Meite rescues late, late, and lucky, point.

3 Responses to Meite rescues late, late, and lucky, point.

1. Mike Hope says:

   April 9, 2025 at 4:57 pm

   After the Sheffield Wednesday game I was optimistic about our chance of avoiding relegation.
   There were two main reasons for this.
   Firstly the performance in the first half which showed that we had attacking players with the flair and ability to create scoring chances.
   Secondly the appallingly bad second half performance of our manager.Surely common sense would now prevail and he would not be entrusted with his job for the final seven games.
   And yet after two more games our brief show of attacking flair has disappeared but Riza is still here and apparently preparing for our final five games.
   How much longer do we give him?
   Do we wait until the last game when we need to win by eight goals and hope that other results go in our favour?
   I am a great admirer of the Ritchie Benaud philosophy on tactics—-always do what your opponent least wants you to do.
   I feel certain that everyone at Stoke is praying that Riza is still in charge for this weekend game.
   Any replacement would therefore give us a bit of an edge!
   I have no great confidence in any of Riza’s deputies but we have a club captain and vice captain who apparently have nothing to do but dream of their next contract and watch their teammates struggle in their absence
   As I write this and watch the pigs fly past my window I look forward to a club announcement that Riza is on gardening leave followed by a rousing press conference led by new super confident team managers Ramsey and Ralls.
   How day like that Stoke!
2. Clive Harry says:

   April 9, 2025 at 10:49 pm

   Excellent post Mike. Unfortunately, I think your Riza fantasy will remain just that as our Board and owner sleepwalk uncaringly towards relegation. Their torpor puts us in an awful position as I think going down might mean cost cutting which could make bouncing back difficult. However, if we somehow manage to stay up, I wouldn’t put it past these clowns to give Omer another contract along with the rest of the nobodies on the coaching staff. Devil and deep blue sea scenario!
3. The other Bob Wilson says:

   April 12, 2025 at 7:57 am

   Hello Mike and Clive, good to hear from you both again. I’ve been more sympathetic towards Omer Riza than you two it would appear. The reason I have been less critical is his record in the thirty five games we’ve played since Erol Bulut was sacked;

   https://www.twtd.co.uk/league-tables/competition:championship/daterange/fromdate:2024-Sep-20/todate:2025-Jun-01/type:home-and-away/

   which sees us pretty comfortably clear of the bottom three – it’s far from an outstanding record, especially if you believe the line that this squad is too good to go down, but, if repeated over a forty six game season, it would see us reach something like 52/53 points which should be enough to stay up witj a little bit to spare.

   In saying that, I see little evidence over Riza’s seven months in charge that he’s “learning on the job” – in fact, in recent weeks it’s felt like the opposite is happening as he seems no nearer knowing what his best team is. Also, I fail to see how the constant alterations in defence are helping, even if I do think that none of those used as centrebacks so far have made a convincing case for selection every week.

   A month or two ago, I would have been okay with Riza being given a longer contract if he kept us up, but I’m not so sure now – I think he will leave in the summer whatever division we’re in and I won’t be that bothered if and when he does.