Powderpuff Stoke City get hell yet will still be backed to rafters with simple change Talking points as Stoke City produce a performance to make everyone panic at home against Middlesbrough..
Stoke City were booed off after a miserable home defeat to Middlesbrough which left everyone panicked. Here are the talking points from the bet365 Stadium..
It would be interesting to see a word map from supporters as they left the stadium to try to come up with the best way to describe that performance. Unacceptable, abysmal, garbage, powderpuff and passive would be written in big letters.
This was a big night for both teams but only one showed up. Middlesbrough had lost five in a row and Michael Carrick knew he was one game away from a mutiny. It was Stoke’s game in hand on the teams around them and they could pull eight points clear of the relegation zone. No one quite knows how many points it’ll take to be safe at the moment but you can bet that fans at Luton, Derby and Plymouth would not back their team to chase down that kind of gap.
It is tempting and it is right to say that Stoke have to dust themselves down quickly to put everything they got wrong here, right on Saturday when the are back at home for a clash with Watford.
But they also can’t be just let off an evening like that, no matter whether the squad is young, new or experienced. It was the kind of chilling night to prompt a “must not play again” list of players on social media and another suggesting it was a side of runners against a side of joggers.
If the fundamental elements of hard work, discipline and aggression are missing, they will get hell from the home stands when they need their backing most.
The struggle to get the team balance right.
Mark Robins is in a difficult position at the moment as he juggles key players returning to the team after long-term injuries. It is clear Ben Pearson can’t be expected to play every minute of three games in eight days when he hadn’t started for the previous 11 months. Million Manhoef had an hour in him, Sam Gallagher half an hour. Enda Stevens and Ben Wilmot were nowhere near their best as they continued comebacks and Nathan Lowe is stepping up from a loan in League Two.
If Stoke can’t start with their best XI, however – and a theory that the ending XI might be stronger is fine on paper – it is difficult for players who come on to change the tone in the stadium. It was in the opening minutes when the Middlesbrough camp in the press box were checking that Stoke had actually won their last match at home because the atmosphere was so edgy. Supporters were reacting to such a timid offering.
There are a lot of problems but one which has haunted Stoke all season is in central midfield, which has been a carousel of personnel.
There would be a consensus that Lewis Baker, if he plays, can’t be in a deeper role. His strength is definitely in getting around the edge of the opposition box to shoot and definitely not contributing defensively. Andrew Moran has been moved around so much over the last seven months that he found it hard to be in positions to find as a number 10. Tatsuki Seko sometimes looks like a player finding his feet in a struggling team in a different country.
There has to be some kind of meat in there, whether it’s Pearson, Jordan Thompson, Bosun Lawal or Johnny Skinhead from the Dog and Duck. Someone who has a presence and wants to stop the opposition.
Time to stand up and be counted
For all that, a Stoke team that comes out with the right character will be backed to the rafters this weekend. If they sprint and challenge and cooperate with each other they will be roared on and this will not exactly be forgotten but everyone can move on.
Stoke have 12 games left to secure their place in this awful division. It is the right season to be down among the dead men because there are nine teams of dead men and whoever ends up in the three worst of them has no right to say they deserved otherwise.
