Sometimes in a single game there is very little between win, lose or draw...an element of luck, a slip and everything changes. However, the results over a season tell the real truth. We have 36 points at the beginning of February and (you may disagree) we have rarely had a truly bad game.
I don't know what he meant, but maybe he meant that you won every loose ball. You did. I thought you played very well first half, but it is the first time for a while I have seen a midfield beat us to most first and second balls. Someone may construe that as out muscling, but not in a thuggish way.
Yeah, I don't think that we should be shooting from distance when teams are packing the edge of the box...it's horribly low-percentage, and blocked shots often lead to opposition players flooding forward while half your team is in and around their penalty area. We either need to start attacks before the defense has a chance to get set, or we need to find a way to stretch them out. Recently, we have done both; today, we just weren't active enough in the final third to force anything more than simple clearances.
Can't be arsed. It was a tight game like most of us said, at least Hughes is making you play it on the ground. Our defence mid gave your team way to much space first half.
I agree he dealt with Crouch very well, despite the flailing elbows, he kept to his task very well, and distributed the ball better today considering the conditions, now can anyone explain to me why they watered the pitch at half time, had they not noticed that it had been raining or did they not check the forecast?
Yoshida was okay today. His passing was fine, he didn't make any major mistakes other than slipping that one time which given the conditions is understandable. An average-y, mistake-free game is all I ask for from a substitute. But he wasn't exactly a game-changer nor did he do anything to make me believe he is better than Fonte or Lovren.
Yep. I was surprised Vic didn't come on and stop that space. They didn't have the level second half but I half expected a change early second half.
Stoke parked the bus second half and when that happens, we don't score. We need to get more goals late on, but don't really have any impact players to change our style and to offer something different. Our only late goals this season have been the penalty against West Brom and the equalizer against Sunderland.
I was okay with Schneiderlin and Cork coming out to start the second half, but I would have had Wanyama ready to come in at any moment. As it turns out though, defensive mid ended up not being a problem. We were able to hold the ball in just fine with Cork. We just couldn't break down the defense, and I don't think Wanyama would have helped much there. The first half was a situation where it seemed to call for Cork but it didn't matter because they scored twice despite Cork's superior speed and it played to a draw. The second half I would have thought was Wanyama's type of situation but it ended up not mattering there either.
When we are at our best we move things forward at pace. Today we got the ball forward and then put on the brakes. Having said that I put that down to a Stoke team who got their tactics just right and gave our players no space at all in which to receive the ball.
Let's not forget the conditions either. I live near the ground and had to pop outside to put something in the bin during the game. I barely made it back alive! :|
