Rip Roaring Potters

Stoke City Vs Aston Villa – In The Eyes Of Mystical Descent

by northy on 16/03/10 at 6:51 pm

Here are the thoughts of rip roaring correspondent mystical descent on the 0-0 stalemate with aston villa at the weekend, most of the fallout after this game revolves around tuncay, sidibe and booing fans. Whhat are your thoughts on mystical’s review, all comments are welcomed. Cheers for the work MD. Northy

Player Ratings:

Sorensen – 7 – Not a lot out of the ordinary apart from a sharp low down save from a long shot.

Huth – 7 – Coped with Villa’s pacey wingers fairly well.
Faye – 8 – Had the hardest job of the match in keeping Carew quiet at set pieces, but he did very well.
Higginbotham – 7.5 – Good return from injury, barely put a foot wrong.
Collins – 7 – The first game where I’ve been reasonably pleased with him. Keeping Young quiet is no mean feat.

Whitehead – 7 – Quiet start and his distribution isn’t great, but his energy gave Villa something to think about.
Whelan – 8 – A very pleasing display, got really stuck in and picked out some very good
passes, more of the same please.
Delap – 8 – Probably our best central midfield performance of the season, Delap also pulled his weight and did some important work at the back.
Etherington – 7.5 – Not quite at his best, but a very welcome return.

Sidibe – 5 – Started well, but very quickly exhausted and he was just didn’t play well enough.

Tuncay – 4 – Bothered playing for 5 minutes. Ignore the manager’s instructions, start waving your arms about at everyone and then storm off the pitch? Despicable.

Fuller – 8.5 MotM – Completely transformed us when he came on.

Kitson – 6 – Contributed very little. Set up Fuller for a chance at one end, gave a free-kick away in a dangerous position at the other.

I really enjoyed today’s game. That may sound strange, given that it was a 0-0 draw and there was little in the way of chance creation during the first half, but it’s true, I did. I found both halves to be strangely absorbing and entertaining. Maybe it’s because despite the performance of our forward line for 50 minutes, we did fairly well against a team with top four aspirations. Perhaps it’s because of Villa themselves. They’re definitely one of the most likeable teams in this league. Like us, they’re one of the 11 remaining ‘proper’ clubs in the football league set up, with both of us having had a crucial role in the foundation of the game in this country. You can throw into the mix their manager, Martin O’Neill, a fine coach who gets his teams to play proper hard but fair football but who also able to accept both victory and defeat with class and grace. Arsene Wenger should take note instead of trying to kill football. The team Villa put out were a breath of fresh air. Milner’s dive near the end of the game asides, there was no diving, no surrounding the referee, no waving imaginary cards, no feigning injury and no petulant stamps or punches. Not only did they look far superior to Manchester City, they behaved with a dignity and decorum that was an absolute credit to them. I think every neutral will be hoping they manage to force their way into fourth place this season, ahead of the despicable Liverpool and Manchester City. Really, give me a talented team like Villa who don’t indulge in the game’s dark arts over Chelsea, Manchester United or Arsenal any day of the week. Give me a proper defender like Richard Dunne, who put in a man of the match performance, over Micah Richards any day. Just like last season, their fans were superb as well.

As for us, I thought we did well. Both our forwards had shockers for the first 50 minutes and we didn’t create an awful lot, but we looked comfortable and the odd half chance bobbled around in their box. The battle for aerial supremacy between Faye and Carew was intriguing, with Faye ultimately winning out. Delap and Whelan dominated the centre of the park, with both players doing the dirty work at the back but not looking out of place up top, either. There was one particular incident in the first half where Villa broke on us and played the ball dangerously across our 6 yards box. The player who spotted the danger, got all the way back and made sure nobody got on the end of that cross was, of course, Delap, whose intelligence off the ball served him well once again. Whelan, meanwhile, was getting equally stuck in whilst picking out some fine attacking passes. Etherington wasn’t putting in the kind of performance that had people speculating that he might make the England squad, but he did show that his knee injury hasn’t cost him any of the pace and I suspect that if he can stay injury free over the next few weeks, we should see him getting back to his best. Whilst I’ve advocated playing Tuncay and Etherington on opposite flanks, I could not blame the manager one bit if he kept Whitehead out wide. After a couple of shaky run outs on the right, Whitehead had a quiet but effective game, giving Huth plenty of help at the back and putting Villa under pressure when necessary. His distribution wasn’t at its best, but he played his part as a nuisance out there.

Unfortunately, this brings us on to Tuncay and Sidibe. This has been an issue of massive contention since the game, with double standards abound all over the place. Let me start out by saying this. The performance of neither player was good enough. Tuncay did 5 minutes of work and spent the rest of the game either hiding, disobeying the manager’s orders or giving the ball away. Sidibe played well for the first 10 minutes, getting on the end of the high balls and performing some decent hold up play. After that, he looked exhausted and faded from the game completely. Purely on the basis that Sidibe played at an average level for 5 minutes longer than Tuncay did, I would say that Tuncay had the worse game. Actually, having since watched the Football First highlights package, Tuncay’s 5 minutes of running is condensed into 30 seconds, whereas Mama is featured frequently throughout as the ball is played long to him time after time. He wins a smaller percentage as the game goes on, but he’s still winning them. This is neither here nor there, however, as both players had poor games and the team suffered as a result. It is not a competition over who had the worse game, it is a time for serious analysis of each player’s performance as an individual. Before that though, I’m going to be forced into making one small comparison with regards to their performances.

