Stoke City

Stoke lost 0 4 to Watford.

What the feck is going on Alex Neil?

Double Maxim without doubt the greatest drink in the world

Stoked Up wrote:

Double Maxim wrote:

Impressive start from MON.

Yep. He had them working their bolloxes off. Modern lazy arse footballers piss me off. Some of these f.airyers just wouldn't perform under Jones.

Incredible what a new manager can do; although playing players in their best positions and with a system that they have grown up playing with, certainly helps.

A kind run of fixtures over the next month might help to continue the new manager 'bounce' effect.

Not so impressive now. Rock bottom of the championship. Can see him getting the boot if things dont pick up majorly over the next 2 months.

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Double Maxim wrote:

Impressive start from MON.

New manager bounce effect. Can't read too much into it. Give it 6 months.

Michael's at the wheel.

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o'neill could be in the frame again maybe? james might get lucky

Nathan Jones has been sacked.

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I'm old school. Give a manager a decent chance of setting his side up.

He proved that he can manage at Luton and not just middling. What he did there was outstanding. But he did need a bit of time to get it right in his first season.

If Stoke get relegated, then fire him.

Nope. Board were showing patience even before the weekend's surprise win.

The lower end of the championship has some really poor teams.

It wont take much to climb out of the bottom three.

Double Maxim wrote:

@Stoked Up I know its early days but a bad start to the season for Stoke how do you see the season unfolding?

It's mostly confidence issues as he has certainly assembled a squad that at least should be capable of pushing for playoffs. Getting players to buy into Jone's beliefs, is so far proving to be tricky. Stoke should have had more points for the first three games, but the last two defeats means they are more likely relegation candidates. Leeds are the best side in the division (but they were last season too) so I expected to lose that one, but Butland's contribution to the defeat at Preston was palpable.

Butland and Allen should have been sold as they wanted away and back to the PL. Stoke would have had plenty of suitors for both, but after this nightmare start to the season, you'd wonder.

As for the Irish. we know McClean is not a wing back, I fear if Jones sticks with the diamond, he will be a casualty, but it's encouraging to see Collins getting a shot. Ward still to come back from injury.

Double Maxim wrote:

You happy about Nathan Jones?

TBH, I knew feck all about him other than a cursory look at how well Luton have done over the past few seasons with him as manager. His sides appear to have an attacking flair, so for the first time in a long time Stokies might be watching something that resembles how football should be played.

After the hoof ball merchant that was Pulis (practical and probably right at the time), Mark Hughes quickly moved into fearful tactics and Lambert could barely win a game with his inherited squad. Rowett's tactics were just simply not to lose games, again stifling all positivity from his players.

However, I'll be surprised if Jones can get them quickly playing his way. This season is probably a 'write off', unless he's given a wad of cash to bring in new talent as he'll definitely need some different personnel.

Given how well Luton had been doing in league 1, I'd imagine some of their young players might make ideal candidates, although they may be reluctant to derail a possible promotion by losing them.

I just hope Stoke get some sense of stability, which has quickly gone from the club after Pulis left.