Today I’ll be doing a little betting preview ahead of our game against Spurs on Monday night in a very important game for our title challenging visitors.
We take on Tottenham on the back of heavy defeat at Anfield, in possibly our worst performance of the season. The performance did little to please fans after throwing away a two goal lead at home to Swansea the week beforehand, putting an end to our impressive performances, and all but ending our chances of qualifying for Europe. Tottenham themselves have been in good form having won three of their last five games in the league, most recently dispatching Man Utd, quite impressively, at home 3-0.
It’s been quite some season for Spurs. Regardless of how the title race ends – with it looking like Leicester have clinched it – it’s been our best campaign for some time. Second would be a spectacular achievement for such a young side, a side that finished fifth last year.
Last time out
It seems like that 2-2 draw back at the Lane was years ago. Both sides have progressed significantly, whilst sharing a similar style of football that forces neutral fans to take notice. Spurs appeared to give up after taking a 2-0 lead back in August, and full credit to Stoke for capitalising. It’s certainly never quiet when our sides me
I know this blog is for anything Stoke, so now; I want to share my experiences of what it is like to be a Stoke fan in a place of so few. I am from New York City, a place known for its hustle and bustle, its exciting lifestyle, and its skyscrapers. Yet, I am fascinated by a place known for its pottery, and its football. Yes, I am talking about Stoke-on-Trent, the home of Stoke City, the club that I support.
First, let me give some background on how I became a Stoke fan. I have been a fan of football since the age of 7, but I was not a fan of any specific team; I was just learning the game and finding a league to follow. I settled on the Barclays Premier League as I had heard it was the best league in the world (and still is). I wasn’t a fan of any team, but my dad is a huge fan of Bolton (our first opponents in the BPL) and so we went to a bar in August of 2008 and we watched the game. Even though we lost 3-1, I loved the way Stoke fought against Bolton and the heart they showed. I have been a diehard fan ever since.
There’s been far too much optimism around these parts as of late, so I thought it was time to poke my head above ground once again. With summer fast approaching there are no doubt going to be countless blogs looking at specific or groups of players who might be joining the Mighty Potters in the coming transfer window. However to continue the pessimism I thought I’d take a look at the opposite end of the spectrum and look at who might be leaving the family come July 1st.
Peter Crouch
God bless this man, I love him, I really do. But the former England international simply hasn’t been the same this season. Peter would be the first to admit that pace isn’t a part of his game, which is why he can still do a similar job today at the ripe age of 34, as he could when he first joined us. However our style of play has changed dramatically since then, and I believe that his flourishing partnership with Bojan last season was his last decent run for the side. After finding it nearly impossible to break into the first team this season, despite Hughes clearly not having any confidence in any one of his strikers over the others.
Crouch’s inability to play as the mobile and flexible forward, combined with his clear frustration at lack of game time makes him an easy choice to be leaving in the summer. Possibly as one of our first deals.
Reports surfacing from Italy have linked Stoke with a move for AC Milan forward M’baye Niang. The French under-21 international, who was subject of an unsuccessful £12 million bid from Leicester in January, has appeared 17 times for Milan this season but is currently out through injury. Rumours suggest that The Potters are monitoring his situation as Milan could be looking to sell him come the Summer, but may face competition from Borussia Dortmund.
The 21-year-old can play as either a striker or wide midfielder. He came through the youth team at Caen, and earned himself trials at Arsenal and Tottenham before choosing to sign for the red side of Milan back in 2012. A goal in his debut made him the second youngest goal scorer in Milan history. He has since had two loan spells away from the Italian club.
Standing at 6’1, Niang has a reasonable bit of physical presence for someone who is regarded as pacey and agile. This combination has proven to be effective in the Premier League which is seen as both tough and high-tempo.
Whilst on loan at Montpellier Niang scored five goals and got two assists in a total of 22 games. More impressively during his loan spell at Genoa, he scored five times in 14 appearances, managing three assists, before having his loan cut short through injury. For AC Milan this season, he has scored five times (he absolutely loves that number five doesn’t he) in 14 league appearances, and three times in four cup matches. Its worth considering the fact that he does periodically drop onto the wing and isn’t always sent out specifically to find the net.
In comparison to our current out and out strikers so far this season, Joselu and Diouf have only managed 4 goals each in 24 and 27 appearances respectively. This means Niang has scored the same amount of goals as these two players combined in just 17 appearances.
It wouldn’t be fair to overlook Arnautovic who is our top scorer in the 2015/16 campaign. He has scored 11 goals from 35 appearances from a wider position, similar to Niang, and at the time only cost us £2 million. Milan will probably be looking for upwards of £12 million for the French national, is this good value and would he add something useful to our squad?
As always, here’s a YouTube compilation of his best bits with some awful music:
Warning! For those of you with a more negative, pessimistic or realist view on football, this post contains unhealthy amounts of optimism.
I want to address an issue, the European dream is not dead. There, I said it. Obviously I am not suggesting that it will be easily achieved, but much like Mark Hughes, I still have hope that it is possible. Firstly we acquire a certain set of conditions that will make qualification more likely, and as devastating as it is to say this, we need Man United to win the FA Cup. Should United win the cup then European qualification will move to 7th place, as the system in which we qualified (where the loser can take the qualification spot if the winner has already acquired European qualification) was scrapped last season.
There is also another situation in which if Liverpool win the Europa League, then they will automatically qualify for the champion’s league, which I am led to believe will create another Europa League place, provided they finish outside of the top 4 and in a position which would normally provide Europa League qualification on league position.
