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Post by mosquito on Jan 31, 2018 23:52:39 GMT
The only team to score more goals than Watford outside of the top 6 is Leicester, but we still kept a clean sheet and Butland didn’t have to make a save. That is a huge bonus for us! Not saying we don’t still need to improve though 😀
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Post by davejohnno1 on Jan 31, 2018 23:53:09 GMT
He made a save 2nd half that he could barely get up from afterwards. We were lucky not to concede 1st half at the near post and we were lucky their final pass is as bad as ours after the 4 Fletcher errors in quick succession. Dave I'm sorry but luck never came into it. You are plain wrong. Say the game was shit fine, that cannot really be argued with but to keep on about luck is rubbish. We ground out a thoroughly deserved point. 0-0 flattered both sides if we are honest. Lambert reverted to experience, old men, plodders and the result was clear to see. We might as well have stuck a lamppost on the pitch as bring crouch on.
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Post by bringmesunshine on Jan 31, 2018 23:53:36 GMT
The only positive is that we escaped with a clean sheet...which was more by luck than judgement. That was ultra shite and as bad as anything we've produced this season. What is luck you are talking about? It was a shit game granted but we thoroughly deserved a point. Our clean sheet was never in danger was it? Apart from the header off the line and the last ditch tackle from ryan, no never in danger
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Post by Bera’s Beano on Jan 31, 2018 23:55:26 GMT
Please point me to a single save Butland had to make in the entire game? The block Shawcross made wasn’t even going to go in as Butland had guessed the right way and it was going slightly wide Other than that they were only in our box maybe twice, both coming to nothing. Performance wise I know which team should be happier, and they play in stripes. Watford were a disgrace. He made a save 2nd half that he could barely get up from afterwards. We were lucky not to concede 1st half at the near post and we were lucky their final pass is as bad as ours after the 4 Fletcher errors in quick succession. Second half 1 was barely a save, ball was barely moving after very good defending to close down the attacker. The first half near post? Don’t recall him doing anything really. Fletcher can fuck off, he’s nearly ruined the hard work of every other player, hopefully the signing of N’Diaye will replace Fletcher and we’ll never ever see him again.
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Post by ParaPsych on Jan 31, 2018 23:56:09 GMT
It was crap, but we're not near the bottom by being any good so expecting the likes of Fletcher to suddenly turn on the style is going to be asking a bit much.
It's clear as day certain people can't wait for the new guy to fail though. One muppet near me moaned his bag off about us having everyone back for set pieces (which is a fair enough opinion) but hasn't mentioned it once in the last 4 and a half years. Just weird that they'd suddenly be so pissed off by it, at least show some consistency. But these are stressful times.
However I think most Stoke fans are behind the team, realise the challenges we face and just want us to sneak enough points to stay up now and we'll worry about how good we are afterwards. Obviously that's wank but we are where we are.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2018 0:00:07 GMT
What is luck you are talking about? It was a shit game granted but we thoroughly deserved a point. Our clean sheet was never in danger was it? Apart from the header off the line and the last ditch tackle from ryan, no never in danger That's called defending and that's why they're paid a shit load of money. Defensively we were fine. Great clean sheet.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2018 0:00:54 GMT
Dave I'm sorry but luck never came into it. You are plain wrong. Say the game was shit fine, that cannot really be argued with but to keep on about luck is rubbish. We ground out a thoroughly deserved point. 0-0 flattered both sides if we are honest. Lambert reverted to experience, old men, plodders and the result was clear to see. We might as well have stuck a lamppost on the pitch as bring crouch on. So not lucky then?
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Post by davejohnno1 on Feb 1, 2018 0:03:09 GMT
0-0 flattered both sides if we are honest. Lambert reverted to experience, old men, plodders and the result was clear to see. We might as well have stuck a lamppost on the pitch as bring crouch on. So not lucky then? Lucky they were as shit as us, yes. Play like that on Saturday and Bournemouth front line will destroy us. Fair play to you if you are still optimistic after watching that shit. If badou isn't superman, we are going down.
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Post by Roger Everyone on Feb 1, 2018 0:08:02 GMT
We have two clean sheets, and that's something.. Not the best game all a bit frantic and hurried. Yes we look a more solid and less likely to collapse under PL. The Bournemouth match will give us a good guide on how things are going. I am happy with a point. Need to start scoring...
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Post by kustokie on Feb 1, 2018 0:08:57 GMT
Definitely an improvement because the defense was organized and we never looked in much danger of giving up a goal. Unfortunately, neither did Watford.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2018 0:09:17 GMT
Lucky they were as shit as us, yes. Play like that on Saturday and Bournemouth front line will destroy us. Fair play to you if you are still optimistic after watching that shit. If badou isn't superman, we are going down. I am optimistic. We're defensively much better and we have an athletic player to help Joe Allen in midfield. Im sure Shaqiri and Choupo will be much better Saturday. The league is very tight.
