The game saw very few chances overall and Stoke took what I think was their only clear cut chance in the second half. There were a lot of subtle, cynical fouls on our forward players (clipping Zaha after the ball had gone out, a small push on Townsend to make him stumble and lose control, jumping on Bentenke, etc.) and we failed to manage this.

Zaha had a poor game by his standards, which is a shame as Townsend had a pretty good one. If they could both fire on all cylinders then we could cause teams problems. I actually thought Bentenke worked hard today, but all too often was outside the 18-yard box when he needed to be in it. I love Punch but I really think we need someone in there who can either provide goals or assists and he just hasn't been doing that for a long time now. Remy, for me, would work well off Big Ben.

We are starting to look like we did under Pulis, which might just save us if we're lucky, but by God it may be pretty ugly. My big positive today was Luka who showed signs that he could be a class act in the middle. He was already giving directions to teammates, playing accurate passes and breaking up play. He also seemed a lot calmer than the others and didn't just hoof it. Let's hope he gets even better

Boro fan just on the radio saying both teams would be happy with a draw. They will come to defend as they lack firepower and try to sneak a low scoring win. We need to get at them early, pushing forward at every possible opportunity (please work on this in training) 2 up front, get hold of the ball along the deck out to the wingers/wing backs who must aim for the byeline/penalty area as quickly as possible. We have enough speed in this team to have them pinned back. Unless we play on the front foot in this game the same problems may well surface. Remy, Sakho, Schlupp should all feature, throw all the cards onto the table. If Puncheon plays from the start you will hear my scream from Bristol.

“ [T]here are known knowns; there are things we know that we know.There are known unknowns; that is to say there are things that, we now know we don't know.But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don't know. ”
—United States Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld

The trouble I'm having with us trying to sort it out at the back first is that we haven't got anyone decent at the back at the moment to keep clean sheets. All of Hennessy, Ward, Tomkins and Delaney just aren't up to it anymore. Four of them played today and whenever they got the ball just hoofed it up to no one. Even Dann has looked poor this season. I just can't see how we can improve the defence unless the four I mentioned are replaced from Middlesbrough onwards and then it's going to be hard getting enough points to stay up. We had that false dawn with Bournemouth however the Sunderland and Stoke matches have shown just how bad we are? The defence today also played too deep meaning the midfield couldn't get it far enough towards the Stoke goal to be able to create chances. It was awful again today and needs a massive improvement for the Middlesbrough and matches after?

3 games we lost recently we were genuinly unlucky not to get a point...
But we need to start making our own luck, the lack of attacking is really frustrating. We need 2 upfront. We are relying on a striker that hates our style of play, lets at least work to his strengths.
Remy for Puncheon, its that simple...

I know everyone keeps saying Tomkins and Delaney just kept hoofing it, but did no one else notice that a number of times Tomkins made positive runs forward when he had the ball, but then didn't seem to have the options and so hit longer balls or ended up having to go sideways.

I think if we'd played two up yesterday our midfield would have struggled. I think we played the tactics right, we just didn't manage to create enough going forward. Unlike in previous games JM didn't get beyond Bentenke for his flick-ons and we didn't make the most of our set pieces. Another thing I noticed is that Punch appears to have had free-kick duties taken away from him. Given this has been about his only positive contribution for a few months now it does pose the question why he's still in the team.

I believe there has been a steady improvement since Sam has come in, but without the results to go with it we have the unhappy alliance of negative football and zero points. Under Pardew we had entertaining (albeit excruciating) defeats, but despite me actually supporting him he did seem to lack tactical nous and an ability to organise a team. I'm not throwing in the towel yet as I believe our new signings all have the potential to lift us.