[Archived] Stoke Preview

[Stonesrick]

By the sounds of it, very poor.

[AHoyle90]

After reading some posts and taking in some rather lets say, interesting views, heres my take.

Expecting a draw at least at Stoke is not asking too much, if we are such a strong and powerful side, we should be the best equipped to cope with it, however everybody forgets they have got Pennant and Etherington on the wings, two flair players, with pace. Etherington terrorised Salgado all afternoon, who I thought had an absolute shocker.

Martin Olsson is better as a left winger than left back in my opinion, but what joy is he going to get out of a percentages gameplan? Even Messi would struggle to make an impact given the ball is NEVER played into feet.

Whichever way you look at it, however well he has done to keep us up. Sams tactics are absoultely @#/?, for a manager of his experience and knowledge, and apparent tactical genious, why can he never envisage when the game plan clearly is not working. We NEVER score from a throw in, ok, Norwich City in the cup that's it. We were sticking throw ins into the box from 30 yards down the touchline at times, embarassing.

We are not asking for Barcelona/Arsenal-esque Football, but to mix and match our strength with some skill on the deck which WE DO have the players to do. Somebody please tell me how players like Kalinic, Mame Diouf, EHD, Pedersen, Emerton, Olsson, cannot play the ball around on the deck effectively. All this 'its the only way to play' its absolute tosh.

Jason Roberts left out again, what the hell does he have to do to get in the side. He is clearly the only striker worth sticking up front on his own as he is the only striker with the strength, pace and ability to hold the ball up that can work in that role effectively. On the back end of last season, he was the main reason we looked dangerous going forward, because he was the focal point of the team and linked play up with the midfield superbly. Most fans only see the side of Roberts which is his poor finishing, yes it should be better as a striker, but if your playing to a target man you can seriously be expecting them to notch 15 goals a season as well?

David Dunn is the missing piece and the reason we are not as good as last season, how many games dragged on with ###### all happening then Dunn popped up with a stroke of genius to win us the game or spark us into life, too many times, we leant on him all season and he was our top scorer, he was the reason we finished 10th, and to this day, the idea N'Zonzi, all be it a good young player, managing to get player of the season ahead of Dunny bemuses me.

[Amo]

Jason Roberts left out again, what the hell does he have to do to get in the side. He is clearly the only striker worth sticking up front on his own as he is the only striker with the strength, pace and ability to hold the ball up that can work in that role effectively. On the back end of last season, he was the main reason we looked dangerous going forward, because he was the focal point of the team and linked play up with the midfield superbly. Most fans only see the side of Roberts which is his poor finishing, yes it should be better as a striker, but if your playing to a target man you can seriously be expecting them to notch 15 goals a season as well?

Good call.

Benjani isn't even fit, and he got the nod ahead of Kalinic AND Roberts. Sam's cutting off the nose to spite the face regarding Roberts. What's worse is that "apparently" we never signed Popov because of Roberts, so we might as well make the most of him!

[broadsword]

He can't get it past the 1st man.

He hits it at the first man he sees?

[LeChuck]

Good call.

Benjani isn't even fit, and he got the nod ahead of Kalinic AND Roberts. Sam's cutting off the nose to spite the face regarding Roberts. What's worse is that "apparently" we never signed Popov because of Roberts, so we might as well make the most of him!

Isn't Roberts injured?

[Hughesy]

We have good enough players to mix it up and play a bit if football though. The hoofball isn't working and it's time for a plan B. I wouldn't mind negative tactics, but it's not working. We've been very lucky this season to have as many points as we have. The way he's got us playing, mid table is not going to happen.

So whats Plan B? OUR MIDFIELD IS SH!TE!! - 4-5-1, 4-4-2, 4-3-3, its the same midfielders.....Andrews isnt championship standard, Jones isnt really a midfielder, Dunn is a crock, MGP is a fairy and not consistent, Diouf has been good but has a tendancy to lose it....No tools for the job! So whats plan b? 5 Defenders & 5 strikers??

