Mark Robins has his say on 'brilliant reception' as he makes Stoke City entrance
Mark Robins has thanked Stoke City supporters for the reception he received as he starts out as manager.
Robins received a huge ovation from a 26,000-plus crowd before a goalless draw with Plymouth Argyle at the bet365 Stadium. If he was disappointed not to get lift off with a win, he is already hoping that he has found a new home for many years to come.
"It was a brilliant reception," he said. "I'm really grateful to everyone for that and I've enjoyed the dug out today. It would have been great to get a win and unfortunately we couldn't do that but it's been fantastic. I'm looking forward to working here for hopefully many years to come."
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He added: "I've loved it. I'm stood on the touchline and trying to work out how to (make a breakthrough). It wasn't tactical today. Not really tactical. It was just bits of movements when we needed to be in better positions but ultimately we needed to be better. There are a lot of things to work on and we will. It's not quite right but over time it will get there, we've just got to work on it."
Robins has enjoyed getting to know the squad he has inherited, albeit that he has only had one day of training with the full group so far.
"They're good. The training we've done has been limited but even yesterday they were on their feet for an hour and a half. We were trying not to put too much pressure on the physical side of things but they needed to work and needed to understand what we were asking and they did. We've put a lot of effort and a lot of work into the game model and drip fed quite a lot of information into them over the last few days so that it's there, these are the fundamentals, these are the principles, and they've sat, watched and listened and taken part and hopefully that'll start to sink in and ingrain but that's what takes time. Really we need to keep going.
"Sometimes when it's a low block, you have to understand it can't be a fast paced game. If you think about the last few games, Leeds, Sunderland and Burnley, they're having a go at you and when you win the ball back there is space for you to run into, there's space to be able to pass into and it looks a bit more dynamic. If they're sat behind the ball like today you have to try to move it a little bit more methodically and still quickly and we didn't quite get that right."
