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Post by chrisparker on May 1, 2016 17:28:40 GMT
If they don't beat Arsenal next week they could be in a spot of bother. They've had their fair share of drubbings this season themselves. 1-4 at home to Liverpool, 4-1 at Spurs, 5-1 at Chelsea, 1-3 at home to Leicester and today. Let's not forget 2-0 at Stoke Not quite a drubbing but it easily could've been.
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Post by chrisparker on May 1, 2016 17:22:03 GMT
Makes Wolly look like Carlos Puyol
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Post by chrisparker on May 1, 2016 17:20:37 GMT
What did they do now?
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Post by chrisparker on May 1, 2016 17:19:08 GMT
What an incredible game this is. Could seriously dent Man City's chances of Champions League football next season. Mané with a superb hat-trick.
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Post by chrisparker on May 1, 2016 16:02:56 GMT
What are your expectations for next season? If it's Champions League places achieved through blistering attacking football, then I'm afraid you'll almost certainly be let down. I think a decent realistic target would be 60 points (2 more wins than last season). We've reached the stage where if we're to improve on previous years, we'll need to have a little bit of luck with injuries & so on but I think it's certainly achievable.
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Post by chrisparker on May 1, 2016 15:47:57 GMT
All the talk of Europe and top 4 around Christmas time has proved to be bollocks. Home form, which most fans witness has been poor. Very frustrating to drop like a stone in the last few games with poor results and not enough goals scored. The big signings haven't had enough impact this year and essentially we are still a mid table side.Given the form at the moment then 40 points will be the target next year This comment makes me really angry. We're an established top 10 team in the premier league. Isn't that good enough for now? The top 4 talk was bollocks in any case & if you bought into that then that's your problem. We were always going to have a bad spell at some stage & a club like Stoke just can't afford to have the number of injuries we've had. You're expecting too much, too quickly.
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Post by chrisparker on May 1, 2016 15:41:41 GMT
We can't play a CDM, a CM & a CAM together. You know what I meant. A Whelan replacement with Imbula in CM. The Whelan replacement is the more defensive of the 2. Bojan CAM. What we need is a player like Wanyama, a physical no-nonsense midfielder who is brilliant at reading the play, does the dirty work extremely effectively, retains possession countless times & protects the back 4. But he'll cost a fortune & why would he even leave Southampton & come to Stoke. Southampton refused to sell him to Arsenal.
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Post by chrisparker on May 1, 2016 15:38:36 GMT
We need a change of style and personnel , tweak with what we have and we will go backwards , too many players who you don't know how they will play , not good enough , Hughes has to decide who to work with and who to bin off, that's why he is paid a fortune. We have the 8th highest wage bill but our manager is the second lowest paid manager in the premier league (2nd only to the caretaker manager at Swansea). He's not here for the money, he can fuck off somewhere else & earn twice the amount he's getting at Stoke.
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Post by chrisparker on May 1, 2016 15:34:30 GMT
Realistically, the only thing we can do is get an upgrade on Whelan. I know we've tried to do that numerous times before and failed but we've got to get it right this time. With a mobile and strong CDM, we will be able to play Imbula CM with Bojan CAM. We can't play a CDM, a CM & a CAM together.
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Post by chrisparker on May 1, 2016 15:08:00 GMT
Can people get Yarmolenko out of their minds? It's never gonna happen !!!.. keep, btw. And even if it does, are we sure we want another prima dona in the dressing room? He's another cunt with a long history of attitude problems.
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Post by chrisparker on May 1, 2016 15:06:14 GMT
I couldn't understand how Shaq Went straight in the team. Whats Bojan done? Because we don't have any other wingers, unless you consider Walters to be a winger (although Walters wasn't 100% fit either). Bojan only plays in the #10 role & we've got more competition there.
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Post by chrisparker on May 1, 2016 14:06:38 GMT
Playing Bojan away from home hasn't worked out well for a single game in 2016. Read above comment. Except for Swansea when we won. Bojan won and scored the penalty. And Southamtpon when we won. Bojan scored the only goal. Next. Jesus that was 7 months ago
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Post by chrisparker on May 1, 2016 9:18:20 GMT
You almost feel for the bloke at this stage but then you look at his yearly salary ...... You almost feel for him? Really? Why not? His job's under threat, isn't it? He's, without question, a hugely imperfect manager but the cunt's grown on me in the last few years.
