Goal famine needs serious fix as Stoke City look for three missing ingredients
Stoke City played out a 0-0 draw with Oxford United that leaves them looking over their shoulder at the wrong end of the Championship. Here are the talking points from the bet365 Stadium.
Stoke can’t seize their moment
Stoke were building up pressure at points, particularly in the second half, but they struggled to go for the kill. The final pass or turning down the chance to shoot, or not being able to beat the man, or running up a dead end on a short corner. Whether it was a lack of urgency or knowhow or quality or all three, it was frustrating, and they are ingredients that need to be found.
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This match against a Gary Rowett side was probably always going to be settled by one moment but Stoke couldn’t get it – and almost lost it, when a rush of blood to the head from Viktor Johansson was almost punished.
It was also, perhaps, the wrong fixture to have on the back of a mid-week game at Portsmouth when Oxford had played 24 hours earlier.
But Stoke can’t look at their fixture list and pick out where they are going to guarantee wins. They have to be hard fought and this was a game there to be forced.
Stoke’s home drought
Stoke haven’t scored in five out of seven home matches now and a team that can’t resolve that is clearly in serious trouble.
The challenge for Mark Robins is to come out of a month when he has lost his 11-goal top scorer and somehow get the team, as a whole, scoring more than they had been doing previously.
Ali Al Hamadi was watching from the stands, and Sam Gallagher was watching too, and Stoke will need one or both to come in and make a take this scenario by the scruff of the neck. They need to get considerably more out of their other forwards too, including Lewis Koumas and Bae Junho.
First and foremost, they probably just need to shoot. There were moments here, like when Lynden Gooch passed out of play for Enda Stevens rather than take it on himself or when Lewis Baker tried to thread an impossible pass rather than have a whack, when they would have clearly been better to have had a pop. They might at least force the keeper to parry or, hey, they could even score.
Robins said: "It's frustrating but have we got any right to be frustrated? I don't think so because of the age of the youngsters that are playing. But it's not just that. We've got a situation when we've got runners going through and having a chance to shoot with Goochy that ended up playing Enda Stevens but he slid it out of play. Lewis Baker has got one when he's actually moved it... they're starting do things which are pretty inventive and he's changed the angle and then got caught between two minds and whether it's a cross or a shot. Just go and put through the back of it and shoot because I'm telling you it will go in the back of the net.
"Those are the frustrations that I have because you want to win football matches. I've had two games here and it's two clean sheets but no goals. It's pretty frustrating."
Worrying Championship table
There is no getting away from the fact that Stoke are in a Championship game of musical chairs at the bottom of the table. There are so many teams in this cluster around the relegation zone and supporters at all of them will think they are doomed.
Stoke can’t get sucked any deeper into a position when they’re looking too much at what other teams are doing. There is time to resolve this for themselves.
They will need players back from injury, even if some of those players will require a little bit longer than others to really get up to speed, and they could clearly do with a little bit more help in the transfer market. Whether that’s possible all things considered with Financial Fair Play is another matter.
But whoever is sent out needs to find a way to win winnable matches – and have a good fist at the others too.
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