STOKE
Stoke seem to have found their spiritual home in the Premier League, as they finished 9th for the third successive season under Mark Hughes. Sparky seems to have done wonders for the club, and with the rate that everyone else around them is progressing, the likes of West Ham and Leicester catapulting themselves up the table and the fact that there are now at least six mega-clubs in the Premier League, finishing 9th represents another very good season for a club that have been major Premier League mainstays for a while now. They're a classic example of why Pulis is a good springboard manager - get the team into and keep them in the Premier League for enough time that they can start to get settled and established, and then hand them over to someone else to build on the basics.
On paper, Stoke are an odd case. They scored less goals than Newcastle and Sunderland, they conceded more than anyone outside the bottom five and their goal difference is worse than anyone except Bournemouth and the three relegated sides. This kind of performance would expect to see them 15th, not 9th. But there's a reason that that's skewed slightly, as Stoke lost by some big margins late in the season, losing three games in a row in April to Liverpool, City and Spurs and shifting 12 goals in the process, along with similarly heavy defeats to Leicester and United earlier in the season.
But overall, this was a good year for Stoke. They got off to a tough start, and it took them until the end of September to win their first game, with three draws and three defeats in a harsh start that included Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and Leicester. But once they beat Bournemouth, their season took off. Back to back victories against Swansea and Villa made it three in a row for the Potters, and after dropping points to Watford and Newcastle, November and December proved similarly fruitful, with some high profile victories against Chelsea, United, City, Southampton and Everton over the course of two months, as they picked up sixteen points from eight games. January saw Stoke knocked out of both cups, including penalties in their semi-final to Liverpool, as well as a heavy league defeat against flying Leicester, and they also lost to West Brom. But after heavy defeats at Old Trafford and at home to Everton, Stoke won three on the bounce, turning over Villa, Bournemouth and Newcastle.
But at this point, they went on their holidays. They beat Watford at the end of March but picked up just one win in their last seven, losing four out of five in the middle of it, the aforementioned hammerings. They did manage to beat West Ham on the final day, to finish ahead of Chelsea and compound the London clubs humiliation.
So overall, a solid season for Stoke. Not an exceptional one by any means, but a good one. Three less points than the previous year may appear a step backwards, but in the increasingly difficult to navigate middle to top end of the Premier League, that in itself shows that they've improved enough to keep the pace. They'll be disappointed they didn't get a little closer to European football, with the eleven point gap between them and West Ham exacerbated by Stoke's horrendous form in the last couple of months of the season; they were 7th after beating Watford. Their main problems came from high profile injuries to Jack Butland and Ryan Shawcross in the defence, which hampered their progress significantly. Moreover, although they had talent in the attacking areas, Arnautovic was their most consistent goalscorer. Shaqiri showed only flashes of brilliance, tempered by months of inconsistency and Diouf struggled to replicate his goal haul of the previous season, as he, Walters and Bojan shared just seventeen goals between them and Peter Crouch failed to score in the league at all from admittedly very limited appearances.
In terms of next season? Stoke need to bolster their defence and maybe sign one more goal scorer. But they look well set to repeat their habit of finishing in 9th place, and maybe higher if one or two of the big teams slip up.
England Destroy Pakistan
Over the last four days, England have pulled their finger out, and been well and truly dominant against Pakistan. Right from the off, as Cook and Root both scored centuries before tea on Day One, it was clear that England were in complete control and never let up. Root was at the heart of the destruction, scoring an absolutely magnificent 254, but he couldn't have done so without the supporting players. Cook's century was supplemented by runs on Day Two for Bairstow, Stokes and Woakes, who scored fast and assisted Root as he bludgeoned the Pakistan bowlers into submission.
Forgetting the game situation for a second, Root's innings was absolutely faultless. He left everything he needed to leave, got his defence perfectly sorted, he didn't make the kind of stupid errors that I was faulting him for in the first test. He just did everything right, and he only made one mistake in his whole innings, and that was when he was on 170 odd. It was a perfect display of batting; he played the shots when he needed to, didn't when he didn't, and took one or two risky shots out of the equation, the same shots that got him out at Lords. A lot has been made about England winning the toss, but if Root hadn't made those stupid shots at Lords, England could easily have scored 500 in their first innings there. But they didn't, so it's academic.