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Post by chrisparker on May 1, 2016 9:08:20 GMT
A club their size though should have won the league in the past 12 seasons. He's massively underachieved all told. He's had money to spend and the same issues keep cropping up with his aides. How long did it take him to sign a decent goalie? They've been crying out for another striker for years and their defence is still poor. Their injury record is horrorific too and doesn't seem to get better. If finishing in a position floats your boat then fair dos but if I was an Arsenal I'd want to win the league or champions league. They are the type of club that need to be doing that. Yeh - I get that, it's all relative I suppose ........I do have a bit of a soft spot for Wenger despite some of the shite he's spouted over the years - a character who we shall miss....IMHO You almost feel for the bloke at this stage but then you look at his yearly salary ......
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Post by chrisparker on May 1, 2016 0:11:27 GMT
bbc.in/24spOVEIt seems like Le Whinger has finally found some humility & apologises to the Arsenal fans for a season of colossal failure.
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Post by chrisparker on Apr 30, 2016 22:00:25 GMT
It's nearly May and he hasn't got a clue what his best 11 is. Plus to stop the slide he's had to return to players like Crouch and Adam. So?
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Post by chrisparker on Apr 30, 2016 21:57:21 GMT
I want him, Oxlade Chamberlain, Zabeletta, and that Ivory Coast centre half from PSG Ta Oxlade Chamberlain? Why would he come to Stoke?
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Post by chrisparker on Apr 30, 2016 21:55:58 GMT
Haugaard - 6/10 (Was untested for the entire 90 mins) Bards - 7/10 (Impressive again) Ryan - 6/10 (Gave away lot of really cheap free kicks when he didn't need to) Cameron - 8/10 (Aside from the extremely soft penalty given against him, he was superb today. Had Defoe in his pocket for the entire 90 mins) Pieters - 7/10 (Much better defensively than Muniesa but someone needs to tell him that it's quite useful to pass forward once in a while)
Whelan - 7/10 (Solid, set the tone at the beginning of the game) Adam - 9/10 (Best player on the pitch, always looked to play the ball forward, bolstered the midfield & wasn't afraid to put a tackle in) Imbula - 6/10 (Anonymous in the first half, much better in the second but chance he wasted should've sealed the 3 points for us)
Arnie - 7/10 (Very good again, deserved his goal) Shaq - 5/10 (Nothing went right for him today. Gave the ball away countless times, couldn't create anything in front of goal & was suspect defensively) Crouch - 8/10 (The ball just sticks to him, put a very decent shift in)
Walters' cameo was promising as well.
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Post by chrisparker on Apr 30, 2016 21:45:19 GMT
Another superb display. Set the tone right at the beginning of the game with a marauding run down the right Do you want a new satnav? Wouldn't mind
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Post by chrisparker on Apr 30, 2016 21:34:43 GMT
What we need is for a couple of our midfield players to start making some forward runs. In the last few weeks, if you actually notice, whenever Shaq or Arnie get the ball there is almost no movement ahead of the ball & no one is making forward runs for them to try & pick out. So what do they do? They naturally just end up passing it backwards.
If you watch any spurs game, whenever Dier or Dembele get the ball, just watch how many players start making runs at the same time - Kane, Ali, Lamela, Erikson, Rose & Walker all push up the pitch - & this is what makes it impossible to defend against teams like that.
We're the exact opposite, we expect the front 3 to do all the attacking work but it's ridiculous to expect 3 or 4 players to break down a 7-8 man defence. It's a team game & everyone has to play their part at both ends. You rightly point out that Shaq & Imbula have to do their defensive duties but players like Whelan, Pieters or whoever plays in the defensive midfield also have to contribute when we attack. What I want is for the manager to come up with a fixed reliable attacking strategy that doesn't overly rely on the trickery of the front 3 which will win us games, especially at home when we have to play against parked buses.
We have to attack & defend collectively.
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Post by chrisparker on Apr 30, 2016 21:21:13 GMT
West Ham and Leicester both started the season very well indeed and have carried the momentum through to excellent effect. Our poor start didn't just cost us points. It limited our potential for the entire season. After 6 games we were talking about how MH teams always improve throughout the season. Well that's not been the case has it. Drawing at home to Sunderland to 'stop the rot'?... FFS Maybe we would have followed the usual MH pattern without so many injuries and we all saw the difference that Ryan made when he came back. If we could have started like that we would have seen ourselves in the top 4 early on. Even after just 6 games the confidence and feel good factor that generates cant be underestimated. Fair play to West Ham anyway. You mean you're going to completely ignore the fabulous run we were on from mid-September to mid-Jan when we were averaging around 2 point per game in an emphatic surge up the table. If we'd continued in that fashion, we would be comfortably sitting in the top 4 at this stage of the season. In fact in that period, we collected about 15 points more than West Ham did (I know, shocking right?) but then again the only teams that took more points that us in those 4 months were Leicester & Spurs. And then cometh the injuries .....
