Stoke City Post Match Thoughts

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

Lack of quality aside do any of the players care that much about the club?

Yes the club pays them but beyond that?

[LincsMiller]

Every time we hear the same rhetoric after promotion...... " We have learned from our mistakes and we will be better equipped this time".
Yeah right

[Derbymiller]

Mid table L1 side on a good day - trouble is we're in the league above - though not for much longer. We need a good few years in L1 to rebuild and add professionalism to everything we do/how we are structured. My mate is an Argyle fan and they spent a fair bit of time developing a robust, professional approach to recruitment at all levels, youth development including loan players (Whittaker being one of those) - an assistant that has experience and far reaching contacts regarding good youth prospects and now a manager who worked with some of the best young players at national level. We have so much work to do if we want/hope to emulate this kind of professionalism - so much of what we do can come across as 'hit and miss' and amateurish - we need a robust 'root and branch' set of changes to begin to be viewed as a club that can hope to hold its own at this level - we're a long way off that right now

What annoys me is the lack of new players and this constant excuse "it is hard" yes we know it is hard it is hard for everyone, but the club know it is hard and have had months to prepare, plan and act. A lot of our jobs are hard but that isn't an excuse to not deliver, "I am sorry I haven't done a good job but it is very hard and I am working really hard" blah blah blah. That group of players are not good enough to do better than we have the last few weeks. Richardson and Kelly have tightened us up but there is little they can do with what they have. It seems we are clearing out before bringing in, that will have one outcome on the pitch. Our squad has less players in it than 1st January and we hear more out as well, that is not a club supporting the manager. We cannot expect any improvement until the people in recruitment actually do their job and bring some players in. Stop moaning like little kids and get on with it.

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

What annoys me is the lack of new players and this constant excuse "it is hard" yes we know it is hard it is hard for everyone, but the club know it is hard and have had months to prepare, plan and act. A lot of our jobs are hard but that isn't an excuse to not deliver, "I am sorry I haven't done a good job but it is very hard and I am working really hard" blah blah blah. That group of players are not good enough to do better than we have the last few weeks. Richardson and Kelly have tightened us up but there is little they can do with what they have. It seems we are clearing out before bringing in, that will have one outcome on the pitch. Our squad has less players in it than 1st January and we hear more out as well, that is not a club supporting the manager. We cannot expect any improvement until the people in recruitment actually do their job and bring some players in. Stop moaning like little kids and get on with it.

To me it’s the first hint that the club is struggling financially.

[Tigerish]

Never looked like a scoring against a very pedestrian side.
That said, a few players acquitted themselves well:
Viktor, reliable as ever.
Peltier, reasonable performance.
Morrison, solid apart from a couple of weird choices on the ball.
Clucas, imposed himself a bit.
Tiehi, got involved.
And finally Odoffin. A tremendous performance, didn't put a foot wrong, indicating he will deservedly play at the highest level.
The rest ... invisible. Take a look in the mirror guys and there'll be nothing there. But you'll still have your wages.
Am I wrong?

[fromafar]

Pathetic performance
Pathetic players
Pathetic support
Pathetic tactics by the manager.
The club is pathetic in every aspect.

Come on mate, ! its still the Weekend,.!

[Shark27]

We can’t play a pass along the floor. For Gods sake we had a free kick in the second half and it managed to bounce in a 20 yard pass.

Our players don’t seem to have much about them when it comes to footballing brains. No one moves!!

Stoke were poor but made us look like amateurs.

As for our fans. We are probably the worst home support in the football league (I really think this could be true). There’s no wonder our players can’t get up for it. Why don’t all the old guys leave the North stand and let the young ones congregate.

[MAMiller]

Agree with a lot.

Back office is all wrong. Probably a lot to do with fire fighting a yo yo. There has been no squad building for years. A first 14. 5 chomping at the bit to get in backed by 4 or 5 youth prospects. How far away are we from that? Light years.

On the pitch though it's all to see. We are clueless about our out ball. We actually look dangerous when we hit the area. The frequency we do this is just nowhere near good enough. LR really needs to get us training how to sit off then properly move through the 3rds so we can actually get up the pitch.

We need 5yrs in L1 getting a proper backend structure so that when we come up we can sell the 2 or 3 stars for mega bucks but then have players behind them itching to step in.

Mass clear out required from front to back. Most of that Rotherham squad would look crap in our 5 a side league

[Ronners]

Our lack of a threat in attacking wide areas is what will ultimately take us down. We have 4 strikers at the club, Hugill, Nombe, Eaves and Kelly, all central strikers and not one wide attacking player to feed them, but every other team that I've seen at ours this season have had 2 quick attacking wingers, Stoke included. LR has certainly got us organized better but Stoke didnt once open us up on a 1 v 1 and are certainly one of the poorer teams I have seen at ours this season. Our lack of movement is a concern, we dont do anything quickly and whoever receives the ball seems to always be looking at a backward pass rather than a braver one to go forward. All in all a very poor game to watch although the goal was a stunner and worthy of winning any game. UTM

[Scum-Triumphant]

Lack of quality aside do any of the players care that much about the club?

Yes the club pays them but beyond that?

Your flip flopping is Starmer esque.

You wanted the club to get rid of Warne and then call him a Judas for leaving.

You criticised his ethos of having players with positive attitudes and good ethics but now question whether any current players care about the club.