[Archived] Stoke City Preview 18th April

[Eddie]

Draws away to Sunderland and Boro aren't that impressive when you consider their league position. Hull have been pretty terrible since October(ish). The Fulham result was a good one, but the performance still wasn't very good.

[SoccerHQ]

Draws away to Sunderland and Boro aren't that impressive when you consider their league position. Hull have been pretty terrible since October(ish). The Fulham result was a good one, but the performance still wasn't very good.

Well like it or not they are your competitiors with the situation you're in so not losing to them was huge.

I'm still not sure what people expect, you were in dire straits when Big Sam took over so salvation through any means possible was the only realistic expectation surely? You played crap for most of the second half of the season under Hughes so the rot started then imo.

Still up (which you will) through whatever means, have an overhaul of the squad in the summer and then assess the situation next Xmas, you'll be in much better shape imo.

I'm also chuckling at these comments Stoke are abysmal. Not at the Brittania they're not folks. 3rd best home record after Manure and Liverpool I believe and they've turned many better teams than Blackburn at home this season (including my lot Villa) so I'm not sure why you expected a roll over particularly with our one fit striker against their 8ft giants.

[DE.]

Well like it or not they are your competitiors with the situation you're in so not losing to them was huge.

I'm still not sure what people expect, you were in dire straits when Big Sam took over so salvation through any means possible was the only realistic expectation surely? You played crap for most of the second half of the season under Hughes so the rot started then imo.

Still up (which you will) through whatever means, have an overhaul of the squad in the summer and then assess the situation next Xmas, you'll be in much better shape imo.

I'm also chuckling at these comments Stoke are abysmal. Not at the Brittania they're not folks. 3rd best home record after Manure and Liverpool I believe and they've turned many better teams than Blackburn at home this season (including my lot Villa) so I'm not sure why you expected a roll over particularly with our one fit striker against their 8ft giants.

I agree with you in some respects... should we have expected a win today? Probably not. Practically all of my non-Rover mates had Stoke down to win this one.

I'm not sure it's so much a case of expectation but continual disappointment. We don't expect to beat liverpool or Arsenal, but at the same time we don't expect our side to roll over and die twenty minutes into the match. A little battle and fight in the squad isn't much to ask for... but we don't get that. People are seething at the lack of commitment being shown by some of our players on the pitch, and rightly so. Similarly, today, I think if we'd shown genuine effort and looked a little threatening the reaction would be no where near as negative... but we didnt. We look tame, soft and completely toothless as an attacking force.

Can't blame people for being pessimistic right now, the squad are giving us NOTHING to feel optimistic about.

Edit: Also, whilst the spurs win was a bonus... we were shocking in that as well. It's not nice to come away from a win knowing you really, really didn't deserve it.

[dulwich]

We are in deep deep trouble, no doubt about it. Just been watching MOTD and saw Middlesborough fighting for their lives. Contrast that to our lot for the past two weeks at least.

I'll never ever be embarrassed to be a Rovers fan, but those players and MANAGER should be embarrassed tonight.

[oozy]

If ever an article echoed the views of the fans:

http://www.setanta.com//uk/Blogs/Chris-Sta...rrible-twosome/

Are you sure this guys not a member of brfcs?

[SoccerHQ]

Guys I don't like typing this as Blackburn are a club who I respect greatly but you've been punching above your wait in the top 8 for a long while now especially as you don't have the resources the likes of Newcastle, Man. City, Spurs etc all have.

So it's inevitable you'll have a season like this eventually.

Just stay up and rebuild and you'll be back in the top half next season as the prem is woeful beyond the top 6, you're only actually 7 points off the top half at the moment despite the awful season #you've had.

[RibbleValleyRover]

If ever an article echoed the views of the fans:

http://www.setanta.com//uk/Blogs/Chris-Sta...rrible-twosome/

Are you sure this guys not a member of brfcs?

Good article, though the midfield showed signs of weakness a season or two before that.

We've got a decent defence imo and a decent strikeforce when fully fit but the midfield however is total crap.

[Majiball]

Well at least we got more than 2 minutes on MOTD.

We really do need a complete overhaul, I was beginning to think I was being a bit harsh before todays game.

