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Stoke City Defensive Letdowns To Blame Against Rotherham

By Jeff Brantley

ROTHERHAM, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 26: Chiedozie Ogbene of Rotherham United looks on as an own-goal is scored by Jordan Thompson of Stoke City during the Sky Bet Championship match between Rotherham United and Stoke City at AESSEAL New York Stadium on December 26, 2022 in Rotherham, England. (Photo by Ashley Allen/Getty Images)
ROTHERHAM, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 26: Chiedozie Ogbene of Rotherham United looks on as an own-goal is scored by Jordan Thompson of Stoke City during the Sky Bet Championship match between Rotherham United and Stoke City at AESSEAL New York Stadium on December 26, 2022 in Rotherham, England. (Photo by Ashley Allen/Getty Images) /
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The goal for every Championship team is to avoid as many letdowns as possible throughout a season. For Stoke City though, letdown games and letdown moments in matches have been far too common this season — This includes even more letdowns in Stoke City’s latest match against Rotherham United.

This past Monday, although The Potters managed to grab one point in a 2-2 draw, the club again found themselves missing out on all three points. This time however like many other teams this season, the match result came down to Stoke City having too many lapses defensively.

A Failure Defensively for Stoke City Against Rotherham

Per Sofascore.com, Rotherham on Monday were credited with five total attempts (with only one attempt total on target). But yet, The Millers were able to still find the back of the net twice against Stoke City.

So how do you explain that for The Potters defensively? Afterall, with hardly any attempts against, Stoke City should have been in a position to maybe concede a goal at the most.

The answer is the club again found themselves with too many letdown moments defensively in the match — Just like at other points of this season, Stoke City conceded two goals on Monday based on not enough defensive intensity/work rate in two specific moments in the match.

The first moment came unfortunately for Stoke City when Jordan Thompson was credited with an own goal (Thompson touched the ball before going in, but it was the build-up to the goal to watch). The second moment was on a Conor Washington goal for The Millers in the second half.

Whether it be the own goal from Thompson or the one attempt on target from Washington though, it was Stoke City’s failure to track back and mark their man that truly was the reasoning behind both defensive lapses.

Simply put, once again for The Potters, it came down to a lack of work rate defensively on Monday — Both of which led to letdowns defensively for Stoke City, and ultimately a letdown result in the game overall.