Jayson

So you expect it regardless of the situation, makes sense.

And that somehow argues with anything im saying how ? I said your expectations are to high. Stoke defended well & we had to little in the box to aim for. Routledge isnt of the standard to pick out a single man often surrounded by 3 in the box. Not that many players are. Its down to Routledge to drift crosses in & our lads to get into dangerous positions. We didnt. Shoving up a stat about successful crosses doesnt prove he did much wrong, its useless.

Stoke got the joint 4th most clean sheets in the prem last season, they've always been good defensively. That combined with Carroll having little next to him & we didnt look to do much. We played well generally, sat back to much on the goal & let ourselves down with the set pieces.

And? Pointless post, welldone

People overreact so much to losses. Its embarassing. Routledge isnt suddenly a bad player who is scared of running at players man. He got several crosses in & ran past many a man. Your expectations are far to high. Defenders do have some say in the game also, teams can actually defend quite well. Our wingers not beating their man every single time they touch the ball isnt a disasterous mark on their ability, its normal. Nani doesnt beat 3 players and then whip in an inch perfect cross to the single Man U player in the box v 4 defenders.

Yes it does. Two slow central midfielders who like to stroll around in a small area of the pitch because they are short of pace and stamina. But most people can see that without the use of diagrams, although these are useful if you want to spin a players contribution in UV lighting perhaps. More that Nolan is slow in comparison with Barton, who gets foward quickly enough to offset the fact that his general position is further back. Making his average about the same.

On soccernet they have a matchaction tool, shows you things like players average position etc Just checked it out. Nolan (As a 2nd striker) on average was no further foward than Barton. Tells a lot.

With the pace of Enrique, Perch, Guti, Routledge & Ben Arfa. + The passing ability of Tiote (Fast himself) & Barton in the middle. It really should be attacking at speed & countering in general. Which is a very good strength to have, we're just not using it that much.

City are one last minute penalty & the mixup between Hart/Toure from having conceded 0 from 6. Chelsea barely got a sniff. Predicting a goal for us is optimistic ! Ive a feeling Carroll may step up for this one though. I think he does better against smaller defenders.

People complaining about Guti ? He did more than Ben Arfa did

Perch always does OK. He has good pace, bit dodgy positionally at times but can make up for it. Dives in far to much still. Think Simpsons the better player

I don't think putting Carroll on Jones was a bad idea, it just turned out that way in hindsight. He should do better next time anyway. The original idea isnt bad no, but he hit the bar with Carroll marking him seconds earlier, should have switched it up then. He pulled off carroll for the equaliser to easily.

Barton can thread a ball through thats why, just didnt have many options. Stoke defended pretty well. Nolan did well last week, did little today & should have been brought off. Simple really.

The lesson should be dont have Carroll marking the oppositions fowards. Hes good at heading, not so much at staying with a man. Shoulda been williamson on Jones everytime. Perch on Huth is another strange one. Shoulda kept tiote on/campbell played etc.

Man city up next Wahey

I cant see Arsenal playing reserves against a team that beat chelsea, they'll want to win.

Perch has been fine, the lad can't win on here. Probably stoke's best player is their left winger and I would rather have the better defensive player in my squad against him than the one that can't ping in a great freekick. Agree. Taylor got done easily by van aanholt in a dangerous position for what could have been a 2nd yellow. Hes never looked that strong defensively, a good fk/strike of the ball was always his strong point. Didnt get him ahead of Simpson in the champ & shouldnt now unless he improves in that area.

Near all stokes goals come from crosses/headers. Would make sense to play campbell in a game like this, Colo's been better in the air recently but the likes of Jones/Fuller are a tougher test than many.

Campbells Forearm is the same size as fergusons leg

Change the title man its embarrassing. Talk about trying to reinforce other fans moronic ideas about us.

hah

o wow

Some class crosses put in, looked good. Impressive.

Welldone Hughton. Whatever you're doing, you're doing it fucking well.