Sounds familiar.

The same reason we're phasing out one of our most talented wingers and our young RB prospect I guess ?

I'm guessing because he won't be here next season and is being phased out. Wouldn't be surprised if he leaves in January if the Aussies are still interested.

Plenty of people in the English football fraternity coming out to defend him and his "dignity" whilst he was here - nobody offering him any hint of a job once he was unemployed.

I'd say more that. They've already conceded almost double the amount we have. I don't think we miss Mulgrew at all.

When a goalkeeper's confidence is down it can have some pretty serious consequences. From what I understand he wanted a move in the summer too, but Stoke priced him out of it, so his head clearly isn't in the game. We saw with the likes of Steele, Jake Kean and Eastwood how a poor goalkeeper can absolutely wreck any chance a team has of being successful.

To be fair until Butland's horrendous error they were actually playing pretty well. They don't really deserve to lose this one.

Stoke looking set to lose again despite taking the lead, now 3-1 down at home to Forest. They're digging themselves a deep hole to get out of.

Me too, ideally at least until November 30th.

When I saw Fosun were TC's biggest shareholder I did wonder how or if that would impact Wolves. If it does create a money problem then things could go downhill very rapidly there.

With their squad they should definitely be doing a lot better. Everything points to the players being utterly confused or having downed tools. Either way the only route out of that kind of situation is normally appointing a new manager. http://oatcakefanzine.proboards.com/board/2/stoke-city-fc Absolutely no support for Jones on here tbh.

Stoke are almost a mirror image of Ipswich at the moment. A struggling lower league manager who has made poor signings in the summer, a terrible start to the season and knocked out on penalties in the cup by League 2 opposition (Ipswich were beaten on pens in the EFL cup by Exeter last season). Ominous signs, although overall Stoke have a more talented squad than Ipswich so if they ditch Jones and bring in somebody decent they could get themselves out of trouble.

Stoke beaten by Crawley tonight... some kind of spiral they're in at the moment.

Probably best to get the refund unfortunately, I can't see prices dropping for a while yet.

In fairness if there's one thing we can't accuse Mowbray of it's underestimating anybody. He'll have made sure we're well prepared no matter who the opposition are.

His tenacity and strength is something that sets him apart from other attacking midfielders for sure. I'm not sure how it would translate to the PL but it's absolutely perfect for the Championship.

The reason you don't see bickering is because we hide a lot of it fairly quickly if one of us is around. The title topic is changed now, and there was a lot of good discussion on the feeling towards Mowbray at the start of the season. Some fans were on the extreme end of the scale wanting him removed, most were somewhere in the middle unsure as to whether he'd gotten it right over the summer, and there were also a fair few who felt the idea of criticising Mowbray so early on was ridiculous. Anybody who takes the time to read the thread will see that. Diverse views are absolutely fine - personal attacks and generalisations are not. As long as the ball is being played as opposed to the man then there is no problem with anybody expressing their opinion no matter how out of sync it is with the general feeling.

Trust me, it's a lot less fun for the mods I don't think we should have to be moderating more when we win than when we lose.

In fairness in most of the games we've won by a goal we have gifted the opposition a chance right at the death so I don't think we're quite there yet. I remember Hull missing a golden chance at the end when we beat them 1-0, and yesterday Reading had a good chance right at the end from a free kick conceded in a dangerous position. We're definitely improved on last season so far, but I still want us to stop giving away silly chances at the end.

Cut out the bickering please guys. We're on a good run of form with some excellent recent results so let's focus on that rather than sniping at each other.

I would agree that if we play our best personnel in all positions then there's nothing wrong with the 4231, if we persist with playing strikers on the wings then not so much. Today I believe we had Armstrong/Downing on the wings, which is OK. Armstrong technically a striker but I think it's fair to say he has much more impact playing LW. Keep Gallagher/Graham up front, Dack behind them and a combination of Downing/Armstrong/Rothwell/Chapman in the wider areas and that's a formation we can work with. Holtby can probably play anywhere across that attacking midfield three as well.

I think it's just a bit disconcerting for people as it's a bit unusual. With that said you're right, if we're in good form it doesn't matter whether one player or the entire team is changed from week to week.

I think it's fair to give Mowbray significant credit for recent results. It's not how a lot of us would go about it but if we're winning then you can only hold your hands up and say fair enough.

In fairness to Phil he's one of the more positive posters in recent times so a bit harsh to pull him up like that. Also I believe that was stated when it looked like Armstrong was starting up top, when instead I believe he started on the left?

Yeah fair enough, topic has been renamed.