Another European hangover was in order from Stoke. After last week’s draw against Manchester United, Stoke were brought back down to earth with a loss at home to an impressive Swansea side. By all accounts a draw might have been a fair result, but football isn’t fair. The stats, as always, will be analysed right here.
02/10/2011
Liberty Stadium, Swansea
Attendance – 19,523
Referee – Michael Jones
Swansea – Vorm; Monk, Rangel, Williams, Taylor (Yellow); Dyer, Gower (Yellow), Allen, Routledge (Yellow); Graham (Goal), Sinclair (Goal). Subs – Moore for Routledge, Lita for Graham.
Stoke – Begovic; Wilson, Shawcross, Woodgate, Wilkinson (Yellow); Pennant (Yellow), Whitehead, Whelan (Yellow), Delap; Walters, Crouch (Yellow). Subs – Huth for Wilson, Jerome for Delap, Shotton (Yellow) for Pennant.
It was a typical match for Stoke in terms of stats. They had less possession than Swansea (59.1% to 40.9%), and managed only two shots on target to Swansea’s 3. Stoke’s passing, or indeed lack of it, was on show. Swansea attempted 442 passes today, to Stoke’s 280, while being accurate with 344 to their opponents 194 – leaving Swansea with a pass completion rate of 78% to Stoke’s 69%.
In defence, Stoke managed to win 11 tackles to Swansea’s 10, and managed to get back into their rhythm by winning 61 possession duels to Swansea’s 48 – they lost in this stat in their games against Manchester United and Chelsea. Stoke also proved to be more than dominant in the air, winning 18 aerial duels to their opponents 4. They also managed to make more interceptions (12-8), made more clearances (26-16) and made more blocks (4-3) than their opponents. Both teams conceded the same number of chances – 11, and both teams were caught offside two times apiece. Stoke did lose possession 4 more times than Swansea (18-14), which along with the lower pass completion rate, show that they weren’t able to keep the ball as effectively as the opposition.
In attack, the most obvious (and important) statistic is the scoreline – 2-0 to Swansea. As mentioned Stoke managed 2 shots on target to Swansea’s 3, out of 11 shots in total apiece. From these, Stoke managed to put 6 off target to their opponents 4, while 3 were blocked to Swansea’s 4. Less than half of both team’s shots came from inside the box – 3 for Swansea, 4 for Stoke, and 8 for Swansea and 7 for Stoke from outside the box.
In the most surprising stat of the game, both teams managed a 100% success rate with their throw ins – Swansea with 24, and Stoke with 10. I’ll go to bed a happy man after that.
So it seems the better Stoke do in terms of stats, the worse they do in terms of scoreline. The more they battle, the better they do. I very rarely get to see Stoke play live, so I can’t be sure – but is it complacency against the smaller teams that gets to them? Are Stoke truly the Aberdeen of the EPL –turning it on against the big clubs – Chelsea/Manchester United vs Rangers/Celtic, whilst falling apart against the Swansea’s/Inverness’ of the world?
Next week, it’s the turn of the international sides, with England in Montenegro, Wales at home to Switzerland, Northern Ireland at home to Estonia and my pride and joy, Scotland, away in Liechtenstein. It’s heart in mouth time for both England and Scotland, while Wales and Northern Ireland are now playing for pride. The week after, it’s Fulham’s turn at the Britannia, in a preview/review where I’ll be openly biased against Stoke, with no apologies made.
Next weekend for me? I’ll be at Princess Royal Park in Banff watching Deveronvale play Nairn County in the Highland League. And I’ll be enjoying every single minute of it.
