Love this time of year, been a long slog with shorter, darker days, finally have a couple of weeks off, teh cane to recharge and look forward to some holiday time football.
In a great position, now a couple away games, Stoke shouldnt be a problem....bet...it's away and every man and his dog go on about our away form.
Some great news before the match hearing that Earl has become a grandfather for the 5th time, hope he'll still be able to carry on the match day threads!
Struijk back in, with means Ampadu pushes forward and despite the fact that Tanaka has done really well, club captain takes priority.
Despite an early chance for Stoke, we're never really under any pressure early on, we have a lot of possession, but not too much threat and hard to see some of the skills on offer with fog that made it hard to know where teh ball was at times.
Bogle looking good going forward, James always a threat and Solomon, going past people at will on the left, we just need someone to put away chances and that man tonight was Piroe. Needs to play up top thats deeper, his first goal was great example of how clinical he can be, brilliant after thinking chance had gone.
Aaronson was buzzing around and interesting from commentators saying Farke has told him to not run so much as was often out of position. He has loads of energy but feels that there is something missing for him to be a really effective player, if he keeps supplying through passes like he does for Piroe though......
Rothwell always looking for forward pass means we're just that bit quicker in attack than we were with Gruev in teh side and this relieves pressure on defence and Struijk and Rodon were rarely troubled.
Byram solid, has proven to be a very astute signing last summer, but the man of the moment is surely Dan James.
Brilliant last season, continuing it this season, always had pace but seemed to be a lack of end product. Not any more.just looks so threatening and involved in so much, hugely intelligent chip across the box to set up the easiest of headers for Piroe who shows why it's really hard to drop him right now.
So, really pleased fro Dan James, hopefully he's really enjoying things with us.
Commentators made interesting points about sales of Summerville, Rutter and Gray had the context of Farke feeling we relied too much on a couple of players, he was right, we can see that in hindsight, how much many more are chipping in.
I felt referee got it right tonight, fog was a pain, but at end of night felt a result that was never in doubt and hopefully some fo the folk calling for Farke's head can take a bit of mince pie and calm down.
Thoughts from tonight
posted on 27/12/24
The amount of dominance should have translated into more goals, but that's being too critical, as all I really wanted was 3 points.
We have no excuse this year. When you take off Solomon and James and replace with Gnonto and Ramazani as an example, the rest should be also-rans ( well that's the theory at least).
posted on 27/12/24
comment by Drig White (U23149)
posted 9 hours, 46 minutes ago
A scalp any of our competitors would have taken. 3 points is 3 points tho. Very poor opponents. See how we fare against Dire by and then Burnley away at end Jan. That'll be a test and then we can judge where we should be. Burnley done us a big favour to deflate Blades ego.
HNY to all posters.
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Will be interesting to see if Sunderland can do the same on Sunday. Burnley then have Stoke at home on NYD.
This league can throw up some random results - hope Stoke get a couple of decent results in those two games but I won’t be betting on them for sure!
posted on 27/12/24
It seems a lot are saying things about Burnley, but people should think on, they're half way to doing to the top teams what we did to Leicester and Ipswich last year!..
They are a team people have to be wary of whatever happens!..
As for waiting to play the better sides, we've at the moment played the best and look where we are, don't understand why we should wait to play the better when we've already played them, they should be/will be thinking the same about us!....
posted on 27/12/24
Of the games left to play against the 12 teams just below us, 8 are at home.
And 8 of our away matches are against teams 14th and below.
And from 1 March run-in of 12 matches, 7 are against teams in the bottom 10. The other 5 matches are against teams currently 7, 8,10,11 & 13th ....of which 4 of those are at home.
In summary, the first half fixtures we've played seem harder than what we have left in terms of home/away.
This season really is in our own hands
posted on 27/12/24
comment by LIW 100 Points, champions, Lose two games only (U8453)
posted 9 hours, 17 minutes ago
The gulf was massive.
The amount of teams, who just completely parking the bus is an utter disgrace.
Fans working all week, and to then have to pay big money, too watch that garbage. No wonder, there was massive boos at full time.
You know what, yes its worked a few times against away this year, but sometimes there is a bigger picture. Its anti football garbage
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I think this is a very valid point LIW and I say this to my Arsenal supporting mate regularly about the Premier League - ultimately football is entertainment…and the players need to be made more aware of that. Problem is, a lot of managers/coaches are there trying to just survive to maintain a job….so there is a dilemma. Clearly teams that sit back are just trying desperately not to get hammered….but at the same time, there is a duty to entertain the paying masses surely? Or is it a case of today where one team is just chasing shadows and just doesn’t have the ability to even possess the ball and actually use it in any constructive way?
posted on 27/12/24
The low block/bus parking also shows in the top goal scoring charts in the Championship of late. In the past you had likes of Wood, McCormack and Mitrovich hitting 30 goals. These days getting to 20 feels like the benchmark.
posted on 27/12/24
Stoke manager sacked after last night. Three short months in charge.
posted on 28/12/24
Aaronson reminds me of the earlier version of DJ. Plenty of energy, but lacking in end product. Every so often, though, he gets the ball through the lines to create goalscoring opportunities. I wonder if he could yet have the impact that DJ is having? He is only 24 but he is now a fixture in the team. If he can learn to shoot more accurately, he might even add a few more goals to his tally. I don’t think he will ever be worth what we paid for him, but he could play a vital role in our promotion push.
posted on 29/12/24
Trying to reply to heart but it keeps refusing due to the word sh ag being there somewhere. Must be in the original post? I can’t see it though.
Anyway - I wrote this:
Agreed. I like him for his energy and determination but he needs to slow down a bit at times and maybe think before he does anything with the ball.
He has scored a few though which is welcome.
posted on 29/12/24
comment by Stoopo (U4707)
posted 0 seconds ago
Trying to reply to heart but it keeps refusing due to the word sh ag being there somewhere. Must be in the original post? I can’t see it though.
Anyway - I wrote this:
Agreed. I like him for his energy and determination but he needs to slow down a bit at times and maybe think before he does anything with the ball.
He has scored a few though which is welcome.
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Only sh ag I can possibly see it the last sh of push in Heart’s post and the first two letters in agreed in my reply.
Weird.