The Stoketshirts.co.uk blog

A piece written exclusively for Stoketshirts.co.uk by former A View to a Kiln Editor Anthony Bunn following the Stoke City vs. Manchester United game.

Well, the Stoke messageboards have certainly been back to their Anti (PHWs)/ Pro (Rimmers) Pulis best this week, haven’t they?

“Amazing what a 2-0 loss to the World Champions will do to the mentality of some Stokies”, say the Rimmers, whilst those still in shock from last Saturday aren’t particularly too bothered about who it is we actually played. The truth?

Well, once again, that probably lies somewhere in the middle, but I was completely pig-sick of what happened on the pitch last Saturday, and despite being up against one of the bet teams in Europe, I’m starting to get a little worried about how we set up last week.

Nobody expects the Potters to go out all gung-ho against any team, certainly not one of the big four. But there’s a difference between that and actually looking to want to get in the other team’s half of the pitch.

For the record, I felt United were ordinary by their standards last Saturday. But hey, why sweat blood when you can win by not even taking the handbrake off. I commented to a mate on the way back to the Mich last week that the very least that Ferguson (and I) expected was for United to be pushed all the way and for old red cheeks to be moaning in the Sunday media about how he’d got several injury doubts before their game against Wolfsburg.

That’s not to say I wasn’t players injured (ahem), but I certainly want our players to live up to our “Big, Bad, Stoke” reputation. A reputation I certainly think is unjustified as we have some passengers who don’t put a tackle in, eh Mr Etherington?

4-5-1 and that’s what it was, however you dress it up, soon became 8-1-1, with Scholes doing whatever he liked, our midfield virtually in our defence’s DNA, and Etherington doing very little in a position that should have been tailor-made for a certain Turkish international captain!

I felt sorry for Dave Kitson, who needed a periscope to spot his nearest team mate. Last Saturday was a day when the mercurial talents and work of a certain Mr Fuller were needed more than ever, and a sure-fire slap in the chops for those who somehow still refuse to see what he brings to us.

No, last Saturday was not a good day. Take away your opinion of the team we were up against – and United’s superb second half display off the pitch put paid to a few of the stereotypes about their supposed lack of real support – and the plain facts are that we bottled it big-time.

The manager got the team selection and tactics horribly wrong. Collins looked like a rabbit in the headlights again and Huth despite total commitment is not a right back. Not when we have a right back who hasn’t done much wrong this season and kept Ashley Cole in his pocket, in Wilko.

Whitehead and Whelan still don’t do it for me, whilst Lenny and Rory worked hard but were ultimately doomed to unsupported failure.

Beatts looked a shadow of the player we had last season, even before his injury, and we need Fuller fit and starting EVERY game for us to progress. Which brings me to Tuncay Sanli.

The Man United game and how we set up, was a perfect opportunity to pick the lad, but we went with the known rather than the unknown. To progress, somewhere down the line we have to start keeping hold of the ball. To do that, we have to play our best players.

TP now faces a new problem. We have a quality player who is totally unlike anyone that he’s had in the squad before. Somewhere in a team of artisans, we need an artist to take us to the next level, or even reach last year’s level.

Not a good day at the office, but in TP we have to trust. He’s earned the right to baffle us and confuse us and make us tear our hair out. But what I don’t want to EVER see again at our ground is OUR manager bigging-up THEIR team on a huge screen, 10 minutes before the game.

Perhaps after watching that I should have walked back down the steps of Block 23 and returned back to the Plough for more anaesthetic?!?!