It sounds to me we can't bloody defend. Didn't have a good feeling for this game, we aren't great after international breaks.
Chelsea is the only game this season I think we've put a good performance over the 90mins this season.
But it's not luck. Some penalties you can argue back n forth about if it is of isn't. But here... I can't even quite believe it. The ball is in the air, he clearly kicks him, the ref is 2 foot away AND looking at him. I don't know what logical thought Lee Mason had to not give it.
Credit to Stoke, they deserved their victory and are a better team than many think. We were ok, just not great, but we do look more like a team suited to the away win.
Classic modern Premier League football match really. One bit of loose defending in the 10th minute, and the game is over.
I knew as soon as that goal went in it would likely be the winner. Although i thought Stoke would have gone more defensive than they did. Agree with most, we weren't at the races, Stoke were, and the ref compounded it.
Is it not the Man City game? Daft of him either way (but you can understand why he'd be frustrated). That was a poor second half. Not quite sure how Shane made it through 90 minutes. Not because of fitness, but more because he played poorly. Tadic's final ball wasn't there today. One of those days though. Loose balls all dropped to Stoke. Massive credit to them, they played very well and contained any threat that we posed. Should have had the world's most obvious penalty though.
We were very poor. Yet AGAIN we struggle to make a clear chance in 90 minutes but Stoke managed to create 5 or 6. Stoke defended very well and deserved the win. That penalty desicion was shocking though.
Terrible, terrible refereeing. Wollscheid pulled down Pellè in the box first half, nothing given. Wollscheid tries even harder to attract the ref's attention second half, nothing given. That's not luck, because both would have been clear goal scoring chances. Awful.
Not a good day. No really good chances created by Saints, which isn't that unusual. Lots of good chances created by Stoke, which isn't good at all. We still aren't good enough to consistently break down teams that come to St Mary's to defend or play on the counter. It's a compliment that so many teams do it to us but we need to figure out a way to create more (some?) chances. It may just be that we need more quality attacking players in the squad.
I do think Stoke is a good side, but they really weren't that great today. Not saying they were rubbish, just that we could have won that game had we been at our best. We just couldn't get it in gear, and Stoke got the lead early and did enough to grind out the win. Yes, it was an blatant penalty but we really didn't deserve any points from that game. I'm kind of disappointed in the result as I thought that was a winnable game. But going forward, I'm not ringing for changes or anything. There was nothing that was seriously awful in our play, just one of those games where everyone was a bit flat. It happens.
