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Post by johnnysoul60 on Dec 30, 2022 11:14:51 GMT
He is everything I dislike about the modern footballer and coaches seem to like.
He makes a few decent passes but mostly plays safe, can't tackle, beat a player or shoot.
The games seems to be run on stats now not excitement or getting fans off their seats.
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Post by iglugluk on Dec 30, 2022 11:23:50 GMT
He is everything I dislike about the modern footballer and coaches seem to like. He makes a few decent passes but mostly plays safe, can't tackle, beat a player or shoot. The games seems to be run on stats now not excitement or getting fans off their seats. Players who beat their man seem to be in short supply generally, it seems to me, we could certainly benefit from more of that ilk. You're right! Running a game via stats is soulless and overly scientific when taken to it's extreme.
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Post by bayernoatcake on Dec 30, 2022 22:23:27 GMT
He has mastered the art of being on the spot half a second too late.
It makes him look like he’s trying but in reality it’s just awful awful play that serves no purpose.
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Post by BuckRogers on Dec 30, 2022 22:31:02 GMT
Dreadful. No pace , no energy and its like playing with 10 men. In that position he played tonight, you've got have a player who can offer something going forward
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Post by tommycarlsberg on Dec 30, 2022 22:32:57 GMT
One of the most abject footballers I’ve seen in a Stoke shirt.
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Post by DentySCFC on Dec 30, 2022 22:33:14 GMT
Send him back to mad Nath pronto. An absolute nothing player in a nothing team.
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Post by Trouserdog on Dec 30, 2022 22:33:51 GMT
I thought he was one of our better players tonight, just based on how well he pressed.
With the ball, well, he was about as bad as everyone else.
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Post by stokemark on Dec 30, 2022 22:34:49 GMT
Example of a loan player that doesn’t want to get injured when not playing for his parent club
Just another shithouse just another shit signing
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Post by thehartshillbadger on Dec 30, 2022 22:37:17 GMT
Absolutely terrible. What’s the appeal?
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Post by matelot1996 on Dec 30, 2022 22:38:41 GMT
I can’t remember a Stoke Player less capable of making a Tackle. Not sure if it’s cowardice, hesitance, fear or all 3 but for god sake there is no way he has an ounce of testosterone in his body.
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Post by fca47 on Dec 30, 2022 22:39:57 GMT
Not the worst of the midfield, at least you could see what he was doing, the rest of them may as well have stayed at home. Neill either doesn't trust the midfield or we are in for a dour season. The inevitable joke defending ensuring we lose a lot more than we win.
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Post by bayernoatcake on Dec 30, 2022 22:42:02 GMT
Not the worst of the midfield, at least you could see what he was doing, the rest of them may as well have stayed at home. Neill either doesn't trust the midfield or we are in for a dour season. The inevitable joke defending ensuring we lose a lot more than we win. Yeah getting there too late and not doing anything. What’s the point? He never actually wins it. It’s the illusion of trying hard when he’s doing fuck all.
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Post by fca47 on Dec 30, 2022 22:46:35 GMT
Not the worst of the midfield, at least you could see what he was doing, the rest of them may as well have stayed at home. Neill either doesn't trust the midfield or we are in for a dour season. The inevitable joke defending ensuring we lose a lot more than we win. Yeah getting there too late and not doing anything. What’s the point? He never actually wins it. It’s the illusion of trying hard when he’s doing fuck all. Can't see why he gets all the hate, they were all abysmal, Baker gave away inumerable stupid free kicks and Thompson, I'm not sure what he did.
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Post by bayernoatcake on Dec 30, 2022 22:47:11 GMT
Yeah getting there too late and not doing anything. What’s the point? He never actually wins it. It’s the illusion of trying hard when he’s doing fuck all. Can't see why he gets all the hate, they were all abysmal, Baker gave away inumerable stupid free kicks and Thompson, I'm not sure what he did. Yup we need a new midfield.
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Post by scfcno1fan on Dec 30, 2022 23:14:31 GMT
Our midfield is utterly utterly hopeless.
Just what are we trying to do in there?
It’s one of the worst midfields I’ve seen in the 25 years I’ve been a Stoke fan.
There’s no creativity, no guile, no passion, no ability to take the ball from the defence and link play with the forwards.
Just a shit show all over.
We’re wank and our midfield is the reason why.
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Post by chuckrocky on Dec 30, 2022 23:16:54 GMT
Our midfield is utterly utterly hopeless. Just what are we trying to do in there? It’s one of the worst midfields I’ve seen in the 25 years I’ve been a Stoke fan. There’s no creativity, no guile, no passion, no ability to take the ball from the defence and link play with the forwards. Just a shit show all over. We’re wank and our midfield is the reason why. It’s doesn’t really help that our goalkeepers, defenders and strikers are wank too.