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Post by spiderpuss on Feb 1, 2018 0:13:20 GMT
Right now we have to take all the positives we can get, namely the second clean sheet on the bounce and once again we are out of the drop zone. Ask before these two games would I accept 4 points, I would have probably said "yes". It's a start, I don't expect PL to turn around what was a steaming pile of dross overnight. Onwards to Bournemouth, let's hope their heads are so far up in the clouds we can get something there too. As has been said it's an amazingly tight league, another win we are nearly in the top 1/2, that's ridiculous.
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Post by kustokie on Feb 1, 2018 0:13:45 GMT
Lucky they were as shit as us, yes. Play like that on Saturday and Bournemouth front line will destroy us. Fair play to you if you are still optimistic after watching that shit. If badou isn't superman, we are going down. I am optimistic. We're defensively much better and we have an athletic player to help Joe Allen in midfield. Im sure Shaqiri and Choupo will be much better Saturday. The league is very tight. My confidence was shaken a bit today, especially after I saw Bournemouth thrash Chelsea.
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Post by kustokie on Feb 1, 2018 0:15:34 GMT
Right now we have to take all the positives we can get, namely the second clean sheet on the bounce and once again we are out of the drop zone. Ask before these two games would I accept 4 points, I would have probably said "yes". It's a start, I don't expect PL to turn around what was a steaming pile of dross overnight. Onwards to Bournemouth, let's hope there heads are so far up in the clouds we can get something there too. As has been said it's an amazingly tight league, another win we are nearly in the top 1/2, that's ridiculous. I agree. It took two years to get in this mess, it’s not going to be fixed in two weeks. Right now we are in survival mode.
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Post by potterpaul on Feb 1, 2018 2:18:21 GMT
Lambert as delivered 2 clean sheets in his first 2 games......improvement yes But to balance it out both games were against poor teams and for most part we matched them for shitness and arguably produced the shitiest standard of football to date tonight......improvement NO
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Post by riccyfuller93 on Feb 1, 2018 2:23:13 GMT
People seem to have short memories. This is the kind of game that we would've thrown away with Hughes and it's a step in the right direction that we can shut teams out. I say well done to Lambert, but Hughes has put us in a right mess.
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Post by burberrybassist on Feb 1, 2018 6:44:36 GMT
After having a bit of a sleep on it I have come to the conclusion we were definitely the least shit team out of the two last night.
I saw a couple of brief glimmers of football from Stoke last night, but we were mostly choked out of the game by the most snivelling group of cretins to grace the 365 for some seasons.
Points win prizes and 4 out of 6 points along with 2 clean sheets and +2gd isn't a terrible haul for the new gaffer. I think our fitness is starting to look slightly better too which will equal more points come the end of the season. I can see enough improvement for us to build on over the next few weeks and feel we now have a fighting chance, more so than we had a few weeks ago.
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Post by WhyDelilah on Feb 1, 2018 6:53:28 GMT
Did we fuck. We looked a lot more solid at the back. Back to back clean sheets. First game in charge we covered more ground than any game under Hughes. Your criticism is null and void. Today was the 2nd game. The 1st game has been and gone. Tonight was utter dross. My mum went and she's come home saying how slow we are. 10 days intense training and the arses of Adam and Saido had expanded by a good 2 inches since last week. What about a total inability to offer any movement to help take a successful throw in down the left side of the pitch? Whose fault was that? We've bought a new left back to sort the left hand side out.
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Post by takeshikovacs on Feb 1, 2018 7:00:50 GMT
Positives: 4 points from 6 and two clean sheets; Bauer looks decent; Badou still to come (and if she can't play football at least she can sing in the changing rooms at half-time to raise morale)
Negatives: Still toothless up front, and 4 points really needed to have been 6 points as we were at home against eminently beatable opposition; much harder games to come
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Post by walton corner on Feb 1, 2018 7:01:02 GMT
Let's not beat about the bush, that was a terrible game of football. But is it too extreme a reaction to suggest we're in massive trouble on the back of what we saw today? Let's face it, we were in massive trouble before Lambert arrived. It's easy to lose sight of what went under the previous manager. Yes, tonight was one of those games you target as 3 points. But they aren't gimmes by any stretch of the imagination. Home defeats this season against Bournemouth, West Ham and Newcastle this season prove that. And then there's the little matter of a team that has leaked goals at a freightnieng rate. That's now 2 clean sheets on the bounce. The first ones we've got since October. Granted, tonight was far from brilliant. But let's not lose sight of what went before and the steps in right direction we've made. Spot on, clean sheets are what get you out of trouble. Apart from Fletcher we are battling hard and defending well. Shawcrosd is back in excellent form. We need to find a solution to midfield though Wrong without goals you can't win a game only draw and against the better sides we won't keep clean sheets ,shawcross always plays well against the less mobile forwards against Bournemouth on sat will tell you form he is in ....what is back is hoof football .
