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Club Focus – Stoke – Stoke start haunted by same old flaws
The visit of Tottenham heralds the start of Stoke City’s home campaign this weekend, and while the Britannia Stadium will no doubt be a cauldron of noise, the team’s performance in last Saturday’s curtain-raising defeat to Wolves has left much cause for concern. In spite of a promising start when record signing Kenwyne Jones smashed the crossbar after three minutes, the ex-Sunderland striker’s departure through injury ten minutes in left the Potters, once again, with no Plan B. With just under a fortnight of the transfer window remaining, supporters are hoping that the team that takes the field in September is unrecognisable to that which suffered such an ignominious loss at Molinieux.
Of chief concern to the Potteries outfit is that the problems evident last season have not been addressed over the summer, the acquisition of Jones excepted. The impression given in last weekend’s Midlands derby was one of a Stoke side creaking in terms of both tactics and personnel, in dire need of a shake up.
Tony Pulis’ fondness for deploying four centre backs across the defence is well-known, and it is a policy that has served the Potters reasonably well over the past couple of seasons, a sturdy rearguard making up for the team’s lack of goals. The torrid time that Stoke’s full backs were given by Wolves’ wide players however, suggests the strategy may have been found out. Robert Huth, commanding when deployed at the heart of the defence, struggled against the pace of Matthew Jarvis, while the normally dependable Danny Higginbotham endured a nightmarish afternoon on the opposite flank. While the Potters’ full backs lack of inclination to get forward and discomfort on the ball have proven detrimental to the team’s attacking play in the past, there are now signs their once taken for granted defensive solidity is also dissipating. If Spurs players had been studying the videotapes ahead of Saturday, Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon will be salivating at the prospect of making hay down the Stoke wings, although the small Britannia Stadium pitch does have a tendency to marginalize opposing wide men.
Midfield has long been something of a wasteland in the Potters’ side, with an inability to keep the ball being a major contributing factor to their throwing away of 24 points from winning positions last term. Events at Molinieux suggested, if anything, the problem has worsened, with even the simplest of passes going astray. Given the fact Stoke’s direct style of play does not lend itself to quality in the middle of the park, given that the onus is on getting the ball forward as quickly as possible, it is still difficult to excuse such constant carelessness from the club’s midfielders. Elsewhere, 34-year-old Rory Delap meanwhile, again showed that he is not a right winger. It seems that the midweek capture of Jon Walters from Ipswich is designed to address the problem position on the right of midfield, but Walters’ reputation – that of a battering ram rather than a speed merchant or precision crosser – suggests Stoke fans yearning for the much-discussed “right-sided Matthew Etherington” might be disappointed.
Mama Sidibe replaced the injured Jones up front, and although the much-maligned Malian has been the subject of much unfair criticism over the years, there can now be little doubt that he lacks top flight quality. His anonymous display underlined just how bereft the team was of ideas, and Pulis’ decision to remove his substitute in the second half may have sounded the death knell for Sidibe’s Stoke career.
It was not all doom and gloom for the Midlanders however – Jones’ cameo was highly encouraging, and the Trinidad and Tobago international looked a real “next level” signing in his brief time on the pitch. Pulis’ decision to remove his ineffectual replacement target man in favour of the craft of Sanli Tuncay, giving his partnership with Ricardo Fuller another chance, was both unexpected and encouraging, and Stoke did look better with the Turk’s clever play as part of their arsenal. Even the introduction of the pariah-like Michael Tonge from the bench arguably suggested the Potters’ manager has recognised that the erstwhile Blade is one of the few players at his disposal possessing anything resembling the creativity to change a game, even if it was not to be in this instance.
Stoke fans are divided on Tony Pulis’ transfer policy of brinkmanship. The Welshman’s tendency to wait until late in August in the hope that better quality players become available has met with both success and failure over the last few seasons. With opposition of the calibre of Tottenham, Chelsea and Aston Villa to play in approaching weeks however, zero hour is dawning in the Potteries. The next two weeks of wheeling and dealing will make or break Stoke City’s season.
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