Stoke City

FT

0 : 2

vs

HT 0 : 1

Watford

Almen Abdi.A very good player!!!

I was keeping an eye on this game whilst watching the Chelsea match and it seems to me that Mark Hughes is quickly turning Stoke into a poor man's Manchester United. I think they went into half time with around 75% possession but they never really caused any much havoc to Watford's backline. With the exception of Charlie Adam, pretty much every Stoke player was just passing it sideways. And then Hughes takes off Shaqiri around the 60 minute mark, who was the only Stoke player taking on his man & beating him. Mark Hughes should go back to the counter attacking football Stoke were playing last year. This possession game is ineffective if you can't work the ball through the opposition.

Stoke looked so tired on the ball.

This was a carbon copy of the Arsenal-Westham game. Stoke with 70% possession had absolutely no penetration and Watford scored 2 goals because of some very poor defensive mistakes.