I agree he is underrated, Breezy. He's actually good with the ball at his feet too. That said, he did bugger all except score, but that's his job I suppose.
Agree about Crouch. He looks very ungainly,but don't be fooled by that. Definitely a player not to underestimate. The great Jimmy Greaves didn't do much else,other than score.
Re the pitch width Nope, like that ALL season.. UEFA insist that the outer markings are to standard for UEFA games, i.e. our Europa games it was wider. NOT sure if the groundsman left the grass a little too long on Sunday also. Which is WHY the Arsenal fans complained when we beat them a season or so back.
Where my season ticket seat is I always have a good view on the goal on corners. But during the Europa games because the pitch had to be bigger I couldn't see because the linesman was standing in the way. Potts I noticed that too yesterday that the grass looked longer!
No alcohol could be served either at the ground during Europa games :-( The pitch widening - http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.u...-battle-UEFA/story-13033880-detail/story.html
waddos and you potter, hope to be playing you boys next season, we are having a bit of a wobbler at the moment, our performances are a tad jaded, but I fully expect us to pick ourselves up, and start fighting again like I know our honest players can do, and our manager needs to start thinking a bit laterally, 'Out side the box' as it were, because his preconceptions regarding subs and tactics on times are doing my head in, but there you go, he's a rookie, learning his trade, but please Rodgers, let's have Dobbie back into the fold, sitting behind Graham for some games please! Anyway boys all the best for the rest of the remaining season, the scores are even between us!........................... please log in to view this image
It really is about time pitch sizes were standardised especially in the premier league. Stokes pitch is the smallest in the premier league at 100 x 64m.
Thanks for the best wishes Dragonphiljack Same to you guys! YOU will be fine. With regards to the size of our pitch, it's only this season if I'm correct that, our pitch is narrow as shown by the white/blue lines.. NOT sure why T.P. or whoever decided to do this. And remember too that this is our 4th season in the premier league. My own oppinion sometimes I don't think we get the benefit of such a narrow pitch size. When both Pennant and Ether's play toghether we could utilise that space more to our own advantage. The stupid thing is that Utd,Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs have all played well on it.. Only Arsenal seemed to complain, or their fans did. There are other teams with a (similar size pitch I think?) Another odd fact is when we played our Europa games at home, we never played badly and it didn't seem to make that much difference.. Most probably it was done because of Rory Delap's now USELESS throw in's.. at least they were until Sunday.. last time we won we beat Spurs and one goal came from a throw in, abeit indirectly by Etherington. We've taken a lot of complaints from fans about this and tbh I'm sure this was an idea drummed up by Tony Pulis, although I could be wrong on that. It's about time he too used a Plan B and many of the Stoke fans on here have said this for the last 2 seasons. Re.. more football on the floor. Anyone Swansea fans who we're at the game will tell you likewise. Far too ofthen we bypass our entire midfield only to give the ball away. Any Manager with half a brain would try and correct that but hey feckin ho.. we're talking about T.P. the stubborn Ass... othe fans from Gillingham, etc have told us exactly the same thing. "He will not change his style, his tacktic's" He never has. So, I guess until it's time for him to leave which will not be soon, we'll have to put up with mostly winning ugly, doing it our way. As fan we've no choice but to do that. Jack With regards to Swansea, i did not understand those sub's that Brendan Rodgers made on Sunday? Which is why so fans started singing you don't know what your'e doing. Both player's looked like they could cause us damage but Rodger's took both off! Still, the way you knock the ball around is to be applauded. I'm sure given the forwards we have, IF we we're half as good in that department, we could go a long way. Our midfield must be one of the worst in the League IMO. But again, Pulis failed to address this last Summer, and again in Jan... why we do not know. He play's Wilson at left back he's a midfielder?, Delap right wing,IMO should not even be on the bench he's too old, too slow and past it. Shotton is a full back plays right wing and he does not use enough player's in the right area's. Palacios looks decent but for around 8 million quid he's hardly played and when he does, he looks quality compared to others like Whitehead, Diao and Co. That, is just my own view and Pulis must see something in then that I do not.. Some advice for what it's worth.. keep behind your'e team Jack. Some of the footie you played on Sunday was brilliant with no end product.. keep doing that and I'm sure you will be fine. Rodger's is new to this League and no doubts he will learn quickly. You started so well and IMO it's only a blip. NOT sure that should we beat Norwich this weekend it will do you any favours? If it happens then fantastic. Neither of us are safe YET. But two or three more wins should sort that for both our teams. At least you are doing it the correct way and I admire that.. my only problem would be that sometimes, you seem to overplay too much but seen as we're not known for too much decent footie, what do I know! We can and do play some decent stuff believe it or not, just NOT often enough for me personally. Good luck for the rest of the season Jack, look forward to seeing you for the next few seasons yet. Apologies for the long reply but it might go some way to explaing WHY many of the Stoke fans do not LIKE the way we play we support our team as you do. We don't PICK the team nor the Manager sadly for some fans me included. Pott's
Excellent post, buddy. I think most of our fans are in agreement that doing it the way we are doing is correct. As you say we struggle to penetrate, but practice makes perfect and it's not a bad base we're working off eh! I have no doubt we'll both be in the PL next season.
NO problem guys ... TELL it how you see it easy innit Wish I got paid X millions i.e. Like Vinigar and Hanson MOTD.
Potts, I'm pretty sure we've had the same size pitch for all our Prem/ Domestic games, it's was only made bigger for the Europa games. But I do think maybe it's time we abandoned it, and just had a bigger one, as this season we've done better away than in previous years(on bigger pitches), and done pretty well in Europa. Agree about Shotton, and partially about Delap (I think he's a good player to have on the bench). Palacios is looking good, would like to see him get a full game sometime soon though, but r.e transfers, we DID address midfeild, by buying Palacios, and we also went after a new LB, which would free Wilson to play CM, as it is now, he should be our 1st choice LB, Collins ain't brilliant, Upson struggled when he played left, and the only other player I could see being shoehorned into LB, would be. . . . . Rory Delap! So yeah, until we get a new one, Wilson at LB everytime for me! Back on to the game though, Upson deserved his goal, and man of the match, (the sponsors may have actually watched the game!) Begovic had little to do (ok, Swansea didn't create a great deal), but a fair bit of it was down to Upson always being in the right place, right time.
