Shaqiri starts for Stoke. Van Ginkel, Afellay, Shaqiri, Arnautovic and Diouf is one heck of an attacking lineup. Whelan has his work cut out as holding midfielder.
That could be the key to this one, JR, as well as a settled team against one integrating new players. OTBC!
Just having a pre-match beer in the Bell (Jaipur - excellent!!) and 3 fans in front of me each wearing a different version of this season's shirts!!
Bloody hell! Just like the Palace game! Where the fudge are the defenders!? Miles of space. Not good enough, again! Stoke did nothing to earn that.
YEAAAA!! Come on! Deserved that. Good play from Russ. Our defenders are better in front of goal than they are at the back.
Clearly Neil also thinks we need a replacement for Martin what with all these strikers we're linked to
This has been a catalogue of errors - Bassong lucky to get away with the arm on Diouf, Brady clearly hand balling it when caught out of position, Whittaker giving the ball away in a dangerous place as he tries a one-on-one and a horror show from Ruddy just there. We've only ourselves to blame defensively. It's nothing to do with skill. Is it nerves? It's getting ridiculous
Yep it's a good job we equalised relatively quickly because it's obvious how successful Stoke are sitting back and counter-attacking
I reckon Grabban will be licking his lips at what he's seen so far of Stoke's back four. They don't seem that mobile and that's before playing an hour in this heat gets to them. I reckon the last third of this game could be really crazy. Good game. Toe to toe against a Stoke team with loads of quality going forward.