Thracia
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- Joined
- Aug 1, 2011
- Messages
- 25,740
I think Frankie knew it by half time!I mean it just makes them shit plans.
It was basically the same shape, with wingbacks, Maguire dropping deep, but I see your point.
You have to take results on their own merits, IMO. Drawing against a better side is something of a positive. Same reason I was fine with a point against WBA and Sheff U.
That said, I think this was our most undeserved point, so performance wise it was more concerning. Question has got to be why Stoke were so much better than us? Because they were, and Frankie knew it by the end of the game, hence he clearly decided to shut up shop.
Ultimately, Stoke are better because they have a billionaire owner who doesn't recruit key players from the proven-injury-prone "buy at your own risk" bargain bin.
But FM doesn't help himself when he fails to start McCann because (it seems) he can't make the difficult decision of proactively dropping one of his midfielders.
Being happy to draw because the opposition were the better team seems a pretty low bar to me, because when we do decide to shut up shop and punt those long balls to no one, most teams look better than us. It becomes self-fulfilling.