If you’re familiar with the EA Sports FIFA franchise, then you’ve probably played Ultimate Team. If not, its essentially a game mode that lets you build a team and compete against other people’s clubs. Here is a look at how some of our current players would line up on previous versions of FIFA Ultimate Team.
We’re only seven games into the Premier League season and referees have already had the time to have a massive impact on Stoke’s season. I should make this clear: this piece isn’t dedicated to persuading you that refereeing decisions are the sole reason for Stoke’s poor start to the campaign. However, not only have we had the usual rotten luck of penalties and red card decisions (or lack of them) go our way; but we’ve also been on the receiving end of some abnormal actions from match officials and have even had a story surface surrounding some dishonest tactics employed by the governing body. Refereeing is a sensitive subject: we can’t expect every decision called in a season to be correct, but no doubt there are some issues that should be addressed.
Particularly in the first couple of games, the officiating spotlight was cast over the murky subject of contact in the penalty area from set pieces. Clubs were told at the start of the season about the re-enforcement of these rules and that players, and teams, will be punished if they overstep the mark. In the games against Manchester City and Everton, three penalties (two against Stoke, one for) were given for debatable reasons regarding the new law enforcement. We’ve all seen the incidents by now and all have an opinion on them, that’s not my issue. My issues is the strictness with which these laws are implemented for a short initial period, and then forgotten about after a few games have passed and a few big decisions have been made. Very little can be argued if the governing bodies state that they are going to stick tighter to the rules that they’ve created but when it’s in place for such a limited period it can eventually affect unfairly negatively against certain clubs. For example, plenty of penalties could, and should, have been given since the one given against Stoke at Goodison Park, denying Stoke a crucial and well earned result.
Hailed as the answer to Stoke’s long running striker issue, Wilfried Bony has failed to truly have any drastic effect upon the side. Despite being a degree coincidental, Bony has not been present for when Stoke have scored in their last two games, an unwanted stat that is extremely concerning. The United match saw Bony fail to even register a shot on target, and what was more concerning was that he had two good chances, where he simply took an air shot. All is not lost though as the upcoming fixtures will see Bony hopefully facing sides where he will have more effect.
The one silver lining from Bony’s performance last Sunday was the Ivorian’s hold up play. A majority of the passes Bony received were long balls, most of which he managed to bring into his control with strength and skill. Unfortunately, with the deep line Hughes set, Bony spent most of the game isolated, the effect of which was for Bony to drift wide seeking out team mates (as seen in the lack of central passes in the map below, shown by the orange box).
It was yet another week without a win, but even I have to admit that walking away from Old Trafford with anything other than a loss is a fantastic result. It was an odd one yesterday, after fighting our way to a 1-1 draw with the Red Devils, many Stoke fans were saying that it was by far our best performance of the season. On the other end though anyone who isn’t a Stoke fan is saying that we were lucky not to have been smashed (Which I admit is in part true), and that we played awfully.
So, with that being said, it seems like the perfect opportunity for me to play Devil’s advocate and help the naysayers by finding flaws in our performance. No performance is without sin and no matter how good I believe we were yesterday, there were still issues to be found.
Issue 1.) Bony
Until yesterday I had been a staunch defender of Bony’s, however having watched the Man United game back I am finally beginning to become frustrated with his work on the pitch. It seems to me that his ineffectual nature on the pitch is a mix of having not played regularly at Man City, resulting in him being unfit, and not having the right attitude to work hard enough to make an impact on the game regardless of your fitness levels.
I posed the question yesterday to the other bloggers at The Bear Pit TV as to whether Bony should be given a couple of games for the U23’s. It would help his fitness, confidence and hopefully nestle a few goals in a Stoke shirt. Let us know in the comments what you would do with Bony to turn him into the goal machine we know he can be.
Issue 2.) Bias
This one isn’t so much an issue with Stoke, it is instead a criticism of bias refereeing either against Stoke or in favour of bigger clubs in general, particularly when they play at home. Manchester United should have had 2 red cards this weekend. One for the horrendous tackle by Herrera on Allen, and secondly when Pogba decided to try and take Allen out with a UFC style take down.