I've always felt the sign of a good manager is that he creates the best out of what he has got, today we saw what I'd always feared before Sam came. One system, one style, one option, I remember discussing this with Nicko when Sam was appointed. Today we needed people who can play someone to supply the front as they thrive on, instead we got one trick pony football. Sam obviously needs strong people with him, Lee, brown, sbragia and co obviously made telling contributions at Notlob.

We need new ideas, new methods and above all new players, I fear we may get neither.

From top to toe we have failed, not only us but the man who made all this possible. Its time for action whether we stay up or not this is the warning, we need to react to it and get back ahead of the game. I spend every chance I get visiting the best clubs in Europe and we are so dated its unreal.

I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make our club what we should be, seriously. Trouble is our club doesn't seem to think they need it, they have the answers yet we find ourselves right in the s.h.i.t. (sorry mods). It doesn't take money, I should know, my budget at my club is simple, I know it every year £0.00 yet I still find ways to improve both myself and in turn my players, Rovers do not. They cannot think out side the box.

We need strong characters, driven in pursuit of their goals we don't have this and its not going to change.

The trust needs to act this summer they proved they can do it by forcing the boards hand over Ince, now its time to step in and act at the club

All those who disagree are blinkered and naive, I know I'm right I've met them all the structure of the club must change certain people must leave if not they must be removed. All we ever get are excuses, I want action, as I'm sure a few or more on here do.

Transfer policy must change. time to start signing younger players eager to make there mark

Wage structure must change. Stop wasting money on useless has beens

Board structure must change. Having a chairman who has no say in youth etc is a joke, you should just issue handcuffs with his uniform

Youth set-up, well sorry I know its not my place but both Finn and downes must go - this is my area I could do a better job and to prove it I'd do it for free - no joke I would. (you can hold me to that Mr Williams).

TRUSTEES you know we are broken, it won't take mega money to change we can generate most through sales, but you must realise that we need change.

God I sound like Obama.

BUT HE'S RIGHT CHANGE MUST COME TO ROVERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Arte et labore (if only)

[Guest Vinjay606]

Riots in the streets probably wouldn't change their policy.

[SoccerHQ]

I suppose at the start of the season Ince was planning on a midfield of Emerton-Dunn-Ried-Pederson, you started the season with that right?

Not that great on the flanks but that's a solidish midfield to me.

Of course the main problem is the two in central midfield get broken very easily so Ince then was under resourced and brought another crock in Grella who is actually a decent player. So he then had to put Warnock in there who did a shift but is much better on the left.

Then he had to put Andrews in who shouldn't be a prem starter anyway and Mokoena who isn't either. Tugay's an old man so sub at best.

Bit surprised Big Sam didn't sufficently strengthen that area in January but he sure will next season as you will be going down with that midfield.

[DE.]

We've got a decent defence imo and a decent strikeforce when fully fit but the midfield however is total crap.

Our strikeforce is Roberts (inconsistant), Santa Cruz (wants to be anywhere but here), McCarthy (fat), Diouf (not a goalscorer), Samba (defender).

RSC is the only striker we have who could be a consistant threat to the opposition, but he doesn't even want to be here.

McCarthy would be a threat, if he could be bothered to get fit. Fact is, if he can't be bothered now, in our hour of need, why would he bother in any other circumstance? He seemed to be going the right way around the end of December/January... did a Maccy D's open near his house recently or something? McCarthy's not a young lad, either, and is going to need replacing sooner rather than later.

IMO attack is right behind midfield in terms of needing attention... can we really gamble on the likes of Derbs, Gally, Doran or Blackman to start banging in the goals next year?

[Majiball]

I'm also chuckling at these comments Stoke are abysmal. Not at the Brittania they're not folks. 3rd best home record after Manure and Liverpool I believe and they've turned many better teams than Blackburn at home this season (including my lot Villa) so I'm not sure why you expected a roll over particularly with our one fit striker against their 8ft giants.

Exactly so why go there with the lob-ball plan that we did?????????

