***official stoke at manchester city match thread***

[stevefromdonny]

Well I have slept on it and have decided I fucking hate football.

did you have a nice sleep

[Ted Hughes]

I don't think we were shit, I just think we were very uninspired & Stoke defended better than anything we have seen, probably since we played Stoke last season. If we tried the same tricks v Chelsea or Everton's defence yesterday, we would have run straight through without a problem.

On the day Stoke played an almost perfect game defensively, in response to the questions we asked, & we didn't have it in us to ask something different until Navas & Sagna started attacking their left side. Even then, the midfield failed to see how much success that was having & Silva/Yaya etc still had to try & go through the middle far too often. But that still required absolutely fantastic concentration from Stoke's players. One slip up & even the 'straight down the middle' stuff would have opened them up.

I agree Yaya looks like he's aged five years, but still he was one of our most dangerous players, wheras Silva & Nasri weren't imo. Jovetic is more dangerous around the penalty area than both put together & shouldn't have gone off. Right now, he & Dzeko are our best forwards. That could change next time we see Aguero, but he is rusty & should have been the one to go. It was a different game with Dzeko up front & imo, with Jovetic, we would have got at least a point.

[bayblue]

Too slow and too ponderous yesterday. Hopefully a one off; think we will be much clearer about where this season is heading after the next three games.

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

Hate to say it, but at 26 minutes I saw the result coming and went and made a cup of tea. Ended up half watching the second half waiting for the sucker punch.

How unbelievably static was our midfield? People thought I was crazy to say we should swap Yaya for Barkley. Injury aside, how much does he look a player who no longer gives a fuck?

I agree. We kept him from the clutches of PSG but....Jesus he looks beyond carefree out there. Stealing money he is.

Cheers

You two should be used to it by now. That's the Yaya Toure trademark 'couldn't a fuck' look when we play lesser teams. I'm sure, with our next 3 games being Arsenal, Bayern and Chelsea that he'll spring back to life.

[Hutch's Shoulder]

Hate to say it, but at 26 minutes I saw the result coming and went and made a cup of tea. Ended up half watching the second half waiting for the sucker punch.

How unbelievably static was our midfield? People thought I was crazy to say we should swap Yaya for Barkley. Injury aside, how much does he look a player who no longer gives a fuck?

And yet many of our best chances to score came from Yaya - hit the bar, keeper save, build up to the dive and the dive which would have been a pen if he hadn't thrown himself so obviously.

[phips]

everyone keeps using the WC as an excuse. fucking man up. you played like shit.

[Clowncrete]

everyone keeps using the WC as an excuse. fucking man up. you played like shit.

"you"?

[carl_feedthegoat]

Hate to say it, but at 26 minutes I saw the result coming and went and made a cup of tea. Ended up half watching the second half waiting for the sucker punch.

How unbelievably static was our midfield? People thought I was crazy to say we should swap Yaya for Barkley. Injury aside, how much does he look a player who no longer gives a fuck?

Funny enough I did the same time of thing, went and prepared a goats leg for roasting and glanced over at the Tv now and again - we were just plain in my opinion with hardly any shots on target.
Why it takes us so long to have a shot at goal is anyone's guess....Nasri and Silva are the guiltiest in trying to play one 2,s in the box when they should just Fucking shoot when they have a slight opening on goal..it does my head in !!!

I also said sell Yaya after last season (Due to the fact I was fucked off with him over his tantrums and also becuae I reckoned we have seen his best..can only go downhill from last season imo) but pretty much everyone said he's our best player ect ect...fair points on that basis but I still think he's a lazy fucker and when he's off form he puts us in the shit.

Anyway , the roast leg of goat was fucking nice.

[Slim]

Hate to say it, but at 26 minutes I saw the result coming and went and made a cup of tea. Ended up half watching the second half waiting for the sucker punch.

How unbelievably static was our midfield? People thought I was crazy to say we should swap Yaya for Barkley. Injury aside, how much does he look a player who no longer gives a fuck?

