I have an unpleasent feeling that...

Stoke is where our unbeaten streak will eventually come to an end.

A point is very capable, or even a win if we played at our absolute best, but the Britannia is such a difficult place to go to with Stoke's ****ty tactics and thin pitch, and unless our own tactics and performance is spot on, then it's very easy to suddenly find outselves a goal or two down and having to fight through 10 Stoke giants to get some goals of our own.

To give ourselves our best chance, we need to:

1). Avoid relying on width, as due to Stoke's pitch, we won't have any
2). Keep the ball on the grass and play the short passing style we're used to
3). Minimise fouls which give away free kicks
4). Minimise booting the ball out of play to avoid giving away throw-ins.
5). Get the tall folks inside the box during corners and free kicks. I'd play Ba and Best again as they're two tall and fairly well-built players.

Get everything spot on and we might have a chance, but I'd consider this our toughest game so far. One of the hardest teams to beat at home, and we don't have the home advantage this time.

 

Stoke's pitch is something like the 13th biggest, I'm sure someone will back up that with stats.

 

I agree, but including last season we're up to 17 games I think. Even if it ends tonight we've had a very respectable run.

 

I said this 3 weeks ago.

They're like our bogey team even though we've only played them twice in the league.

Their **** hole is a very difficult place to go to and I think they're physical presence will be too much for us to handle.

 

They use the minimum size, you could see when they played in Europe it didnt meet UEFA standards so they had to make it bigger.

 

It's not an unpleasant feeling for me, just a feeling. I'd be very happy with a draw at Stoke, I'm expecting us to lose. Hard place to go to.

 

Wouldn't surprise me.

Of course, it won't be because Stoke are a side in Europe with a fantastic home record, but because our luck has finally run out.

 

Playing a team in Red and White on Halloween, I don't see your problem?

 

Stoke will be tough Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool and Man Utd have all been to Stoke and failed to win this year. This will be very tough.

 

Stoke's pitch is one of the shortest in width. I didn't say it was the largest or smallest.

Being the shortest, it plays right into Stoke's hand with their style of play. Their throw-ins and free kicks are at easier angles, and the lack of width prevents the opposition from utilising width correctly. It also doesn't impact their long-ball play whatsoever.

 

Can we get through Blackburn first? Its far from a foregone conclusion!

 

I'm talking about the EPL unbeaten run.

 

I agree with your bad feeling Chappaz

 

I hope Taylor is back, we need him.

 

win it is then

 

Is it a feasible tactic to have our tallest player (who is that?) stand on the line where Delap is about to take his throw in and jump? He probably wouldn't actually get contact with the ball but he would be a good distraction and a nuisance, hopefully block his view like Taylor does to keepers when we have a free kick. Having said that we're going to need our big players in the box really aren't we...

 

Demba Ba probably is the tallest atm. Think Williamson is when fit. Yeah, we need them in the box, but good idea - someone like Jonas would probably do though

 

Stoke's pitch is 64 metres wide, which is the minimum allowed by the Premier League.


They have to make it bigger in Europa league, because UEFA's minimum is 68 metres

 

My mistake.
Must of been someone else's pitch who people claimed it was small but it actually turned out to be quite big.

 

Stoke were 3-1 with some bookies before last night so I've chucked a few quid on them to cushion the blow of inevitable defeat.