please log in to view this image ............................................... please log in to view this image Stoke City................................... vs ...................... Swansea City The Brittania Stadium Stoke Sat 26-02-12 15:00 PM KO For links to watch the game online, click HERE Welcome one and all to the match thread for the game between Stoke and Swansea. You'd probably ba hard pressed to find a greater clash of styles between two teams operating in any league, never mind the most watched league in the world, and without doubt today's game is going to be an intriguing match up. The return fixture earlier in the season resulted in a much needed 2-0 home win where the Swans showed they wouldn't be bowed by physicality alone. Today's game will no doubt be a sterner test of the Swans mettle, and if they come away with a result it'll be a very impressive result. Stoke's home form has been very poor of late, but the Brittania will always be a tough place to go given the intensity of the team's play and the vociferous nature of the home fans. The Match; Stoke have had a much busier time of it than the Swans in the last two weeks. They've played no less than 3 games since the Swans played last, and their opponents were the previously unconnected Valencia and Crawley Town. They managed to breeze past Crawley into the next round of the cup, but the nature of Puli's team selection in Europe left some Potters fans questioning his priorities, given the two 1-0 defeats.. No doubt though, they'll be looking for a first PL win since the 2nd of January away at Blackburn. You've got to go all the way back to December the 11th to find the last home win, although that was, in fairness, a good victory over Spurs. Swansea have had a nice little break really. Last time out they lost 3-2 at home (only the Swans' second defeat at home all season) to an increasingly impressive Norwich team. Norwich seem to be the one side so far to have figured out how to effectively counter our possession game, and hopefully Pulis wasn't watching and taking too many notes, although the two week rest which included a warm weather training trip to Tenerife will no doubt leave the Swans feeling recharged after a frenetic campaign so far. Prior Form; (most recent at top) Swansea City 2 -3 Norwich Premier League West Brom 1 - 2 Swansea City Premier League Swansea City 1 -1 Chelsea Premier League Sunderland 2 - 0 Swansea City Premier League Swansea City 3 -2 Arsenal Premier League Valencia 1 - 0 Stoke City Europa League Crawley Town 0 - 2 Stoke City FA Cup Stoke 0 -1 Valencia Europa League Fulham 2 - 1 Stoke City Premier League Stoke City 0 - 1 Sunderland Premier League Team News Stoke are only missing ex-Swan Mamady Sidibe, who is likely to be out for the rest of the season with a knee tendon injury. *Delap is available after his appeal against a red card received against Crawley was successful. Swansea will assess Kemy Augustien and Andrea Orlandi before the game, but Joe Allen should be fit to start after missing the Norwich game with a slight hamstring tear. Trivia; - "Courtesy" of Opta Completely guessed lineups; Stoke Begovic Wilkinson Wilson Shawcross Upson Pennant Etherington Whelan Whitehead Crouch Walters Swansea Vorm Rangel Taylor Williams Caulker Britton Allen Sigurdsson Dyer Sinclair Graham Analysis; I am now very much looking forward to this game. For some illogical reason, I'm quietly confident but I think this has a lot to do with Stoke's poor home form. The Swans, too, have a few issues that need addressing. After drawing praise from big name ex-pros and pundits for their defensive prowess and number of clean sheets, they have now only managed to muster 1 clean sheet in their last 11 games. This needs to be address, and soon, but I feel the Stoke game isn't going to be the game it happens in. All over the field there are physical mismatches, and while I wouldn't be surprised to see someone like Augustien come in to counter that slightly, we need to stick to what we know best and so I think Rodgers will, as always, put out the team he thinks is best suited to retaining possession. In midfield, Whitbread and Whelan will have a hard time of it unless they are helped out by Walters dropping back, but absolutely key will be restricting the flow from Peter Crouch. A target that obvious will always be found, and as we did at home, we need to have a man marking him to stop him bringing the ball under control. If he is going for the flick on, the defence will drop back to mop up anything that comes through, and I see this being an effective foil to Crouch. Just let him have the ball a lot further out, and don't challenge him in the air. What's the point!? This is a brief thread today as I've had a bit of a mad weekend one way or another, but my only other insight is I see a sending off in this game... Ladies and Gentlemen, the floor is yours. Iechyd Da. Scott
Great thread as usual, Scott. I'm worried about this one but maybe that's because of the Norwich game which shook me a bit. Agustien is out btw, which is a shame because he's made for a game like this. We can only hope that Stoke's out of sorts form carries on but I think their manager will target this game as a 'get-back-on-track' one and they'll really come at us with those long balls. Head says a 2-0 win for Stoke but I'm in that kind of mood today. Heart hoping for a 0-1.
Worried about this one as well. Stoke have the weapons to hurt us and we never seem to play well after a break. KJ, completely echo your sentiments regarding the result and hoping against hope that my heart is right and my head is wrong. Thanks again for a good thread, Scott.
I'm hoping Agustien will start today , should be a humdinger of a game as Stoke will want to extract a bit of revenge .
Good article well put together and I'm off there now to watch the game. We need 3 points today badly to avoid slipping further down the table and after Pulis sacrificed our European run leaving out 9 senior players for this game, nothing less than a win will do today or the crowd will crucify him. I suppose that is a testament to how well Swansea are playing this season in that our manager leaves out his top players in our biggest game in Europe for over 40 years for this match. Any side that can pass the ball, which Swansea do well, will always give Stoke a tough game so I'm not really looking forward to this clash. Chat later and hopefully saying how well we played and how we deserved the three points (tongue in cheek).
Hopefully Andy Wilkinson starts, because he is owed a leg breaking tackle by one of our players. And that Shawcross. ****s the pair of them. Should be back in the championship where they belong
Yeah, confirmed. Vorm out with a virus. Uhoh! LINE-UPSStoke v Swansea Stoke: Begovic, Wilkinson, Shawcross, Upson, Wilson, Shotton, Whitehead, Whelan, Etherington, Walters, Crouch. Subs: Sorensen, Jones, Fuller, Pennant, Delap, Jerome, Palacios. Swansea: Tremmel, Rangel, Williams, Caulker, Taylor, Britton, Sigurdsson, Allen, Dyer, Graham, Sinclair. Subs: Tate, Routledge, Monk, McEachran, Lita, Moore, Gower. Playing at home, and you've got 5 defenders on the field against a newly promoted side. Surely you've got to expect a bit more attacking intent than that?!
Vorm not starting is the major blow... But before Vorm came in, Tremmel was set to be our 'Number 1' so this is a good opportunity for him to show us what he's about. Fingers crossed he has a blinder!
Nice and positive from Pulis. Right back in midfield. Destructive, negative, anti-football prick. Hope we smash them.
I hope Tremmel doesn't have to prove himself today because that would mean a busy time and Stoke having the better of the game ! right we won at our place playing football so it has to be much the same ,they are a big side so hopefully no arial battles (not that we do) and playing to their strengths so keep it on the ground ,big guys dont like that and i remember us at portsmouth the little uns of ours running rings around crouch , he looked like Bambi on ice that day , so more of the same hopefully
Gutted Vorm is out, but this might be OK for us. Tremmel is taller than Vorm, so with the influx of long throw ins etc so Tremmel might be better to deal with these. Just a hunch it might favour us.
Not confident now with Vorm out. Of hte games Tremmel has played, he hasn't really shone, has he? Feel sorry for Stoke though, Pulis is a negative ****er.