What makes it worse is that both of these incidents were seen. The ref had a clear view and both times he failed to brandish the red card (Not even giving the yellow against Pogba which blows my mind). This kind of bias refereeing needs to be addressed, and with all the corruption controversy going on at the minute, now is the perfect time.
Issue 3.) Substitutions
I feel as though I can’t escape this negative and that I won’t until Hughes has left the club. But once again Hughes’ substitutions blew my mind. Yes to some minor degree both Walters and Crouch were involved in Allen’s goal, but anyone in there positions would have been.
Choosing to bring on two relics of a bygone era over Bojan (What the hell has Bojan done to piss off Hughes?) and say… Sobhi, is ridiculous. Speaking of the Egyptian, once again he failed to find a place in the squad. Clearly we all saw a very different game to Hughes when we played Hull in the Cup.
This a criticism of Hughes that likely isn’t going to be addressed during his tenure, but by god am I going to keep hammering away my point each and every week.
In all honesty I would be nitpicking if I filled out the list of issues to its usual 5, so instead I’m going to say congratulations to the boys in red and white and now let’s just pray that this point serves as the kick start to our season that we sorely need. We have a strong run of fixtures coming up after the International break and a number of wins are absolutely needed to send us on our way.
Were there any issues that I missed? Let us know in the comments below.
Written by Mitch Adams
Stoke claimed their first point at Old Trafford since 1980 on Sunday lunchtime as they drew 1-1 with Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United. Lee Grant looked as thought he was going to earn Stoke their first clean sheet in 17 games with his outstanding performance, but Anthony Martial broke the deadlock and Stoke hearts with what looked like a winning goal. However, Joe Allen found himself inches away from the Manchester United goal with the ball at his feet and shocked the Theatre of Dreams with just less than 10 minutes to go. Stoke continued on their upward trend in form and looked good for their point, defending well and having good moments in attack.
Mark Hughes opted to stick with exactly the same starting XI that earned a point against West Brom last weekend. The surprises came in the form of the personnel that were on the bench or missed out of the squad completely. Record signing Giannelli Imbula and impressive youngster Ramadan Sobhi both didn’t make the 18 man squad that travelled to Manchester, meanwhile Bojan remained on the bench.
The game was almost over minutes after kick off. Ibrahimovic broke away from the Stoke defence and collected the ball with the goal at his mercy, however Lee Grant got down superbly to produce an incredible save. It was a definite sign of things to come for the new deputy and it was this save that perhaps inspired him for the rest of the match. Down the other end of the field, Marko Arnautovic, on his 100th Premier League appearance, crossed in towards Wilfried Bony who was so close to pulling the trigger in a good position. Geoff Cameron picked up the loose ball that followed and, after a neat turn or two, fired a good shot from distance at David de Gea. It was encouraging to see Stoke having chances of their own, despite clearly being instructed to absorb pressure from United.
An almost mirrored chance happened again for Stoke: Joe Allen was released by Xherdan Shaqiri and crossed into Bony, once again missing his kick. Cameron then collected the follow up on the penalty spot in front of a gaping United goal, but fired straight at de Gea once again, except this time he will be much more disappointed with the outcome considering the position he found himself in. Stoke could have been left rueing that good chance as Paul Pogba had one of his own down the other end: he ended up missing the target completely from a wonderful position and it really should have broken the deadlock. Alas, the game remained 0-0.
Stoke were under immense pressure following this chance for Pogba and Lee Grant was forced into more splendid saves to preserve his clean sheet. One of these chances involved tipping over a chip from Juan Mata from the edge of the penalty area, he also threw himself of a Jesse Lingard shot from a couple of yards out. Ryan Shawcross was also called into duty, powerfully blocking Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s effort from an acute angle. After this phase of dominance from the home side: Stoke went down the other end and Xherdan Shaqiri produced a moment of sheer magic to round off the half: after fending off Chris Smalling’s pressure, he turned to face him and executed a magnificent flip-flap, posting the ball through the England international’s legs. It was a reminder that the quality Stoke possess, as well as their defensive resilience in what was a very entertaining affair for a goalless half of football.
