The Stoketshirts.co.uk blog

Intentons are that just a few of my thoughts from every game I attend this season will be published as a blog.
These will take the form of positive and negative thoughts and observations, Reasons to be cheerful, Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now.

Not sure how long I’ll keep it up for but as The Ramones once said Hey Ho, Let’s Go!

Reasons To Be Cheerful

KIGHTLY very comfortable on the ball, could be the start of a fresh Pulis approach for potters football. It was great to see the ball bought down and possession retained during the midfield melees.

CAMERON again comfortable with the ball, seemed unusual for Pulis to trust a newbie in such an important game but his presence paid off. Some nice touches, not 100% certain that he was the best player on the pitch but can’t think of many more players that could have took the man of the match award.

LAME SUBSTITUTIONS
To be honest, most premier league teams would love the ability to have Aaron Ramsey, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott being impact substitutions. Wenger launched all three and they were about effective as an ashtray on a motorbike.

PROGRESSION

Was Begovic playing the ball short to the back four real progression or just a tactic to draw Arsenal out from their own half while we lumped it forward? It seemed awkward at times and we nearly got caught short when there was an awkward short back pass. The jury is out on this currently!

THE WEATHER

The heat of the sun on the walk on home will be all but a distant memory in a couple of months. It’s a rare occasion when the sun shines on Ice Station Britannia so let’s hold the memory of that warmth for now.

Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now
I would have involved Delap and the monster longthrow at some point. Okay I accept that he’s seen better days and is a squad player now but that the Longthrow has always been Arsenal’s weakness at the Brit and we never really had a quality low trajectory throw that tested their dodgy defence out.

Arsene wearing an invisible straight jacket. We love his histrionics as he bounces up the touchline trying to take off, flapping his duvet, but today he held back and seemed to have his hands tied back as if he’d been Christian Grey’s latest conquest (a reference for the ladies! 50 shades of grey)

Progression

I know it was a reason to be cheerful or is it? We had a year known as the binary season – Most games ended 1-0, 0-0, 0r 0-1. Is this season a return to that style? Not the most entertaining but at least the consistency meant you could make a few quid at the bookies!

Rumour Mill
Asmir off to Chelsea with Daniel Sturridge being loaned to Stoke.

Song of the Day
“Robin Van Persie – He Would Have Scored That”

Most Mentioned non Stoke City Player

Michael Owen who sat on the Goals on Sunday Settee

Line ups
Stoke City:

Begovic, Wilkinson, Huth, Shawcross, Wilson, Pennant, Cameron, Whelan, Kightly, Walters, Crouch.

Subs: Sorensen, Palacios, Jones, Upson, Delap, Shotton, Jerome.

Arsenal:

Mannone, Jenkinson, Vermaelen, Mertesacker, Gibbs, Podolski, Diaby, Arteta, Cazorla, Gervinho, Giroud.

Subs: Martinez, Santos, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Djourou, Coquelin

 

Enjoy a few snaps from the day below

 

 

 

 

 

That’s the end of that then.  It wasn’t a huge shock to be eliminated by Italy.  Going out to a team of their stature is certainly no disgrace.  But few could argue that for 120 minutes we were outclassed by  a much better team.  Had we prevailed in the penalty shootout we’d have seen, to quote Bill Shankly,  “A travesty of justice”.

Pleasingly, there isn’t as much filth and fury with this exit.  Great things weren’t expected from England in this campaign.  If anything we have actually exceeded expectations.  Winning the group in relative comfort was actually as impressive as it was surprising.  What wasn’t at all surprising is that as soon as faced a team with genuine aspirations to lift the trophy we were eliminated.  We were stretched  all over the pitch by Italy.  We clearly lacked  flexibility in the squad to make differences to our system.  This is where Roy Hodgson shouldn’t be heavily criticised.  The nature of English football doesn’t make for international success.  No manager can change an entire football culture in six weeks. That is the key issue. 

Spain have proven that a football culture can evolve.  The obsession with aggression has to develop into a more technical thoughtful game.   If England are to develop into a side capable of challenging the worlds best physical clashes and gritted teeth won’t be the primary requirement.

The problem is that we hype up the Premier League, import foreigners to make it  tactically astute and more technical  than the qualities we breed, sell it to almost 200 countries because of it’s physical conflict and fast pace  . . .  and delude ourselves that this makes the world tremble.  As we were delighted  to avoid Spain in the quarter final,  Italy were just as relieved to facing England not France.  Until the English game is prepared to implement the required changes, invest the time and finance to install them effectively we’ll continue to just lumber through tournaments hoping to somehow get lucky.

On the positive side England in  this tournament did keep the defensive discipline under pressure, apart from a quarter of an hour against Sweden of course.  When Hodgson was appointed we knew much of his style was about shape. There were signs that some of the work has paid off.  If attention to detail can be combined with fresh talent it will be a stepping stone to the required metamorphosis. 

While emerging talent is scarce we have to make the most of what we have.  With that in mind, as soon as Jack Wilshere is fully fit and available the England team must be built around him.  Wilshere is an exciting young talent and could lead an era of transformation.

The rest of the tournament will somehow limp on without England!  While Italy dominated against England, Germany will present a different challenge completely.  A well drilled defence combined with a pacy attack will put Italy on the backfoot.  If the game goes all the way German penalties will also be superior to the English variety.

Spain could make history by being the first European team to win three major international tournaments in a row.  It’d be a remarkable achievement… not least because as recently as 2006 they were universally regarded as the team that never fulfills potential.  In the semi final they face Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo. 

Hopefully it’ll be a more even contest than France’s meek attempt to challenge the holders.  Even allowing for Spanish brilliance the tepid French effort was a poor show.  The fascination will be to see how Spain handle being under sustained pressure.  Vincente del Bosque has acknowledged his squad is tired.  If fatigue could be exploited Spain could lose one of their titles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Stoke offered an apology this afternoon about having nothing to apologise about.

An official spokesman said “We have no Racists, Arrogant ex England Captains, Handshake refusals, Managers that say players are a disgrace to the club, diving cheats or antagonistic French Internationals. In Fact we are really sorry that we have nothing to apologise about.”

“We have been asked on a number of occasions, (usually by the French manager of a once famous North London Club) to apologise about the way we play football, but we refuse to and remind the media that

WE’RE STOKE CITY, WE PLAY HOW WE WANT!”

(ENDS)