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Post by rorystowel on Jan 26, 2019 21:27:04 GMT
Out of all the touches etebo had, it took until into the second half before he actually passed the ball. I like his energy and drive with the ball, but he's like the kid on the playground that will not pass. Bit unfair , if we are picking him out as the worst today, did play a few decent passes today, the problem for me is that the midfield don't work together , there's no interplay unless you count the passing back to the defence. Preston are a run of the mill Championship side but the played together. Without Charlie we are as predictable as night and day. So true. Our midfielders are on different wavelengths, probably not helped by the constant team changes and shifting responsibilities. We sorely missed the creativity of Adam, Ince or Bojan today.
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Post by stokesupporter on Jan 26, 2019 21:42:41 GMT
Joe Allen isn't the problem. We should build our midfield around Allen and Etebo and move Clucas towards the bench.
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Post by expectedtoulouse on Jan 26, 2019 21:58:56 GMT
I’ve been a big critic of Allen but he’s been much better under Jones. Etebo has been good in both home games.
Clucas however, stunk the place out. The difference today was that we had nobody to demand the ball and control the game in midfield. Allen and Etebo aren’t ball players. They’re ball winning, box to box midfielders. If we had Adam in there, Bojan, or another player demanding the ball and playing a decent pass, then today wouldve been totally different.
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Post by bigcashprizes on Jan 26, 2019 22:09:41 GMT
We’ve a load of interchangeable plodders in the middle. We’ve been interchanging them and plodding all season, apart from the Leeds game when Charlie offered a sliver of creativity. We need to scout and sign a playmaker. (As much as I love Charlie, he isn’t reliable enough, both fitness and discipline wise).
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Post by Beloved Monkfish on Jan 26, 2019 22:20:49 GMT
I can’t wait for the day Joe Allen leaves this football club. He’ll be another Whelan who got stick everyday of the week on here until he left, and whoosh we’ve never replaced him. On todays performance I wish I could have counted the number of runs he made across the whole width of the pitch to create space and receive a ball that never came, and that’s in addition to trying to break up opposition play. I just wish at times people would see what goes on “off the ball” as part of performance. That may be asking to much!! That's Allen's problem- what he does off the ball. Always in the wrong place, running round like a headless chicken. You could have driven a bus through our midfield today. He's got no discipline whatsoever. His second touch is always a tackle.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2019 22:21:45 GMT
Joe Allen isn't the problem. We should build our midfield around Allen and Etebo and move Clucas towards the bench. He was today he was utter fucking shite.....
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2019 22:24:07 GMT
You'll get nowhere on this board criticising Lovely, Cuddly Joe 'can do no wrong' Allen.....the darling of the Oatcake! As mentioned on the Allen thread, he’s completely unbalanced the squad since day one. Needs to be got rid of ASAP. Load of bollocks. He's the only decent midfielder any of our managers have signed for a good while. It's all the other midfielders that have been signed that are the problem, not Allen.
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Post by neddy on Jan 26, 2019 22:31:21 GMT
Pearson and Gallagher ran it today totally when one dropped off the other would push on and they control the game until he was subbed.
Could they do it against Man Ciity they would be pressed but against us we tried but failed miserably. It was like a Sunday afternoon for them?
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Post by brinsleymaclagan on Jan 26, 2019 22:32:15 GMT
I knew he would before kickoff-how come our management team didn’t? There was never anyone within 5 yards of him when he had the ball even though we know from experience that if you let him play he can hurt you!
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Post by neddy on Jan 26, 2019 22:33:23 GMT
It’s not fair to pick on Allen he’s one of four it’s more we have no competent holders like Adam alongside?
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Post by tony1234 on Jan 26, 2019 22:34:47 GMT
We haven't gpt 11 players good enough i.e. who play consistently well enough. Not for a game, but for 3 in 4 We have a few players with ability... We endlessly shuffle them looking for the "best side" - always bringing in 4+ who are past it/unfit/shit/mentally shot/too young .... but its futile. Sometimes the defence creaks, sometimes the attack doesn't have a sniff. Sometimes the midfield don't get a grip. Sometimes the shuffling flummoxes everyone.
