Narcis Pelach makes depressing admission as Stoke City swept aside by Leeds United
Narcis Pelach admits that Stoke City ‘are not in the same league’ as Leeds United – but insists they can put much more of a fight when the next home game rolls around quickly against Sunderland.
Stoke were easily beaten by title-chasing Leeds at the bet365 Stadium on Boxing Day night, losing 2-0 to a brace from Joel Piroe and barely being able to stay in the opposition half for any period of time.
But they are straight back in for training at Clayton Wood with a quick turnaround for another match at HQ on Sunday (3pm).
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“It’s very important that we have to put this to bed quickly,” said Pelach. “At the end of the day, Leeds United is a team out of our league and that is the reality. You are going to win one in 10 against them.
“Sunderland is a different team, a different side. We played against them and lost 2-1 but we were there until the end of the game and I feel we can win. We have to prepare as well as we can and forget about what has happened today because the energy and effort was there. That’s the minimum we have to make sure was there then focus on the next one.”
Stoke had an early chance through Lewis Koumas but faced pretty much all one-way traffic after that against Leeds.
Pelach said: “We got beat by quality. You have ideas and you try to implement them but when the ball is there and the player in front of you waits until you move and then finds the free player, this creates a little bit of not doubt but makes you drop. We tried and the first seven or eight minutes we could be there and we created a good chance for Lewis Koumas that could have changed the night. This is what you need, these little moments you need to take in order to beat Leeds.
"It's a difficult game and you know it. We prepared the team in the best way because you need to be resilient, they make you defend a lot, they have a lot of ball possession and if you press them high and you go late, they beat the press and can have an open goal.
"It's difficult. You need to decide as a coach what is less worse against this type of team; pressing high, which means they can attack you in vertical and fast attacks, which is very dangerous because they have very, very fast players who can decide the action very well in big spaces or you sit and wait and make it awkward for them in a tight space.
"We tried to have a hybrid game plan and be very aggressive at goal-kicks and try to press but always with one more and not man for a man because I don't think it suits the type of squad that we have, then when you are in the mid-block you try to be proactive in order to force the pass block but they support the ball fast and they have talented players who maybe the best in the division."
