Stoke are currently on a 331-minute streak without an away goal. They have failed to score in five of their last six league away . Oh yes!
Disappointing half really, I feel Stoke have been the better team and have certainly stifled us, although they don't seem to have too much quality in the final third. I think we need a change for the second half, be that in tactics or personnel, as I don't think our tactics are working particularly at the moment. I expect we'd want more from Rodriguez as well as more opportunities on the ball for Lallana.
Credit to Hughes and Stoke...they went with a surprisingly ambitious lineup, and it has paid off. A rarity for us: we might be going for the home run ball too much, at the cost of possession. Guess we were trying to take advantage of the conditions, but none of them really amounted to much.
Need to make some kind of change in the midfield. We're losing that battle. Maybe Wanyama needs to come on, or maybe Cork and Schneiderlin need to work something out.
Well played from Stoke, think we were all expecting them to do what most teams seem to do now at St. Mary's and sit deep and play on the counter, particularly given they are very well set up to do just that, but they've been pressing us high and giving us a bit of our own medicine. Probably good for us to have gone in level, hopefully we can have a Fulham-style adjustment for the second half (not necessarily personnel-wise) and take control of the game as we still have a clear edge in quality.