Funny enough I did the same time of thing, went and prepared a goats leg for roasting and glanced over at the Tv now and again - we were just plain in my opinion with hardly any shots on target.
Why it takes us so long to have a shot at goal is anyone's guess....Nasri and Silva are the guiltiest in trying to play one 2,s in the box when they should just Fucking shoot when they have a slight opening on goal..it does my head in !!!

I also said sell Yaya after last season (Due to the fact I was fucked off with him over his tantrums and also becuae I reckoned we have seen his best..can only go downhill from last season imo) but pretty much everyone said he's our best player ect ect...fair points on that basis but I still think he's a lazy fucker and when he's off form he puts us in the shit.

Anyway , the roast leg of goat was fucking nice.

So was the cup of tea.

[Goaters 103]

No Zabba, no party.

[Goaters 103]

Hate to say it, but at 26 minutes I saw the result coming and went and made a cup of tea. Ended up half watching the second half waiting for the sucker punch.

How unbelievably static was our midfield? People thought I was crazy to say we should swap Yaya for Barkley. Injury aside, how much does he look a player who no longer gives a fuck?

Funny enough I did the same time of thing, went and prepared a goats leg for roasting and glanced over at the Tv now and again - we were just plain in my opinion with hardly any shots on target.
Why it takes us so long to have a shot at goal is anyone's guess....Nasri and Silva are the guiltiest in trying to play one 2,s in the box when they should just Fucking shoot when they have a slight opening on goal..it does my head in !!!

I also said sell Yaya after last season (Due to the fact I was fucked off with him over his tantrums and also becuae I reckoned we have seen his best..can only go downhill from last season imo) but pretty much everyone said he's our best player ect ect...fair points on that basis but I still think he's a lazy fucker and when he's off form he puts us in the shit.

Anyway , the roast leg of goat was fucking nice.

So was the cup of tea.

Said in June Id have traded Ya Ya in for Fabregas. We'll see if Ya Ya does pull his finger out but considering he's buggering off for 5 weeks in January again I think we missed a trick not shipping him on.

[City64]

Real shit day . Pissed down and we were shite ! Anti football from Stoke with 2 banks of 5 defenders but heyho they took there one and only chance. Worst game I have had the displeasure of watching for a long long time .

It wasn't anti football. Unlike previous seasons they showed a lot more attacking intent and kept countering us well with pace. They had a gameplan to nick all three points and executed it perfectly. If anything they looked more like adding a second than we did to equalizing.
We were poor but credit where credit's due, they played very well.

From where I was sat in CB level 2 it was Deffo anti football , saddest fucking thing of all it worked for them . We shall now have to expect and sit through more of that shit for the foreseeable future as most teams will copy Stoke,s approach more likely than not .

[Ted Hughes]

Hate to say it, but at 26 minutes I saw the result coming and went and made a cup of tea. Ended up half watching the second half waiting for the sucker punch.

How unbelievably static was our midfield? People thought I was crazy to say we should swap Yaya for Barkley. Injury aside, how much does he look a player who no longer gives a fuck?

Funny enough I did the same time of thing, went and prepared a goats leg for roasting and glanced over at the Tv now and again - we were just plain in my opinion with hardly any shots on target.
Why it takes us so long to have a shot at goal is anyone's guess....Nasri and Silva are the guiltiest in trying to play one 2,s in the box when they should just Fucking shoot when they have a slight opening on goal..it does my head in !!!

I also said sell Yaya after last season (Due to the fact I was fucked off with him over his tantrums and also becuae I reckoned we have seen his best..can only go downhill from last season imo) but pretty much everyone said he's our best player ect ect...fair points on that basis but I still think he's a lazy fucker and when he's off form he puts us in the shit.

Anyway , the roast leg of goat was fucking nice.

So was the cup of tea.

Said in June Id have traded Ya Ya in for Fabregas. We'll see if Ya Ya does pull his finger out but considering he's buggering off for 5 weeks in January again I think we missed a trick not shipping him on.