The notion that the Champs was like the PL but easier was a terrible, amateurish misjudgement.
In this league, the formula is - 11 solid, fit, disciplined players in a system with 3 or ideally 4 who create or give you goals at a rate of 1 every 3-4 games. Its bagatelle with the difference often settled with having superior quality in front of goal in key moments. Have those 3-4 players and over 10, 20 games, you'll accumulate more goals and more pts
You can't play in this league with a few "stars" and some of your team being static, over the hill, dont-want-to-be-hear has-beens, or youngsters yet to prove themselves competent even in the league below.
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boru
Academy Starlet
Posts: 213
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Post by boru on Jan 27, 2019 0:05:05 GMT
Ndaiye, get him back
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Post by Davef on Jan 27, 2019 0:06:22 GMT
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boru
Academy Starlet
Posts: 213
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Post by boru on Jan 27, 2019 0:08:10 GMT
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Post by Davef on Jan 27, 2019 0:09:20 GMT
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boru
Academy Starlet
Posts: 213
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Post by boru on Jan 27, 2019 0:11:49 GMT
Is he still a Stoke player ??
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Post by cobhamstokey on Jan 27, 2019 0:18:49 GMT
Such a shame that our on loan players have such dreadful attitudes. Where talent is concerned a midfield with Badou and Imbula could offer a lot
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Post by Davef on Jan 27, 2019 0:27:52 GMT
Such a shame that our on loan players have such dreadful attitudes. Where talent is concerned a midfield with NGuaye and Imbula could offer a lot NGauye?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2019 0:30:10 GMT
When you think about it, it is quite an achievement on the part of our recruitment team to have bought so many midfielders who no-one seems to be able to make a coherent midfield out of
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Post by robstokie on Jan 27, 2019 0:42:03 GMT
We need at least 2 in my opinion. Firstly, we need a big physical presence who can win the ball through the middle. Secondly, we need an out and out box-to-box midfielder who is positive, looks to link the team from deep and is happy to run at the opposition if the opportunity arises
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Post by Bojan Mackey on Jan 27, 2019 1:44:22 GMT
As mentioned on the Allen thread, he’s completely unbalanced the squad since day one. Needs to be got rid of ASAP. Load of bollocks. He's the only decent midfielder any of our managers have signed for a good while. It's all the other midfielders that have been signed that are the problem, not Allen. Look at what’s happened since he’s signed. He’s shoehorned in to the detriment of the rest of the side.
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Post by sheikhmomo on Jan 27, 2019 7:10:03 GMT
It's absolutely amazing that Charlie still gets stick whilst these fucking frauds get away with murder on a weekly basis.
I mean what the fuck is Clucas? What the fuck is he?
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Post by greenhoff on Jan 27, 2019 7:28:33 GMT
It's absolutely amazing that Charlue still gets stick whilst these fucking frauds get away with murder on a weekly basis. I mean what the fuck is Clucas? What the fuck is he? Hes bloody crap thats what he is. Seems a bit of a git as well. Whats this cupping your ear shit. Have we ever had a more wretched group of players?
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Post by future100 on Jan 27, 2019 10:31:21 GMT
I can’t wait for the day Joe Allen leaves this football club. He’ll be another Whelan who got stick everyday of the week on here until he left, and whoosh we’ve never replaced him. On todays performance I wish I could have counted the number of runs he made across the whole width of the pitch to create space and receive a ball that never came, and that’s in addition to trying to break up opposition play. I just wish at times people would see what goes on “off the ball” as part of performance. That may be asking to much!! The only problem with our midfield today was Clucas, he is far too timid to play in midfield and should have been substituted.
