[Archived] Stoke City Preview 18th April

[G Somerset Rover]

By the sounds Sorensen could've pulled the deck chair out and had a read of the paper such was our threat today.

Whose going to get the goals next week against Wigan? Whose going to create one...yes just ONE decent chance? That's two games of football and not one decent effort on goal. Mr Allardyce you must realise that if you go in with such negative tactics that if the opposition do score then you need a plan B.

These are pretty desperate times - next week is a must win and I do not think that anybody can deny that.

[Dan]

As stupid as it sounds, I think we'd have least be slightly positive with our approach today if we had that ###### Ince in charge. Today is the reality hitting that I was worried about when we employed the fat walrus. We never looked like even creating a chance, wft is fat Sam thinking?!!!

3 Games for 20 quid suddenly looks like a bad value rip off.

[yellowsubmarine]

This result is more depressing than last week's result. Was a pain to watch.

And damn you Andrews! Cant you see before you pass! What are your eyes for? Time and time again you gave balls and freekicks away that resulted in goals conceded. When will you freaking learn?

[Eddie]

All we had to do was get a draw beng realistic.

All we had to do was avoid giving away the sort of pass Andrews gave away. Even then, Robinson failed horribly when called upon.

3 points ahead of relegation. Thankfully Hull are in freefall and Boro couldn't win at home to Fulham.

Grim battle for survival now- never exected us to lose this one.

Andrews pass was poor, but between then and the goal we:

1) Failed to prevent a cross from coming in.

2) Didn't win the first header.

3) Didn't win the second ball in our own box.

4) Givet defended like a 3 year old.

5) Robinson should have saved it.

Now it was a stupid way to give away possession, but you can hardly blame that single pass on a goal that we could have avoided two or three times as the play progressed.

[mhead]

If we were that **** then Judge,Gallagher,Derbs and Beattie would have had some local pride and belief in the Shirt and the club.

Crocky out and the 15million would have been quite a good move!!

[Blue blood]

From what I heard today and seen over the past couple of weeks, we just don't have enough up front to win games any more. We are not a threatening team.

Letting in one goal vs stoke's bombardment isn't that bad, not having the firepower to pose our own problems, especially vs a one dimensional side like stoke is criminal.

We're reliant on Diouf, an out of form Pedersen, an utterly inconsistent - or rather all too consistent does naff all but snatches the odd goal Benni, and our centre backs from set pieces for goals. This is not enough for any team.

The biggest probem is midfield - we have no threat from it whatsoever. Bar Diouf and a 10 minute spell vs spurs we have had no creativity/attacking threat from our midfield for ages. The main reason we don't cause much of a threat is that we have no-one fit and good on the ball in the centre of midfield. Warnock's all action but his passing isn't up to much, Andrews is similar (but less good) to Warnock, and Moko's passing is none existent. How a team is meant to build moves up with those 3 in the centre is beyond me.

Over the years we've had some excellent passers, not just Tugs but the likes of Savage and Reid could pass the ball around competently and keep moves going. This lot don't seem to be able to do that at all.

(Incidently we haven't up front either but that's as much due to injury as it is to personnel).

[Dan]

This result is more depressing than last week's result. Was a pain to watch.

And damn you Andrews! Cant you see before you pass! What are your eyes for? Time and time again you gave balls and freekicks away that resulted in goals conceded. When will you freaking learn?

You can't blame Andrews really. He is just a (Please don't use that word again)tard with no ability, blame the idiot that bought him and even more the idiot who plays him.

[BRFC1995]

All we had to do was get a draw beng realistic.

All we had to do was avoid giving away the sort of pass Andrews gave away. Even then, Robinson failed horribly when called upon.

3 points ahead of relegation. Thankfully Hull are in freefall and Boro couldn't win at home to Fulham.

Grim battle for survival now- never exected us to lose this one.

i expected a draw, i also expected a draw with spuds and a thumping from liverpool............so after 3 games we have a point more, need roberts back badly attack is toothless without him and his pace allows us to defend from the front. Would be happy to see benni jack football in at the end of the season he clearly don't give a monkeys and no one would buy him

tempting fate here, but that was probably the hardest fixture of ours remaining and the last one for which 5 in midfield might have been required!

[Bazzanotsogreat]

Grim battle for survival now- never exected us to lose this one.

Stoke have the 3rd/4th best home record in the division; it was hardly shock of the century when we lost.