Yes Stoke are strong at home, but if you go there intending to get a draw which we did today you will probably do as we did and lose. Football requires goals to win games and we set out to contain not to create. If you only have Benni fit then you know he needs someone with him, Villa could have done that but he's not strong enough (I am a sports scientist and work at a league club if I had 1 year with Villa he could end up looking like Arnie, apparently we can't make him stronger and yes I could do it without him losing pace its all about balance). Today we shoved square pegs in round holes again, we will do it next game and the next. You'll also notice that when we didn't have the ball stoke players always had space.

As always excuses, not answers.

We should have come up with a plan that played to our strenghts not theirs 4411 would have worked well for us today, solid with good support. but alas we just hit and hope.

I would never expect a roll-over from stoke they are battlers and its the reason they are 11th, we on the other hand did roll-over, we'd lost before the game even began.

[USABlue]

Dire hoof ball garbage. Without the players to play dire hoof ball garbage. Rubbish in my humble opinion.

[Tris]

Got back ten minutes ago.

Very briefly - 10 out of 10 to the lads at the back, they were awesome. Up front Benni and Diouf had no chance, - both want the ball short and to feet. Even if they got that, no-one was going to run past them.

The real problem ladies and gentlemen is midfield. How much did that midfield cost? In today's market absolutely peanuts - and that's too much for them. No width, no pace, no quality. Not one shot on goal as far as I remember. We're paying for the chronic lack of investment in the team. Oh and please, don't anyone tell me ever again that Andrews is a good player. He's completely out of his comfort zone.

We had better win next week or it might be too late. Somehow, we have to get Roberts [never thought I would ever say that], or Rocky [preferably both] onto the park.

I haven't read anything later than this post, so apologies if it's all been said already.

The real problem ladies and gentlemen is the manager. He's alledgedly being paid ~40 grand a week to keep our club in this league, and he goes into vital games wanting to lose (Liverpool) or draw (Stoke). The 11 players wearing blue and white today were no worse players than the 11 wearing red and white. The blue and white options on the bench were way better than Stoke's meagre squad had to offer.

But we have a manager who is so bereft of tactical awareness - beyond the hump and chase - that we are doomed. And I'm the serial optimist around here.

[Tris]

Diouf had a right go at Andrews after they scored.

Diouf was having a go at anyone who went anywhere near him in the last 20 mins - their players, our players ... it didn't matter. He's a liability when he's in that mood - but to be fair that's the first time we've seen him with the red mist totally in evidence.

[47er]

I haven't read anything later than this post, so apologies if it's all been said already.

The real problem ladies and gentlemen is the manager. He's alledgedly being paid ~40 grand a week to keep our club in this league, and he goes into vital games wanting to lose (Liverpool) or draw (Stoke). The 11 players wearing blue and white today were no worse players than the 11 wearing red and white. The blue and white options on the bench were way better than Stoke's meagre squad had to offer.

But we have a manager who is so bereft of tactical awareness - beyond the hump and chase - that we are doomed. And I'm the serial optimist around here.

No---the real problem is the manager who was wrongly hired and left us 5 points adrift. We are still 3 points clear and if you extrapolate 21 points from 15 games over a season, that is not relegation form. With the shower he's been left with Sam has done the best he could. It took too long for people to see how utterly inept Ince was.

[Tris]

No---the real problem is the manager who was wrongly hired and left us 5 points adrift. We are still 3 points clear and if you extrapolate 21 points from 15 games over a season, that is not relegation form. With the shower he's been left with Sam has done the best he could. It took too long for people to see how utterly inept Ince was.

No - the current muppet has had every opportunity to get us safe. His tactics have dragged us back into the mire. If we go down it's on his watch.

[Kremmin]

1. You can't play long ball garbage without a presence up front and Benni ain't that presence - he needs Samba next to him.

2. You can't play long ball garbage for 90 mins and expect to win - you have to mix it up a little bit and use the flanks every now and then otherwise you're a one-trick pony.

3. We've still got plenty of chances to save ourselves but if we keep serving up that rubbish, we won't ... and Sam will have to take the rap for it.

[RevidgeBlue]

Agree with both 47er and Tris - both Ince AND Alladyce would be equally to blame were we to go down, but let's not start apportioning blame for something that hasn't happened yet before the event.

We CAN still get out of this, but we need to start passing the ball and playing some football again if we are to do so.

Dire hoof ball garbage. Without the players to play dire hoof ball garbage.

