Stoke post match 1-1

[Sionnach gorm]

A bit disappointed Drago and Amartey didn’t play.  I’m not sure what Puel is seeing.  Perhaps he’s trying things out for next season...don’t know...just confused.

[oxtonfox]

You can tell after a few minutes we were not up for it and we are slow and so one dimensional. 

We are in rotten form, totally reliant on Mahrez. When he’s off we have zero creativity. And we are the worst in the prem with corners from an attacking and defensive sense. Add to that our free kicks are shite too. Seriously seriously hacked off with them. Thanks for ruining my weekend.

 

 

[Reg Vardy]

3 hours ago, Fox 4 Life said:

We do have a decent team but lots of them are sat on the bench. Puel needs to sort it the **** out. We are 10 points off he bottom 3 (extra game played) which is by no means safety and the way we are playing we need to watch it. Stoke are possibly the worst team in the league outside of WBA

We need one win or three draws to stay up. We have Bournemouth, Newcastle, Southampton,WBA, Palace, West Ham, Burnley, Brighton....we won’t go down, get over it.

[fairbanksh]

Really like Puel but have no idea what he's doing

Abject midfield 

Dragovich better than Wes

Simpson well past his best

Why did we buy Silva and Iborra?

Very very poo5

[Nigel Graham Pearson]

I don’t know what’s going on in Puel’s mind. It seemed at one point that he wanted us to evolve into a more inventive side that’s comfortable on the ball. Then he chooses Simpson, Morgan and James against a crap side that are only going to come and sit back. 

[NotTheMarketLeader]

3 hours ago, SecretPro said:

Puel ****ed that for us. He can get in the bin if he picks another starting 11 like that. Playing James for 90 mins when you have Silva and Iborra on the bench should be a criminal offence. Wes and Simpson walk straight back in and instantly revert us back to hoofball. Gray isn't a number 10. Get a fecking grip. Recent history of city managers picking favourites instead of players on merit roles on again. Sort it out. 

This. 

 

There is the negative play of Shakespeare which was obvious.

 

This type of football we witnessed today is the ‘sheep in wolfs clothing’ of negative football; yes we are not defending the edge of our area for most of the game, but we have played one of the weakest teams in the division, at home, with Vards the lone striker for most of the game.

 

1 up front with loads of possession, most in our half and creating nothing is: 

 

NEGATIVE, DEFENSIVE TACTICS.

 

Puel should be focusing on on how to create chances for one of the leagues top strikers in Vardy. This should be the starting point for the game’s strategy.

 

Puel is orchestrating games so Vardy is playing off scraps.

 

Totallly arse about face and doomed to failure I think.

 

Being marginally better than a really shit manager in Shakespeare is not enough. 

Edited 24 February 2018 by NotTheMarketLeader

[Dan LCFC]

Absolutely not good enough.

[winteriscoming]

I agree we were poor today but we had enough chances to win the game. Hit the woodwork twice and mahrez should of done better when one on one. I do question puels selection - dragovic had been playing well and silva/Iborra would be better than james. I hope he doesnt revert to Shakespeare and have his favourites. 

[fuchsntf]

32 minutes ago, Hammo said:

We need to take the game to teams like Stoke when we are at home with pace and intensity, which gets the crowd up and, in turn, drives on the players.

 

In the first half we were so slow and ponderous in everything we did - even taking throw ins took 30 seconds or more!

 

We have a sufficiently good squad and team to get seventh place, but keep playing like this and the season will die a painfully slow death.

 

Other areas of weakness today:

- Woeful crosses

- Getting caught in possession

- Gray in the 'hole' (and Puel keeping him there for an hour when he obviously can't operate there)

 

and what's the issue with Silva, Claude?....

I dont think the crosses we're poor,but no one,was competing for them. 

Plus has mentioned in another Post,we didnt have Maguire on the backpost,

It seemed Morgan was telling him to go more in the center...

In fact,our whole commitment to corners and good crosses,was poor.

That was the fault of our players in the wpitch.

 

Vardy was Well Marshalled ,but I dont think He was poor.

Gray was a let down(again) ,He has to rethink His Game.He has the quality and Potential.

We were on top,but WE had Nobody to unlock their well organised defence,Gray didnt ask

the question,that would of made Space for Vardy and got players off Mahrez Back.

Pivotel positions..we're too slow,and lost out in either in moving the Ball clinically,delibrately,

and quickly.  Gray/Ndidi/Morgan for different reasons,we're too slow in thoughts and movement.

 

They didnt Know today,what to do while on the Ball,even though Options were available.

We do need Silva,maybe even Iborra,who are comfortable on the Ball,and ditto for Drago.

3 players who dont seem to Panic,when defending the Ball and Spaces,and are ready. to

See where the Ball has to be moved to when on the attack,being confident to hold,and take that

extra step,without Feeling they are under pressure.

