please were talking stoke city.. johnson looks great but our next away game will decide things, rafa tends to get the team to sit there give the ball away and wait until we are 2-0 before actually playing any football , so our next away game to see if rafa can loosen that handbrake at all
Emp, we may be talking Stoke City. However, we improved on last years performance cos we beat them with width. The wide midfielders & the full backs gave Stoke a torrid time & this was the creativity that won the game. You don't need one midfielder to create openings, you need the whole team. Lucas did well because he won balls with tackles & interceptions as did Mascherano. They were mopping up the ball when an attack broke down & were supplying the ball to the wings if they could not go through the middle. Stoke came out at 2-0 which left gaps for us to exploit. They had a go in the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half, but after that we stepped up a gear and ran them ragged. If there was a handbrake to loosen, then Stoke did this after their half time team talk. The team & not Rafa dictated the pace of the game, the boss can only tell players where & how to play & encourage them to push on. You don't attack a team like that if playing away at 0-0 cos thats how you end up getting whacked.