Nail, hammer, head.

Wonderfully put USA.

[Paul]

I haven't read anything later than this post, so apologies if it's all been said already.

The real problem ladies and gentlemen is the manager. He's alledgedly being paid ~40 grand a week to keep our club in this league, and he goes into vital games wanting to lose (Liverpool) or draw (Stoke). The 11 players wearing blue and white today were no worse players than the 11 wearing red and white. The blue and white options on the bench were way better than Stoke's meagre squad had to offer.

But we have a manager who is so bereft of tactical awareness - beyond the hump and chase - that we are doomed. And I'm the serial optimist around here.

Tris is right on this one especially that we were no worse than Stoke. The problem is both teams are rubbish and don't play football. IF we had put the ball on the ground we might have created a scoring opportunity, the tactics were completely wrong and we wouldn't have scored if were still playing now. I'm not calling for Allardyce's head but I am saying he is getting wrong at a crucial stage of the season.

Dire hoof ball garbage. Without the players to play dire hoof ball garbage. Rubbish in my humble opinion.

Succinct, to the point and 100% accurate.

[Alan75]

Agree with both 47er and Tris - both Ince AND Alladyce would be equally to blame were we to go down, but let's not start apportioning blame for something that hasn't happened yet before the event.

We CAN still get out of this, but we need to start passing the ball and playing some football again if we are to do so.

Nail, hammer, head.

Wonderfully put USA.

Sorry rev, but neither Ince or Alladyce is to blame if we go down.

The rot had set in well before either were appointed as managers. You can go back to November 2007 to see the start of the decline in results and pattern in play. As we all know who have watched the team for years, the failure started when Hughes failed in the summer of 2007 to sign a midfield general to take over from Tugay. We all know that Dunn's signing was only a stop gap appointment.

You can blame Hughes or the board for failing to finance a suitable creative central midfielder, but the writing has been on the wall for a long time, its just to many of us have buried our heads in the sand. It's no wonder that Hughes was off at the first opportunity.

There was a time when I would have said we were to good to go down, Im now of the opinion that we are not good enough to stay up. Our only saving grace is that there are teams who are worste than us.

If and I hope we do stay up, this summer should see the biggest shake up that this club has seen in a decade, failure to do so will surely see the same performances again and relegation a certainty.

[Paul Mellelieu]

Maybe the club should take a look at this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8006621.stm

[The Prof.]

Current Muppet (is that a bun?) got us out of the bottom 3. I was very worried when we lined up with a hoof ball formation against Spurs and it didn't work. Only Dunn and Tugay knocking it around for 10 minutes opened them up.

More worried with todays line up. I can take those two being saved for key games - but this had to be one of them hadn't it?

Ince talked the beautiful game and we got hoofball. Allardyce seemed to get a bit of football out of the players when he came but we're back to hoofball - is that a tactic or the players?

Either way we have no threat up front without Roberts and Benni together, and our liveliest forward is winning the championship is winning the in Greece - Will he want to come back when the European Champions League beckons.

The midfield we put out was awful. Diouf - what is his job? Pederson - create some goals man: Andrews - oh dear: Mokoena- Oh dear: Warnock - Tries but hasn't the class for this leagues midfield:

Anyone else wish we'd took £20m for RSC and £7m for McCarthy a Christmas?

Is RSC that injured he can't play or is he being fixed for re-sale in summer?

Performances look very poor IMO at the moment.

Depressed.

[bobsterbrfc]

sometimes i think we as a club in the 'Hughes Project' effectively "climaxed" when we had the semi-final against chelsea. from that point onwards it became stale under sparky.

there's no way allardyce is equally to blame as the shambles he inherited, i just wish Big Sam had been in from the start!

[47er]

sometimes i think we as a club in the 'Hughes Project' effectively "climaxed" when we had the semi-final against chelsea. from that point onwards it became stale under sparky.

there's no way allardyce is equally to blame as the shambles he inherited, i just wish Big Sam had been in from the start!

Agree entirely.

No - the current muppet has had every opportunity to get us safe. His tactics have dragged us back into the mire. If we go down it's on his watch.

We were 5 points adrift when Sam came aboard. Now we are 3 up. End of.