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Mike Pejic's half-term report on Stoke City under Narcis Pelach
There are little things that lead to big things that have been good to start seeing in Stoke City matches.
What I have found encouraging is the positions that players have taken up, like we saw with Tom Cannon getting a nice chance in the opening minute against Millwall or Bae Junho being ready for a flick-on leading to the penalty at Blackburn.
It’s positions that help form partnerships and partnerships help build units. You need the right foundation and balance in your team else you won’t get anything else. If you’re wondering why your creative players aren’t being as creative as it looks like they should be on paper or you’re being punished too often for defensive mistakes, it can be traced back to that.
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Every player needs to have an understanding of where they need to be on the pitch to fit into the team and the job that they’re being asked to do. From there they can bounce off each other and you start to look more fluent. It doesn’t happen by chance.
You’re only successful in 50-50 challenges because you’ve already worked on your position, whether you’re defending or attacking. The ball is only dropping to you on the edge of the area or behind a defender because you’ve put in the work to get there.
Every second counts. It was good to read Narcis Pelach talking about this last week because it’s so important. “There are things that one month ago we were not doing but now players believe in every single action in the match,” he said. “We value every single duel, 50-50 ball that is there.” Good. That’s the way to achieve consistency.
Belief builds among players because trust builds, especially when the starting XI isn’t chopped and changed between games. You can look at each other and know what you’re doing, what your mate is doing and that you’ve got each other’s backs. With that comes responsibility too, you can have a pop at each other to make sure standards are high and you can make demands when someone new comes into the team through injury, suspension or form.
It is no coincidence that we have seen a better reaction to set-backs. How many times have we cursed in recent years that Stoke have conceded a goal and it’s been virtually game over? Or they haven’t taken that big chance or they haven’t had a penalty awarded? No matter how they’ve been up to that point in a game, one punch has turned them to jelly.
So, yes, it was annoying that we didn’t get a clear penalty against Millwall but keep going and still find a way, which they did with a header from a corner by Ben Gibson. Sometimes a referee gets it wrong, you can’t let that defeat you.
The hard thing is that it doesn’t take much for it all to break down. If someone isn’t good enough or isn’t pulling their weight, the balance is skewed, people want to cover areas which makes their own game weaker and you end up all off kilter. We saw Wouter Burger trying to do one or two players’ jobs for them at times last season and he’ll be relieved that he’s next to some work horses this time around. We’ll see better of him as time goes on.
Pelach has been very active on the touchline over his first couple of months as head coach, very expressive, and he gets his staff involved. I’m glad to see hat because I know how important it is that they are all on the same planet, never mind just the same page.
Every coach has to be singing the same tune. No matter how strong the squad, there will be players who will pick you out and make life difficult if it’s not a united front. You have to be very open with each other even if it’s the boss who has the final say.
I think it’s obvious to see that players are playing for him. They’re running hard, he’s giving out technical and tactical detail and they’ve built a run of one defeat in eight, which is good. Now it’s onto the next batch of games and you always have to stay on top of things in the short-term, even if you’re taking on a big long-term project.
It’s a relief to have moved away from the relegation spots because it’s been tight. You can’t rest but there’s a sense that the side will improve the more work they do as the season goes on, which is a nice thing to at least believe in.
The fixtures will come fast at us again and he has to keep a solid group together. I want to see the lads who are trusted to regularly be in the starting XI to be hitting 7s and 8s out of 10 to maintain the progress. It does feel like we can progress but that only happens if you keep doing the things you’re doing right.
