That's what I would say how Stoke played today, get some players in now, or it's the championship for us.
Well I was there Crazy and I would say it was crap and no it is not the championship for us. Lighten up ! I will come back with further comment!
I am ****ed off with these people, msn utd lose at old trafford yet we lose at palace and we are doomed ,shame on you all
I was there too Cris, We were as bad a Palace in fairness, for the home team they played like (we used to under the twat with the cap) Adam on another day would have scored. Stop fooking panicking lads, it was ONE BAD game.
ok lets see, what we do against Sunderland, sorry potts, one bad game, we have had 3 good games this season, man city, Chelsea,liverpool, all at home, playing away, we are crap, and have been since we have been in the Prem. The defence is all over the place. Butland was the best player yesterday.
Excellent you have made a point worth discussing! Playing away we are crap. Spot on and like you say its been the case since we have been in the prem - so how its this Hughes fault? 3 Good games all season - debatable and I would argue inaccurate - we battered West Ham, we were beating Newcastle and led Everton (according to Queenslander the relegation team for next season) until the 92nd minute. The defence is all over the place. I agree and this has cost us probably 3-5 points this season. However, TP spent alot of money and had no CD cover by the time he left, Huth has been injured and Begovic is out - its understandable why but you would expect a manager to be able to work round this. Maybe he should have amended his tactics accordingly - I dont know. What do you think? Anyway, I am still struggling to see from your post (which made some very valid and appropraiet points) how its is Hughes fault. If you could expand further maybe I will understand.
Some of the stats from yesterday Possession Crystal Palace: 43% shots: 12 On target:6 Stoke city: 57% shots: 17 On target: 2 More possession away from home 17 Shots away from home Yes only 2 shots were on target and we need to sort that out so we are at least working the goalkeeper but we are hardly dammed by these stats We have struggled for goal since we came up, something Mr Hughes is doing something about. We are getting there and when we have our proper defence back we will have more stability and will stop shipping goals, it's a matter of hanging on in there picking up points where we can, oh and keeping the faith.
The lack of conversion has always been a problem as Crazy rightfully points out. Kitson, Tunny, Beattie (His goals kept us up), Jerome, Walters, Jones, Crouch..... the list is endless and very expensive in both transfers and wages. This is something that has to be put right (yesterday) and I am at a loss as to how we are going to do it. Walters and Crouch has to be one of the weakest line ups in the league but I'm not sure how we get round it. I agree that possession (is 9th/10ths of the game) is improtant but we have to be able to do something with it and for me Hughes is relying on the midfield of Adam/Ireland/Assadi to score the goals - which I think is the issue. We are definatley creating more chances, its just who they fall to and where. I think alot of it is confidence and until they start scoring its hard to see where their next goal is coming from. I have to agree with some of the posters on the board that I am unsure whether the right man for motivation is Hughes, but we dont know what goes on behind closed doors.
I am not saying Hughes is at fault, he inherited a bad squad, he should have got rid of, jones,ethers, and 3 or 4 more, I know Gerome was not great, but why loan him out, he was the only one with pace, perhaps he would have done better how we playing now. Its is not Hughes fault, how much money was wasted in the past, but the team need some good players with pace. I have just watched Swansea have loads of possession, and lose 3.1 its the ball in the net that counts.
Crazy On the point of Jones, Jerome and Etherington. Do you not think that Hughes and Coates are waiting for calls? I can only think that Jerome has not sufficiently impressed TP to make it a permanent signing. Etherington will IMHO need to drop down a couple of leagues to be honest. With regards to Jones I was in a meeting with Eddie Niedwicki (the 1st team coach) on Friday night and he said that following his text to Hughes he was fined, and now they are looking for a reaction from him. Jones trained last week and it was thought it best he did not go to Palace. What irked the management team most was the fact that he left Hughes with no option on the bench if Crouchy was injured or if the team was chasing the game against Liverpool or he wanted Crouch and Jones playing together he just could not! Jones by texting that he was unavailable simply would have put other clubs 'investing' in him and I personally think he will be looking for a new club in the summer. I agree about Jerome having pace and being an impact sub. I also think we are certainly one paced in attack and this is a problem. Guiddeci looked briefly as if he has much more pace than the likes of Crouch and may be an answer to some of our issues. He may have to replace Walters. There is also in previous comments by you that we have had three good games. I would contest this as I thought We should have won much more comfortably at West Ham. We outplayed Newcastle before Atkinson decided to spoil a perfectly good game by showing red cards. We were playing well We played well at Fulham and should have won. ( However we must SCORE!) At Swansea we march into a 2-0 lead and then are fortunate to draw! We played well I thought against Villa. At Old Trafford again we should have come away with something. Eddie Niedwicki said on Friday night that the biggest issue there was that with Arnie being taken off with illness that 'we had nobody to carry the ball.' I thought the game against Everton in New Years' Day was a terrific effort and we did not win simply because of PENNANT I do agree we have a problem finding the goal and 2 on target from 17 continues is the issue. As Potts said another day efforts by Adam would have gone in. Cheers
I was concerned when Jerome went and I think if if wasn't for the fact that CP had paid the annual loan fee (circa 1 million) TP would have sent him back.
cheers smithers, ok we have had more than 3 good games, but bad refs,decisions, and bad luck, are one thing, yes we nearly thrown it away against Swansea. we should have won at Hull, but we don't have the bottle to go for it, which we should have done against palace.
Yeh we seem to have gone backwards in seeing the game out which you can't do at this level. We have been our own worst enemy in certain situations but we need a leader on the pitch who can keep their cool. We need Huth and Begovic back ASAP and get a few clean sheets and build from there.
Crazy Agreed we should also have won at Hull. I think the team had the bottle there and Ireland's disallowed effort was very close. At Palace I thought after going behind we did throw everything at it. Shawcross for the last 12 -15 minutes lived in the Palace half and more than once we were outnumbered at the back. At that stage of the game though we were too one dimensional and to be honest the territorial advantage we had did not particularly bother Palace. Butland was really really good and the triple save he pulled off was probably the best I have seen this season. He did his chances of more PL games no harm at all. With regard to referee decisions, I learnt on Friday night that originally the referee was to be Clattenburg but it was changed on Stoke's request. That is an aside but we have had shocking decisions. In my view we got nothing against Liverpool because of the penalty. The ref cost us at Newcastle. Debemele should have not been on the pitch at Totenham when he scored their second goal! I could go on but all I want is some sort of consistency. Could anybody explain why Rafael was not sent off at Chelsea and follow VIDIC?
