The Lady is a Tramp

All smiles for Bent yesterday

The only thing that was not a surprise about Stoke City's loss to Fulham was the inevitable anger from Stoke supporters, clamouring for an explanation as to why we don't have a Darren Bent in our squad. In summarising the game, most Stoke fans have said "we need more goals" or "we need a clinical finisher up front", plus the line I have used myself recently "we need a bit of luck". Whilst these facts are true, there are still another twelve games between now and the next transfer window. With 36 points up for grabs within the space of time, the club's priority at the moment will be making sure that the players we have start to score enough goals to lessen the pressure on any incoming players in January. Assuming though that only Juan Agudelo comes into the Stoke squad in the next window, and that the club do not place too much pressure on his shoulders to begin with, what could be done to improve the current conversion rate of the players we currently have? Yesterday was a case in how not to use possession at times, where despite having 56% of the ball Stoke did not use the ball in any menacing way. Out of the 16 shots Stoke had, only three of them were on target. Something that appears to be encouraged during Mark Hughes's era at the club is shots from outside the box, which were a rarity under Tony Pulis. However, the stats from yesterday's game suggest that shooting from range can disguise the lack of threat the team is displaying, with 9 out of the 16 shots Stoke took being from outside of the penalty area. Whilst no team should avoid taking shots from outside of the box, there comes a point when it feels that a player is trying too hard to force the issue rather than showing patience in play. Whilst I have been impressed with Marko Arnautovic since his arrival from Werder Bremen, he seems more willing to force a shot into a wall of defending players rather than try and play in a team-mate elsewhere.

Marko Arnautovic and Philippe Senderos,
shirt grabbing in equal measure

The key three players for me in the forward line against Fulham were Oussama Assaidi, Jonathan Walters and Marko Arnautovic, as when these three played in tandem for a twenty minute period in the second half, it was when we looked most likely to score. The main advantage of using these three though would be that they can work in tandem and move around the pitch rather than staying rigidly in one position. Matthew Etherington, for example, whilst a capable left-winger struggles when played out of position on the right-wing or more centrally. Peter Crouch and Kenwyne Jones are both good target men, but combined with their current lack of goals is a lack of versatility, where both have to be the focal point of the attack. Yesterday, it was hard to pin-point prior to kick-off whether Jon Walters or Marko Arnautovic would lead the line, with both capable of playing on the wing or up front. Whilst this versatility will not necessarily bring goals to the team, it will cause opposition players food for thought when considering how to play against our forwards.

Not the first poor performance from Roger East when Stoke are playing
as Ryan Shotton will agree, being sent off against Aston Villa last season

As far as Lady Luck goes, I think both players and supporters need to get accustomed to decisions going against us, rather than expecting referees to suddenly treat us fairly. I have not heard one person say that Roger East had a good game yesterday. As decisions go for teams, Fulham won that battle yesterday quite easily, with two stone-wall penalty claims being ignored for Stoke, whilst we did receive one bite of fortune in that we did not go in at half time a goal down ourselves. We could count ourselves lucky that in the second half, Glenn Whelan only received a yellow card for a lunge on Dimitar Berbatov, moments after coming onto the pitch. Roger East has previous when it comes to sending Stoke players off under harsh circumstances after all. If either of the two penalties in the first half had been awarded, Stoke would have had the momentum to kill the game off. Like Fulham in the last eight minutes of the game, Stoke could have absorbed whatever pressure Fulham applied late on and tried hitting them on the counter attack if we had taken the lead. This is where we are failing. And whilst referees aren't helping our situation, we cannot say that luck has failed us any more. Until we attack with intent, I feel that results in the upcoming games may not be ones we desire.

Boing Boing Baggies Time:

Wilson and Nzonzi will need to support their wide-men
better in this formation to create more goals

As I have already referred to, I believe that Oussama Assaidi has proven to most Stoke supporters that he is worthy of a start in the team. Whilst his pace and trickery are two advantages that could persuade Mark Hughes to include him against West Brom, his versatility may tip the scales in his favour. Our goal against West Brom at the Hawthorns last season was an example of how to get a perfect victory against this current Baggies side. They are a brilliant counter-attacking side still, yet have built up an ability this season to break teams down, as shown in their draw with Arsenal. If we can draw West Brom onto us and absorb what pressure they apply to us, with the pace of Assaidi and Arnautovic, we have two potent weapons on the counter attack. I'm cautious to include Walters in this statement as his current form would lead you to believe he should be the last name on a counter-attacking team-sheet. However, I remember his goals against Chelsea and Bolton during his first season at the club and remember that he does have the ability to score a goal on the break. His laboured performances of the last few years though leave me doubting his consistency in this area though. If when we break, we get the ball to Assaidi or Arnautovic, then if they can hold the ball up long enough for Walters to join the attack, we have three potential goal-scorers there to take advantage of any bad re-positioning after an attack. If it is the case that Walters is now too laboured to be effective in a counter-attack, then we have Jermaine Pennant who can be called upon to provide extra pace within the front three.

