Just saw this on the Stoke forum, bodes well:- Anyone up for some stats???????? How bad are QPR and are they relegation fodder?????? Is Hughes under pressure??????? QPR - played 38 premier league games. Won 7. Stoke - played 38 premier league games. Won 7 Last win for QPR????? 1-0 over Stoke (May2012) Previous meeting at the Brit????? 2-3 to QPR (Nov 2011) I hear taxi for Hughes??? I say taxi for Pulis!!!
Might have a chance if Crouch plays on his knees and if Stoke get no corners or free kicks neat penalty area.
I expect 0 pts on saturday. Ive seen nothing to convince me with Hughes in charge on the road that we will even get a point let alone 3.
Encouraging stats.... but Houston is right to point out our shocking vulnerability at corners. Fingers crossed....
All Tony Pulis has to say to his team is get the ball in the box at every opportunity and we will win Easy job this managing lark
Strangely enough, this is one where we'll most likely be up against 442 so have options. I would bring in Hill to partner Nelsen because they don't have too much pace up front and we need presence.
Lou Macari: QPR poised to lose aerial battle at the Brit STOKE might need a win this coming Saturday, but not half as much as my old mate Mark Hughes does. QPR come to the Britannia Stadium still seeking their first Premier League win of a campaign that has yielded just four points from 10 matches. I don't care how supportive Rangers' owner Tony Fernandes is – he isn't going to stand for that kind of return for much longer. And he certainly isn't going to wait as long as January to hand over another pot of money to Mark. I'm afraid that cash will be set aside for another manager, and who'd bet against Harry Redknapp being that man if the time comes to pull the trigger on the current boss? Having played with Mark for a year-or-so at Manchester United, I've always followed Sparky's career. And given QPR's predicament, I think this is probably the biggest challenge yet of his managerial career. If only he had a few players with the kind of skill and spirit he once had as a player. Instead, what I see is a team full of names, reputations and big wages ... but one lacking those fundamental qualities you need to survive in any league, never mind the Premier League. I don't see enough team spirit, enough work-rate or enough aggression. The defence is the worst part of Mark's Rangers team. I don't remember them winning a single header in their own penalty box from the few corners Reading won on Sunday ... and Brian McDermott's men are hardly from the land of the giants. So I can see Stoke's biggest strength coming up against QPR's biggest weakness this Saturday ... and that's why I have little doubt the Potters will secure their second win of the season. If you come to Stoke to get a result, then you might achieve that if you can defend, if you are organised and if you are fully committed. But I just don't seen enough of those assets in this QPR team. What I do see is a team knocking the ball around for the sake of it and having no real game plan. They may prove me wrong at the Britannia this weekend, but I doubt it. I believe Djibril Cisse scored the winner the last time QPR took three points from a Premier League game. If you recall, it was their second from last home fixture of the 2011/12 campaign last May, and Stoke were on the receiving end. And although I don't really like Cisse as a player, I have to admit he can always smash one in from next to nowhere. Just ask Reading, after he grabbed Rangers' equaliser in their 1-1 draw at Loftus Road on Sunday. Junior Hoillett arrived at Rangers from Blackburn Rovers with a blossoming reputation, but so far this season he hasn't looked anything like the player he was last term. And then there's Adel Taarabt. He's always capable of pulling a rabbit out of the hat on his day, but he's not a 90-minute man and that's why he's invariably pulled off well before the end of a match. So there's plenty there for Stoke to get their teeth into. There will be pressure on Stoke on Saturday, but nothing like the pressure that is on their rivals. And Stoke will also have the asset of a big crowd behind them – or at least I hope so, because the fans have a big part to play in situations like this. It's a part they've played superbly in the Premier League so far, and long may it continue. http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.u...-battle-Brit/story-17246227-detail/story.html
I'm sure there was a Stoke fan on 5 live at the weekend complaining that they've changed to & are rigidly sticking with 4231, even though it doesn't suit their players. He said he can't see where their next goal is coming from. It sounds like a few genuinely want Pulis out... Stoke really aren't playing well at the moment i don't think.
Yeah....I think I heard a Stoke player on TV saying that they've added another midfield player to their formation this season. So that's another game where Granero and Diakite will be chasing shadows then, unless Hughes changes his formation.
