Gritty Stoke City

Image sourced from the Independent

Well, there are 0-0's and there are 0-0's. The difference? Saturday's game was completely different to the 0-0 draws I have seen at the Boleyn before now & was actually rather entertaining! The unfortunate part of the game for us was when we all eventually realised that Butland was not in the mood to be beaten. If this lad takes the No. 1 shirt from Joe Hart for this summer's European Championships, I really wouldn't be surprised, but I also wouldn't be too unhappy! Personally, I'm not a great fan of Hart. It's the way his personality comes across & I think he looks incredibly arrogant. Anyway, I'm straying from the point.

And a point is all we could've hoped for really before the game started, wasn't it? Stoke in the previous game had not only beaten Man City, they embarrassed them! Watching Stoke play in that game was a pleasure, and there's not many times anyone can say that about Stoke City. There's a typical scowl on the face of anyone who isn't a Stoke fan whenever they have to mention the club's name. This is probably because of the stereotyping that 90% of us are guilty of, but these are different times for the team now they've stepped out of the 'dirty, hoof-ball, Tony Pulis' shadow. Quite the same can be said for both of our teams actually, as a 0-0 draw last season under Big Sam would've been nothing like our game at the weekend.

Bilic showed some sense on Saturday too, he dropped Carl Jenkinson. Now this isn't a personal hate vendetta towards the lad at all, I just think he needs to be shown that he's not an instant 1st team starter every week just because his parent club is Arsenal. We could have any top player on loan at our club & if they're not playing well, it doesn't matter who they are or where they come from, they need to know it's not an automatic selection. What has made Bilic's next decision even harder? The fact that any game James Tomkins has filled in at right-back, you'd think he's a natural full back! Yes, okay his positioning sometimes isn't perfect, but for a centre-back who has played as well as he has done consistently (in my opinion) this season, he's done exactly what is asked of a player when they pull on the claret and blue shirt and that is to give everything you have for West Ham for however long you're on the pitch. In my opinion, I wouldn't let Jenkinson back into the team for our game at Swansea. I would allow Tomkins the right to continue in the side at right-back until he eventually does have a bad game, although the problem then would be, what if Tomkins gets fed up of not being able to play in his own position? That's just another headache for Slaven to have if that specific situation does occur, we're just here to cheer the boys when they're doing well & enjoy watching.

Image sourced from 90min.com

And that's exactly what I did on Saturday, enjoyed the game! Yes, okay it was only 0-0. No, we didn't score from any of the 24 attempts on goal, 10 of those were on target though by the way! Another game where we have also been awarded a host of corners, 11 in fact, but since the loss of Dimitri Payet I have not seen a decent corner delivery! Noble seemed to have lost the privilege of taking set pieces as soon as Dimitri arrived, and even on Saturday the duty seemed to have been taken over by Mauro Zaraté. But wow, how can a professional footballer not seem to be able to beat the first man when taking a corner?

I'm not a great footballer myself, but come on, even I can take a decent corner!

Way off the mark to compare a Saturday morning park game to a Premier League clash, but the poor deliveries from corners has always been a pet hate for me. As has the development of 1-footed footballers, but again, that's for discussion another day.

Back to the game on Saturday and what a performance by Michail Antonio! I thought the lad was going to be a forgotten figure of the summer's transfer dealings due to the success of the likes of Payet, Moses and Lanzini, but as Antonio's luck (and ours as a club) would have it, all three are now missing and Saturday was his time to really shine. He did come on rather early in the game at Old Trafford and by all accounts, played very well!

Image sourced from Zimbio

My stand out player of the game though, Mauro Zaraté. His set piece delivery for the entirety of the game was utterly dreadful, but take that away and he was our star of the show. I previously mentioned in my first post that I had hoped that Mauro would be the man Slaven turns to in Payet's absence and he has done just that! Zaraté has started all games since being on the bench away to Tottenham, the game in which I honestly blame Bilic's team selection, but that's in the past. Although unlike Payet, Mauro has had little consistency in the last 3 games. His outstanding goal and performance against West Brom has everyone wondering why the hell Big Sam didn't want the guy around the team. Then away to Man Utd & the chance to score from around 8 yards to create history for the team... Wide! And then on Saturday he was on the rampage again, his skills and technique are up there with some of the best in the league when he's on form. Any dangerous attack from West Ham at the weekend came through Zaraté but unfortunately for us all, Stoke had an in-form Jack Butland between the sticks.

This weekend? Swansea City away. They have just sacked Gary Monk, too soon in my opinion, but then again that was my opinion when our new board at the time sacked Alan Pardew! Swansea are struggling to win and we are on a run that's neither good or bad, it's alright. Because we're not losing. Personally, I'm happy with the last couple of games and I think that we're really back on the right tracks and will only get stronger with the return of our injured players. Oh, and we really need Victor Moses to start performing again too. Doesn't it seem that everyone picks their performances up a little whenever Payet is playing? We really could do with him being back from injury soon! 

Prediction? 2-1 away win. These clean sheets can't last forever can they?


Thank you to those of you who are reading & please leave some comments with your views! I am trying to update regularly but working two jobs at the moment gets in the way a little! Shame we have to work, right? Anyway, thank you again & COYI!