Referee: Martin Atkinson Assistants: S Child, E Smart Fourth Official: P Bankes The Golden boys are traveling to Stoke! COYH Current Form: Predicted line-ups Injuries: Stoke - Ryan Shawcross and Shay Given will miss the match due to injuries, while Jonathan Walters is doubtful. Mame Biram Diouf is unavailable for other reason. Watford - Jurado is unlikely to feature whereas Behrami is doubtful -despite this I still think he will start with Ben dropping to the bench. So Stoke are in form having won their last three.. but Swansea were also inform when we got our first win of the season. I'm going 2-1 to the Golden Boys!!
I'd be well chuffed with a draw, with Stoke being the form team it would be a good result, a win would be the best yet this season.. Wish I was going, last time I went there it was a crap atmosphere by the home fans and Mooney was playing for Stoke which seemed a bit weird at the time.
Don't forget, you're not allowed to sing and clap at this game, because I associate those more with a Westlife concert than a football match.
Fail to score here and I'm afraid Quique has lost me. We need a win and a massive improvement up front. We can't afford to be drawing our winnable games as they are few and far between. Must win, otherwise we are going to sink into a relegation fight that I don't think we can escape from.
Fair play, I'm being overly harsh, not the most in depth preview and the wrong titling is bothering the snob in me but oh well. Really need to score in this. I would love say I told you about QSF but since I'm making the journey up there I hope he makes me look a right idiot.
More creativity when going forward with the ball please. Time for Abdi to live up to the godlike status that Watford fans have given him methinks.
He isn't that good at this level, he is alright but hasn't created a chance or scored a goal yet and isn't very good at tackling and hasn't much pace.. A good goal scoring championship player like Matt Spring was.
I hope he manages to make the step up but has not done much to convince me so far this season. From what I can see, he doesn't look comfortable playing on that left side and I think we may try to strengthen this area in January.
He's playing as a winger. You cannot judge a player at this level when he is being played out of position. And that applies to Deeney too. And Ighalo, when he was playing as an attacking midfielder.
And? I don't think he is up to prem standard, he is now 112th on the website of that screenshot where he was 9th so it a bit old with the stats.. I hope he steps up but have not seen it so far.
This one is a free swing. Stoke have beaten some big clubs over the years and are miles ahead of us in terms of experience, player quality and stadium build. Whilst we have some gems in the side like Capoue and Prodl we are still playing Championship level journeymen like Deeney, Abdi, Cathcart, Anya, Ighalo, Abdi, Gomes, Abdi and Watson and can't be expected to put up much a fight against the bigger sides.
Experimentation is needed from QSF this weekend. We are extremely poor going forward and the past 3 results/performances have been disheartening. It's clear that we are strong defensively and a competitive side but if we don't score goals we will get relegated. Gomes' comments in an interview with the WO last Saturday were rather concerning; he pretty much said the team gave up after Arsenal scored as the players have no confidence in the team's ability to score goals. I would like to see Deeney or Ighalo dropped, Abdi moved central and Ibarbo given a long overdue first start on the wing. I think our best attacking performance of the season came at Everton where we had Jurado in the C.A.M position and 2 natural widemen Anya and Layun either side of him. Our attack had good pace, width and balance that day. Since then we have become more and more predictable and that "square pegs in round holes" saying comes to my mind.
Stoke is winnable. It's not so blatantly so that I would tag it as 'must win' though. It's away, they've won 4 on the bounce and our recent form coming in isn't good. A score draw without Ighalo scoring would be a positive outcome. For me the first 'must win' game is at Villa Park next month.
Interesting range of views here...... http://oatcakefanzine.proboards.com/thread/249362/stoke-city-watford
Talking to my brother who us a Spurs fan I said QSF is very defensive minded and positive results have tended to be like 1-0. His reply was "that'll do". Make of that what you will. For this game a repeat of the first 45 minutes against Arsenal and Stoke will find us a real handful. Its a case of taking the opportunities.
You'd love to be proved right and for Quique to fail? I don't think you need Quique's help with the second part.
If the team is unchanged I fear more of the same: excellent defensive performance for 3/4s of the game then Stoke score If QSF has had a bit of a rethink the game (or any game) is winnable
Agree with this. We had opportunities to score twice v Arsenal before they did. I had a dream last night that we scored 2. Didn't dream about the other teams goals though. Make of that what you will?!
We've got to pre-book posts now? Sorry if this trod on anyone's toes - I'll go to the back of the queue now.
Come on Quique - give Berghuis and Ibarbo a start and move Anya back to replace Ake. Let's see what they can do!
I would deffo replace Ake with Anya who looks far more effective at LB. No sure that starting with BOTH Birdhouse and iBarbie would be wise, one or the other maybe. Preferably iBarbie.
We'll win. I can't watch it. Games I haven't watched this season - Man City, Swansea, Newcastle. I've watched every other game. :doom:
