Stoke City (a) -PL Match Thread

[Caramac]

Who needs MotD with CaramaC.

 

 

haha. Aye it got quite busy for me once Salah came on, l think we should sell him when the window opens.

[FrenchEyeGlass]

What a fucking goal. Had to jump on a work call and saw him smash it in from the corner of my eye. I still can't believe how good he has been.

[SammyAftershave]

Oxface was doing fine, Silly hooking him

 

[SammyAftershave]

Captain dipshit hands armband to Captain dipshit.

 

Sidewards move.

[stringvest]

Captain dipshit hands armband to Captain dipshit.

 

 

I'm surprised he didn't panic and pass it back.

[Stickman]

We must be the moaniest , grumpiest and unhappiest at a 3-0 away win fans in the business .

Only 23 pages for this thread I bet we can get close to 50 if we lose Saturday

[Hades]

Salah brilliant. Godlike. Unreal. 

Mané only has to show up for 10 minutes in a game to wreck the opposition.

Defence okay, midfield poor, goalie terrible. 

 

It's astonishing the amount of opportunities our system creates. there were about 5 times today when if someone had made the last pass correctly we'd have a one-on-one on goal. I love watching us. If we had a world-class midfield we'd hit 5 or 6 every game. 

[KMD7]

Can't stop wanking to Salah's first goal

[dockers_strike]

We must be the moaniest , grumpiest and unhappiest at a 3-0 away win fans in the business .

Only 23 pages for this thread I bet we can get close to 50 if we lose Saturday

 

I can understand peoples edgyness playing Stoke away on a cold November night is never easy and Mane did not ease the nerves with that one on one miss. Do some on here want us to lose or what. If that game had seen Manchester United or Arsenal win they would be held up as some sort of football master class.

[El Rojo]

I'm surprised he didn't panic and pass it back.

Haha! Harsh but funny.

[an tha]

The travelling Kop was really good tonight.

[magicrat]

Good win in the end but massively fortunate to avoid losing Mignolet 

[Guest Pistonbroke]

Missed the game as our daughter gained one of those performance based scholarships to help her financially through the last year at Uni before she does her masters. Boring as fuck, but proud and there was a free bar and food afterwards so got half pissed. Followed it Tony style via live score and text. seems we rode our luck at time, especially Mingolet. Salah scored a cracker by all accounts. Can't wait to see the highlights on MOTD before crawling into my pit, where no doubts they'll focus on the negatives rather than the fact we beat the 6 fingered cunts from Stoke away from home. 

 

Things are looking good, we need to keep this up over the busy period and capitalise on others dropping points. 

[an tha]

MOTD will probably show about 2 mins of our game, they'll spend longer tossing off over that manc rats goal last night.

[Trumo]

Weird game because we seldom had the wherewithall to take advantages of the numerous gaps Stoke were leaving. Wijnaldum was slowing everything down and taking to many touches before passing the ball, and Can was in that "I am better than you even in 2nd gear" mindset. We were keeping the ball in the air a lot and looking to go long quite often. At times it looked a bit alehouse. We were better late on, by and large, after introducing Milner and with the game becoming more stretched as Stoke were forced to chase it. Still, it's the game management issue with the midfielders rearing it's head once again.

 

Stoke had a few decent chances, two of which fell to the Welsh Xavi, and Diouf probably should have scored near the end. Much of it was down to not tracking runners or reading the second ball. Mignolet was spared a first half red card because the covering defender was in very close proximity. It was a defensive switch-off that led to that moment too.

 

Mane's finish for the opener was very sharp after good work by Solanke and Gomez, who crossed a ball that hadn't quite gone out of play. I'd be complaining if that had gone against us so I can sort of understand why Stoke and their manager were protesting. That said, the Stoke fans were booing us already so fuck them and their 6-fingered waving. No idea if anything in the first 10-odd minutes put them in that mood because I missed the early part of the game, but it sounded like a derby at Goodison during that first half. Hughes doesn't need a lot to start whining so he was bound to carp on about it. The Alf Stewart's missus lookalike can go fuck himself too.