No way would Fabregas be any more effective without the ball than Yaya, even on a lazy day. He would have taken the place of Silva or Jovetic if we'd signed him, not Yaya.

[Bridge'srightfoot]

Real shit day . Pissed down and we were shite ! Anti football from Stoke with 2 banks of 5 defenders but heyho they took there one and only chance. Worst game I have had the displeasure of watching for a long long time .

It wasn't anti football. Unlike previous seasons they showed a lot more attacking intent and kept countering us well with pace. They had a gameplan to nick all three points and executed it perfectly. If anything they looked more like adding a second than we did to equalizing.
We were poor but credit where credit's due, they played very well.

From where I was sat in CB level 2 it was Deffo anti football , saddest fucking thing of all it worked for them . We shall now have to expect and sit through more of that shit for the foreseeable future as most teams will copy Stoke,s approach more likely than not .

Anti-football to me is setting up to get a 0-0 with no attacking intent whatsoever. Stoke didn't do that, they defended deep for sure but when they broke, they broke with numbers and carved out arguably the 3 best chances of the game. They had a gameplan to get all three points and they carried it out perfectly.

It wasn't like Stoke of old and Sparky has done a good job, they attacked with pace and intent and defended superbly.

[Ted Hughes]

Real shit day . Pissed down and we were shite ! Anti football from Stoke with 2 banks of 5 defenders but heyho they took there one and only chance. Worst game I have had the displeasure of watching for a long long time .

It wasn't anti football. Unlike previous seasons they showed a lot more attacking intent and kept countering us well with pace. They had a gameplan to nick all three points and executed it perfectly. If anything they looked more like adding a second than we did to equalizing.
We were poor but credit where credit's due, they played very well.

From where I was sat in CB level 2 it was Deffo anti football , saddest fucking thing of all it worked for them . We shall now have to expect and sit through more of that shit for the foreseeable future as most teams will copy Stoke,s approach more likely than not .

Anti-football to me is setting up to get a 0-0 with no attacking intent whatsoever. Stoke didn't do that, they defended deep for sure but when they broke, they broke with numbers and carved out arguably the 3 best chances of the game. They had a gameplan to get all three points and they carried it out perfectly.

It wasn't like Stoke of old and Sparky has done a good job, they attacked with pace and intent and defended superbly.

I think they opened up a bit later on, but I don't think that was the plan. I think they just forgot it for a while. On the whole, the plan was to get a point but calling it anti football is unfair. They are under no obligation to play open football v City. We have two better players for every 11 positions than their team & have no right to expect them to entertain our crowd.

They were excellent & we would be proud of that performance if it was a Joe Royle era City team at the swamp. In fact we would be proud if Keegan's team had done it.

[Bridge'srightfoot]

Agree with that Ted.
Imo we lost the right to complain about teams playing defensively when we parked the bus with ten men behind the ball and played for a point at home to the rags in the cup winning season.

[zuricity]

everyone keeps using the WC as an excuse. fucking man up. you played like shit.

"you"?

Yes indeed , i thought it strange at the time, but forgot which thread .....

I could forgive 'one'.

[Beefymcfc]

everyone keeps using the WC as an excuse. fucking man up. you played like shit.

"you"?

Yes indeed , i thought it strange at the time, but forgot which thread .....

I could forgive 'one'.

To be fair, I took it that he was talking from the players point of view.

[zuricity]

everyone keeps using the WC as an excuse. fucking man up. you played like shit.

"you"?

Yes indeed , i thought it strange at the time, but forgot which thread .....

I could forgive 'one'.

To be fair, I took it that he was talking from the players point of view.

yeah but what's the water closet got to do with it ?

[Beefymcfc]

everyone keeps using the WC as an excuse. fucking man up. you played like shit.

"you"?

Yes indeed , i thought it strange at the time, but forgot which thread .....

I could forgive 'one'.

To be fair, I took it that he was talking from the players point of view.

yeah but what's the water closet got to do with it ?

Very true.

Rag!