I've deliberately stayed away from this thread until now, my take on the match is that Stoke did a number on us with a perfect away performance. We missed Sadio from the start (****ing international break!..) and Graziano was not at his dominant best, therefore we were a little toothless up front. Mason gave us nothing all afternoon and missed 2 obvious pens on Graziano. I feared that if Stoke scored then we would struggle to break them down as their defensive record away is very good, I honestly think that we will get more chances against Citeh as they will let us play a bit more.
Would have missed a game soon anyway....couldn't see him being free of yellow cards for long. Comes down to do you care more about the league game or the cup game. Generally I would say the league game, but we are getting close in the cup and will need Pelle for that. Opinions, opinions.
Would rather him miss City than Liverpool so not too bad. As Fran says it was gonna happen at some point, may as well get it out of the way now.
Agreed, especially as Liverpool were so effective without a recognised "number 9". I'd like Mane to play through the middle with Tadic and Juanmi either side. Long to be used as an impact sub.
Wonder when the last time City lost two home games on the bounce was? Wouldn't be ideal going into the Liverpool game on the back of two defeats, so be nice to try to get something out of City.
They lost two on the bounce at home this season in September. 2-1 defeats to Juventus and West Ham. Juventus had started Serie A with two losses and a draw when they played Manchester City. Edit: September. 15th and 19th
Nice - so it happens! Don't know whether that makes our chances bigger or smaller now. Have to examine the probability now of City losing sequentially on more than one occasion over nine home games. Which basically changes the question to how likely are City to lose half of all their home games between mid-September and next weekend.
Not the best game. Miss mane's pace, could do with another speedster or jrod to get fit! Mane through the middle against city for me and add jwp to the midfield. Hopefully it's demichelis and mangala at the back again saturday
My brief take on it: We definitely missed Mane. Without his pace their defense could push forwards and close space with less risk of a ball behind them.. Our delivery from both set piece and open play was very poor Cedric looked very vulnerable one on one in defense Clasie starting to settle in Stoke deserved to win My toes took 2 hours to thaw Caterers ran out of hot chocolate at the START of half time. FFS, it's not hard to assess likely demand, and it doesn't go off if unsold.. I probably got done for speeding through the M3 roadworks. In both directions.
If there was a 'biggest single problem', it was the final ball. It was either hit and hope or trying to do too much. I felt it needed something in-between and a bit more composure.
Agree about the poor quality of the final ball/set pieces...this is where we miss JWP. The number of times both Cedric and Tadic got behind the lines only to chip up a lovely looking floaty cross was doing my head in and from his reaction at the end of the match Shane Long had the same issue especially with Tadic as they stood toe to toe arguing about it after the game. Just look at Liverpools first goal when the clumsy defender got his feet tangled up because the cross came in low and hard. Floaty crosses against a very big and very physical side like Stoke was an absolute waste of time
Reference the cross for Stoke's goal, and having read or heard how great it was, can I just add that the cross deflected off of Wanyama, giving it the perfect spin off the turf, for Bojan to score, with a very good finish. Doesn't change the result, just annoyed at the cross receiving so much praise, when had it not been deflected, it would possibly have gone behind Bojan. There, I feel better now.
INCIDENT: Graziano Pelle (Southampton) goes down under a challenge from Philipp Wollscheid (Stoke) GALLAGHER'S VIEW: Wrong decision GALLAGHER SAYS: It's a penalty. Wollscheid is nowhere near the ball and looks like he's guilty. For whatever reason, referee Lee Mason thought differently. Dermot Gallagher confirms what we all knew.
I also think Cedric seemed to half turn away from it, when a 12" move to the side would have seen it hit him... being extremely picky mind.
