Stoke City: Tony Pulis keeps his options open for number one keeper job
GOALKEEPERS Thomas Sorensen and Asmir Begovic are being forced into a guessing game over who will be Stoke City's number one by the start of the new season.
Begovic was the man in possession at the end of last season, and still appears favourite to retain top billing.
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Stoke City's Asmir Begovic, left, and Thomas Sorensen are battling to be named as the top choice goalkeeper.
But boss Tony Pulis is refusing to rule out Sorensen's chances of adding to his 115 appearances for the club when the 36-year-old Dane kicks off his fifth campaign at the Britannia.
Pulis said: "Nothing is certain and I'm certainly not going to make a decision right now.
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"It's a situation I will make an assessment on nearer the time, which means there is plenty for them to play for in pre-season.
"We have good competition between the pair of them and you hope that brings the best out of both."
The two keepers split duties 50-50 in the first match of Stoke's American tour at Columbus Crew before Sorensen played an impressive full 90 minutes in the 1-0 success at Orlando City on Saturday.
That leaves Begovic in pole position to play here in Kansas when the tourists complete their playing programme in the U.S.
Stoke's players have been subjected to three training sessions each day in temperatures of more than 100 degrees since arriving in Kansas from Orlando on Sunday.
Glenn Whelan is the only definite non-starter against Kansas after it was discovered he is banned for one game after all following his dismissal for two yellow-card offences in Orlando.
Pulis reported no new developments in Stoke's interest in Michael Kightly amid reports of a bid for the Wolves winger.
"We've got a lot of irons in a lot of fires, as usual, but nothing will happen until we get back home at the weekend," he said.
Comments
by MrDAP
Thursday, August 02 2012, 12:26PM
“Glory be! Well said KNOB4EVA!”
by Pottedrengen
Thursday, August 02 2012, 11:45AM
“It's good to keep everyone on their toes, but this isn't one of life's greater mysteries: Begovic will be in goal for our first league game of the new season.
And he'll stay there till we play in the LC where he will be replaced by Thomas.
Only if Amir drops three goals per game over a period will there be any changes there. And that's a good decision because Thomas is no longer as good as he used to be.
If Pulis intends to keep opposing managers clueless, I hope he gets more adventuruos in the future...”
by wheatear
Wednesday, August 01 2012, 7:22PM
“The reason we have two good goalkeepers is the competition between them for top spot and because when one suffers a drop in form, as has been proven over the last two seasons, we have a top quality replacement lying in wait.
They are both here on contract and show no sign of wanting to leave.
Anybody who has ever played team sport will fully understand how the very competition for places is the reason why they both perform.
Fact is, they do perform, can both back the other up and are a great asset for our club.”
by SCFC4EVA
Wednesday, August 01 2012, 4:57PM
“What other team in the Prem has the goalie options we have. Even the top 4 have a good starting goalie and that's pretty much it for quality. We have 2 top goalies. Nice to have, just how does TP keep them both happy ?”