‘THE CLUB HAD A BLANK CANVAS AND ENDED UP AN UNBALANCED MESS’
STOKE City head to Cardiff tomorrow looking for a muchneeded three points in their bid for Championship survival. Potters fans RICHARD JAMES, JON OWEN and LIAM HALL have their say on all things Stoke...
How should Stoke line up against Cardiff?
Richard James: After Saturday’s somewhat odd line-up (and despite some decent individual displays especially in midfield) I think we need to go for it at Cardiff.
It’s a huge game and three points is a must really. If we need to take the game to teams now – and despite some reservations from many – I’d still get Tyrese in. He remains one of our only real goal threats when he plays.
My team: Iversen, Junior, Rose, Mcnally, Thompson, Pearson, Burger, Baker, Campbell, Ennis, Junho.
Jon Owen: I think I’d go 3-5-2. He can’t start Hoever after his recent performances and especially after costing us a valuable point last week.
My team would be: Iverson, Junior, Wilmot, Mcnally, Rose, Thompson, Burger, Baker, Junho, Ennis, Campbell.
That being said, I really struggle to pick a starting XI given what we have available and just hope Steven Schumacher can find a winning formula from somewhere, and quickly. He’s been dealt a really poor hand.
Liam Hall: I’d stick with the 3-42-1. With Mmaee on the naughty step, I’d like to see more of Million and would play him and Bae behind Ennis.
I don’t like the make-up of a three with Wilmot, Mcnally and Rose and Hoever’s errors have been costly.
I’d play Junior at right centre-back with either Gooch or Leris at right wing-back.
Will Stoke stay up? Richard James:
The 64,000 dollar question! I’m not convinced that anyone connected to Stoke could put their hand on their heart and say with confidence that we are staying up.
We give stupid goals away and we miss golden chances. That is a recipe for disaster and the league table doesn’t lie.
There cannot be any tales of woe here.
Our performances reflect our league position and the relative merits of our player’s efforts over 33 games. More in hope than expectation, I’ll say we will survive by the skin of our teeth on the last day but I’ll know more come 5pm on Saturday!
Jon Owen: Yes, but I’ll add that’s in hope more than expectation.
I don’t actually think we’ll need 50 points to stay up, even though that should be the target. I think we’ll need to win a couple of ‘unexpected’ games. Saturday, against Cardiff, and next weekend at home to Middlesbrough, should give us a much clearer idea on whether we can keep our heads above water or not. Whatever happens though, this season has been a failure. Whichever league we find ourselves in next season, what has played out this season cannot continue.
Liam Hall: Had we lost to QPR I’d be saying no right now. However that buffer it gave us came at the right time.
The sheer number of clubs down there works in our favour. With Rotherham as good as gone, it leaves a lot of clubs fighting to avoid the final two spots.
How do you rate Stoke’s recruitment in the past 12 months?
Richard James: Anyone who knows me or sees my Tweets will be familiar with my views on our recruitment this season.
To sign 24 players and to see 19 of them fail to start last weekend, speaks volumes.
This has been a collective failure from all involved. Whether they’ve been manager picks or Jared Dublin recommendations; they’ve all supposedly passed the now infamous Ricky Martin’s five pillars test.
To say this is fundamentally flawed would be a huge understatement. Up to now if we are being brutally honest, we have Wouter Burger, some lovely flashes of skill from Bae Junho (but very little end product) and some energy and enthusiasm from Junior Tchamadeu.
It feels like our strategy was to try and find the odd gem to sell for a profit, which to me seems more like someone’s vanity project rather than the building of a squad to compete in the Championship.
We signed too many who play in similar areas (left-back anyone?) and went from having one unbalanced team last season to yet another in this one. We are still short of a leader at the back, we lack any real bite, we look weak, we are very one paced and have an absolute inability to score goals.
Other than that the recruitment this season has been spot on... Fingers crossed it all starts to click in Wales on Saturday!
Jon Owen: I’ll get the good out of the way first. Wouter Burger has been head and shoulders the best signing we’ve made, arguably
since relegation. I’d love to see him in a Stoke team firing on all cylinders and just hope we get the chance. Bae Junho and Junior Tchamadeu also look promising and you can imagine both continuing with their improvement next season.
Then I’m really struggling! 22 signings, the three mentioned I’d confidently mark good. The rest? Average, poor, disappointing or just not good enough.
In football, it’s easy for us all to
make comments in hindsight, but surely we were expecting better than what we’ve been left with? We had a golden chance in the summer to shape a new squad, and while clearly you wouldn’t expect every signing to come off, I’d actually say we’re in a worse position than before last summer began.
As a minimum, we were crying out for a permanent goalkeeper, two dominant central defenders, a left-back (I’m excluding Enda Stevens as he’s always injured), and a lead-the-line striker.
We didn’t get any, and too many of the players we have bought look either not good enough or on the decline.
I completely get the need to move with the times, and using data as a factor in your recruitment makes sense. The problem is, it seems, we’ve avoided looking at things like athleticism, character, physicality and whether these players are up for a potential 50game season.
Our head of recruitment, Jared Dublin, said in his interview when he joined, that the new recruitment model should bring more hits than misses.
What we’ve been left with is the other way around, and another summer of upheaval ahead. I just hope we’re planning another Championship season, rather than one for League One.
Liam Hall: I’ll try to keep it as short as I can.
Travers and Iversen are both good keepers for this level, I think Iversen has been harshly criticised by some fans, not sure he’s done a lot wrong so far.
It was disappointing not to sign a number one permanently and this HAS to be addressed in the summer.
The centre-halves are all too similar, an issue we really need to address in the summer. Rose is not the answer but he’ll be fine as third choice.
Mcnally’s been disappointing despite his glowing references from Coventry. Left-back’s been done to death but the signing of Stevens has gone exactly how most predicted it would. Junior looks a potential star.
Burger 10/10, the shining light this season, Bae to a lesser extent, get him a goal and I think we’ll see him fly. Pearson has been a massive disappointment, just hasn’t delivered in the way I thought he would.
DJ I didn’t expect loads from but thought he’d be a good squad player. However, he’s been anonymous and of course he misses a penalty for us! Cundle wasn’t needed and we could’ve used his loan spot elsewhere .... (cough) left-back. Wingers/attacking midfielders are all too similar. We still lack a wide man with genuine pace who can beat his man and score and create on a regular basis. Hopefully Million can provide that and instead of signing Gooch, Leris and Jojic, we should’ve just signed Philogene.
Strikers – I’d like to see Mmaee in a front two with Ennis and Bae behind. I doubt we will now though. Our Wes is a cult hero of mine but looks an expensive gamble that hasn’t paid off. Ennis is a bit of an Akinbiyi throwback on first look, I think the fans will warm to him even if he’s not a world beater.
In summary we had a blank canvas signed 20+ players and ended up an unbalanced mess.