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Post by scfcno1fan on Dec 30, 2022 23:17:41 GMT
Our midfield is utterly utterly hopeless. Just what are we trying to do in there? It’s one of the worst midfields I’ve seen in the 25 years I’ve been a Stoke fan. There’s no creativity, no guile, no passion, no ability to take the ball from the defence and link play with the forwards. Just a shit show all over. We’re wank and our midfield is the reason why. It’s doesn’t really help that our goalkeepers, defenders and strikers are wank too.
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Post by roylandstoke on Dec 30, 2022 23:18:13 GMT
Led the press and worked his tits off tonight: MOTM for me. Must’ve covered twice the distance Baker covered.
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Post by crouchpotato1 on Dec 30, 2022 23:20:29 GMT
There seems to be a pattern in Smallbone’s performances for me,good/decent first half,fade second half and get fetched off🤔
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Post by theoptimist on Dec 30, 2022 23:21:14 GMT
In a squad full of spineless half-arsed individuals he's the worst by some distance. Some achievement.
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Post by prestwichpotter on Dec 30, 2022 23:29:53 GMT
His last couple of games have been decent, second half he was a passenger……
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Post by nottsover60 on Dec 30, 2022 23:31:39 GMT
Such preconceived nonsense comments about Smallbone tonight. He was best player first half, defending from the front much better than Brown was doing. He almost single handedly stopping Burnley from playing through the middle. We were much worse when Laurent came on. I can only imagine most of tonight's comments were made by people watching on the red button or a stream so not seeing the whole picture.
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Post by LphPotter on Dec 31, 2022 0:43:42 GMT
For the first 20 minutes he stole the ball a couple of times off them when they were pissing about with it, and you can see why he gets picked because of that.
But in the second half he was too late to everything, he wasn’t alone though, Campbell and especially Brown were the same. If Brown had been a bit more switched on he could have got in at least two times when they played it back to the keeper.
No clue how we didn’t make more of them being useless at attempting to play out from the back, all it needed was a bit more pressing and we would have got in easily.
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Post by tommycarlsberg on Dec 31, 2022 1:50:44 GMT
I thought he was one of our better players tonight, just based on how well he pressed. With the ball, well, he was about as bad as everyone else. I could press for you if you want mate?
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Post by mtrstudent on Dec 31, 2022 1:59:46 GMT
He is everything I dislike about the modern footballer and coaches seem to like. He makes a few decent passes but mostly plays safe, can't tackle, beat a player or shoot. The games seems to be run on stats now not excitement or getting fans off their seats. I watched him do shooting warm up one game and he was crushing it. A mix of powerful blasts and curlers into the corners. Must change boots for the game? Delap's shooting was worryingly shite in that warm up.
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Post by jhtstokie on Dec 31, 2022 2:07:37 GMT
Our midfield is utterly utterly hopeless. Just what are we trying to do in there? It’s one of the worst midfields I’ve seen in the 25 years I’ve been a Stoke fan. There’s no creativity, no guile, no passion, no ability to take the ball from the defence and link play with the forwards. Just a shit show all over. We’re wank and our midfield is the reason why. Spot on, genuinely think it’s the worst midfield in the league by a mile as it shows most weeks. Especially Baker being skipper he should be demanding for the ball and driving us up the pitch and making things happen. But it’s not just him the whole midfield is crap. Every 2nd ball there’s no one there to pick the ball up, no one to take the game by the scruff of the neck, lumping it out of play, makes you think what they do in training!
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Post by theonlooker on Dec 31, 2022 10:20:10 GMT
Our midfield was built to try and play football and not Neil-ball. We never got the chance to see how this midfield settled under a manager who wanted to try and build from the back, because he was sacked early on (or late on depending on your opinion). Even then you could argue quite easily that we ended up with a bit of a lopsided midfield. The only player we have who is suited to Neil-ball is Thompson, who was criminally underused by the last manager, but even he has his very obvious limitations.
Baker, Smallbone, Powell, Laurent, Clucas and Kilkenny all need moving on as they won't get any better than this under this manager.
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Post by metalhead on Dec 31, 2022 10:24:48 GMT
No idea. He was shite yesterday.
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Post by davejohnno1 on Dec 31, 2022 10:27:36 GMT
Our midfield was built to try and play football and not Neil-ball. We never got the chance to see how this midfield settled under a manager who wanted to try and build from the back, because he was sacked early on (or late on depending on your opinion). Even then you could argue quite easily that we ended up with a bit of a lopsided midfield. The only player we have who is suited to Neil-ball is Thompson, who was criminally underused by the last manager, but even he has his very obvious limitations. Baker, Smallbone, Powell, Laurent, Clucas and Kilkenny all need moving on as they won't get any better than this under this manager.
What even is Neil ball?
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Post by fca47 on Dec 31, 2022 10:59:05 GMT
I'm not sure it is the individual players that are the problem or the tactics. Hoofing the ball up the field from defence and expecting the midfield to fight to get it back, when tackling isn't their forte rather than trying to keep possession in the first place. There never seems to be any interchange between the midfield players apart from playing the ball backwards.How about a bit of progressive passing forwards, or is that too radical.
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