Tactics were woeful;

Benni can't play up front on his own. He has none of the attributes- work rate, strenght, pace etc

Matty should not of been loaned out;

Moko/Andrews are not Premiership players

Half fit Grella/Dunn is a better combo than above

Warnock is not a CM

Andre is not a RB ( however I can understand Sam's postion on this given Bert's injury & simpson's performances)

No pace, no creativity & what hurts the most- no hart

[tony gale's mic]

If we were that **** then Judge,Gallagher,Derbs and Beattie would have had some local pride and belief in the Shirt and the club.

Crocky out and the 15million would have been quite a good move!!

Selling RSC in January for £17m or whatever was always a no brainer IMO. We weren't losing anything from our side by selling him since he'd only scored three goals and we could have made some major improvements to the midfield.

[mhead]

Everything you say BlueBlood has been obvious since Christmas....but since then our Management have made the situation worse not better.

[Majiball]

Or worst case scenario we go down and never come back up. There has been bigger and more financially better clubs than us that have gown down and never recovered.

With the owners looking to sell and not investing money in the club i think relegation would be the first death nail that sees our club eventually being wiped out.

Your right but something must change at our club. I honestly think its time we all put our heads together and see what we can do, we are the club.

I'm fuming the central three today are rubbish if they are prem standard then I'm going to brush my boots off.

Now I'm off to see if thhey alchol in hospitals in Scotland.

[Mr. E]

You can't blame Andrews really. He is just a (Please don't use that word again)tard with no ability, blame the idiot that bought him and even more the idiot who plays him.

yep. I realize BFS doesn't have many options at all, but it is simply criminal even considering playing a central-mid partnership of Mokoena and Andrews.

[BRFC1995]

As stupid as it sounds, I think we'd have least be slightly positive with our approach today if we had that ###### Ince in charge. Today is the reality hitting that I was worried about when we employed the fat walrus. We never looked like even creating a chance, wft is fat Sam thinking?!!!

3 Games for 20 quid suddenly looks like a bad value rip off.

thing is we'd have been relegated before march with that clueless fraud of a manager in charge

[beerwins]

Our past 4 performances have been absolute dire, why keep persisting with andrews, mokoena and a pointless long ball game thats as entertaining as watching the eastenders omnibus, we never looked like scoring in any of our games recently, long ball to benni WHY !! he wants it to feet and has no-one to play off him, any creative player is sat on the bench while we play a 10 man defence and lump it long.

I was more than happy to see big sam appointed because i know he studies the game and is a good man manager but this rubbish isnt good enough. If we go down at least we can offload half of these players that claim to be premiership footballers, MGP was absolute cr@p yet again, thats the last game i want to see him play for rovers too inconsistant for too long now.

At least the fans that went can hold there head up high and pat themselves on the back they did a great job, only to be let down by a bad team.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

I now fear most of our shambles of a side have no fight in their bellies...why the hell are we performing like this when they clearly know what is required of them.?

SHAPE UP FFS!!!

[Guest Kamy100]

We offered no threat in the second half and that allowed Stoke to push up and pressure us. The main problem is that Benni cannot hold up the ball, he needs a RSC or Roberts to play off, without them he is useless and there is no point punting up the ball to him as it is going to come straight back.

We really need Roberts or Roque to play next week as it really is "do or die" against Wigan.

[Iceman]

I dont want to sound like im a terrible fan, because im not. I love Rovers i care about this club, but today i feel absolutely terrible. I wore my shirt proudly, but when the final whistle went i ripped it off and threw it to the ground in disgust. 4 years of stability in the premierleague is looking like going up in smoke. This is a sad state of affairs and what a mess, and one which the club should be held accountable for. The fans have been terrific today, but what a let down by the players. We are own worst enemies, but we should stand up as players and be counted for once.

[MarkBRFC71]

From what I heard today and seen over the past couple of weeks, we just don't have enough up front to win games any more. We are not a threatening team.

Letting in one goal vs stoke's bombardment isn't that bad, not having the firepower to pose our own problems, especially vs a one dimensional side like stoke is criminal.

We're reliant on Diouf, an out of form Pedersen, an utterly inconsistent - or rather all too consistent does naff all but snatches the odd goal Benni, and our centre backs from set pieces for goals. This is not enough for any team.

The biggest probem is midfield - we have no threat from it whatsoever. Bar Diouf and a 10 minute spell vs spurs we have had no creativity/attacking threat from our midfield for ages. The main reason we don't cause much of a threat is that we have no-one fit and good on the ball in the centre of midfield. Warnock's all action but his passing isn't up to much, Andrews is similar (but less good) to Warnock, and Moko's passing is none existent. How a team is meant to build moves up with those 3 in the centre is beyond me.

Over the years we've had some excellent passers, not just Tugs but the likes of Savage and Reid could pass the ball around competently and keep moves going. This lot don't seem to be able to do that at all.

(Incidently we haven't up front either but that's as much due to injury as it is to personnel).

