'It hurts' - Every word from Narcis Pelach's pre-Luton Town press conference
Stoke City swing straight back into action with a mid-week trip to Luton Town. Narcis Pelach took a break from his work on the training ground after Saturday’s defeat at Sunderland to preview a different challenge at Kenilworth Road.
Match day minus-one: will it be a light day of training today and lots of analysis?
Narcis Pelach: Yes, it has to be because we played on Saturday and we have to be careful for tomorrow not to compromise anything and to be ready. We have done some analysis already and we know exactly what we have to do tomorrow and what we have to improve from the previous games as well. We’re ready to go.
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Every match in this league is winnable and also losable. How important are these next three fixtures against Luton, Cardiff and Sheffield Wednesday?
Very important. Every game we lose hurts a lot. It’s a pity because the other day we were close to getting something out of a difficult game away at Sunderland but a late goal took the point out of us. We are all sad, it hurts and we all care a lot about what we do. Now we have to continue, we have to improve, above all, all the things we are not doing well. We have three games we have chances to win against teams who are not (in the same position in the table) as Burnley and Sunderland but every opponent is very difficult. We all know it – Luton were in the Premier League last season. Every game in this division is winnable and losable as you say and we have to give all our respects to all our opponents.
Luton haven’t done as well as they will have expected after coming down but it’s a compact ground and the crowd will be on top of you. Will that make a difference to your younger players?
It’s a tough place to go, Luton, but I really feel that in the league every game is difficult. We know the conditions of the stadium, the conditions of the team, a lot of direct play, second balls and set plays. It’s a proper fight in terms of a second-ball game. The ball is divided a lot of times and you need to have maturity and experience to know how to deal with it sometimes. It’s not an organised game as other games can be. There are more situations that are uncontrollable and we have to understand what we have to do in every situation and make sure we compete at our best level.
You lost to a deflected goal against Sunderland – but if you have so many shots coming at you, the chances must increase of the ball going in via a deflection than if you stop those shots?
Yes, you are right. The more shots they have, the more probability of this happening and it’s one of the things we want to address. We have been talking in the last 10 days about how we can reduce the amount of shots we are conceding in a game in order to be more solid. We are working on this, trying to concede less ground.
We feel that when we go in the high press we are really good, we are really solid, we’ve won the ball back against very good teams going in our diamond and players have clarity in how we want to press. We regain the ball a lot and if not, we force mistakes. If you see the games you can see that our rate is very good for that.
But then when we’re in a low/mid block, we concede too much ground and I’m not happy with that. We keep going backwards instead of being more aggressive in our zonal system. This is one of the things that we have to change.
We have been working over the last 10 days on this, trying to concede less ground, trying to go at the player more inside of our defensive style. We have to think that since I first came in we have completely changed how we defend. Now we defend zonally when previously it was defending man for man. Nothing is worse or better, it’s just different. This is the way I do it when the other manager was doing it another way. There is time to process all this information.
Now we are getting used to doing it but we have gone to an extreme to be very zonally. We have to find a way to go to the man more when we are in our defensive system so we can stop them coming into our box, getting more shots and crosses.
This is where we are at the minute. We’re trying to improve this. I’m conscious about that and I have to find a way to communicate it well to players and as well with coaching, trying to make them feel how we have to do it.
We had a chat after Sunderland about this. We’re all conscious about it and want to improve. We don’t want to lose the identity of all defending, all being organised and helping each other. I think that’s important for such a young side, that we all defend and then we all attack, to try to create the values we want for the team and the club going forward.
There is a worry that the midfield is being bypassed a little bit (by opposition). You can’t change the physicality of this current team but how do you think things are improving?
You can see the team wants to do what I propose and the chats were very good the other day about finding the balance between being more aggressive to stop teams coming into our last third too quickly or too easily. How do we do that? We talk about being more aggressive, playing a little bit wider in our defensive shape so we can stay closer to the man to not give ground or concede ground. That was the main topic. We are all conscious about this.
At the beginning when you try to put one style of play of course you need to clarify. We were doing something different before and now we’re trying to do a completely different thing which changes the whole approach. We have gone to the extreme too much at the moment, in my opinion, and we just need to rebalance that and find a way that we have this identity of everyone defending and everyone organised so you can clearly see the shape, 4-4-2 or 5-4-1 or whatever it is.
In the end, the shape is just a number, the important thing is the principle that we are all together as a team, the distances between the three lines are close and the ball goes wide, it doesn’t go central too many times, which is always better for a defensive model or system.
