Stoke @ Home Build up

[Chris]

Need to be careful of Stokes pace with Crouch and Walters.

[RedReet]

Need to be careful of Stokes pace with Crouch and Walters.

They have some decent players on paper, but that's as weak a 1st eleven I've seen in a while from them. Diouf up there too, they don't plan on having the ball on the ground too often.

[Exiled_red]

del

[Fredo]

They have some decent players on paper, but that's as weak a 1st eleven I've seen in a while from them. Diouf up there too, they don't plan on having the ball on the ground too often.

I thought exactly the same thing when I saw their first 11. They obviously worked on that plan all week. I'd have thought they'd play a better team though but it worked for 20 minutes or so as they had us rattled. Everton tried the same thing and we couldn't really cope for the time they could play this way. I wonder if more teams will try the same thing with us from now on.

[BigChief]

I thought exactly the same thing when I saw their first 11. They obviously worked on that plan all week. I'd have thought they'd play a better team though but it worked for 20 minutes or so as they had us rattled. Everton tried the same thing and we couldn't really cope for the time they could play this way. I wonder if more teams will try the same thing with us from now on.

That's a very good point. I was thinking exactly the same when I saw the team. For everyone criticising Koeman's and Hughes' approach at least these two managers had the balls to do something different rather than sit back and be inevitably spanked.

The converse to their 'experiment' is that other managers will now NOT try the same as they just don't have the ball possession stats to play such a high pressure game against us. However, I can see Utd maybe employing this strategy with Fellaini, Ibra and Pogba.