So having set Pakistan 589, England displayed their other huge strength, their complete and utter superiority with the ball. This England bowling line up is genuinely phenomenal. With Broad and Anderson, two of the best if not the best two bowlers in world cricket taking a side step, Chris Woakes once again stepped up taking four wickets, assisted by two each from Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes. This England attack is perfect because it is a team, four seam bowlers who work together, compliment each other and are all genuine wicket takers. Moreover, this creates the feeling amongst batsmen that they have to try and smash Moeen out the park, which means that he inevitably takes wickets, five of them in this test match.
Pakistan put up limp resistance with the bat, scoring less than 200, as Woakes tore through the top order, and the team did the rest. Stokes took the crucial scalps of Younis Khan and Sarfraz Ahmed, Broad chipped in with the dangerous Shafiq, Ali got the star man Misbah sweeping and Jimmy Anderson cleaned up Masood. Only Misbah's 52 showed resistance, although Wahab Riaz looked more competent than most of Pakistan's batsmen.
Much has been made of England's decision not to follow on but for me it's really a non-discussion. Either way, there was absolutely no chance of Pakistan batting for two whole days, the equivalent of about 180 overs, and even if England had lost 50 overs to rain, Pakistan would still have had to bat for 135 overs, their longest ever innings to save a match. Not going to happen. So for me it was as much about style of victory as anything else. A lot of people would have preferred to clean out Pakistan inside three days (that wouldn't have happened anyway but still). I had no qualms with England's demoralised, brutalising, Australian style, grinding Pakistan into the dirt. This became apparent on the morning of the fourth day, when Cook and Root went destructive, scoring freely and quickly, plundering 75 runs off just 9 overs, taking less than forty minutes out of the game. Maximum demolition, maximum demoralization, negligible time lost. Pakistan looked tired and frustrated in the field, like they just wanted England to declare.
And when England inevitably did, of course they finished off Pakistan before the end of Day Four anyway, securing a 330 run win. Once again, there was not much fight from Pakistan's middle order, as Younis Khan threw his wicket away chasing Moeen, Misbah played a very odd shot to chop on and Anderson stepped up, dismissing Masood yet again, and getting Azhar Ali and Shafiq plumb LBWs (the latter was an odd one, a very poor on-field decision that England overturned). Moeen, Anderson and the once again impressive Chris Woakes finished with three each, and even Joe Root got a bowl and took a wicket with his second ball, as Pakistan were all out for 234.
If Lords highlighted all of England's weaknesses (the fragile middle order, the inability to bat hard under pressure, how they still need Anderson in their attack) then Old Trafford highlighted their strengths. In Cook and Root they have two of the world's very best batsman, and both would get into a World XI, as would Anderson and Broad, as England's bowlers showed why they have the best attack in the world, Woakes taking his tally to eighteen over two tests, Moeen chipping in and Stokes adding much needed balance to the side. This is an England team full of genuinely class players, world beaters, and when two or three key individuals show up, they can utterly dominate teams.
The only negatives are the continued failings of the upper/middle order, as Vince, Ballance and Hales never got going again, and the big injury to Ben Stokes, whose return to the side was a big boost for England, and he will now almost certainly miss the rest of the series. But overall, this was a fantastic display from England. I said before the series started that I fancied England 2-1. and with the series finely poised at 1-1, I am going to say that again now. England massively underperformed at Lords and even then didn't lose by too much. Pakistan's inconsistencies and problems have showed in these two test matches and England are the superior team, which they demonstrated in brutal fashion over the last four days at Old Trafford. There wasn't a single moment where England weren't on top.
The Hard and Fast Section
- Sakho sent home after falling out with Klopp. Worrying.
- Joe Allen confirmed. Wishing him luck.
- RIP JT McNamara.
- Looks like the Six Nations will stay in Feb/March.
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