You have to try to find a way where we are closer. I think that the team understood this and now let’s see in the next six, seven, eight, nine games we can see an improvement in a more solid defensive shape that we want.
But as well in football you need to improve offensively because the better we attack, the less we will defend. This is the football game. If you improve attack then maybe your defence improves as well. I’m reflecting a lot about how we attack.
I’m pleased with the other day because it’s difficult to go to Sunderland and have more ball possession than them, which we had, which was one of the keys in the game plan in order to try to attack more and try to have more shots on target. I have seen teams go to Sunderland and get four shots, five shots, three shots, and I think we managed to get 10 or 11 because our ball possession was ok, even in bad conditions.
We have to try to improve it all. That’s my feeling. I’m reflecting a lot about how we can attack better and maybe in the next coming games we will see something different – or not, I need to see more and make the right decisions.
From defeats you learn a lot. I always try to learn as much as I can from defeats as much as wins. I always analyse. It hurts. I want to do better and I want to think more and work more in order to find the right balance for this team.
Ball possession is great but football is all about scoring goals and perhaps Bae Junho and Million Manhoef aren’t producing what would you like in terms of output at the moment. How can you improve that?
We need to improve our decision making in attack. It’s ok, it’s not the worst but we have to try to improve it. This is what happens sometimes when you play with young players. Emotions play a part and sometimes they choose the wrong pass or the wrong decision and it has been happening to us in the last three or four games when we could have hurt teams and our decision making just wasn’t right.
This is another thing in my mind. I’m having chats about this and showing videos about how we can improve. There are so many things at the same time going on but I will do my best to try to improve them all.
Game management is really important and towards the end of the Sunderland match, a couple of decisions didn’t help Stoke hold onto the point.
Yes, our week has been about not conceding ground, trying to be more aggressive and about game management like happened at Sunderland. If our game management had been better we should get at least a draw, shall we say. We concede a goal straight from kick-off, which is something that should not happen. Then for the second goal we re-started too quickly and we didn’t manage the second ball well. We could hit the space when we go forward but we put ourselves in trouble. Even in the last minutes of the first half I felt we did the same.
But we talk about this as well, game management needs to be better. All the little things you are bringing here today we talk about and we are going to try to be better in the coming games. We have to try to improve everything but now the main topic is defensively that we need to be in this low/mid-block more aggressive, to keep and make sure they don’t come easily into our final third.
When we are in our high press I think we are fine and the team is competing really well and when we are in attack, when we are about to get into the final third, we have to find a way to do more damage than we are doing.
I’m not happy, I’m not pleased, that’s the main message. I am aware of all of this and I’m working towards improving this with the team.
Have you set targets for the next three games or don’t you do that?
No, we are going game by game. All of our energy and concentration is on the Luton game. It’s a tough one, we all know, against a very physical side, very strong, really good at set plays, very tall. We know what it’s all about on this pitch and we know we need to find a way to compete and get something positive from the game. Then after Luton we will focus on the next one at home.
Will you try to freshen up the side?
We will try to manage the squad a little bit. I’ve been trying to do that in order not to get injuries because we all know the Championship can be a nightmare if you have injuries, when games come so quickly. Players not being available reduces your potential to win games. That’s why I have been making changes from game to game, trying to reduce the stress mental and physical. I expect to do some changes.
What’s the latest injury news?
Ben Gibson will be assessed this morning. He has been ill and we’ll see if he’s available for tomorrow. I hope he is but we need to assess him today. The medical staff have said that until he goes through training and shows he can do it, we’re not in a position to play him.
Enda Stevens is back. He will be involved in the Luton game.
There were no fresh injuries (from the Sunderland game). We have Bosun and Sam who are very close to coming back. We will see if we can involve them for tomorrow and, if not, hopefully it will be for the weekend.
Ben Pearson is progressing well but he will be a little bit later than Bosun and Sam.
Gooch is available. I haven’t found the time to play him yet but he’s available for some minutes to come in and help the team as well.
Stoke were backed by 900 fans in foul weather at Sunderland there will probably be about 1,800 at Luton, which is great support and can be a big help?
Yes they can and I want to send them a message from here because this is my opportunity to talk to them through the media. I’m really grateful for what they did because the conditions in Sunderland were really bad and I’m sad we couldn’t give them at least a point. I just want to let them know that the dressing room, players and staff were all sad for them. We’re grateful for them to come against Luton and we appreciate their support a lot. That’s very, very genuine. We appreciate them coming and we appreciate the support we are receiving from them.
