The Potters suffered their season’s low point over the weekend. At the end of their 3-1 loss to Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park, supporters furiously assaulted summer signing Wouter Berger, shouting, “You’re not fit to wear the shirt,” throughout the game.
Right now, the Staffordshire team is not doing well.
It seems like they would have a successful summer window, but now they are just three points above the drop zone.
If they win midweek, they can cut that difference to two points over Queens Park Rangers, who are currently ranked 22nd. If they lose, though, they can end up in the bottom three.
They have guys like Luke McNally, a Burnley loanee who proved he could play at this level while with Coventry City on loan last season.
He leads Stoke in tackles (1.8), ball recoveries (3.1), interceptions (1.5), and clearances (4.3) per game this season.
This season, McNally is only three players behind three members of the City squad in terms of average Sofascore match rating.
Only Ki-Jana Hoever, Sead Haksabanovic, and Berger score lower than his 6.99/10.
Although all of these numbers point to him being among the team’s best performers this season, they could be highly deceptive.
These are some of the reactions from Stoke supporters to the Irish defenders’ performance in this past weekend’s 3-1 loss to Blackburn Rovers, an out-of-form Lancashire team.
It’s evident that Stoke supporters haven’t been overly impressed with the Irish defender lately, which is surprising given how excellent he was for Mark Robins at Coventry the previous season, but the Bet365 Stadium is obviously not the same as the CBS Arena.
Burnley, McNally’s parent team, is among the favorites to be sent back to the Championship at the first opportunity.
They haven’t been able to duplicate their form from last season in the second division, but Vincent Kompany’s team appears dangerously close to getting back there.
If they do drop, McNally might be of great assistance to them if he can return to the heights he achieved for Coventry.
He is capable of playing for a squad that is close to the top of the league because he assisted the Sky Blues in reaching the play-off final.
Kompany has a distinct style of play; he favors his defenders to be adept passers of the ball who can get past the opposition and find space in the middle.
Only 5% less passes have been made this season by the 24-year-old than by Taylor Harwood-Bellis than he did in the 22–23 campaign.
The fact that he can accomplish that in a club that isn’t as ball-dominant as the Burnley squad was ought to entice the Clarets to reconsider his position when he returns from Stoke.
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