The reason for this is actually the Stoke support. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve no trouble with openly airing frustrations at the game or criticising a player who is having a poor game. The double standards and the reaction to the substitution really annoyed me, though. Let me give you a small example. Late in the second half, a long ball goes up to Mama, who flicks it on into the path of Tuncay. Tuncay miscontrols the ball and loses it, with the Tuncay song almost immediately being roused up. Not especially long after, Stoke are attempting to counter attack and the ball is worked to Sidibe in the centre of the pitch. Sidibe attempts a through ball, but it’s a poor one that’s well overhit. At this point, some sections of the ground possibly erupt with fury, aiming the sort of vitriol at him usually reserved for Arsene Wenger. There was an incident earlier in the game where Etherington played the ball to Tuncay, who miscontrolled it, causing it to roll to Sidibe. Sidibe was expecting Tuncay to deal with it and so also miscontrolled it, but it was Tuncay who took the flack. The fact is this – a certain section of the Stoke support have had it in for Sidibe for some time. Thinking that he isn’t a very good footballer is one thing, but for certain supporters it has become quite, quite irrational. The very same people were poised, daggers at the ready, to leap upon Mama as soon as our unbeaten run came to an end. Before the Arsenal defeat, any over the top criticism levelled at Sidibe was pretty quickly shouted down as nonsense, as it was apparent that he was performing an important job in an unbeaten team. Since that game, the same old faces have launched into Sidibe with renewed vigour. I’m not suggesting that they want Stoke to lose or anything of the sort. We are all Stoke City supporters, no matter how we view matters relating to the team and my opinion is no more deserving of any kind of pedestal than any other Stoke supporter who watched the game on Saturday. For me, though, there are some people for whom the obsession with Mama has reached a perverse level. There is also another set of supporters who see Tuncay as some sort of deity, the footballing spirit of Pele and Matthews condensed into one bite sized chunk of Turkish Delight. He can, of course, do no wrong. So why is it that Tuncay was simply having an off day, something that Mama was apparently at fault for, but Mama is an awful, awful player who has always been out of his depth? As ’sheikhmomo’ commented on The Oatcake Messageboard:

‘This is the biggest problem over and above the booing. Mama is slated to the heavens by fans for putting in a pretty poor effort. Tuncay puts in an equally ineffectual effort and excuses about ’service’ are made. The latter then storms down the tunnel and f***s off home disrespecting his manager, his colleagues and those who pay his wages and that is conveniently swept under the carpet by the Mama maulers.’

The fact of the matter is this: both players put in poor games. The difference is that Tuncay has consistently been average at best for us, having performed at a level that would justify his reputation for only 80 minutes in his Stoke City career. Sidibe has been an integral part of this Stoke side for the past four seasons, as he has more often than not been our best option in the target man role. Last season, before his knee injury he proved himself to be a worthy squad member at our level. For some reason, it has come to pass that it is one rule for the exotic Tuncay and another for Sidibe. Let’s take a look at Tuncay’s Stoke City career so far. I don’t mean to be too critical of him or completely write him off, because that’s just not right. I want him to succeed and for him to take Stoke City on to the next level. Initially, I got caught up in the Tuncay euphoria, despite the nagging doubts. I couldn’t help but wonder where he’d fit in regularly in our rigid system – he didn’t seem to have the stature to play as the target man, he’s not as good as Fuller as an out and out striker and he seemed just too much of a free spirit to play on the wings. Then there was an argument that emerged that suggested that Fuller and Tuncay should play together up front. The main basis for this was a game against Blackpool reserves (which I haven’t included in the ‘80 minutes’ above) and the game against Wigan. The game against Wigan is indeed seen as Tuncay’s first good game for us, where he showed us what he’s all about. We seemed to create plenty of chances and looked a very good side, sure proof that Tuncay and Fuller could play up front together. Certain details of the game have since been overlooked. The first is that we only managed to draw the game 2-2, while the second is that our first goal came from a long punt up the pitch and that our second came from a set piece. The third and final thing is that this wonderful Tuncay inspired performance was only evident for about 20 minutes, the period of time for which Tuncay performed. For the first half and a brief period of the first half, we fired long balls up to poor old Tuncay, who just didn’t have the physical presence to get onto a large proportion of them. As a team, we were poor. After the Wigan game, he put in an above average performance away at Villa and then was phenomenal against Fulham for 40 minutes. A good 20 minutes in extra time against Man City aside, he’s otherwise failed to be anything other than distinctly average. His first touch is incredibly heavy. Sometimes he recovers from it, as in the case of his goal against Man City. Most of the time, he just loses the ball. He can be massively frustrating at times, too. He will sometimes pick the ball up out wide, where it would probably be for the best if he ran it down the line to either force his way into the box as Etherington or Fuller could or to force a set piece. Instead, he cuts inside, runs into three defenders and loses the ball. This is a process that he repeats all over the pitch. Often, one moment of Tuncay magic will light up a game, but to get that you have to endure him being very average for large portions of the game. Perhaps his most endearing trait is the way he can get the crowd going an encourage the whole team to push up, simply by sprinting at break neck speed when the opposition defence have the ball and forcing them to make mistakes. Since that hamstring tweak, he just hasn’t put defences under the same sort of pressure, as though he’s still recovering and isn’t quite up to it yet. When he does have that quality, he’s the perfect player to have up front when defending a lead. I wouldn’t consign him playing on the wing to the dustbin just yet either. With Etherington on the other flank, he isn’t looked to as the person to give the ball to when we’re on a break, but he is able to use his natural ability to give us an extra dimension in attack. On to his performance against Villa. There were very few redeeming features. There was the odd instance of him receiving the ball and finding another Stoke player, but often it was just dire. Giving the ball away, straying out of position, looking very lethargic and openly arguing with the manager, ignoring his instructions. The ‘poor service’ argument just doesn’t wash. There was a player on the bench who manages to do something with any of the little scraps he receives. Then he strayed into the unforgiveable territory. After picking his performance up for five minutes at the end of the first half, his attitude after the break was a complete change. He just stood around waving his arms at his team mates (Fuller may get mardy with the referee, but I can’t recall him resorting to that sort of behaviour with his own players before, slapgate aside) and refusing to do any running. Indeed, the most running he did was as he stropped off into the dressing room. Is he going to behave like that every time he’s substituted, no matter how deserved it is? He’s shown a lot of promise, but he’s flattered to deceive for the majority of the time. Oh, and if he attempts another one of those ridiculous back heel flicks that go straight to the opposition, I may just have an aneurysm in the stands. Here’s hoping that he puts this performance behind him and moves on.