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Post by chrisparker on Apr 30, 2016 21:07:04 GMT
Playing Bojan away from home hasn't worked out well for a single game in 2016. Read above comment. Who scored the winner at Southampton? That was 7 moths ago & he was playing well back then.
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Post by chrisparker on Apr 30, 2016 21:04:49 GMT
To my understanding, Spurs haven't offered him a contract yet & they might be looking to sell a few of their squad players to make room for new signings. Is he worth a shot in the summer, especially considering that he'll be a free agent? He's young, homegrown & perfectly fits the Stoke City transfer agenda of signing promising players who've lost their way.
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Post by chrisparker on Apr 30, 2016 21:00:15 GMT
Imbula was really poor today. I think bringing in Walters for Shaq would allow us to play Bojan in his favoured position. Playing Bojan away from home hasn't worked out well for a single game in 2016. Read above comment.
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Post by chrisparker on Apr 30, 2016 20:58:27 GMT
Difficult choices re: team. Do you play Charlie, given his great effort today - but his potential to not be in right shape/state to deal with Palace's pace? Should Imbula keep his place, or be benched? Is there room for Bo? Diouf/Jos? Palace's pace? In the middle of the park? What pace might you be referring to? They've got one pacy player in Bolasie but he's a lazy bastard anyways so I'm not sure what you're worried about. Diouf is not good enough imo. He can't hold the ball as effectively as Crouch, he doesn't have the finesse of Joselu & he doesn't have the general awareness & intelligence of Walters. He can run but you need more than that to play in the premier league. And as for Bojan, he's too much of a liability away from home. Everyone one here complains about Arnie & Shaq not doing their defensive duties but Bojan is the one who really contributes nothing in the other direction. In almost every game he plays, he covers the least amount of distance in the squad & he's probably the easiest player to run past unchallenged in the the premier league. Away from home, we can't afford this especially right now given the state of our defence. He can be summoned at around 60-70 mins if we're losing. I'd bench him for the rest of the season & get him 100% fit for next season.
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Post by chrisparker on Apr 30, 2016 20:26:33 GMT
Another superb display. Set the tone right at the beginning of the game with a marauding run down the left.
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Post by chrisparker on Apr 30, 2016 20:23:47 GMT
Yes they do sorry, one passes forwards the other sideways and backwards. Unfortunately Adam can't tackle worth a damn. Without Whelan, he'd be a mess. There's no one else in our squad who can does the "dirty work" as effectively as Glen & this needs to be seriously addressed in the summer. Because if Whelan gets a long term injury we're basically screwed. But once again the Whelan & Adam partnership payed off immensely today just as it did at the beginning of the season. We should now stick with it for the next 2 games.
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Post by chrisparker on Apr 30, 2016 20:17:39 GMT
I think it's fair to say even if he does leave, Stoke City football club can take the credit for bringing him, in his own words, "back to life" just as Nzonzi was very open in admitting that Hughes was the only reason he became the player he is today. I must say the fact that there is so much interest in some of our players from other clubs is testament to how well our players are developing under current management team.
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Post by chrisparker on Apr 30, 2016 20:06:32 GMT
We have 2 options, we could either play the same team that started today (hopefully Arnie will recover from his knock). Adam & Whelan in the middle of the park, Imbula in the number 10 role & Shaq, Crouchy & Arnie up top. Or we could go back to our standard 4-3-3 formation away from home which would be -
------------ Haggard ------------
Bards -- Ryan - Geoff -- Pieters
--- Whelan - Imbula - Adam ---
Walters - Joselu/ Crouch - Arnie
What do you think? Crouch is generally not the ideal player to play away from home because we'll need a little of pace to get behind the Palace backline but I think he doesn't deserve to be dropped based on today's performance. So I'd probably just go 4-3-3 & bring in Walters for Shaq.
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Post by chrisparker on Apr 30, 2016 19:43:23 GMT
Absolutely annihilated Wes Brom today. I think they've got just the right balance of grit & flair, something we need to try & replicate next season.
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