The second half kicked off and Stoke had a free kick early on. Shaqiri sent in a delicious ball into Bruno Martins Indi, his resulting header was tipped over the bar by de Gea, even though the goal would have been ruled out for offside should the Spaniard not have dealt with the effort. It was Stoke’s time to turn the screw on United and produced an elongated spell of pressure, but it was a United counter-attack that was the clearest of chances for either team in this period. Stoke found themselves outnumbered in their own half after a long ball upfield, Lee Grant saw fit to rush out of his area and clear the ball to safety before United could capitalise. United could, and should, have had a man sent off: Ander Herrera stabbed a viscous boot in Allen’s midriff with his studs showing, but a yellow card was deemed enough punishment by the referee despite it clearly being a more serious offence.
Minutes later, Stoke combined well in the opposing penalty area and Allen collected the ball ten yards away from the goal; he opted to go for placement over power but sadly it wasn’t enough to beat de Gea. After that scare of the red devils, they went off looking for a goal of their own, the majority of their chances coming from long shots which Grant dealt with comfortably, but his clean sheet was about to be muddied. Substitute Wayne Rooney found his teammate and fellow sub Anthony Martial on the left wing, the latter rasped a curling effort around the helpless Grant and into the back of the net. Stoke were undeservedly trailing with 20 minutes to go. It could have been two very quickly if it wasn’t for Stoke’s wonderful ‘keeper, he once again saved low from an Ibrahimovic shot similar to the one at the start of the game. Stoke found themselves holding on.
To make matters worse, Arnautovic went down holding his knee after a rough challenge. He was substituted off along with the lacklustre Bony, being replaced by Jon Walters and Peter Crouch. Social media has a meltdown, thinking that the two subs would signal the end for Stoke’s hopes for an equaliser. Quite the opposite happened. Glen Johnson took a low shot from 20 yards which de Gea could only parry, Walters picked up the loose ball and crossed into an unmarked Crouch. His run was too early from the cross, which hit the crossbar, and he ended up behind the goal line before the ball dropped; luckily, that cross dropped at Joe Allen’s feet and he merely had to tap the ball into an empty net from a yard away. The mental ensued, the celebrations were wild, Stoke were ten minutes away from claiming points off Manchester United for the first time in a very, very long time. United, deflated from the goal, looked to restore their lead in the dying embers of the game. Ibrahimovic was denied brilliantly again by Lee Grant, meanwhile the crossbar denied Paul Pogba’s header from breaking Stoke hearts. The game finished, the job was done, the mood was glorious.
Stoke put in the kind of performances that saw them defy the Manchester clubs at home last season, but it was something about today, given the circumstances recently and the record at Old Trafford, that made today more special. Lee Grant will be a hero in training tomorrow and Joe Allen scores another Stoke City goal. Stoke now have three point and are back off the bottom of the table. But this game means more than that, after the international break next week the fixtures looks favourable for Stoke and the Potters could be well on the way of getting their season back on track with performances like that. It was the game that Mark Hughes would have dreamed of last night, knowing that anything less would have seen his position at Stoke very precarious indeed.
Keep the faith. We could well on the way to something here.
Performances
Lee Grant: 9 – almost unbeatable, a clean sheet away from a perfect 10.
Glen Johnson: 7 – part of a fantastic back four under the circumstances.
Ryan Shawcross: 7 – got one back on Zlatan since his England debut. Well in.
Bruno Martins Indi: 6 – no mistakes today similar to last week’s against WBA. Settling in well.
Erik Pieters: 6 – cannot fault his defensive discipline today.
Glenn Whelan: 6 – did his job well, something I haven’t said a lot this season
Geoff Cameron: 7 – very mobile in midfield and annoyed United all day.
Xherdan Shaqiri: 7 – created chances and deserves the score for his magnificent piece of skill.
Joe Allen: 9 – already begun earning his place as Player of the Season. Splendid.
Marko Arnautovic: 7 – his usual brilliant self on his 100th PL appearance.
Wilfried Bony: 5 – only downside of a good Stoke team. Contributed very little.
