Watched their loss to Preston last night, and yes they looked average at present, But...nothing like a visit by Leeds United to shake a team out of mediocrity.
Going well at present, next game Stoke, and as per last year, winless / struggling, etc, etc, until Leeds come to town - this game like the Wigan one, is a must win , kill teams of early, maintain top spot & momentum. Agree with many, think Costa should be given start, just has that bit extra class.
Watched their loss to Preston last night, and yes they looked average at present, But...nothing like a visit by Leeds United to shake a team out of mediocrity.
They can do what they like. We should beat them. They would have to raise their game a great deal whilst we would have to play poorly. Something fundamentally wrong at Stoke.
Agree with Lasher on something wrong there.
we do seem to bring out the best in teams but even we would not likely wake these guys up.
love to see Costa start but it's a long season and maybe coming off bench will help get him up to speed a little more gradually. Easier on the body.
Think we have managed to start every game on the front foot so far this season - last season we seemd quite often to start slowly - and against Stoke/QPR/Birmingham - didn't turn up at all... I'm sure MB will be reminding them of what happened last time out...
Three more points come Saturday tea time.
Stoke's keeper was absolutely awful yesterday, hopefully he doesn't improve or get swapped out before Saturday. Teams like Stoke will get their act together eventually so don't be surprised if it happens against us. More importantly we need to keep our momentum going and tighten up on some of our weaknesses, particularly finishing off the great build up play we seem to able to do effortlessly; we should be on 12 points not ten.
Stoke also have a lot of pressure with high expectations and still getting parachute payments. As such, less of a banana skin that it might otherwise be. Would love to see Costa given 90 mins against them.