 

Solanke hit an effort straight at the goalkeeper from the edge of the box after a good one-two with Firmino, and then Mane dreadfully scuffed a shot onto a post and away after being put clean through. He actually slowed down and then seemed to be caught in two minds as to what to do. Just a quick note Sadio: keep going, put the ball in the net and then worry about your options later.

 

We should have been out of sight but we gave Stoke a few little glimmers before The Salah Show took over. He hadn't been on for long before connecting with a Mane cross with the sweetest of volleys. Great strike. And then he beat Pieters to an up-and-under before slotting the ball past the goalkeeper to make it 3. Clinical stuff.

 

Since that appalling 6-1 drubbing in Stevie's final game, I think we've won 4 on the bounce at Stoke. We'd won there in the title challenge season too, so I think we are 5 out of 6 at their place.

[G Richards]

Just got in and watched some highlights. Job done. 3-0 away from home is lovely. Time was a trip away to Stoke was to be feared, but not so much these days, but still happy to get out of there with the three points.

 

Mane nice goal and unlucky not to add a second before the break. Made up Salah got a bit of a rest and when he came on he was clinical. The first goal was sublime, but credit to Mane for his pace to get to the ball and chip a nice cross in. The volley from Salah was sublime. His second goal was all about his pace and desire, and also the fear of the defender, who should have cleared his lines but instead Salah got a nick on it to beat the defender and then tucked it away nicely.

 

Didn’t see the whole game so can’t comment too much, but job done, three goals, three points, clean sheet.

 

Oh, gotta mention Mignolet. A swing and a miss! Could have been sent off. Don’t know if he was slow off his line or out in no mans land for a ball he shouldn’t have come for, but the highlights didn’t look too clever.

[Stickman]

Good win in the end but massively unortunate to avoid losing Mignolet

 

[Pidge]

Just seen the first goal back, didn't have a stream until a good way into the game.  Nice touch through from Solanke that I missed first time around.  Should have had a goal and another assist (put Mane through again in the first half). 

 

Not a bad first start.

[Bjornebye]

Stream was shit so properly seen highlights on MOTD. 3 boss goals, Mig should have gone defo. Salah is on fire. 

[dockers_strike]

Stream was shit so properly seen highlights on MOTD. 3 boss goals, Mig should have gone defo. Salah is on fire. 

 

Well I am glad he did not because Karius would have come on and had to play in the next 3 league games.

[Jose Jones]

Well I am glad he did not because Karius would have come on and had to play in the next 3 league games.

Probably not a bad thing, and I'm no believer in Karius. Mignolet's head has completely gone again.

[A_S]

What'd Karius do wrong against Sevilla? None of those were on him. 

[Ne Moe Imya]

I wonder who’ll get Mo of the match tonight?

 

Runner-up: Mo Reno

 

*genuinely thought he was pretty good, though not perfect*

[3 Stacks]

I still don't understand why as soon as we grab a lead, we seem to let opposing sides have the ball, but what is clear is that we can still create very good chances even when sides are pushing us back because of how dynamic we are going forward.

 

It's a double-edged sword. We were clinical tonight in the second half, but I don't think our strategy when we're trying to close a game out is effective. We made Stoke look way too dangerous. 

[Joey8FrogsLegs]

I still don't understand why as soon as we grab a lead, we seem to let opposing sides have the ball, but what is clear is that we can still create very good chances even when sides are pushing us back because of how dynamic we are going forward.

 

It's a double-edged sword. We were clinical tonight in the second half, but I don't think our strategy when we're trying to close a game out is effective. We made Stoke look way too dangerous.

We are not capable of closing games out. Which is why we fail to protect a lead on a regular basis.

 

Numerous reasons, but in fact as pointed out by many on here, the soft midfield may be number one. Of course some mediocre defenders and a very ordinary goalkeeper also play a role.