As Mark Hughes attempts to advance his side past their highest ninth place a question lingers over the side, do Stoke’s players now have to be multifaceted and not simply reliant on one trade mark style of play?
The answer to this question clearly seems to be a yes, as Stoke try to continue the evolution of playing style the players are required to perform more complex tasks. This is evident in Hughes’ transfer work: Allen, Bony, Indi, Ramadan, Imbula, Shaqiri, Arnautovic, Johnson all players whose style is made up of a minimum of 2 significant aspects. Even players such as Charlie Adam, who has shown a new found defensive and positional awareness alongside his traditionally vast passing range, are developing their game to include more elements.
Most Potters were in unanimous agreement that a point away at West Ham, without three key players and on the back of three straight wins would be pleasing. Thankfully Stoke managed to claim that point, despite putting in an average performance unlikely to set many hearts alight. The most pleasing aspect of the result, however, is its demonstration of what awaits Stoke throughout the rest of this season, and potentially beyond.
First and foremost the game demonstrated a strength in depth that the side has not had during its’ years in the Premier League. Missing 4 star players (Shaqiri, Arnautovic, Butland and Johnson) as well as Geoff Cameron who is ranked as our 4th best player this season by WhoScored, Stoke managed to achieve a draw against last seasons’ 7th placed side. It was not just a pleasing result, as without these essential players, Stoke were the aggressors and, if being hyper critical, should have won the match. If Stoke are to be competitive in all competitions (especially if we can eventually reach Europe) then this quality throughout the entire squad will be essential.
Stoke went into the game, without three major players; Arnautovic, Shaqiri and depending on your opinion, Cameron. But that didn’t seem to bother many of the Stoke fans; Ramadan had played well in the previous week at home to Swansea, as did Adam. But the suspension of Arnautovic was to be the biggest problem facing Hughes when deciding his replacement. Was he to go with the Fan’s favourite Bojan or trusty workhorse Walters? At 2pm on what felt like the coldest day of the year we found out. Arnie’s place was to go to the great veteran Walters. Couple of fans sitting next to me groaned with disappointment, as did I to be honest.
The fixture list compiled with the Sky Sports Elves Goblins, has given Stoke our first appearance on Sky Sports’ feature show Monday Night Football. After the last match on MNF, the ‘great’ Red standoff, many are worried Stoke’s clash with Swansea will end the same way, so let’s see what warnings we can get from a breif history. Fun fact we didn’t feature once on MNF in Hughes’ first season so we can skip straight past that.
29th September 2014 Stoke 1 Newcastle 0
A Peter Crouch header from a Victor Moses cross gave the Potters the win in a match where only 4 shots on targets were managed a piece despite a grand total of 28 attempts. Hardly a thrilling occasion, and highlights were few and far between, lets all keep our fingers crossed that we get a slightly more exciting encounter.
Okay so I doubt that Mark Hughes will pay any attention to this, so maybe you don’t decide but we will try anyways. Every fan has been putting in their views as to which shape Stoke should use in their next fixture with Hull. So here is a collection of most of these ideas, and be sure to vote for your favourite formation in the blog at the end of the piece.
No Change 4-2-3-1
The so called ‘safe’ option and most likely for the Hull game, sticking with the 4231, with Whelan and Cameron as holding midfielders with Joe Allen ahead of them as the number 10. The main argument in favour of this formation is if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. This system has provided Stoke with 3 positive results gaining 5 points from a possible 9. Yes it may be defensive and keep key players out of the team but it has been getting results, and isn’t that all that matters at the end of the day?
Seven games have been played so far this season and Stoke and Sunderland are the only sides not to have found a win at this stage before they face off on Saturday at the Bet365 Stadium.
The last time Stoke got all three points against Sunderland in the Premier League was back in 2013, both teams will be desperate to leave the Bet 365 with smiles on their faces.
The Potters and the Black Cats find themselves in 19th and 20th position respectively, the likelihood of being last on Match of the Day is high, and have only managed 11 goals between them over 14 games. Goals will likely be at a premium in this one.
It is ten years since Rory Delap signed for Stoke, having previously played for our opponents, and although the playing style may have changed since his time on the pitch, this one could be a scrappy affair.
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.
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.
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.