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Post by walton corner on Feb 1, 2018 7:02:27 GMT
We've lost 3 Home games this season against teams like Watford. Is a draw not a step in the right direction? Yes. We often lost this kind of game under Hughes. Clean sheet, solid defence, nothing dropped for us, you can't win all of the time. We often lost this game under Hughes ...no we won these type of games last year
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Post by Trouserdog on Feb 1, 2018 7:03:58 GMT
If we can play as badly as that and not lose then at least it's a step in the right direction.
Watford were just about the better side but didn't have many what you'd call 'great' chances. The block that Ryan made looked like it was going to be a certain goal, but that kind of thing is what makes our current situation different than a few weeks ago. Would we have seen any player throwing himself in the way of a shot like that under Hughes? Probably not. That determination not to concede a goal, as well as the organisation in the formation, is the difference between grinding out points and losing vital games.
When Pulis first took over with us in massive trouble in 02/03 he made us horrible to watch but also very organised and tough to beat. We ground out countless 0-0 draws when we weren't really at the races, and won a few games too on the days when we did play well. We'll play well some weeks, and others we won't- that's because we're an also-ran Premier League side like 10 or 11 others.
In a relegation battle, the trick is to not lose in the games when you play badly.I think games like last night show that we're giving ourselves a chance of escaping.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2018 7:11:20 GMT
If we can play as badly as that and not lose then at least it's a step in the right direction. Watford were just about the better side but didn't have many what you'd call 'great' chances. The block that Ryan made looked like it was going to be a certain goal, but that kind of thing is what makes our current situation different than a few weeks ago. Would we have seen any player throwing himself in the way of a shot like that under Hughes? Probably not. That determination not to concede a goal, as well as the organisation in the formation, is the difference between grinding out points and losing vital games. When Pulis first took over with us in massive trouble in 02/03 he made us horrible to watch but also very organised and tough to beat. We ground out countless 0-0 draws when we weren't really at the races, and won a few games too on the days when we did play well. We'll play well some weeks, and others we won't- that's because we're an also-ran Premier League side like 10 or 11 others. In a relegation battle, the trick is to not lose in the games when you play badly.I think games like last night show that we're giving ourselves a chance of escaping. Finally a bit of humility and sense. Well said Trousers.
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Post by senojbor on Feb 1, 2018 7:12:15 GMT
We tried to play, we just weren't allowed to play by a big, dirty, no-mark of a team. It wasn't great to watch but we didn't lose, that's the main thing.
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Post by numpty40 on Feb 1, 2018 7:13:48 GMT
We actually have a back 4 that look organised and drilled, much of Lambert's early work has clearly been sorting our shambolic defending. We defended all set pieces very well. The midfield and going forward is still clueless but hopefully the new signing can make a significant difference there. All in all an improvement but there is no denying it was a shit game of football.
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Post by Cast no shadow on Feb 1, 2018 7:17:10 GMT
Always positives when a clean sheet is obtained, 1 of dioufs head, shaq’s 1 on 1 goes in we’d be having a different view. Thing that griped me the most is that we’re in a relegation dogfight and butland is taking far too long with his kicking.
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Post by crapslinger on Feb 1, 2018 7:25:20 GMT
I don't know what people expect we still have the same shit players Hughes bought in, pissed off with him playing Fletcher all game tbh we look destined for relegation sadly without the addition of a decent striker, saying that we would probably have lost that game under Hughes.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2018 7:25:27 GMT
It was like watching a championship game (hope that’s no sign of the future) We weren’t good, but when a team come to match you man for man even when you change it it’s not going to be pretty
Two games now and only one half a game worth watching
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2018 7:47:51 GMT
It was like watching a championship game (hope that’s no sign of the future) We weren’t good, but when a team come to match you man for man even when you change it it’s not going to be pretty Two games now and only one half worth watching With four points gained. At the moment that is the only thing that matters.
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Post by Northy on Feb 1, 2018 7:53:22 GMT
Christ we are thankfull for small things are we not. It was fucking Watford at home??? Agree, I left thinking 'has Hughes come back' it was awful viewing
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