Jon Walters (15 mins): 6 – got the assist for the goal, however fortunate.
Peter Crouch (15 mins): 6 – encouraged Stoke to use his attacking threat. Becoming very effective in the latter stages of games.
Phil Bardsley (<1 min) – no time for impact.
Written by Ben Rowley
Stoke’s search for their first league win goes on and the latest installment is a trip to Old Trafford, a place Stoke last won at in 1976, so pencil this one in as a certain Stoke victory. Mourinho’s side appear to have re-found their feet and are looking strong again. The Potters will be hoping that United’s Thursday night fixture, where a strong XI played nearly the full fixture, will have tired the legs of the ‘red devils’. If a positive result is to be gained two things will be essential. First, Marko Arnautovic, who is celebrating his 100th game for Stoke, will be pivotal to all of Stoke’s attacking play, as the mercurial Austrian was last season. Secondly, the defense, who are seeking their first clean sheet since March, will need to provide a solid base and nullify all of United’s vast attacking threats. The clash sees Ryan Shawcross line up against Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the man who ended Shawcross’ international career before it had even started, and the Stoke captain will surely be looking for revenge.
It was just over three years ago when a certain Austrian winger joined Stoke City from Werder Bremen for two millions pounds; on Sunday, Marko Arnautovic is set to play his one hundredth Premier League game for Stoke City. In those three years the 27 year old has grown more and more into the team, as a footballer but, perhaps most surprisingly, as a man. From arriving with a reputation Mario Balotelli would blush for to becoming one of the most pivotal, influential and iconic players to have blessed Stoke City in recent years: Arnie’s had a hell of a ride. It’s only fair we mark this point in his career with the respect it deserves.
Having played for esteemed clubs such as Inter Milan and Bremen, Arnautovic arrived in England with a reputation: a powerhouse of a winger who had bags of talent and potential and was ready to prove himself in one of the best leagues in the world; however, he also had a dark side: his time spent with his previous clubs wasn’t always done so wisely which eventually led to Jose Mourinho branding Arnautovic as ‘unmanageable’. However, then new Stoke manager Mark Hughes had complete faith in Marko, saying “people will very quickly see what an outstanding talent he is”. He was bestowed with the number 10 shirt, fresh off the back of Ricardo Fuller and, with his ability, antics and achievements, it would go on to be a fitting tribute.
At Liverpool Allen gained a following for his chickens, beard and Pirlo like appearance, he was a fringe player in the squad and his fan following reflected this. With his move to Stoke all has changed for Allen, as he has now moved to full ‘God’ status with the ground he walks on being worshiped by every fan. The only silver lining in the great black cumulonimbus that is Stoke’s season, Allen appears to have united the fan base behind a player for the first time since Ricardo Fuller. This begs one question “just how good is Joe Allen?”
His play style is the first area that answers the above question with a loud and sassy “damn good”. Probably the most damning stat from last season was that cumulatively Stoke covered the second least ground of all teams in the league, only above that awful Aston Villa side. Allen has taken this stat, crumpled it into a ball and then dribbled it down the road to the nearest recycling centre. You only have to look at his heatmap from this weekend’s match with West Brom to see how Joe was well and truly everywhere. Allen has provided a slow and immobile team with the desire to chase down every single lost cause, and it is this that the fans truly support.
When Ramadan Sobhi joined Stoke City for £5 million in the summer, there was a degree of expectancy on the young man’s shoulders before he had even set foot on British soil. Nothing short of a legion of Egyptian fans took to social media to explain to Stoke fans what the club were getting themselves in for.
A promising, skilful and pacey winger, described as one of the most exciting Egyptian exports since none other than Middlesbrough’s Mido. However, for Stoke fans there was also a hint of apprehension. In recent years the club has not been known to bring in young talent, so how would Sobhi fit into the side?
This is going to be one of the most decisive episodes of After the Whistle yet. Saturday’s performance did one of two things for you… The fact that we yet again failed to win, against what is a bang average/below average side, meant that you were pushed over the edge and can see no way back for Hughes. Or, you saw the positives and decided that because of the manner in which we went down fighting, and it gave you hope.
