Decent point but they were there for the taking. All Stoke can do is win headers ****ing bunch of oafs.
Think that's a bit unfair really. They improved as the game went on and we were hanging on at the end.
Well yeh near the end we lost energy to pass it around but seriously it seems as though they just train to jump and win headers.
Was a bit "Billy the Fish" (think someone stuck lead weights in our boots at half time). Last 20-25 we had no energy and barely won a single 50-50 ball.
will take that. an average performance against an average opposition.. Its slightly annoying that we seem to play our best football against better opposition.. why cant we play at our best against the likes of stoke, palace, cardiff etc..
An important point gained over 18th place, but SB needs to do some shrewd work in the January window. Both Graham and Sagbo work the channels but we have nothing at the middle of our attack.
Very poor second half performance. Looks like we switched off at half time. We should have put the game away by then. Lack of attacking creativity is catching up with us. Even Sagbo looked like he was fed up by game end. The January window is going to be crucial if we are to stay up. CP are looking good up front with Chamakh and Jerome. Cardiff have FC. Stoke were unlucky not to score and get the win. Chester is not the answer against big forwards and seems confused as to who to pass to when he brings it out. Faye or Macca for me...they also give us a goal scoring threat on corner kicks. Hard to pick a MOM this week. Livermore was his usual hard working self. Elmos work rate is impressive and he won an amazing number of headers but missed a sure goal with one when wide open. Sagbo looked great in the first half.
What's with all this walking pace ticky tacky passing that really has us going nowhere. We almost slowed to a crawl in the second half if they play like that over the Xmas & New year period we'll take a hammering by the stronger teams in the division.
Do we have any tactics when it comes to throw- ins? All I seem to see is the ball being flung a distance in the hope that a team player will head it down - invariably, they always seem to be surrounded by the opposition who win the ball 90% of the time. I never see decoys, false runs or players looking for the ball at their feet. We just seem to keep giving the ball back to the opposition and reverting to defence mode.
Cardiff fan...we have the same problems with the way we are playing but then its not the championship anymore. Battling for promotion with you last season what would we have given to be out of the relegation places at this point. lets hope we both get another season. jck
Thought we lacked a bit of focus and concentration at times, gifting them the ball when under no pressure, making the wrong pass, slack ball control. Stoke were just as bad if not worse. It was crying out for some slick close passing around their mastodontic defence. Poor turn out too from Sjoke.
Not happy that we couldn't get the 3 points today, felt we were good value for the first 65 minutes and then we seemed to switch off and Stoke got back into it and managed to scare us as well. We desperately need a match winner and currently we seem to be lacking that
For me, Huddlestone and Livermore ran out of steam in the second half and it was the same at the Swansea game. We desperately miss Aluko. He is happy to take possession of the ball and allows others the time to find decent positions. Huddlestone had a few decent touches where you would say he was class but he also gave it away in dangerous positions a number of times, and should have been booked near the end for holding their player back.
Nothing has changed today. We're still a good side and we're still playing well. Some of the over-reactions on here are embarrassing. Trying to pull apart certain players and look for scapegoats is just stupid. No one won a header against Crouch, it wasn't just Chester he was beating.
