‘IT WAS REALLY OBVIOUS WHAT WAS NEEDED... WE DIDN’T ACT’
STOKE City were beaten 2-1 at Brentford on Saturday. Here’s what the fans had to say following another blank day in London...
Adrian Butters: Brentford turned up at 4pm simple as that.
Having given Stoke an absolute gift inside a minute they then played into their hands with a lethargic sideways passing 45 minutes that allowed Mikel to sit in front of the back five and soak up pressure. Unfortunately half-time came. Stoke didn’t play much differently second half but the two first half bookings of Norrington-davies and Thompson and subsequent substitutions robbed us of much of our midfield mobility. Mikel and Allen cannot play together for 90 minutes when there’s no forward who can retain possession and especially when a player like Jansen comes on and dictates play with sharp incisive passing.
And so the inevitable two goals arrived.
The first is a great strike following a lost 50-50, but the second was criminal given a system of three centrehalves.
Chester beaten to the header, Batth in no man’s land and Souttar slow to react, all between the width of the goalposts, very poor.
Ant Davies: We had a chance to buy Toney two years ago. Everybody knew about him, everyone knew he was scoring goals on a regular basis, even the Sentinel were asking us if we should make a move for him.
But no, has-beens are our preference.
Then what happens when they buy Toney, Peterborough go straight out with the money and pick up Jonson Clarke-harris for a fraction, and is now top scorer in League One.
People saying there are no strikers out there for us, there are thousands! Unfortunately our scouting and recruitment is shocking and has been for a very long time.
Andrew Cummings: We only buy wingers... blatantly obvious what we needed after Tyrese got injured and once again our recruitment has backfired... how many of the play-off destroying draws could have been turned into three points with the addition of a Toney or the like?
Yes people drone on about FFP and I get it, but apart from Norrington-davies I don’t think Michael O’neill has brought in anyone to improve the squad.