Now on to Mamady Sidibe, a completely different kettle of fish. I’m a big fan of his, but I’ll be the first to admit that since his return from injury he’s failed to reach the standard he’s previously set himself. He’s neither as mobile, as quick or as aerially dominant as he once was. For some reason, nobody is willing to make excuses for him, so that responsibility is going to have to fall to me. People forget that Mama has come back from a very, very serious knee problem that kept him out of the side for a long time. His premature return from injury last season served only to aggravate it even more. Couple this knee injury with the lack of a pre-season, a necessary fast track back into the first team and a fixture pile-up and you have the Sidibe that we have before us today. If you want evidence of his lack of fitness, go back to the away game at Man City. Coming off the back of an excellent game against Blackburn, he was absolutely superb and dominated their defence. In the mid-week he put in the same incredible amount of work up top before having to shift out to the right, where he did an admirable job playing as both the link up man and the defensive winger. The amount of ground he covered following the sending off would probably have surpassed that of most Man City players in the whole game. Unfortunately, you can’t put in the work that the target man role dictates in a string of games when unfit without very quickly beginning to run on empty. I believe that’s what we’re seeing at the minute. After the Villa performance, I think it’s time for a rest and for Kitson to show us if he’s really mentally prepared to play for us again. After all, a fully motivated Kitson is probably pound for pound a better target man option than Sidibe. Why, then, was Sidibe fast tracked into the first team and why does he often seem to be the first name on the team sheet? That’s very simple to answer. We play a very rigid 4-4-1-1 that requires a target man. The target man’s job is to win the ball in the air, link up the play and to disrupt the opposition’s central midfield. A fully fit Sidibe performs this role to a tee, but he doesn’t have a goal threat. That’s why at the start of the season I’d have placed Beattie ahead of him in the pecking order – Beattie wasn’t as good at the target man’s job, but he made an average fist of it and we looked so much more dangerous with him in the team. He has the very rare striker’s instinct. Look at our game against West Ham earlier in the season. Beattie sprints 60 yards to get on the end of a rebound. A carbon copy incident 10 minutes later and Kitson is lagging behind at the edge of the box. I’m certain that Beattie would have scored when Fuller fired the ball across the box and Friedel parried it away. As it happened, Kitson was against lagging behind on the edge of the box. Back to Sidibe. At the time Sidibe came back, we had a crisis. Kitson’s earlier form had evaporated and his problems resurfaced after being dropped for Beattie away at Everton. Beattie’s knee injury picked up at Birmingham (now being operated on) meant that he was struggling for form and there was clearly an attitude problem with him behind the scenes, as demonstrated in the headbutting incident away at Arsenal. We had no target man and it had to be Sidibe. This has been the case throughout 2010 thus far, although Kitson seems to have turned over (another) new leaf. I think it’s time to give Sidibe the rest that he sorely needs and give Kitson a chance to prove himself.

The above negatives aside, this was a pleasing performance from Stoke. We can take heart from it and should fear nothing that Tottenham can throw at us, as they are a very similar team. We’ve beaten them once, after all. Let’s get everybody motivated, start with Fuller, do our work and take the game to them.

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