 

I dont think Okazaki,would make the difference...Hes an Hustler,and doesnt defend 2nd 3rd Ball

Moments...Though after this Game,and Hindsight,He would of done better than Gray...today.

 

 

 

 

[NotTheMarketLeader]

8 minutes ago, Reg Vardy said:

We need one win or three draws to stay up. We have Bournemouth, Newcastle, Southampton,WBA, Palace, West Ham, Burnley, Brighton....we won’t go down, get over it.

Piss off. 

 

We want ant better than this ffs.

 

Where is the ambition with that attitude?

[NewEnglandFox]

1 hour ago, kingfox said:

We are too reliant on Vardy, we are too reliant on Mahrez, Gray has done fvck all recently, Diabate has promise but right now he's not fully ready, Albrighton will give 100% but his crossing especially today was shocking at times, Iheanacho only scores in cup games.

 

 

Iheanacho has only scored against lower league opposition.

[lestajigs]

33 minutes ago, UPinCarolina said:

Don’t rate Chilwell at the back. I think his future is on the wing.

He’s to weak, I look at him, and think he should be playing for the u10s

[Wolfox]

We are in a transition and I understand that can take some time to adjust to a new way of playing and in the main I’ve been encouraged with what I’ve seen.  Having said that everyone seemed poor today and i can’t pick out anyone for either praise or criticism which is a bit of a problem... (James was not our worst player today)

 

I trust Puel and think he’ll be good for us, but, I can’t for the life of me understand why Iborra got dropped, he was a class act when starting...  

Edited 24 February 2018 by Wolfox

[Tringfox]

Very frustrated with the manager today with how we set up and the team he picked, square pegs and round holes! 

[Babylon]

1 hour ago, Milo said:

Baffling 

Well that's for you. He was well involved, moved the ball quickly, played some nice balls out wide.

 

He'll never be a Hollywood player, he vanished second half. But we were on top first half, started well and he was good.

 

People must judge people totally different if you ask me. What did Iborra do against Sheff U? Yet he's meant to be amazing... other than his massively shit games of course.

 

James isn't the answer, but I'm yet to see any sort of consistency from the others that says they are either.

[justfoxes]

3 hours ago, ealingfox said:

Matt James is a bang average player at best and was absolutely shit today. I'm glad everyone has finally woken up to this.

We have a world class midfielder in Silva who can’t get in the side before James, when is Puell going to realise that silva doesn’t need anymore sitting on the sidelines but needs game time ??

Thought we were really unlucky the amount of times we hit the post and Adams should have been sent off for his constant fouling and abusive language aimed at Micheal Oliver who is so inconsistent in his performance !!

Puell needs to sort this out ASAP we need to stop dropping points take the game by the scruff off the neck play Vardy in a more dangerous position he definately needs to sort this out !!

[Babylon]

23 minutes ago, oxtonfox said:

You can tell after a few minutes we were not up for it and we are slow and so one dimensional. 

We are in rotten form, totally reliant on Mahrez. When he’s off we have zero creativity. And we are the worst in the prem with corners from an attacking and defensive sense. Add to that our free kicks are shite too. Seriously seriously hacked off with them. Thanks for ruining my weekend.

 

 

Factually incorrect from what I've seen. We aren't the worst defending or attacking last time I looked at the stats.

[ZeGuy]

2 hours ago, Monsell1976 said:

Stats don’t tell the full story, first half alone he put in about 4 quality crosses that deserved somebody to get on the end of it, but we don’t get enough numbers in the box.

 

 Most dispossessed, second half he was one of a very few trying to break there lines, and tried a few runs, credit to him, rather that than a player who never tried to make something happen, and play safe football at the expense of creating.

 

Passing stats doesn’t always reflect the players passing it, but the quality or lack of it from a player receiving it, so stats are ok, but I trust what I see

 

 I have no issue with riyads effort today, shame some of them around him had more quality and support him.

You're arguing with someone who outright hates dislikes Mahrez and is a Gray fanboy. It's a lost cause.

 

That said Mahrez while being the main threat, wasn't really on his usual level.

Edited 24 February 2018 by ZeGuy

[Babylon]

Just now, justfoxes said:

We have a world class midfielder in Silva who can’t get in the side before James, when is Puell going to realise that silva doesn’t need anymore sitting on the sidelines but needs game time ??

Thought we were really unlucky the amount of times we hit the post and Adams should have been sent off for his constant fouling and abusive language aimed at Micheal Oliver who is so inconsistent in his performance !!

Puell needs to sort this out ASAP we need to stop dropping points take the game by the scruff off the neck play Vardy in a more dangerous position he definately needs to sort this out !!

