Should Mama or Dave partner Ricardo Fuller? (From Northwich Guardian)

Sidibe or Kitson: who should get the nod?

10:35am Thursday 23rd October 2008

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WHEN Stoke splashed out a record fee for striker Dave Kitson, I never expected to have any debate about who should be Ricardo’s strike partner this season. Regular readers of this blog will know I had very strong doubts about Mama’s capacity to cope in the Premiership.

But eight games in, that debate is happening. And it’s astonishing to see the kind of people lining up to back Sidibe’s claim to a place in the starting 11.

Oatcake editor Martin Smith, in his regular, fascinating blog on the Sentinel’s website, said this: “It’s hard to face up to when you’ve invested the best part of five million quid, and invested so much expectation, on a new signing but I don’t think many Stoke fans would disagree that our most effective strike partnership is that of Fuller and Sidibe.”.

You can read his piece by clicking here

Clearly Big Mama’s capacity to rise to the occasion is surprising lots of people and he has helped to link the play in Premiership matches.

But are we being fair to Dave Kitson here? Injuries to Liam Lawrence and the lack of a proper left footed, left sided midfielder mean that Stoke have suffered a chronic lack of width in the matches so far.

Kitson has suffered because the way we play was designed to make the most of Mama, not our £5million record signing.

Ian Probert joins in the Kitson v Sidibe debate

Tom Soares made a great difference in our match against Tottenham, getting past defenders and creating a new dimension for our attacking moves.

If Lawrence returns on the right and Soares plays a more central role, Kitson will come into his own.

Frankly, Kitson has suffered because the way we play was designed to make the most of Mama, not our £5million record signing.

Last season he thrived on having the likes of James Harper supplying him from the wings for Reading and got 10 goals.

Like Emile Heskey at Wigan, Mama may provide a lot for the team as a whole but what you gain in teamwork you lose in goalscoring potential.

Ask yourself this. It’s the last minute of a relegation crunch match, the ball drops to the feet of a striker. Who would you rather have take that shot, Sidibe or Kitson?

We are going to be faced with those situations, we can’t just rely on Fuller’s brilliance.

So my message to Tony Pulis is this: stick with Kitson

PS, if anyone has not heard my chat with Manchester City fan Phil Hennessey about Sunday's Manchester City game, click below