Hurt Alex Neil acknowledges that Stoke City’s poor defense of “moments” cost them dearly as they lost badly at home to Blackburn Rovers.
Following their international break, Stoke had been defending a five-game unbeaten streak and a four-game streak of clean sheets. However, Blackburn defeated them 3-0 at the bet365 Stadium courtesy to two late goals and one very early strike.During the match, Stoke had a lot of possession but only one shot on goal. The final was played in front of nearly empty home stands, and the few fans who were there expressed their displeasure with the team’s careless playmaking and poor attacking.Neil continued, “I think we didn’t defend moments well enough,” despite his belief that the scoreline didn’t accurately depict the game’s progression. That’s a summary of the match. They were powerful when called upon to defend, denying us opportunities that could have been beneficial. I felt that we weren’t doing that well enough at times.
Nobody actually predicts how I’m going to perform in the game. All they’ll do is glance at the score. As a supporter, you attend to witness the team’s victories, chances created, and goals scored. It’s a painful one because we didn’t do enough of that.
“I think the last five games have been really good. You don’t want to send fans home angry, disappointed, or frustrated, but that’s what will happen in the end, especially at home.”
After three straight games without a goal, Neil was dissatisfied with Stoke’s lack of exciting movement in the last third.
He remarked, “I think the biggest difference between us and them was that they had more runners beyond the ball. We didn’t move it quickly enough.” Look at Szmodics and Dolan; each time the ball rolled over, they jumped up and stretched out into the air. We always played in front of people when we did it.
“We appeared more dangerous when Tye Campbell entered the game because he twice or three times got in behind and down the side on the right.”
“You have to perform as well as you can when you get a chance or an opportunity to get into the team,” he continued. In the end, we didn’t fight for an adequate amount of ball. It’s a difficult ask to ask your attackers to hurt them when you only have thirty percent of the ball, but we had sixty or so percent possession. When we get up there, that’s what we do. We didn’t have enough of the runners off the ball that we needed.”Blackburn fought back, encamped on their 18-yard box, and refused to give up any ground. That’s why I brought Wesley on, and even though I felt his physicality caused more issues, I should have done it sooner since there’s no assurance the ball would stay where you turn it. They flip it around the corner and we go one for one the minute it doesn’t stay there. And it proved to be an issue while competing against players like Sammie Szmodics.
