at the back in some games and 4 at the back in others as Hughes said he wanted us to be tactically flexible, in this pre-season campaign he used 3 at the back in every friendly and it was clear that this was the primary system he wanted to go with. It's worked really well so far, Shawcross has looked much more comfortable in the central role in the three with Zouma and Bruno either side of him and Shaqiri has thrived on playing in one of the two attacking roles in the 3-4-2-1 where his defensive responsibility has been reduced and he's had the freedom to get around the pitch and make things happen. There is a case to say the wing back positions need to be strengthened eventually and another forward option would be useful but right now I think we are in pretty good shape from back to front. We've replaced predominantly squad players with first team players over the summer and we look a sharper and more balanced side for it. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2017 15:03:18 GMT
Hughes always has his teams starting slowly and finishing the season strong, presumably when other teams are weakening after a long season. I think last seasons poor start, half decent run towards the new year before finishing awfully proved his strategy wrong. An increase in tempo pre season has certainly seen us start stronger than normal, the problem will now be sustaining it throughout the season. I can't understand it myself, surely any professional player can manage one or two games a week and sometimes no games at all without feeling 'tired' after a few months ? I've heard this theory mentioned before , in actual fact we were poor at both ends of the season , Correct Harry, which is why I mentioned it in the opening paragraph 😉😃 |
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Post by harryburrows on Sept 15, 2017 17:06:17 GMT
I've heard this theory mentioned before , in actual fact we were poor at both ends of the season , Correct Harry, which is why I mentioned it in the opening paragraph 😉😃 I specialise in missing the bleeding obvious  |
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Post by robwahlmann on Sept 15, 2017 17:26:00 GMT
Full credit to Hughes and his team for recognizing the need to add more games to our pre-season schedule, Bowen said only a few weeks ago he was confident we could hit the ground running and get off to a positive start because of it. Without those eight games, all against decent opposition, I doubt we would've had the fitness levels to see out the victory against Arsenal and come from behind against West Brom and Man Utd to achieve well deserved points. In comparison to around this time last season where we'd shipped four against Man City, Palace and Spurs before the end of September we look much fitter and much more balanced. One thing I thought we did extremely well yesterday was marking on throw-ins, we were tight to our opponents the minute the ball went out of play and that forced them to throw the ball backwards and allowed us to keep a good shape. It's a simple task to do but it's very important when you are up against opposition who are likely to dominate the ball. We've now achieved more points against the ' big 6 ' in two games than we managed in twelve last season, a very pleasing stat which hopefully we can build on. I'm enjoying watching this Stoke team at the moment, bring on Newcastle next week! Think most of us have questioned why we haven't been better prepared for the start of the season for years! Good to see them undestand what is obvious to most of us, but it certainly took a bit of time! I really don't see the point of travelling half the world during a preseason, for me it's about making sure you're ready for the season to come! I know there's a commercial aspect to this, but as a mid-table team it's so important to get a decent start, anything else is a big gamble in my opinion! |
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