Mark Robins delivers Ben Pearson update as Stoke City pursue 'one or two' transfer deals
Mark Robins is hoping that Ben Pearson, Ben Gibson and Lynden Gooch will soon be back to bolster his Stoke City squad at the same time as bringing in ‘one or two’ new signings.
Stoke, who head to Portsmouth on Wednesday (7.45pm), were without that trio plus Sam Gallagher, Sol Sidibe, Eric Bocat, Million Manhoef and Jordan Thompson for Saturday’s draw with West Brom while Bosun Lawal, on the bench, is also on his way back from half-a-season in the treatment room.
It means a very tight squad of available players and a test for new boss Robins, particularly in a three-game week, but he hopes that will soon be eased.
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He said: “We need a squad and that’s something we’re trying to put right as quickly as we can. Ben Pearson is playing this evening (for Stoke under-21s vs Rochdale) and hopefully he’ll come through that, which gives him half a game under his belt ready to go into next week or the continuation; finalise this week, finish this week off for him and then go and play in a game next week at Reading in the under-21s.
“Hopefully we can get him back really close to first-team action from that point.
“That’s him and there are also one or two others. Ben Gibson is out but hopefully not too far away, Lynden Gooch is hopefully going to be able to train soon. Other players are making steady progress with Sam Gallagher and Million Manhoef and the other boys that have missed some time. Hopefully we can get everyone fit, the squad looks a lot healthier – and, allied to that, we’re trying to do one or two pieces of business to alleviate some areas we need to address at this moment in time.”
Tom Cannon has been recalled by Leicester this month and Robins, in turn, has summoned back Nathan Lowe and Lewis Baker from loans at Walsall and Blackburn respectively.
He only made one change to his starting XI last weekend and won’t be expected to make too many more at Fratton Park, with a home clash against Oxford coming up on Saturday (12.30pm) as well.
“It’s a tricky one because you’re expecting them to use a lot of energy,” he said. “We’ve just travelled to West Brom, which is just down the road, but this one now, we’re leaving today, is quite a distance and for the supporters who are going to follow us down there tomorrow.
“The energy that you need is a big thing so training has to be right, we’ve got to make sure that everyone is ready to go and has the requisite amount of recovery time to be able to go again and we have that energy.
“We lost a bit of energy in the second-half at West Brom and that culminated in them having a little more possession in the second half than they’d had in the first. When you become tired, you’re tired in your mind, it can give teams the impetus.
“I’m looking forward to making sure that we’ve got enough to make changes that are going to impact the game in a positive way. Players are all receptive to that but when you’re in that period when you’ve got players coming back from injuries or longer term injuries it does take a little bit of time so they’ve got to be patient, we’ve got to be patient and not rush them back because if they’re not quite ready it will have a detrimental effect moving down the line.
“There’s a fine balancing act. It’s not straightforward where you’re just picking a team, it’s not Championship Manager when you’re sitting on a computer and just picking people. You’ve got real people that need nurturing, that need help, that need support, that need to be worked hard and given information that you can utilise in the best way they can.
“It’s not a simple thing, it’s quite complex.”
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