Ratings: Stoke (A)

[braineclipse]

I cant deny that fact, no qualms in that respetc, but quite frankly today his corners were shocking, constantly overhit. Its been said a 1000 times, but you sometimes wonder what they do all week in training

I think it's quite harsh to be very critical of the person who takes set pieces if he's not good enough at it. After all he's taking those in the first place because he's one of the best at it in our starting line-up. If that player deserves criticism for it, when he's not really a dedicated set piece taker, why doesn't every other player (apart from those best in the air) deserve criticism for it? They are obviously worse at it than the player that takes them.

Thought Dawson was excellent today don't understand the lowish scores for him, our best defender along with Walker who also had a very good game. Clint and Ade did well up front. Parker I thought was ok other than what was he doing in that position when they score from the freekick, but then several players were at fault.
Dawson Walker and Clint 8s and the rest of the team 7s imo

Dawson should know how to deal with Crouch, but I thought he didn't deal well with him at all. We know, he played for us for a couple of years, he's weak as uncooked spaghetti if you just go for his body when he's challenging for a header. All you have to do is make it look somewhat like a fair challenge and the ref won't give anything against you, you'll often get a free kick and Crouch will stand around complaining to no avail.

Other than that the back 4 did well overall, one shot on goal from Stoke tells at least a part of the story.

 

[braineclipse]

Any one who thinks adam was harshly sent off should watch 2 challenges on Dempsey and Lennon 1st half where he deliberately left his foot in. whilst his 1st yellow was harsh I believe for those 2 terrible challenges he deserved to be off the pitch. Huth and shawcross are just cnuts. All those football pundits who defend Stoke saying Pulis has to work within his means should remind themselves what Swansea and Wigan have achieved this season by playing football.

Yeah, he had deserved a yellow by the time he got his first one. Perhaps the ref had also noticed some of those earlier challenges and gave him the card for consistently being a dingdonghead. Although he could have given him a yellow at kick-off for that.

 

[NWND]

Any one who thinks adam was harshly sent off should watch 2 challenges on Dempsey and Lennon 1st half where he deliberately left his foot in. whilst his 1st yellow was harsh I believe for those 2 terrible challenges he deserved to be off the pitch. Huth and shawcross are just cnuts. All those football pundits who defend Stoke saying Pulis has to work within his means should remind themselves what Swansea and Wigan have achieved this season by playing football.

Yeah it's one of those football pundit myths that Pulis is operating on some kind of shoe-string budget with conference standard players.

He's spent a lot: Crouch, Palacios, Pennant, Etherington, Jerome, Walters, even Adam (he's slow but he can pass a football)... You seriously can't tell me you can't get these guys playing football and that you only have one choice to play..

 

[Robspur12]

I think it's quite harsh to be very critical of the person who takes set pieces if he's not good enough at it. After all he's taking those in the first place because he's one of the best at it in our starting line-up. If that player deserves criticism for it, when he's not really a dedicated set piece taker, why doesn't every other player (apart from those best in the air) deserve criticism for it? They are obviously worse at it than the player that takes them.



Dawson should know how to deal with Crouch, but I thought he didn't deal well with him at all. We know, he played for us for a couple of years, he's weak as uncooked spaghetti if you just go for his body when he's challenging for a header. All you have to do is make it look somewhat like a fair challenge and the ref won't give anything against you, you'll often get a free kick and Crouch will stand around complaining to no avail.

Other than that the back 4 did well overall, one shot on goal from Stoke tells at least a part of the story.

Disagree mate Can't remember Crouch doing anything of note and he was substituted early in 2nd half as he wasn't effective. I also disagree he is weak he will tower over most defenders the best way to stop him is to lean in to him or defend the second ball imo which when he played for us was usually easy. Thought we handled him well.

 

[Robspur12]

Yeah it's one of those football pundit myths that Pulis is operating on some kind of shoe-string budget with conference standard players.

He's spent a lot: Crouch, Palacios, Pennant, Etherington, Jerome, Walters, even Adam (he's slow but he can pass a football)... You seriously can't tell me you can't get these guys playing football and that you only have one choice to play..

Agreed. It's just that he's seen as from the "old schoo of english managersl" so gets an easy ride.

 

[braineclipse]

Disagree mate Can't remember Crouch doing anything of note and he was substituted early in 2nd half as he wasn't effective. I also disagree he is weak he will tower over most defenders the best way to stop him is to lean in to him or defend the second ball imo which when he played for us was usually easy. Thought we handled him well.

He won almost anything they lumped forward to him, getting flick-ons and sometimes bringing the ball down. Whoscored has him down as winning 83% of his aerial duels. Dawson challenged for those headers several times, but he did so very fairly it seemed, using none of the tricks that other good defenders used so effectively against Crouch during his time playing for Spurs.

I think he was subbed because they went down to 10 men and needed someone with a bit of pace up front to be able to counter attack.

 

[Robspur12]

He won almost anything they lumped forward to him, getting flick-ons and sometimes bringing the ball down. Whoscored has him down as winning 83% of his aerial duels. Dawson challenged for those headers several times, but he did so very fairly it seemed, using none of the tricks that other good defenders used so effectively against Crouch during his time playing for Spurs.

I think he was subbed because they went down to 10 men and needed someone with a bit of pace up front to be able to counter attack.

But you expect him to win aerial duels on account of his 8ft taller than any one else. It's just usually the area around him will be well defended so his headers end up not being a threat as it was when he played for us.

 

[onlyme]

We won but what was the point of Parker today? The 1st half he hardly was in the game and he was just a nuisance to our play in the 2nd half after the sending off. He should have been dealing with Adam but not for the 1st time he was nowhere to be seen when we needed a "guvnor"

 

[onlyme]

And why the fudge is Lloris not letting those balls go out for goal kicks in the last knockings? It infuriates me..he was lucky not to get a booking for time wasting for picking the ball up. Brad gets an easy 30 seconds wasted without drama by letting the balls go by him.

