Am I right in saying, that's the first time Torp and Allen have been partnered together?
I do think that had a major bearing on things. Neither are great tacklers or ball winners and both seemed a little lost at times on Saturday.
Physicality isn't everything, but at the same time, you don't want players who can get knocked off the ball too easily, or get outmuscled time and time again.
For all the pluses, it's the downside of Jamie Allen.
Yeah, I thought we bossed it completely in that second half, UNTIL they scored. Then we just seemed stunned and rather clueless.
Stoke really and truly, did not look like they would ever score in the second 45 mins
We weren't ruthless enough though
The weird thing is, for the first two minutes we went for the throat with them and could have easily scored.
So, it started out all okay
It was then the following 43 mins that went completely wrong.
Not sure we should be expecting anyone to make an instant impact to be honest.
Some hit the ground running and others, take a little while to settle in.
Just the nature of the beast.
Yeah, completely agree.
I am saying the goal, which was totally against the run of play and totally out of the blue, completely changed the game.
We hadn't had a shot on target, but we in control and starting to prise them open a bit.
It's all ifs and buts isn't it
That goal obviously...
Yeah, agree. We allowed Stoke so much space on that first half and they were pushing through midfield with ease.
Their movement was very good, which helped, but we didn't half allow them a lot of space for sure.
The Torp/Allen combination just didn't work. Allen is a bit lightweight and Torp...