A bit about you:
Recent graduate, currently training as a croupier at a local casino because no one in the entire World of Sport is willing to give me a chance in a job. I am also a blogger on a new, but successful Stoke site (4231 Stoke) (http://fourtwothreeonestoke.com) just to keep me sane during this tough time.
Name: Matt Morris, however I’m known as Mozzaa.
Current home town: Stoke-on-Trent
Birthplace: Stoke-on-Trent
How long have you supported your team? Well my first game was Exeter away in 1992, I was 6 months of age so I do not count that, I started to regularly go Stoke games in 1996; so a good 18 years.
Overview of your club:
A different beast to how we were even 2 years ago, however there is still some of the aspects there, but with plenty of attacking flare and pace. Severely under-rated, unfairly judged (usually by London folk) and have a centre half who should be in the England squad, but is judged on a mistake on his debut against a world class striker, who had one of the games of his career and a more internationally experienced Gary Cahill wanting no responsibility of defending said player – the shirker, but we are not bitter about it…
Favourite thing about your home ground: The warmth climate. In all seriousness, I would say it is probably the supporters, when we get going that is, it is rare and far between these days though. – The ground was a balls up soon as the plans were made (it’s a long story but the ground is the wrong way round to which they wanted it to be.).
Favourite match played by your team & why: Match itself – it can’t be anything else but beating Bolton 5-0 at Wembley, not many teams will go to Wembley and beat a team on a similar billing so emphatically. In terms of experience, Valencia away I doubt will ever be beat – the entire week was immense.
Favourite player of all time who played for your club: It would have been Graham Kavanagh, but he left a bitter taste in most fans mouths and he’s the only player who has made me cry when they left. So I will go for Sergei Shtaniuk– not many outside of Stoke would have heard of him, but the guy was an absolute colossus and was far too good for us at the time, genuine Premier League player playing in Division 2. Rory Delap deserves an honorary mention too.
About our forthcoming match against you:
It’s going to be tough like any other Premier League game, and with you already proving you can mix it with the best of teams the league has to offer you will come to Stoke with a lot of confidence, however – Stoke at home hasn’t got such a fierce reputation for no reason, we usually have a slip up against a team that will more likely struggle (Norwich last season, Villa this season – both similar performances too). But with our home record, the best Stoke squad probably of all-time and best attacking threat and options we’ve had in the Premier League we have a lot of reason’s to be confident too.
Your favourite current player in your squad and why? Steven N’Zonzi – he is a fantastic midfielder, box to box and when he’s up for it, Stoke are a brilliant machine (Villa away last season for example). But he is very frustrating at the same time, he often slows down the play when we should be going forward and this happened in our games vs Villa and Hull, it was not ironic that we barely troubled the oppositions goalkeeper in both games, however he was absolutely awesome at the Etihad – if it wasn’t for his occasional moments where he loses his head, he’d be a great signing for a top side.
Player in your squad we should most fear and why? This is tough because most of our attacking players are new and are all potentially dangerous; but I’ll go for the man of the moment in Mame Biram Diouf. After scoring a wonderful Ricardo Fuller-esque goal against the Champions and then scoring a great goal for Senegal in the week he is on cloud 9. If Stoke can play the right ball for him, and there is a bit of space in your defence – you will pay for it. Moses and Arnautovic (if he’s up for it) are very tricky customers too.
Player in our squad you most fear and why? I’ll go for Mahrez, saw a bit of him last season and he looked a good player, his pace and trickery could cause us some problems. One player I did really like the look of when you played us in the Cup was Knockaert, he looked a really tidy player.
Up and coming prospect in your squad? Ollie Shenton, a local boy who made his professional debut against Portsmouth the other week, he’s only 16 and already been pushed up the Under 21’s and it’s a safe bet he will be the first of our recent emphasis on making a brilliant academy to make that step up. Our academy for years has been under-utilised, so it’s nice to see a few talented players coming through – Charlie Ward, Eddy Lecygne and Sam Coulson are very talented players too.
Where do you think you’ll finish this season? I think in the Top 10 again, we are much stronger than last year and if we can improve our away form (starting with a win at Man City is not a bad way to change that!) and with the tactics we play it’s very plausible we can then it would be far from unreasonable to think so. I would take mid-table and a League Cup/FA Cup win mind.
How do you think you’ll do against us? Like I say, I think it will be a tough game for us. It will be interesting how you play, if you come at us and attack – then our forward players COULD have a field day, saying that – if you score first and you stay solid, you will definitely frustrate us – if a defence with Senderos and Hutton can do it, can’t see why you can’t. But I will go for a 2-0 Stoke win.
Any other comments? – Hope anyone making the trip up to the wonderful land of Stoke-on-Trent (don’t laugh!) has an excellent day out, but doesn’t go away enjoying getting even a single point off us. P.S. – Leicester also have one of my favourite football badges, probably helps my dog has a very similar face to a fox…