New Stoke City boss Mark Robins sat down with the press as he prepares to lead his squad to Sunderland for the third round of the FA Cup on Saturday afternoon. Robins replaced Narcis Pelach as the club's head coach on New Year's Day, after almost eight years at Coventry City, and he kicked off his reign with a goalless draw against Plymouth Argyle.

There is plenty on the agenda at this time of year, especially for a new manager getting up to speed with the club and getting to know the players he has available, with the January transfer window and the prospect of making additions in mind. Not every player, of course, is available, after the festive period during which time injuries can take their toll.

Robins spoke at length about how he intends to slowly turn the ship of Stoke around, the changes he aims to implement and how he has brought the squad closer together already ahead of the FA Cup tie, a competition he had much success in last year with the Sky Blues who came within a debatable VAR call of reaching the final. Here is what the gaffer had to say on Friday.

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Getting to know the squad

We had a little bit of a get together after training on Tuesday. It was useful, everyone was socialising in a non-football environment and nobody is looking at video screens or phone screens. They were actually having to communicate and there was a little bit of laughter going on, which was nice to hear. People were talking and getting to know each other. It was team building, in a competitive environment because there were a few sports going on.

It will stand them in good stead hopefully, and begin to knit them together in a social sense and that bodes well when you get to the real work you do on the grass. Training has been decent. Even though it's been freezing cold, we've been able to get on the grass because we're fortunate here to have under soil heating, which is perfect.

There've been some one on one chats with some, not all, but then again they're not all in need of that. I have an open door policy, players can come and see me if they want to anyway, but I've certainly had chats with some individuals on a number of issues. That'll continue, but it's not like I need to get round everyone immediately, but if they're in need of anything, they know where my office is. One or two won't want to be in there too often!

Slowly making changes and improvements

I'm the third manager of the season, and they've had Ryan [Shawcross] for a short spell as well. You need stability, and the same messages for an extended period of time for those to stick. We're not doing too many things differently to what they were doing before, in the first instance, and then begin to drip feed things after that.

We just want them to be the best version of themselves as quickly as possible, so it gives you an ideal picture, an overall picture, of what they're capable of doing going forwards. Some may fall by the wayside, some will come to the fore. I'm hopeful that as many as possible come to the fore and, if they're not in the starting XI, force themselves into the reckoning.

We're in a privileged position. This is a really great football club. This is the club we've decided and have been chose to represent. You can never take that for granted. We have to try and incrementally - and I'll use that word quite a bit as well - build what we essentially will become. There isn't a magic fix.

It's a juggernaut of a club. It's a juggernaut and we have to slowly try to turn into a forward direction, and then start pressing the accelerator. We are talking about taking Stoke from where it is now to where it belongs...you can't go from one to the other, the endgame. You have to put things in place and go step by step, which takes time. It's incremental.

How do you go about selecting the team for Sunderland?

What you've got to know about me is that I'll never give you an inkling about the team I'm going to play, but the reasons are varied. I think we have to give ourselves every chance of being successful and not giving our opponents anything they can use against us. I will be vague on things, but I will always pick a team to try and win the game.

When a team has played a lot of games in a short space of time, they will need a rest, and it's how you manage it and how the players are. You'll have to wait and see but rest assured I'll pick a team that's going to represent Stoke City in the best way possible.

You get the chance to play against varied opposition. You get ties against clubs from higher or lower divisions. The FA Cup last season was an incredible experience, one that'll remain with me forever, and you don't get the chance often to progress so deep into a competition. This is a competition which supporters generally and genuinely love. You owe it to everybody to try and get through, because it can be a magical experience.

Explaining the decision to recall Lewis Baker

It's a great re-signing. It is. I really like Lewis and I've liked him for a long time. He's got a great pedigree, a great understanding of Stoke, he's been here a long time. He's good on and off the ball, more on the ball and what he brings, which is quality. He's a quality Championship player and you can't have too many of them.

He's incredibly experienced at Championship level. You can't have enough people around like Lew, he knows the players - or the majority of them - and he is somebody who wanted to come back, which was important in the conversations I had. He comes back and I'm delighted to have him here and working alongside him.

How much wriggle room do you have in the transfer market?

The honest answer is I don't know, because that's not my role. I know we can do some things, but we are restricted in what we can do. That's all down to the PSR rules, and we have to try and work within those and maximise what we can do. That's what we're looking to do going forwards. What we have been able to do is provide a training ground which is second to none.

The stadium is absolutely fantastic. The facilities here are brilliant and we want to make sure we build and utilise whatever resources we've got to the best of our ability and take the club forward as quickly as we possibly can - but it will be on an incremental basis. There are restrictions in this window, but we will work as hard as we possibly can to make things better.

We've got [sporting director] Jon Walters here who has been fantastic and is in all the time, works his socks off and he's there for everybody and wants to help.

On the injury front - updates on Bocat, Stevens and Gallagher

After the injury, you start to recover, so he's [Bocat] recovering. He's had some treatment, he's had some intervention, he's had injections. He's on his way back, he doesn't feel too bad but he's on his road to recovery. He's still a few weeks away, so hopefully he will get fitter quicker than anticipated.

Enda is fine, he has trained.

Any injury definitely impacts what you do. Sam is one of those players. He could be a significant player for us, I really like Sam. We've got to get to a point where we can keep him on the pitch longer and we have to find out how that's going to function. He's got so much power and pace, he has a good understanding. He's a really top guy, he can be a top professional. I'm looking forward to working with Sam.

I've got an inkling how to use him and keep him available, but we have to work to that end and gather an understanding as to what he needs and doesn't need. Also to maximise that, because you have to get a balance with training and what his loads are, things like that. There are certain things we're looking into for when he gets back and make sure he's fit.

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