This would have been the ideal game to start with Benni/Samba up front, but for some reason only known to himself he manager decided to go 4-5-1.

Pedersen has been useless for 3 years now, and should have been shipped out long ago.

If Allardyce seriously thinks Moko and Andrews are good enough to start ANY Prem games together, then you've got to question his managerial nous. Especially when Dunn and Grella are on the bench - a stunningly inept decision.

If he doesn't correct his mistakes on Sunday, then I fear we're going down and hopefully he'll be out of a job because he clearly doesn't have what it takes.

[Tom]

As bleak as things look right now all it takes is for Newcastle to lose and we're still in with a chance.

Boro's next 2 games are stinkers as well

Wigan truly is must win now

[tony gale's mic]

I think a lot of the blame for today's performance can be placed with Sam, however whoever says they want Ince back really needs their head examined.

[Eddie]

As stupid as it sounds, I think we'd have least be slightly positive with our approach today if we had that ###### Ince in charge. Today is the reality hitting that I was worried about when we employed the fat walrus. We never looked like even creating a chance, wft is fat Sam thinking?!!!

3 Games for 20 quid suddenly looks like a bad value rip off.

That's why I said it. In 180 minutes of football we haven't tested the opposition keepers; that's shameful even if you're a conference side in the FA Cup at Old Trafford. He's setting a side out there that can't possibly win. I know that it is severely depleted as a result of injuries and we're hardly going to play like 1970 Brazil, but put a team out there that can win and that can possibly score a goal. Say what you will philip, but draws won't be enough. We will need to win one game between now and the end of the season and with that formation we're saying that "we will defend and hope for a slice of luck that allows us to win". This is premiership football. Teams don't approach every opposition like that. OK, if you go away to the big four I understand it, but Stoke and every team we've played pretty much since Allardyce took charge?

This is dire stuff. It's uncalled for and not doing us any good. With the exception of the Stoke game (where we were fired up and they were terrible) almost every point we have picked up since Allardyce has taken charge has been the result of totally discarding his original tactics. That isn't a good sign. We can't hope for luck like we had against Spurs or that we will consistently come from behind. The man is doing a terrible job at this club so far.

Everyone can now spout their statistics about how we were already playing Championship football under Ince (although I'm not saying he shouldn't have been sacked), but we weren't. Any manager worth his salt would have thought that with our bunch of players, a transfer window and the run of fixtures we had that he could have turned us around, so it is by no means a miracle that we are now sitting two players higher than we were. I don't want Ince back, but as each week passes, I'm looking toward the day Allardyce goes with increased excitement. One trick pony and a one club manager.

[Bobby G]

Rubbish. We offered no attacking threat. We are toothless up front.

It really is do or die next week and unless we have Roque or Roberts back, which I cant see, I really cant see how Benni can play up front on his own.

Final nail in the coffin for me in the Andrews logbook. Gave the ball away, and it wasnt that he gave it away, its the WAY he gives it away. So lax. Even Kaka, Gerrard et al dont play that laid back when they are passing the ball. I have no idea what Robinson was doing either.

Overall a deserved defeat.

We could be only 1 point outside the zone after tomorrow.

We have to beat Wigan.

[Blue blood]

4 problems today:

4) Playing Benni in midweek then he could last the full 90 today

He hardly exerted himself midweek; I doubt he was suffering from fatigue later that evening let alone 3 days later. What was baffling was giving Grella a 90 minute run out if he weren't deemed fit enough today. He can pass the ball which is something the rest don't seem to be able to do.

Everything you say BlueBlood has been obvious since Christmas....but since then our Management have made the situation worse not better.

True, our lack of strength in midfield has been our weakness for a long time - probably years now rather than months. But I do feel it's even more of a factor than ever before now. The long ball game, with roberts bustling away, roberts and benni working well together and rocky suposedly coming back compensated in part for our weakness in cm, as did having a competent right winger who was putting in some good shifts. With roberts and rocky out we don't even have the long ball game to fall back on, we are reliant on our midfield and it's frailties becoming even more apparent.

[RoverRich]

Fair play to Stoke though and not just for this game but over the past 10 games or so they have showed true spirit to get out of the mire they were in, only losing twice. They may not be pretty but they have worked their socks off and showed heart which is what I wish this club would begin to show. It is all well and good Sam slating the players and saying they will get better but what is the point if the players are not gonna go out on the pitch and do it. We need players with hunger and who want to save this club!

I too am surprised we didnt chuck Doran on as he may be one of those players who is a bit more direct and, even though he is young and not of the ability of some players, he may have shown the hunger that we are in desperate need of. MASSIVE 5 games coming up!