My name isn’t the Pessimistic Stokie for nothing, I’ll give you one guess which side of the fence I fell on…
Issue 1.) Set pieces
The biggest elephant in the room surely? Our failure to defend at set pieces has yet again cost us points, and these two points dropped could be the most vital that we’ve lost in a long time. I don’t know how it is possible for a team to be so poor at defending from a set piece, but team after team are taking advantage of it, and it should come as no surprise that Tony Pulis’ West Brom have done it again.
Marc Wilson left after saying we do no training at defending, whilst I don’t believe that, it is becoming a worry that despite multiple staff members coming out in the past few weeks saying how hard we are working at defending, we still have the very same issues time and time again.
Issue 2.) Failing to finish off a game
Just like against Hull in midweek we once again went 1-0 up against a lesser opposition. The only difference, this time, was that we had actually looked solid at the back all game and we had dominated up front. However, failure to push on and finish off a game came back once again to bite us.
In total, Stoke had 2 shots on target, given how much we dominated the game that simply isn’t good enough. Shaqiri looked incredible in his return match, and I genuinely believe that he put in one of his best performances in a Stoke shirt. However, the failure of our strikers and midfielders to do anything creative or with a killer instinct once inside the opponent’s final third really let us down.
For a team that has ambitions (Nearly impossible at this stage) of Europe, only recording two shots on target is a serious issue. Hughes (Or whoever comes in next), needs to start figuring out why we lack such an important killer instinct.
Issue 3.) Substitutions
Jesus christ I feel like I say this most weeks. Mark Hughes is the worst manager for making substitutions that impact our game in a positive way. Why bring Crouch on for Bony at that stage of the game when you could have brought on Diouf, and pushed Diouf out wide and brought on Crouch at a later stage when Shaqiri had to go off? However, it gets worse, because the fact that he brought Charlie Adam (Who was awful on Wednesday) on for Joe Allen blows my mind. If it was to sure up our defence then I would say that we should never feel safe enough to defend a one goal lead, two should be our minimum.
Hughes could have brought on either Imbula or Bojan (Who didn’t even play on Wednesday) and our team would have looked X100 better going into the final few minutes.
Issue 4.) Sobhi and Bojan?
Along a similar vein of argument, where the hell was Sobhi? After his performance against Hull there was absolutely no reason for him not to be included in the match day squad. And Bojan had been completely rested in midweek but still didn’t make it onto the pitch? It is decisions like these that seriously make me question whether or not Hughes is the right person for us anymore. He seems to lack a complete sense of tactics, or even an ideology of how he wants to play football anymore. Bojan was Hughes’ star player in his first year, now he is an afterthought.
The decision to put Charlie Adam in the squad over Sobhi, a ready-made winger (Which was exactly what we needed given that Shaqiri was just returning from injury and wouldn’t see 90 minutes) is absolutely unforgivable and I am of the firm belief that Hughes’ substitutions cost us that game.
Issue 5.) No clean sheet since March? Wow…
Who the hell would have thought this would be the case when Butland first got injured? Our inability to keep out the opposition is increasingly scary. Teams must be coming to the bet365 with the expectation of scoring goals, which should have every Stoke player livid. Our team needs to start finding the key to clean sheets, otherwise, our luck isn’t going to turn around anytime soon.
Admittedly our defence did look much more solid this weekend, however, this was no doubt down to the fact that Hughes played two CDM’s in Cameron and Whelan, rather than the usual one. So… Hughes nearly made a smart decision, however, playing two CDM’s stifled our creativity going forward, and when all was said and done we failed to keep the ball out of our own net.
It’s all looking pretty dull at the moment and I’ve ran out of excuses for saying #HughesOut, so I put the question to you all. Given how we have played recently and given our lack of clean sheets, what is the answer to all our problems? Should we replace Hughes with the likes of Mancini? Should we fresh some young blood in the team? Should we drop the Pulis era players? Let us know in the comments if you’re reading on Facebook, or drop us a reply if you’re on Twitter.
Written by Mitch Adams
