Lambs to the slaughter
JOE FEAR AS BOSS MAKES PEP VOW
6; SOUTHAMPTON (4-2-3-1): McCarthy Bertrand 6; Cedric 5, Stephens 6, Hoedt 5, 76), Tadic 5 Romeu 5, Lemina 6; SIMS 7 (Boufal Carrillo 4 (Long 79). (Gabbiadini 64, 5), Redmond 5; Hojbjerg, Subs: Forster, Yoshida, Ward-Prowse, Berdnarek. League, UP NEXT: Newcastle (a), Premier Saturday. 8; Bauer 5, STOKE (4-1-4-1): BUTLAND 5 (Crouch 46, Zouma 7, Martins Indi 6, Stafylidis 7, Allen 7, 6); Cameron 6 (Jese 64, 5); Shaqiri 4 (Pieters 23, 6). Ndiaye 6, Choupo-Moting 5; Diouf Fletcher. Subs: Haugaard, Johnson, Shawcross, Premier League, UP NEXT: Manchester City (h), Monday, March 12. Referee: Anthony Taylor 7. striker scored in YOUR TURN: Which England last season? Stoke’s 1-0 win at Southampton PAUL LAMBERT has vowed to go on the attack against Manchester City.
The Potters could only muster three shots on target during their goalless draw at St Mary’s as they tried to claw their way out of the relegation zone.
But despite their precarious position, boss Lambert has insisted he won’t sit back against the Premier League’s runaway leaders next Monday.
Lambert said: “I know we are up against the best team in the country without a shadow of a doubt, and maybe even in Europe.
“But I have never sat back against anyone. We have got to find a way where we can make it uncomfortable for them.
Hurt
“There have been great teams that have played them before and have been turned over by them and we have to find a way to hurt them.
“It will be difficult but on any day, you can win a game. You just keep playing and hanging in and things will happen.
“We have got players that can turn the game on a switch.”
However, Stoke’s Joe Allen reckons they will need a ‘freak’ result to get anything from Pep Guardiola’s rampant City side after failing to put Southampton away.
The ex-Liverpool midfielder said: “It is not the ideal team and time to be playing them but having said that you never know in the Premier League.
“You do get freak results every now and then and we are hoping that we are going to do all we can to make it as tough and difficult as we can to come to our patch.
“And who knows, we might get a point or three points.
“Against Southampton in the first-half we looked good and had a couple of breakaways where on another day we might have got a goal to put ourselves in front.
“But then in the second half Southampton certainly put more pressure on us than we did and we are at that stage of the season where you are gutted not to get the win.”
Stoke’s best chance came when Badou Ndiaye was left unmarked in the Saints area to nod his effort on target but goalkeeper Alex McCarthy produced a fingertip save. Southampton substitute Sofiane Boufal should have won it for his side in the 77th minute when he was picked out in the box by Nathan Redmond only for him to put his header wide from six yards out.
Saints set a new Premier League record of eight consecutive home games without a win and captain Ryan Bertrand admitted that draws won’t cut it anymore.
Bertrand said: “There are a lot of positives to take from how tight it is at the bottom.
“Everyone needs to stand up and you can’t do anything else but look forward because the table is still very tight.
“You’re just looking to get that win and string one or two wins together and then it will be a completely different story.
“We need to get our wins, especially playing the teams close to us. Draws are not good enough for us at the moment.”