Happy days well done the player's raf and the magnificent away supporters.... Cup game then Swansea at home ****ing come on.
I would have been happy with 5 from this run of 3 games against our rivals so beat Swansea at home and it'll be ahead of my expectations.
I will never for the life of me understand why you are in control of a game, then start to remove players and basically let the opposition have it, cross it and essentially shoot at will. Didn't agree with the subs either.
That suggests Stoke wouldn't have piled players forward at any point. We have a strong desire to concede goals in the last few mins in any given half. Either way you look at it we successfully held out for the win against Wham and now Stoke, we're 13th and maybe, just maybe, we'll see adequate backing in the january market. There's reasons to be cheerful, if he'd stayed how we was we'd be bemoaning his ability to see a game out. Notice how Stoke pumped ball after ****ing ball to the tall men as soon as they were a goal down, logic states you'd put an extra defender on. It would have been two n all if not for Gayle and Murphy momentarily forgetting they were footballers. We had a few chances in 'ultra defensive' and that's because Stoke were piling players forward as they were a goal down. Dont get why everyone's not enjoying the three points and still bleating about Rafa.
Please dont mistake my disagreement on subs with anything other than utter elation at beating Stoke!!! If we somehow get one over on Swansea I'll be absolutely over the moon.
We should have probably won that game 3-0 with the chances we had. Scoring still seems to be a problem. Positive performances from Perez, Atsu, Murphy, Lascelles, Clark (except for the miss), and especially Darlow - some great saves there today.
The biggest problem we have is a lack of finishers for sure. Before the Stoke onslaught at the end we'd had 11 shots to 5 and 8 key passes to 2. Even Ayoze's goal could have bounced off the keepers foot and over another day.
Didn't see the game, but getting three points off Stoke will do nicely. They're a **** club from a **** town, with a **** strip and **** fans. Did I mention I don't like Stoke?
Finishing improves with confidence. Here's the thing for me - it genuinely looked like everyone had trust and faith in everyone else on that field, and all to often with Rafa's selection it's missing. How many times have we on here asked for someone else to play No. 10 instead of Perez or Diame? We do it, and everyone plays better. We call out for Joselu to be canned because he adds nothing whatsoever apart from encouraging a long ball he can't win - and even if he does win it, the likes of Gayle or one of our non-10's won't win the second ball. He gets dumped, and we automatically improve. It's about building a good team first and foremost, who need to trust in each other. I think Dummett ahead of Manquillo and Merino in for Diame, and that's the line up we should be watching take on Swansea.
Playing devils advocate. Had he kept things the way they were and Stoke scored then people would be suggesting he made the wrong decision then. Almost every win or loss has been by such close margins this season, hopefully it will go our way a bit more often. Anyway 7 from 12 isnt bad
Not lost against any of the bottom 5 this season apparently. That would be a good way of ensuring survival.
Nice to know in Perez we actually do have a half decent striker. Spent far too long persevering with the myth he's a 10.
