NEIL HAS PLENTY TO PONDER IN POTTERS’ WORLD CUP BREAK...
STOKE City crashed to a sapping 2-0 defeat at West Bromwich Albion in the final game before the World Cup break.
Here are the talking points from the Hawthorns.
STOKE CANNOT RELY ON NICK POWELL ALONE
Nick Powell makes such a difference to this Stoke City team and he is not available for 90 minutes enough to be such a crucial figure.
It would be brilliant if he could return after the World Cup break and be ready to play in the remaining 25 games – and if he does, Stoke will thank the lord and do well. But just a cursory look at his record shows it would be foolish to plan for that. Stoke might not be able to find one player who can offer what he does in a single package: power, presence and creativity. But they need to have some kind of Plan B which is better than the one they have been toiling through over the last 12 months mostly in his absence.
Neil said: “As well as creativity that Nick gives us, he’s a bit of a target as well. We can put the ball up to him and work off his feet, you can put it into his feet and he can look after it for us. He can stay on the ball in good areas high up the pitch. “When we took him off we lose that height at set plays and in the game in general. We lose that creativity that Nick’s got. He’s the one who picked out that pass for Harry at the back post and he’s been very good of late for us.
“I was very conscious that this was his fourth start (in a fortnight). I think his second game he played was his first 90 minutes since February.”
THROW-INS TELL A STORY
Twice within a few minutes in the second half, Stoke won a throw-in down by the corner flag – and twice they managed to work this chance all the way back to Phil Jagielka on the half-way line and then Jack Bonham. Courage isn’t just about making tackles when you might get a little bit hurt, although Stoke have lacked that too much this season, it is also courage to show for the ball and want it even and especially if you’re losing. “There has been very little movement in midfield and up front,” said Denis Smith, who was growing increasingly frustrated on Radio Stoke commentary duty.
“You do sometimes do work on throwins but it shouldn’t be difficult for players to know their job.”
YOU KNOW IT’S BAD WHEN DENIS GETS MAD
There is a line that Radio Stoke grandee Nigel Johnson has said more than once about Denis Smith being a lot nicer off the pitch than he was on it.
Smith has a knack for finding positives. He was struggling on Saturday evening at the Hawthorns as Praise and Grumble became Grumble and Weep.
“I’m flabbergasted sitting here having watched it,” he said. “We were totally outplayed. Two-nil flattered us.” The one mitigating factor that Neil pointed towards was the fixture schedule. Stoke have lost to Norwich, Birmingham and West Brom and beaten Wigan and Luton in a fortnight, West Brom had one game fewer in that time: losing to Sheffield United before beating Blackpool, QPR and Stoke.
Neil said: “I think the key difference for me was the clear week they had to prepare. We had a game during the week that was our highest distance of the season in terms of what we covered ground-wise. “I tried to freshen it up to make sure we could compete. I didn’t think we did, I thought we looked tired, we looked jaded, mentally as well as physically and we just didn’t play well enough.”
A WELCOME BREAK AND A LOT TO FIX
There were two moments in the closing stages when Tariqe Fosu ran into the penalty area from the left right in front of the away end – and the away end was completely unmoved. Supporters as a collective looked exhausted and hacked off. It has been a very poor start to the season on the back of a dreadful second half to last season. There haven’t been enough wins, goals, clean sheets. There hasn’t been enough hope or, to be brutal when looking at the red seats at home games, reason to go to watch Stoke. Yet somehow Stoke are still only six points off the top six.
They are only two points off the bottom three too. This season can go any way and Stoke have to come back from Dubai ready to make sure they can offer at least some kind of encouragement that it might go the right one.