Match Day Thread An entertaining and satisfying win, but it was dangerous - My thoughts on the Stoke game

I'm well pleased with another 3 points against a Stoke side who were threatening and good on the ball.

We played some great football and you can tell the team are full of confidence and we were very aggressive.

We did almost shoot ourselves in the foot a few times, but we made enough chances to deserve a victory.

The only thing that worried me was our chance conversion was shocking.

Ratings -

Elliot - 9 - I don't care how much everyone will **** over Lascelles, Elliot is MOTM for me. He saved us from losing a game that we should have won comfortably. 2 superb saves and a couple of good ones, plus very brave aerial play at times. This is the first game where we've really had to rely on our keeper, and he stood up to the mark after 4 games of not being able to contribute much.

Yedlin - 7 - This guy is extremely quick and his pace on the right was refreshing but f*ck he does leave us exposed at times when he bombs forward. He should only be played when full on attacking a midtable or lower side.

Clark - 7.5 - Solid

Lascelles - 8 - Good defending and another great winning goal.

Mbemba - 7.5 - Great at left back again.

Ritchie - 8.5 - Two assists, worked his nuts off, important to our attacks and defense. Almost MOTM.

Merino - 6 - Not great today, but not bad. He made some good defensive challenges and made some good plays. You can see how different he is from Shelvey. He's more of a holding mid and distributor rather than a player maker.

Hayden - 7 - Good work rate and good all round play.

Atsu - 7 - Good goal, even though he should have maybe had a pen, he really should have scored a 2nd goal when in on goal, he had a tonne of time and way too many touches. He really is **** when it comes to decision making when he has time. Still, he worked hard and was a decent threat.

Perez - 7.5 - Better from him today. He does a good job where a proper number 10 should be. Good skill and dribbling on the ball, he seems to be getting used to the PL again. His passing is actually good for a CF.

Joselu - 5.5 - Oh dear. Sitters missed, but his all round play was ok. Not his best game, but he will get more goals.

Shelvey - 7 - Some wasting of chances, but some great passes forward at times. He is definitely the better option when trying to attack in terms of creativity, it's just sometimes he loses his head.

Diame - n/a - Meh.

Gayle - n/a

Benitez - 8 - Did everything right in terms of preparation it's just his forwards let him down at times.

MOTM - ELLIOT.

 

Another good summary Tash, though I thought Merino was class again and deserved a higher score.

 

Think you're a little out on this, Tash. Elliott probably should have stopped the goal and produced two decent, but expected, saves. Merino was again really good, he makes himself available and played more killer passes than Elliot made saves. For the most part the rest is pretty much spot on. it's a good looking team and they are fighting for each other.

I may be jumping the gun, but in Jamaal Lascelles we have an absolute worldy (potentially) on our hands. Not just that he's a decent footballer but he's a leader of men. And that's fcking hard. The lot of 'em look like they'd crawl over glass for Benitez and the Toon. I'm astonished by the response and we may disagree at times with Rafa's tactics, but by christ we'll be in a world of trouble if we don't have that man in charge.

 

Woo hoo, come on!

 

not a bad summary . elliot did do well ..

thought MOTM , for me was Merino ..


I watched him , take the ball of shaqiri so many times it was fun watching lol.


getting better all the time ..good engine .cool on the ball ... great stuff

 

Maybe Fat Mike was right about the standard of the squad after all then?

 

All hail Fat Mike

 

Lascelles has upped his game since last season and you can tell he is hungry. Wants to succeed And is playing with that crest on his shirt. He is a captain. Through and through. Can he make the step up and play for England?

 

Im loving Lascelles form, hope he can keep it up. I'd start Shelvey ahead of Hayden next week. Perez was pap as per

 

We did well good to kick the ball in the net twice.

 

Didnt get this on TV here last night so will watch today. But encouraging thing is we are creating lots of chances, something we werent doing last time we were in this league.
We have been lucky in the way the fixture list has worked out as it has thrown up a reasonable start and given us a chance to build up some confidence before the harderr games in November and December.

 

Mark Hughes is some tosspot.

His comments after the game suggesting that Stoke need to get used to teams piling behind the ball and having to break them down.

FFS we should have scored at least 5 goals and that's not exaggerating.

 

It is interesting reading the opposing Manager's comments. Some of them give honest assessments of the game (like Clement last week) but there are a couple (particularly Hughes and Pulis) who would rather have teeth extracted than acknowledge the opposition were better.

 

I **** you not, even Mitrovic would have scored the chances Joselu missed... even Mitrovic!!!!

Also Elliot should have saved the Shakiri effort... soz Tash. He barely moved his feet cause he was caught on his heels. One save after that from Diouf was really good though.

 

Perez was very good today. Won some amount of ball including before the first goal. Your assessment is way off.

 

He looks like Mrs Brown off Mrs Browns boys

 

Merino was an 8/9. He made our midfield tick. Elliott wasn't motm by any stretch.

 

Agree, I thought Perez did well and was instrumental in the successful tactic of pressing them high up the field. Got his foot in and won the ball back many times. Merino also did this well.

 

Yes Atsu scored, but he was again profligate in possession and as has been said his decision making is ****. He seems to get his legs in a tangle sometimes when on the ball and under pressure and it results in us giving possession away. And a couple of times he just passed it to the opposition when under no pressure at all. We need to look for better in future transfer windows IMHO.

 

Have to say, while this is a nice run and we are winning games, I'm under no illusion that there will be times this season when we have losing streaks too. Every game so far other than the West Ham game has been really close and could honestly have gone either way. Thanks to Rafa, we have a well drilled, hard working team but there are still shortcomings throughout the squad and they will be exposed at some point.