Going into Saturday’s game against Reading, Stoke City sit at 20th on the table with 30 points. That puts The Potters still just four points above Huddersfield and Blackpool in the relegation zone and only five points above last placed Wigan Athletic.
Once again as Stoke City’s table position has indicated for most of the season, points are at a premium for The Potters. And also that every match and every point for Stoke City is precious (especially at this point of the season).
So as usual, Saturday’s match for Stoke City will be another important opportunity to grab points. This time around for Stoke City, the club will be welcoming in Reading to Bet365 Stadium on Saturday.
When Saturday’s match kicks-off Reading will be sitting at 14 on the table with 37 points — Which is surely a position (even though not in promotion position), that Stoke City will be hoping they can get close to this season, in order to avoid relegation.
Stoke City vs. Reading Prediction
The 2022-2023 season has not been a good one for Stoke City. And to make it worse, the club has continued to lose players this January transfer window.
Therefore things won’t be getting any easier moving forward for Stoke City — Not unless the club can make impact signings within the next couple of weeks to make up for those losses to the club.
Still though, there’s no excuses in English football and especially for teams that are either facing promotion or relegation to perform well. And with those no excuses, it’ll be on Stoke City to save themselves whether they get help in the transfer window or not.
For starters, as we discussed on “All Stoked Up” earlier this week, tactics can go a long way in helping Stoke City survive relegation and grab points. The other thing that can help The Potters is for their current players to step up.
If Stoke City’s players can step up and manager Alex Neil can devise some different tactics to cover the team’s glaring weaknesses, the club might just avoid relegation this season. However, it’s a what have you done for me lately type of world.
For Stoke City, how things have been lately hasn’t been good enough, and there’s nothing to suggest yet that anything will change against Reading this Saturday.
Could things change? Could the players play much better moving forward? Could Alex Neil change his tactics to help cover his players’ weaknesses? Absolutely it could.
But with numerous players departing the club over the past week, Saturday could be a tough day to expect anything different — With that, Stoke City might be in for another rough matchday against a Reading team that has been somewhat solid.
Final prediction: Reading grab a late goal and walk away with a 2-1 win.