Stoke City is now looking over their shoulder at the bottom of the Championship after playing to a 0-0 draw with Oxford United. The talking points from the bet365 Stadium are listed here.
Stoke struggled to go for the kill, despite occasionally applying pressure, especially in the second half. Running up a dead end on a short corner, failing to beat the man, or missing the last pass or shooting opportunity.
They are elements that must be discovered, and it was frustrating whether it was due to a lack of haste, expertise, quality, or all three.
This game against a team managed by Gary Rowett was likely to be decided in a single second, but Stoke was unable to grasp it and nearly lost it when Viktor Johansson nearly got him for a bloody head injury.
Perhaps it was also the wrong match to play after Oxford’s match 24 hours earlier at Portsmouth in the middle of the week.
However, Stoke is unable to predict where they will win based on their schedule. They must be fiercely contested, and this was a forced game.
Stoke’s home drought
Stoke is obviously in serious trouble as they have failed to score in five of their last seven home games.
The task for Mark Robins is to come out of a month when he has lost his 11-goal top scorer and somehow get the team, as a whole, scoring more than they had been doing prior.
Sam Gallagher and Ali Al Hamadi were also observing from the stands, and Stoke will need one or both of them to step in and take this situation by storm. They also need to expect much more from Lewis Koumas and Bae Junho, two of their other forwards.
They probably just need to shoot, first and foremost. There were times when it would have been obvious that they would have rather to have had a pop, such as when Lewis Baker attempted to thread an impossible pass rather than take a whack or when Lynden Gooch passed out of play for Enda Stevens instead of taking it on himself.
If nothing else, they might at least make the goalie parry or, who knows, score. “It’s annoying, but do we have the right to be annoyed?” Robins remarked. Because of the age of the kids playing, I don’t believe so. But it’s not just that. We’ve got a situation when we’ve got runners going through and having a chance to shoot with Goochy that ended up playing Enda Stevens but he slid it out of play. Lewis Baker has got one when he’s actually moved it… they’re starting do things which are pretty inventive and he’s changed the angle and then got caught between two minds and whether it’s a cross or a shot. Just go and put through the back of it and shoot because I’m telling you it will go in the back of the net.
“Those are the frustrations that I feel because you want to win football matches. I’ve had two games here and it’s two clean sheets but no goals. It’s quite annoying.
Concerning the Championship table
It is undeniable that Stoke is at the bottom of the Championship table in a game of musical chairs. Supporters of all the teams in this cluster surrounding the relegation zone will believe they are doomed.
When Stoke looks too closely at what other clubs are doing, they can’t get dragged into a situation much further. They have time to figure things out on their own.
Even though some of those players will take a little longer than others to fully recover, they will need players back from injury, and it is obvious that they could use a little more assistance in the trade market. It’s another question whether that’s feasible when taking Financial Fair Play into account.
However, whoever is sent out must figure out how to win matches that can be won and give a decent go at the others as well.
Read More: Sportupdates.co.uk
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