Well where do I start? Most of their players would get a sniff but pennant,etherington,jones,crouch,palacios,woodgate,begovic would all walk into our side.
I like the way you try to give Bruce and the players your 100% support but surely you Sid must feel agreived by the amount of money spent and our current team compared to stokes? Be realistic.
You may actually catch Stoke at the right time. Having played in the Ukraine last night, they may still be a little fatigued, both physically and mentally on Sunday. They are not used to playing away in Europe and even the best and most experienced teams sometimes suffer a dip in form after a midweek european trip.
The main thing I'd be worried about is Crouch, if he plays. Stoke's style of football suits him perfectly and I expect him to do well with them. Set pieces will be a nightmare with that giant ****er roaming about. Little 5 foot 7 Sessegnon will **** a brick.
I hate Stoke's style of play its terrible to watch but effective for them, but like you say Chappaz it will suit Crouch very much, it's sure to be a tricky afternoon for us. If we go one down the crowd will turn on the players and manager.
Oh no!!!...That bloke has a deep hatred of us...That is surely the only logical explanation for his past performances involving us...
Crouch, Pennant, Etherington, Huth, Shawcross, Upson, Begovich, Jones would get in our tean dansafcman
Stoke do not play for the MOTD armchair punters, nor for the worldwide audience. We play for the city and the local fans and we play exactly as we like. Get your tin hats out and bunker down - I predict a tough afternoon for you with the fans the way they are right now.
Upson blows ass. I don't think Stoke have much quality, but the thing is, the players compliment each other perfectly, so as an actual unit they play very well. In fact, I'd say Stoke are the ONLY team in the entire EPL where every single starting 11 player has perfectly matching attributes with the other players in the team. Every player has that Stoke style of play flowing through them. For that reason though, I wouldn't take many of their starting 11 in our starting 11, because I don't think they would be as effective alongside some of our players who play differently.
So you wouldn't take crouch or jones instead of ameobi? Or etherinton instead of jonas? Or woodgate (fit) in your defence? And no to palacios too? Your something else lol.
I said I wouldn't take MANY of them you melon. I'd take Crouch over Ameobi and Jones over Lovenkrands, even though I don't rate Jones at all, but Lovenkrands is far worse. I'd keep Jonas over Etherington. Woodgate isn't fit and probably never will be, so there's no point in saying 'IFs'. It's like asking if I'd take a past-it player if he was 10 years younger. Anyway, he used to be an amazing CB and he's still good, but I don't think he could get ahead of Saylor or Colo with the form they have now. I'd take Palacios, but I wouldn't put him ahead of Tiote or Cabaye in CM. So in-terms of actual starting 11's, I'd replace the two strikers and keep the rest. That's only because their other players just wouldn't suit the team we have though, and the ones who WOULD suit us would be kept out by the players in our strongest positions in the squad, i.e. CM's and CB's. I'd probably take their best LB's and RB's to replace Raylor and Simpson, but I haven't watched Stoke enough to know how good theirs are.
I've got nothing against Stoke at all. I envy them infact. They play to their strengths, have got 2 very good wingers and the commitment their players show is second to non. No team in the EPL will be looking forward to playing them, can the same be said about us? We're a soft touch. I think this game has a draw written all over it. With the way things are going at the moment, I'll be happy with a draw.