Why is it always lucky? You could also say we have been unlucky not to get points against Brum & Arsenal...cant have your arguement one way & not see the other side of it.

[John]

Isn't Roberts injured?

Just coming back from injury - Sam said he will likely be on the bench for our next match.

[joey_big_nose]

So whats Plan B? OUR MIDFIELD IS SH!TE!! - 4-5-1, 4-4-2, 4-3-3, its the same midfielders.....Andrews isnt championship standard, Jones isnt really a midfielder, Dunn is a crock, MGP is a fairy and not consistent, Diouf has been good but has a tendancy to lose it....No tools for the job! So whats plan b? 5 Defenders & 5 strikers??

Why is it always lucky? You could also say we have been unlucky not to get points against Brum & Arsenal...cant have your arguement one way & not see the other side of it.

We have to try. And it is fair to say that last season we had some success when we played on the floor. No point in continuing with plan A when it is clearly not working. Fans would give Sam credit for at least giving it a go.

Next game if we get to 60 mins without results from direct play I want to see a shift. If we concede again fair enough, but I suspect we would do better than anticipated. We have a good defence and should trust them enough to hold things together while we experiment.

Personally I would keep the set pieces as they are but instruct the team to look to keep the ball in open play and try to progress down the wings.

[waggy]

result was expected,but we did have more possesion than stoke,that must be a 1st this season in the premier for us.why we play a on loan striker from manure,and have our 6 million pound super star on the bench is beyond me,surely nicola should play in these games and toughen him up

[Hughesy]

Fans would give Sam credit for at least giving it a go.

Not likely - a minority would - the rest have wanted blood since day 1

[Dan]

So whats Plan B? OUR MIDFIELD IS SH!TE!! - 4-5-1, 4-4-2, 4-3-3, its the same midfielders.....Andrews isnt championship standard, Jones isnt really a midfielder, Dunn is a crock, MGP is a fairy and not consistent, Diouf has been good but has a tendancy to lose it....No tools for the job! So whats plan b? 5 Defenders & 5 strikers??

Why is it always lucky? You could also say we have been unlucky not to get points against Brum & Arsenal...cant have your arguement one way & not see the other side of it.

Get Olsson/Hoilett and Diouf on the wings and get them to run at the opposition. I bet 9/10 teams would rather have long balls to deal with that players running at them and crossing the ball. How many goals have we scored from

the ball being flung into the mixer this season. Our best performance of the season was the first half against Arsenal. This was the one time we actually played some football. We can mix it up with long aimless balls into the box, but at the moment it isn't working.

4 of our points have come from Goal keeper errors, 1 of them was a foul on the 'keeper. The Blackpool victory was helped by a OG. We haven't looked fully comfortable in any match this season and we could quite easily have no points.

We are more a threat to the opposition by playing football. That is the Plan B. Playing the game the way it was intended to be played. If Sam's horrible, ugly football was working I'd have no problem, as goals and points are important, but it isn't working.

This happened last season, once Sam changed his ways for the Villa Away semi final things changed. Before that we were as bad as this season. We can't leave it till January this time around or we will be relegated. We have the players to play a plan b.

[roversfan99]

Grella/Nzonzi Emerton

EHD Dunn Olsson

That midfield can play football if necessary.

[joey_big_nose]

Grella/Nzonzi Emerton

EHD Dunn Olsson

That midfield can play football if necessary.

Depends on Dunn being fit which is a bit of an ask...... As we are at the moment we need Hoilett or Linganzi to step up to that central role. Not that inspiring but after Ped's recent perfromances I would give it a go.

[den]

Jason Roberts left out again, what the hell does he have to do to get in the side. He is clearly the only striker worth sticking up front on his own as he is the only striker with the strength, pace and ability to hold the ball up that can work in that role effectively.

This part let's you down Hoyle.

The sad part is that I agree with you - Roberts is probably our best option at the moment. That says a lot for the rest of our strikers.

[AHoyle90]

Roberts has played the last 3 or 4 reserve matches so surely must be fit enough to at least warrant a place on the bench? Hopefully he will be ready for that against Sunderland.