World class? When exactly has he shown that for us YET? He's been bang average, has huge faults to his game just like the others. He's played a load of lower league teams and lost half the battles he's had.

 

Iborra and Silva potentially have more skill and more to offer. But they haven't shown the consistency or shown enough of it so far. James offers a bang average 6 or 7 most weeks. They offer flashes of 9 then a load of 2.

[ZeGuy]

2 hours ago, AjcW said:

We’re getting very good at hitting the post 

 

Not sure what the Puel attraction to James is, he’s excellent back up but we’ve better on the bench.

 

As one of Grays biggest supporters he was abysmal today and he hasn’t shown anything for quite a while now... really can’t work out if he’s actually any good! 

 

Albrighton faultless as usual, he’s on one of his form bounces! 

 

Anyway... no need to react to this as much as some are, a draw against Stoke is what we do  

Thanks for the good laugh.

 

He's had a mare forward and should never ever have played 90 minutes. None of his crosses found a blue shirt and his goal was actually a woeful cross that Stokes keeper masterfully let in.  But hey "muh work rate".

[Spicer]

Frustrating. A game we largely dominated but we were sloppy in the attacking third and wasted many chances.

I don't understand the Matty James hate. He was good today, he and Ndidi largely controlled the midfield against 3 players. I'm not saying he's better than Iborra or Silva, but he played well.

We play more out from the back, so I don't get why Morgan played instead of Dragovic who is way more composed on the ball.

 

Lets keep this in perspective, we drew with Stoke and should of won. Not the end of the world as it's being made out to be.

[iamafox]

We really didn't deserve anything today but could so easily have won towards the end, only because we weren't against a better team than Stoke

 

 

 

[kingfox]

1 hour ago, Monsell1976 said:

 A lot of blame has to be directed at the manager, poor selection and poor negative tactics.

 

Morgan and Simpson coming back in is a disgrace, and unfair on amartey and dragovic, but that’s  not their fault, they did ok but we know they are limited players, and tend to hoof, which is how stoke wanted us to play and it made it all too easy for them to defend.

 

 Agree with your comments about the attacking players, albrighton was especially awful, gray a waste of time, mahrez tried, and vardy didn’t look interested, as probably got fed up of the poor service.

 

 Kasper contributed to the poor display, conceded possession so many times with his shocking distribution, most kicks long straight to them, or out of play.

 

 James, he shouldn’t be blamed, we know what he offers, and he’s not going to say “boss don’t pick me”, but he’s not mobile enough, and is a plodder, doing the simple ok, without offering a great deal to the team, which is where it gets unfair on him, as fans get frustrated at his limitations, as we know we have better on the bench, so the manager is responsible.

 

One or two can be pleased with their performance today, but the majority it wasn’t good enough, and when there is better quality sitting and watching, the manager needs to wake up, as some of these are either not good enough, or have let him down, and 2 wins in 11, he needs to change his mentality, and change what is clearly not working, as we look very disjointed at times.

As I've said many times choosing between Morgan and Dragovic isn't as straightforward as some make out, both have done well this season, both warrant their place. Simpson on the other hand is of course a better defender than Amartey but he offers nothing going forward, hoof it and lose it.

 

Everything you pretty much say has been the case for weeks. Schmeichel and his kicking, poor service from our attacking players.

 

James didn't do too bad in the first half in my opinion, he made a few nice tackles, won a few headers, can't recall him giving the ball away; however it's been evident all season that he struggles to play a full 90. In that spell Stoke had in the second half until we got an undeserved goal the midfield was woeful, they couldn't win a second ball.

 

Amartey, Fuchs and Silva need to start against Bournemouth, if not then more fans will be getting on Claude's back and deservingly so.

[ZeGuy]

24 minutes ago, Babylon said:

Well that's for you. He was well involved, moved the ball quickly, played some nice balls out wide.

 

He'll never be a Hollywood player, he vanished second half. But we were on top first half, started well and he was good.

 

People must judge people totally different if you ask me. What did Iborra do against Sheff U? Yet he's meant to be amazing... other than his massively shit games of course.

 

James isn't the answer, but I'm yet to see any sort of consistency from the others that says they are either.

Iborra went off the boil and what I saw from him recently, makes it easy to understand why he has been dropped. I have yet to understand how James played 90 minutes today while Silva was on the bench and we were crying out loud for creativity in the midfield.

[Babylon]

7 minutes ago, ZeGuy said:

Iborra went off the boil and what I saw from him recently, makes it easy to understand why he has been dropped. I have yet to understand how James played 90 minutes today while Silva was on the bench and we were crying out loud for creativity in the midfield.

I agree 100% with what you say. I'm just baffled by those who talk like Iborra or Silva are absolute shoe ins.

 

Puel was cautious today, and should have rolled the dice for me second half.