Stoke City
The picture above is a familiar sight for those at the Britannia. Stoke line up, ironically against today's opponents Spurs, for a set piece, the box packed with bodies. Whether it's a long throw, corner or free kick around the box, it's something they excel at. You also have to give them credit for finding a way to win Premier League matches, at the end of the day, that's what you need to do. But how bloody boring! This is going to be a big time rant, so be prepared!
I'd never be able to be a Stoke fan, sometimes your happy when your team grinds out a result against better opposition, and on occasions it needs to be done. Liverpool have done it before, especially in Europe where they've gone away from home for a 0-0 and done a job on them at Anfield, Barcelona spring to mind. However, going every other week to the Britannia to watch Stoke must be dreadful. I say that, having spend my teenage years going to watch Scarborough FC in the old 3rd Division and Conference!!
It's well documented about their long throw, and having just seen on Sky Sports that their 2nd goal in the Spurs game today, was their first from a long throw in a while, comes as a big surprise. A scramble in the area leading to a Stoke goal is an all familiar, and completely unsatisfactory sight for me. It's not how football is meant to be played and is so boring to watch. They pose no real threat other than at set pieces, and if you can remember a time when a Stoke players have beaten a man or two, and smashed it in then I'd like to see it.
Their fans may be loud, but how they bother to go and watch that shower is beyond me! The fact they sing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" really does sum up their side. Ironic? Maybe, but their style does suit rugby more than football, and with their main threat coming from a line out, sorry throw in, their fans even have a pre-throw in "ohhhhhh..." before selected Stoke player hurls the ball into the area towards one of their two giant center forwards and four center halves for the ensuing scrum (see right). The collective style and attitude of the fans, really does grate on me, and many others I'm sure, who like to see proper football.Combine them two facts with their moaning, cap wearing, late arriving manager, Tony Pulis and you have the perfect combination to result in hatred. It's a usual sight to see him in front of the cameras post-game, complaining about how Stoke didn't get this, and didn't get that. Boo hoo Tony. When you throw the ball into the box, with 18 bodies in there, there is going to be some contact and there may be a foul in there too. But how do you expect the ref to make a decision with so many bodies to look through and not be able to see who is holding onto who? If that's the way you play football, you don't deserve to get the decisions or luck in them situations. If they popped off a few passes on the edge of the box and someone went down a bit easy and they got a penalty, fair enough. Although that's not a sight I think I'll ever witness in the Premiership from Stoke.
As I said at the start, this has been a rant. I'd suspect most people agree with me, unless your Stoke fan, but watching them today has frustrated me enough to post this! Proper football is what people want to see, the likes of Barcelona and Arsenal set the example, and you may say Stoke haven't got the players to play in such a way. Maybe that's true, but then you have to look at the manager who has built the side and the signings he has made. Don't tell me they don't have money because they've spent £10m on Crouch, who surprisingly fits Pulis' style. They also possess Wilson Palacios who never gets a game, maybe it's because he isn't six-foot odd, and likes to pass the ball around and keep it on the deck? Only Pulis knows what goes on under that cap.
Having decided to take the plunge and travel 3 hours to see what all the excitement surrounding Stoke City and the Britannia Stadium was all about, I would like to recall my thoughts on all things Stoke. Having witnessed Wembley crowds (old stadium)and the noise that can be generated by partisan supporters, the noise inside the ground when the home suppporters sang was louder than the majority of larger stadium crowds. The ground was easy to get to and that should have been a warning in itself, parking facilities near the Britannia is atrocious for a relatively new stadium. Once inside they made a lot of raucous noise and almost everyone sang at the same time, quite intimidating for opposing players no doubt. But my first visit will also be my last. The football on offer as is mentioned in this blog was of the decidedly sparce type. Planned by their manager and coaching staff to upset and unsettle opponents is the name of their game, jostling, wrestling, pushing, shoving, barging and blatant rough house tactics against good footballers, is an insult if calling that "football". The systematic fouling by the big lads in the team on the opposing keeper (taken in turns i might add to lessen the obvious nature of the tactic)at every set piece and long throw makes for very dire viewing indeed. The blog mentions the amount of bodies in the target area of the dead ball/throw ins etc makes it virtually impossible for the officials to call. If they give one free kick or booking they would have to give a hundred, it is that prolific, I counted from 15 throws, 11 fouls on the opposing keeper that day, systematic bullying at corners by Huth, Shawcross, Crouch, Jones, Walters and Upson to name a few. If their fans are happy to watch that so called football, they have no idea what real football is about in my opinion. I was both bored and thoroughly unentertained for my ticket money. Pulis and his staff should be charged by the FA for failing to control their players, if recent events in the press are to be the norm. Their style is long ball at every turn, I have never seen so many fouls by pulling, grabbing and ankle tapping of players in full flight. Today was perfect example, no attempt to play the game on grass, and I felt myself thinking of that legendary manager Brian Clough, and I quote " if football was meant to be played in the sky, god would have put grass up there and not on the floor" ok he was talking about Wimbledon in that instance but 30 years on, we still have a manager who belives in that style in Tony Pulis. They are the modern day crazy gang. I left the stadium at 4:50 that day feeling I had been robbed, the cost is not prohibitive but for that cost, i want entertainment, i got none from Stoke that day and I saw none from them today. It is the most awful excuse for football I have ever seen. I have to agree again with the blogger,that it is more of a turn off than a turn on, which does, as is suggested in the blog, seem to please their army of fanatical supporters. Says more about them as a group than it does the manager and his staff. So what goes on under that cap, may be, a desire to merely survive with no ambition to progress and grow as a club. The manager has kept his job due to that style and he is in an enviable position to managers like Bruce,Mcleish,Martinez and Kean in such that it will always provide mid table mediocrity and a safe haven, at least the other managers try to play the right way, ultimately to their cost it would seem. So any rant concerning Stoke and style is justified in my view of them from my visit and the TV live games I have seen.My last comment is on the choice of songs by the fans, if the shepherd is uninspiring the sheep will just follow in that vain too, wont they??
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