Erik Pieters, guilty of making bad decisions in good positions

If we are not on the counter-attack and trying to build up to a goal, then we really need to be working over the international break on how to create runs into the box that can result in goals. Despite the performance against Fulham being better than the one we saw in the loss to Norwich, when Stoke attacked in both games, there were periods of play where Stoke were effectively trapped in the opposition corners, playing the ball around with no end product. A typical scenario would be that a cross-field pass would land at the feet of Erik Pieters. Pushing forward and trying to get to the edge of the box, he would pass short to Arnautovic, who whilst open at the time was not the best option compared to two players waiting for a low-cross across the six yard box. In Pieters case, I can understand why he may be rusty regarding his decision-making after hardly playing in the last twelve months, but he could do with improving his standards, or risk being dropped for Marc Muniesa who has impressed in cup games. One of my last memories from watching Match of the Day in recent years has been a breakdown of how Arsenal teams attacked in years gone by, playing in triangles to work their way upfield and into the box. Stoke have started to do this under Mark Hughes, with Cameron, Walters and generally Nzonzi playing neat short passes between each other to good effect at times. The same cannot be said on the other side of the pitch at the moment though, and with the rotation that has occurred on the left-wing so far this season, no consistency has formed on this side of the pitch yet. With Arnautovic on international duty for the next two weeks, I would hope that Erik Pieters will be working with Etherington and Assaidi, hopefully to good effect by the time Stoke kick-off at the Brit again.

Away from the Brit - Januzaj for England?

Januzaj, an Englishman? No. A Belgian? Yes.

Are we really this desperate? Adnan Januzaj made an impression for Manchester United on his first full start for the club, scoring two match-winning goals against Sunderland. Within hours of the full-time whistle, England had, according to David Moyes, enquired about Januzaj's availability to play for England over Belgium and a few other countries. Why are we enquiring? Yes, Januzaj is potentially a great player in the making, one that most countries would like to see in their squad in the future. But surely the country that will claim his rights should be Belgium. I know England have history in acquiring players who have English parents but have lived in other countries, Owen Hargreaves being the obvious example of a player who is more German than English, yet represented the Three Lions. Yet looking at the England U21 squad, I would like to believe that we have potential in our youth. Our own Jack Butland aside, the squad includes Premier League players such as Luke Shaw, John Stones, Ravel Morrison, James Ward-Prowse, Sammy Ameobi, Raheem Sterling, Wilfried Zaha and Harry Kane. That is not including players who are playing in in the Championship on loan from Premier League clubs.

Wilfried Zaha, impressive against Wigan, MIA since.

What will stop these players from progressing to the main squad is not being trusted by their clubs to play Premier League games. England is lucky to have clubs such as Southampton that are willing to play their young players, yet players such as Harry Kane and Wilfried Zaha are not so lucky at this moment in time. Whilst some, such as Kane, may not have the talent to make the step up to the top table, players who are not playing for their clubs at the moment, such as Zaha, have the talent to play for England if they get the chances with their club. This is where players need to move on if a move to a top club fails to advance their career. Reportedly, Zaha has been told he can leave on loan in January, although he may get a chance to impress against Norwich in this month's Capital One Cup game. Is this enough though? At the start of this season, I would have included Zaha on a list of players who should be making the move up to the England squad, pushing for a place on the plane to Brazil. Raheem Sterling is another who I would have put on that list, yet he also seems to have gone sideways, perhaps even backwards in recent months. If they aren't getting chances at their current clubs, they should move on, or else I fear the plane to Brazil will be filled with mediocrity that plays regularly rather than potentially talented players who struggled to get a game in a star-studded squad. If we push for players such as Januzaj to be playing for England, those who are struggling for their club will soon find themselves struggling to play for their country as well.

Quick Snippet - Play on?

Bandages that failed to cover the wound for Michu

I respect the 'Play on' rule in football. In fact, I believe that in a lot of circumstances that it should be used more often considering some of the tackles Stoke players get blown up for by referees. On Thursday though, I saw a referee who took the definition of playing an advantage beyond the point of ridiculous. When both Michu and Stephane Besle challenged for a ball in the air, Besle could not withdraw a high foot and made contact with Michu's head. The referee, believing Besle to have somehow made contact with the ball decided to play on and allow FC St Gallen the advantage, despite blood pouring from Michu's head. Law 5 of FIFA's "Laws of the Game", regarding the referee's role in the game states that the referee can "allow play to continue until the ball is out of play if a player is, in his opinion, only slightly injured". From here, I will let you judge whether you think an injury that took over five minutes to bandage up, plus three initial changes of shirts was "only slightly injured".