 

[Raziel]

We won but what was the point of Parker today? The 1st half he hardly was in the game and he was just a nuisance to our play in the 2nd half after the sending off. He should have been dealing with Adam but not for the 1st time he was nowhere to be seen when we needed a "guvnor"

You mean the guy who made the pass that created our first goal? The anti-parker agenda is out of hand on this board.

The team for the vast majority of the game played quite well, help possession well, the only time Stoke ever looked like they would have a sniff is off set pieces

When I read this board I wonder if people know how football works, or if they watch other games. They toss over other players one off performances, but write our players off based on one or two mistakes.

 

[NWND]

And why the fudge is Lloris not letting those balls go out for goal kicks in the last knockings? It infuriates me..he was lucky not to get a booking for time wasting for picking the ball up. Brad gets an easy 30 seconds wasted without drama by letting the balls go by him.

He has more control of who the ball goes to with a throw out or drop kick than a goal kick so we keep possession and kill the game better

 

[raboner]

Lloris - 6
Walker - 6.5
Dawson - 6
Caulker - 5.5 stupid pass that lead to their goal
Vertonghen -6
Hudd - 6
Parker - 6.5 party at fault for their goal
Lennon - 6
Bale - 6.5 party at fault for their goal
Dempsey - 7 goal & assist. looked dangerous. stupid foul that led to their goal.
Ade - 6.5 lousy first touches

Dembele - 6 did what he was told to do. tried to dribble to bring the defence out
Sig - N/A
Defoe - 5.5 did not do anything meaningful

Let me just reach for my trusty WUM detector.. brick, it's going mental!

 

[raboner]

Lloris: 6.5 - Probably should have done better for their goal, some dodgy kicking and a few decent saves. Not his finest outing, but not his worst either.
Walker: 6.75 - For everything he does well, he does something equally bewildering. Some typically departed decision making contrasted with some great defensive tracking and dangerous forward runs.
Dawson: 7.5 - Brave, inspired, calm and composed. What's not to love?
Caulker: 6.5 - A bit shaky, could tell he hadn't played for a while.
Vertonghen: 8 - Excellent, solid defensively, brave last ditch tackles and a real threat going forward. Just fantastic.
Lennon: 6.5 - Disappointing, looked timid and lacked invention. Also didn't track back as well as he usually would. Bit off form.
Parker: 7.5 - Thought he was absolutely fantastic today, bags of the usual energy but also some really incisive forward play and killer passes.
Hudd: 6 - Dear oh dear. Please never let Hudd take another corner ever again. His 'passing range' seemed to desert him too and he dwelled on the ball far too often.
Dempsey: 8.5 MOTM - A goal, an assist, pure commitment to the cause.. Severely underrated by some fans around here.
Bale: 8 - Thankfully he offered a lot more than goals today, got really involved, picked the ball up in dangerous positions and looked to make things happen. Good show.
Ade: 7.5 - Like Bale he tried hard to get involved but got in the way a bit at times, dropped too deep for me, but got a crucial goal and couldn't fault his effort.

Defoe: 5.5 - Did he touch it other than one neat pass at the death?
Dembele: 7.5 - Changed the game, looked to create, carried the ball forward with silky aplomb, need him back starting against Sunlun.
Siggy: NA - Not enough time.

 

[metalgear]

We won but what was the point of Parker today? The 1st half he hardly was in the game and he was just a nuisance to our play in the 2nd half after the sending off. He should have been dealing with Adam but not for the 1st time he was nowhere to be seen when we needed a "guvnor"

you have to go back to the game where thudd played without parker and dembele to understand what Parker adds to the midfield.

 

[Southcote Spur]

All 6's, with the exception of:

Bale and Vertonghen 6.5

Dempsey 7.5 I sometimes forget how intelligent a player he is?

AVB 8 set up well, made positive changes when required.

Fans 8 that's more like it!

Could I respectfully offer the following suggested explanation of Huddlestone's corners; maybe he was told to aim for the far post to clear the Stoke defenders? It looked as though he was always aiming for Vertonghen?

 

[paxtonwolf]

All 6's, with the exception of:

Bale and Vertonghen 6.5

Dempsey 7.5 I sometimes forget how intelligent a player he is?

AVB 8 set up well, made positive changes when required.

Fans 8 that's more like it!

Could I respectfully offer the following suggested explanation of Huddlestone's corners; maybe he was told to aim for the far post to clear the Stoke defenders? It looked as though he was always aiming for Vertonghen?[/QUOTE]

Thats actually a good observation and would certainly explain a lot

 

[Charlie]

All 6's, with the exception of:

Bale and Vertonghen 6.5

Dempsey 7.5 I sometimes forget how intelligent a player he is?

AVB 8 set up well, made positive changes when required.

Fans 8 that's more like it!

Could I respectfully offer the following suggested explanation of Huddlestone's corners; maybe he was told to aim for the far post to clear the Stoke defenders? It looked as though he was always aiming for Vertonghen?[/QUOTE]

Thats actually a good observation and would certainly explain a lot

In the first half, Bale also took a corner from the left side that went too long. Maybe it was windy down that end and Thudd/Bale was trying to hit it hard to cut through the wind? I noticed that Thudd's corners were a lot better in the second half.

 

[Charlie]

Vertonghen: 8 - Excellent, solid defensively, brave last ditch tackles and a real threat going forward. Just fantastic.

You called me a WUM. Besides that, I guess you missed the fact that Vert got owned by Cameron Jerome in added time, allowed him to cross and Marc Wilson could have headed that in?