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Post by fca47 on Jan 27, 2019 10:50:46 GMT
The difference between our midfield and theirs was a chasm, didn't help that they were overrun in the first 20 minutes, but they had players who went to tackle and got the ball, all our running about didn't result in us getting hold of the ball, apart from Etebo none of them know how to tackle. I'm not asking for a defensive midfielder, is it too much to ask that midfielders can tackle and pass rather than just the one,
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Post by ravey123 on Jan 27, 2019 11:09:04 GMT
We need at least 2 in my opinion. Firstly, we need a big physical presence who can win the ball through the middle. Secondly, we need an out and out box-to-box midfielder who is positive, looks to link the team from deep and is happy to run at the opposition if the opportunity arises Rob The most frustrating thing is that if Imbula and N'Daiye had an ounce of effort they would nail those 2 requirements to a tee
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2019 11:10:30 GMT
It has been a massive issue all season. Persisting with a midfield 3 of a combination of Allen/Clucas/Etebo/Woods/Sorensen has failed us over and over again. It's completely unbalanced; no true creative players, no true defensive players. We saw the difference that a past-it Charlie Adam made last week. An attack minded midfielder who can play a decent pass completely changed the dynamic of the midfield. I know Stoke's socalled supporters are the most relentlessly unforgiving when it comes to youths- Yesterday Sorensen made his first appearance of the season, and still he gets blamed for a "massive issue all season". He has allegedly "failed us over and over again". And some people ask why our young boys are nervous when they finally are given a chance! You're right about the other four though, some of which are apparently undroppable.
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Post by Rick Grimes on Jan 27, 2019 11:15:36 GMT
The problem with the midfield is that we haven’t really got many ball winners, Allen, Woods and Clucas all fall into this catergory.
Allen works hard and tries to put his foot in but just isn’t very effective at it and often gets brushed aside. It was clear as day yesterday that Allen was asked to play further forward and therefore was often engaging with Pearson who was playing deep. Allen barely got anywhere near him and when he did Pearson simply brushed him aside. The worrying thing is that Jones singled him out for praise in the post-match interview, at this point he doesn’t think Allen is a potential problem.
Clucas doesn’t put his foot in and goes missing for large parts games, even if he was good on the ball (which he isn’t) you can’t carry this type of player in the Championship when other midfielders such as Allen are also not great at winning the ball back.
Woods is just like Clucas and Allen in that he isn’t physical enough and can’t really tackle, his passing is better than Clucas and Allen but that’s about all he has.
To have even one of these midfielders in your team would be a problem but for some reason we’ve collected a bunch of them.
Etebo and Adam are the only ones remotely capable of winning the ball back but unfortunately Charlie has the obvious limitation of not being very mobile.
The midfield is a complete mess.
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Post by GeneralFaye on Jan 27, 2019 11:16:36 GMT
I must watch a different game, how was Joe Allen to blame for that "performance" yesterday?! As has already been mentioned, he was and is the only player that moves off the ball but whoever is on the ball either isn't good enough to pass it to him or they bottle it.
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Post by redwhite on Jan 27, 2019 11:30:13 GMT
It has been a massive issue all season. Persisting with a midfield 3 of a combination of Allen/Clucas/Etebo/Woods/Sorensen has failed us over and over again. It's completely unbalanced; no true creative players, no true defensive players. We saw the difference that a past-it Charlie Adam made last week. An attack minded midfielder who can play a decent pass completely changed the dynamic of the midfield. I know Stoke's socalled supporters are the most relentlessly unforgiving when it comes to youths- Yesterday Sorensen made his first appearance of the season, and still he gets blamed for a "massive issue all season". He has allegedly "failed us over and over again". And some people ask why our young boys are nervous when they finally are given a chance! You're right about the other four though, some of which are apparently undroppable. I could’ve been clearer re Sorensen. I don’t think he’s a bad player and I’m definitely not writing him off, but he seems to be another central midfielder who doesn’t provide anything particularly different. That in itself isn’t a problem, as long as he’s not played alongside two other players that don’t excel in either the defensive or offensive side of the game. I think any of the players I mentioned could do well in our side - I particularly like the look of Etebo - but trying to combine three of them together is what I think has failed us massively this season.
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