Mark Hughes’ Barcelona contacts have proven very useful since he took over Stoke back in the Summer of 2013. Marc Muniesa’s arrival from Camp Nou was the first of a wave of ex-barca-boys who made the decision to join him at the West Midlands side. The success of these amigos begs the question; who next?
Marc Bartra, 25, has been playing for Barcalona since he was 11. The central defender has struggled to find a place in the starting line-up and has occasionally been linked with a move away from the club. Bartra has made nine full appearances for Spain, and a further 37 at youth team levels.
He could provide good cover for Ryan Shawcross who seems like he has a recurring back problem. Barcelona are said to want around 12-million for the defender who may be looking for more game time given his age.
Munir, still only 20, plays generally as a striker but is also used on the right wing. He is Barcelona’s third youngest goal-scorer after none other than our own Bojan Krkic and some lad called Lionel Messi. He was nominated for the Golden Boy Award in 2014 and has been slowly integrated to the main side from the Barcelona B-side.
His 15 league appearances this season have seen him score three goals, which all came in one match in the absence of Luis Suarez. His pace could challenge any Premier League outfit, and could provide good competition for Shaqiri, even if only on loan.
Once upon a time in 2011, our favourite mop-haired Turk, Tuncay, posted a compilation video of his best goals on Facebook Manager of the time, Tony Pulis, was quoted to saying that he would not ban the squad from using social media accounts in the wake of the controversy. The rumours were that Tuncay had posted the video in an attempt to engineer a move away from the Potteries. Since then both parties have left the club and social media has not been banned. Instead the presence of social media within the Stoke City squad has only increased.
Robert Huth was one of the early adopters of social media, and barring one controversial mishap (#CONC), his presence on Twitter was a delight to Stoke fans. It was an era in which the only pictures we would see from professional football players were of Theo Walcott and co. in various states of undress after winning at the Emirates. The Arsenal squad, certainly in England, were the leading light for connecting with their fans on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and the like. Back then us Stokies responded with snide comments and disdain. Now it just looks like we were a tad jealous.
Signings have not only rebranded the football on the pitch, but just as much off it too. The Spanish trio, Shaqiri and Arnautovic are all avid users of social networking. Bojan, Joselu and Muniesa offer us pictures of themselves in fancy dress, selfies with fans and encouraging words pre and post kickoff. Shaqiri is a big fan of a pre-match blue steel selfie and Arnautovic offers us an insight into a seemingly sulky Austrian. Many of the highlights still come from the German who opted to leave us for league leaders Leicester. Huth and Jon Walters show their dressing room ‘rivalry’ hasn’t ceased to exist since he made his move. New boy Imbula hasn’t quite got the hang of it just yet. You can see the examples below…
It’s not all doom and gloom after a dreadful defensive display at Anfield, many fans feel that our season is over and some have decided to reflect on it as a negative one (you know who you are). But once the anger of a disheartening performance settles down this season can be judged as a continuation of the fantastic work done by Mark Hughes and the Club as a whole.
It is worth bearing in mind that some of the best performances at Anfield came from players settling into the team in their first season. Shaqiri’s dead ball delivery caused problems all game, and Imbula was back to his usual ways of bombing runs through the centre of the pitch. The Premier League is notoriously difficult to settle into, and our two record signings are yet to complete a full season. Both have struggled with the inconsistency associated with new signings in the league, but after a full pre-season both should be ready for a push to Europe and Silverware next season.
Obviously the most significant achievement is the superb league cup run. Despite not being able to make the final it was our first appearance in semi’s since our victory in 1972, and our first win at Anfield in many years. The cup run yielded some memorable performances whether it being the emergence of Afellay’s true quality in the quarter final against Sheffield Wednesday or Diouf’s heroic extra time performance at right back against Chelsea. The cup run was a clear statement to Hughes’ intention to turn Stoke into a silverware winning side, and hopefully next year will be the time he achieves just that.
Stoke City lost 4-1 this afternoon to fellow Europa League chasers Liverpool and makes that prospect look very bleak for the Potters with Stoke being overtaken by Liverpool in the table, leaving them ninth. Liverpool didn’t need to get out of second gear to comprehensively see off Stoke with the possibility of a reverse 6-1 thrashing well on the cards. A headed goal from Bojan midway through the first half cancelled out Alberto Moreno’s long range effort, but a Daniel Sturridge header followed up by two goals from Divok Origi was enough to take advantage of a Stoke defense that was less than convincing throughout the 90 minutes.
Stoke started the game with Peter Crouch up front ahead of Joselu, a surprise to many after encouragement from Mark Bowen in the week for the Spaniard to carry his momentum into the final games of the season. Xherdan Shaqiri and Ryan Shawcross came in for the injured duo of Glenn Whelan and Marko Arnautovic, with Geoff Cameron moving from centre-back into defensive midfield.
The beginning of the game showed signs of promise of Stoke in attack: Shaqiri looked to have Moreno’s number and tried to pick his way through the Liverpool defense. However, Bardsley gave away a seemingly needless free kick on Stoke’s right hand side which Liverpool took quickly, taking the majority of the Stoke players off guard. Alberto Moreno picked up the ball and sent a strike towards the Stoke goal and, despite none of his defenders helping out by not reacting to the play, deputy goalkeeper Haugaard saw the shot fly past his left hand side and crash into the net. Many thought that the big Dane could, and possibly should, have prevented Liverpool going into the lead in the 8th minute.
