Mark Robins makes clear point on Stoke City style in snub to 'boring football'
Mark Robins is pretty clear about the style of football he wants to get Stoke City playing.
Stoke have swung between styles over the last few years, trying to find a new identity that can also bring sustained improvement.
But Robins has a good idea of what supporters want to see at the bet365 Stadium and has a vision of quick, attacking football even if he is aware it might take time to really make everything click exactly how he is dreaming.
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“I wouldn’t want to watch boring football,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to watch ponderous football. Sometimes you’ve got to understand if you want to try to control the ball it has to be a certain way but I don’t want to watch ponderous football. I want to watch attacking, fast football.
“It takes time to do develop but I know exactly how I see it, I know exactly how it can be achieved. That’s where players have to get the confidence and understanding of what’s needed and that’s what takes time.
“You can’t just go, ‘We’re going to do this now lads, here we go.’ It’s really difficult. The decision making processes change, the positions on the pitch have to change, the body positions, the speed on the ball has got to change.
“There are so many things you’ve got to do and we’ve got to train it or recruit it. That’s the reason it takes the time it takes and that’s why I say we have to have that time to be able to deliver it.
“I know exactly what we want to do, we both do, we all do. We’ve all got an understanding about what we want to do and how we want to play. You’ve got to have an understanding of what we’ve got and the current moment looks like and what you can do in that moment without wrecking it.
“You’ve got to give them every chance and make them the best they can be while they are Stoke City players and hopefully they are there for a long time.”
Robins is coming in as manager rather than head coach to reverse a change Stoke made under then-technical director Ricky Martin 12 months ago when Steven Schumacher replaced Alex Neil.
Sporting director Jon Walters said: “I think Mark’s befitting of a manager, isn’t he? Head coach, manager, I don’t think it changes anything in terms of (the structure of the club). Internally it still works the same. I think Mark, with his experience and know-how and everything he brings is a manager but it’s probably a play of words that people can read too much into.”
Walters admits that it proved the wrong fit for Stoke to bring in Pelach, who he appointed in September to replace Schumacher, and if the team was sliding further away from the intensity required of a Stoke side, he saw it again under the stewardship of Ryan Shawcross over the last week.
He said: “Decisions get made that sometimes you can’t elaborate too much on in public and at times perhaps I’ve been a little bit quiet on things but I’m trying to get the balance right between being too vocal and not vocal. That’s difficult because you feel like you have a connection and you fear you might lose it a little bit.
“Narcis was appointed and I hold my hands up. He’s a great coach, a great person but seeing Ryan the last two games taking the team and we’ve seeing Stoke City play for the last two games and I think the fans have felt that a little bit as well – well, they’ve definitely felt it.
“We saw a team on the pitch that represent the club and when you talk about fans I felt they really got behind Ryan and the team and the players responded. I think we’ll probably hear that atmosphere again against Plymouth. Players have got a bit of confidence now and we want to put in another performance here on Saturday.”
