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First half, agreed. Second half we were the better team and Stoke unfortunately had one good opportunity and took it. So I don’t think we got it ‘completely’ wrong. Agreed on Simms being isolated, we made 1 or 2 direct passes to his feet in the first half. It didn’t help that the referee...

It’s a general warning to the team because the whole midfield and our wide players were too safe. In possession with their passes or dribbles and out of possession in the pressing. We missed Sheaf’s out of possession work with his interceptions and tackling.

I had a random exchange with a Stoke fan after the game, he was rambling about how it only takes ‘5 or 6 clowns’ to ruin everything. Before talking about the riots in Stoke-on-Trent centre before I needed to go… Which is all true and for those who went to the Euros, we enjoyed alcohol in the...

Rudoni looked good but agree that Eccles, Allen and Torp were sub par today. I won’t get too excited, it was one game and we didn’t play that well. Today really should be a wake up call to those saying the likes of Andrews, Obikwu and so on were good enough for cover. We 100% need a minimum of...

What was the jist of what he said?

Allen is a rotational player at best. I really don’t know why Eccles was benched, must have been a knock or not been 100%.

He defended well but his distribution was poor and put us under unnecessary pressure. He’s taking all the slack for his passing (rightly so) but the goal and a lot of Stoke’s threat came against the left hand side of the defence. We haven’t signed any new defenders this window and considering...

I do think Stoke will be decent this season so it’s not all doom and gloom. We just didn’t create anything of note and our squad isn’t as strong as some people were saying in preseason. Only missing one starter and off the bench, after the first 3 subs there wasn’t really any one else to bring...

Well, that was disappointing. Thomas really let himself today with his passing, it was far too loose. The same could be said about Allen. Definitely need another 2-3 signings. Convinced we need an experienced CB and another CM assuming Sheaf stays. Not to panic, it’s only August and we’ll be fine.

Would you recommend? Feeling a bit peckish right now - cutting it fine for KO.

I don’t think any top manager actually wants the job. The best ‘high profile’ managers that would take the job would be Poch, who hasn’t won anything of note in England. Tuchel would be next up and his media management, is not suited to the job imo. How would the public react after a few bad...

He was but he probably doesn’t maintain that speed if he has to run around Ingebrigtsen so Kerr can count himself a little bit unlucky. He very nearly threw away a silver medal to the other US runner. I think the funding for athletics will be maintained for the next olympics. We’ve got some...

Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Sheaf comeback roughly the same time Sakamoto got injured? If you compare form with Sakamoto and without last year you would get a similar reading.

Swansea at home… I like Allen and he is a really good player to have in the rotation. He’s technically proficient and has a lot of energy to press teams. We did miss him at times last season when the fixtures piled up. That all said, he is punching above his weight in this squad. Not in a...

Bet365 are the exact kind of owners most football clubs would love to have. A sugar daddy (family now) supporter who is happy to fund the club. My Stoke supporting mate reckons that if FFP weren’t a thing, they’d outspend everyone to get promotion. Perhaps a tad exaggeration but they have a lot...

Potter, to his credit, is a brilliant tactician that could suit the role well. There are question marks how he’d manage a squad of big characters that exist in the England team. As for Carsley, personally I’m a fan. His work in the U21 setup was really good, exciting football and adaptive to...

My prediction is that Carsley will get the job on an interim basis, we’ll try for Pep at the end of the season and if he says no as well as Carsley doing well, LC will get the job on a perm. I’m surprised Potter hasn’t (seemingly) been contacted! A like for like situation for Southgate in 2017.

I’m happy with out attacking options, there are lingering doubts about the midfield and defence depth and quality. Midfield in particular because it’s a demanding position and two of our players have struggled to play a high volume of games - Palmer is not a CM.

Agreed, we have spent a lot of money. The relegated teams from the Prem will have squads where they’ve spent 90-100+ million on their starting 11s. A sobering comparison was in our first season in the championship when we lost to Bournemouth at home, their squad was worth 90-100m and ours was...

Personally, I can’t see us having the best attack. Either way, last season was a massive deviation from the rule. Most previous seasons, the 3 promoted teams will have defensive records in the top 4. The year we missed out on promotion, we had the 4th best defence in the league, being Luton...