News: Welcome Brek: Potter (Brek Shea at Stoke/ On loan to Birmingham)

If anyone is interested

 

Not that it means anything but interestingly, Assaidi wore number 24 least season, and number 24 was not handed out. Read from that what you will.

 

The announcer (Alexey Andronov) really liked Shea (or Shee, as he called Brekken). On the 88th minute, he even said, ~ "I kind of wonder why Klinsmann didn't take him to the WC".

He did, however, give a giant "Nyet" to that haircut.

 

Solid half.

 

Major rep @jond . Thx.

Dare i say....Shea looked good. And that coming from a big shea hater. But he was impressive, nice touch every time. Tucked in big time, the team played with no width at all but thats ok in this case.

He looked extremely calm and comfortable with the ball, albeit a tad passive in several cases but kept possession very well.

He even defended well, good positioning and everything. Good showing Brek.

 

I always forget how tall Shea is. You dont see many wingers his size. I wonder if he'll end up playing a different position.

Charlie Adam's assist for Gladbach's goal is superb. You can hear Whelan encouraging Shea in his little pixie accent. "Your ball, Brek." "Head up Brek"

Shea's pass to Pieters near the end is very good. Nobody looks particularly with it yet, which is understandable. Tommy Sorensen is still a hero

 

At the end, Peiters was praying for full time before he fell out. Thinking I ate too much of Momma's cooking over the holiday.

Did Charlie bet on the other team? Wow, he needs to recognize green is not the new blue.

I still think Brek will be trouble in the defense. Maybe I was looking too close, but he looks just a bit slow to react. Offensively he is Brek and a useful player. Defensively he still looks to be a liability to me. The one thing he has in his favor is that Sparky will allow an occasional defensive lapse if you can generate some offense, and not like TP automatically send you to the purgatory that is the not on game day roster he has been in.

I know it is early, and he looked a bit better, but this game was not at the speed of an EPl match and he still looks slow to see the play unfolding in front of him. In my eye he has very little anticipation, it is all reaction which puts him always a step late.

He did look fit. I really like the guy , although have I doubted his commitment to top flight footy. It was nice to see him taking this chance seriously and showing up fit. He has a nose for creating goals, and his offensive threat is not consistent, but probably good enough for this level. He cannot be a liability on defense. If he can tighten that up some so it takes more than a simple one/two to leave him chasing his tail, he can play some first team football this season.

Here's hoping!! Gooooo Arnnnnnnn, Brekken, you long lanky giraffe runner you!

 

I liked his willingness to keep going, keep trying things. Alex Ferguson said McManaman was the bravest player he'd ever seen because he always wanted the ball. I like to see that in a player.

I dont like how the ball seems to ping off his shins a lot, needs to work on his touch

 

At this point in his career, I don't see his touch becoming much better than it is.

 

American "field player" I assume you mean.

 

Looked OK, I thought. Not much of a impact other than that one little chip to peters and the turn and run where he got dragged down. I know its preseason and all, but I still think he'll have to show better to get playing time in a pretty good stoke team.

Who is that #6 Arab/Indian looking fella, I thought that guy was awesome for BMG.

 

They don't really need him to be an everyday starter. A regular squad player and cup appearances is enough for him to stay around. Even if he goes on loan to a champs side he needs to go in top form and hit the ground running.

 

I looked him up just so I could quote a post about an "Arab/Indian looking fella." It's Mahmoud Dahoud, a young Syrian-German.

http://www.espnfc.com/german-bundes...n-youngster-mo-dahoud-making-mark-at-gladbach

 

Thanks. Wow, and he is only 17! Watched the entire second half and I thought he was a very smart passer and had more skill on the ball than just about everyone out there.

 

He tracked back well there.

His touch, I thought, was OK but that he needs to be smarter what to do with it. In other words, there's no need for him to play into tight spaces. In that sense, Stoke's style yesterday didn't really help - a lot of short, into-feet passes without the tiki-taka.

 

Stoke have apparently agreed to a deal with Barcelona for former wonder-kid Bojan.

http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Stok...-Stoke-Bojan/story-21741709-detail/story.html

He is a winger so that means more competition for Brek, but from what I've read from Milan/Roma fans, he struggles to deal with the physicality of bigger players and gets "bullied off the ball" quite easily, which could be an issue in the Prem.

 

"wonder-kid"? Been a long time since then. Should have never left Barca

 

Wouldn't have mattered, Bojan just doesn't have have the talent to succeed at that level. Simple as that.

 

In hindsight he should've never chosen to play with Spain; I wonder if he can still switch to Serbia.

I remember he and Gio getting minutes at 18 and looking like future stars. While both are still good, Gio in my opinion being much much better, their quality may have just been a product of playing for one greatest club teams all time. I mean Bojan got tons of appearances with Barca but just never stuck.

 

Bojan is more of a withdrawn striker than a winger but 4 goals in 24 matches for Ajax don't scream a useful EPL striker. (he did score 7 for Roma and is cap-tied to Spain by appearing in a WCQ 4:0 thrashing of Armenia)

 

Bojan could be quite a coup, or a disaster. He's clearly got some talent, he just needs to fulfill. Theoretically, he should work well in Hughes' system.

 

Unless there's some injuries throughout the squad, I don't see Mr. Shea getting much playing time.

 

Riding the bench is much better than most of last season when he wasn't even dressing. But at least it might show Hughes has some bit of confidence in him.

 

I don't know if he's got the quicks to play lb, but adding it as a utility could add some value for him down the road.

 

But don't you think going on loan and playing would be better than just hoping for injuries? Cause at this point, even if Brek has a great pre-season, I think the competition for places at Stoke has improved dramatically with Hughes.