What I would tell Stoke City boss if I was parachuted in as chairman
Stoke City have been in the habit of changing full-backs over the last couple of months. You might think this is only a small thing but it’s been bugging me and, I think, underlines an important principle.
Narcis Pelach has been in the job for three months and he should know by now exactly what he has in the locker. The locker doesn’t change from week to week outside the changing room and, if you’re not happy with the overall quality of the squad, the best way to get results is to grind them out with consistency and togetherness.
You have a set-up that you stick to and you ask yourself who is the best in each role. Who is the best wide right, wide left, attacking midfield player? Who is the best back four? You don’t keep switching your goalkeeper because you know the importance of stability – so why would you do the opposite with your outfield players?
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Whether it’s Ben Wilmot or Junior Tchamadeu at right-back, give them the shirt and let them build a relationship with Ashley Phillips and Viktor Johansson alongside or behind them or Million Manhoef or Lewis Koumas in front. It affects more than just one person if you’re flitting between both from match to match.
Keep your defence together game after game unless you get an injury or suspension. I always think that is the base level to make sure you come out of bad spells quicker in this division. Have a group that knows exactly what you’re asking.
It irritated me that Andrew Moran was asked to play in a deeper midfield position against Cardiff next to Tatsuki Seko. His assets are attacking and linking in the final third and shifting him further back affects two positions, the one he’s taken and the one where he should be.
I hate using square pegs in round holes and, after signing 33 players since the end of the 2022/23 season, I can’t believe that is happening. If Wouter Burger is not performing in the number 6 role, why haven’t we got a player to swap straight in for him rather than pulling Moran back to something that isn’t his forte?
When Sam Gallagher is not fit, where is the Gallagher alternative to link with Moran and Tom Cannon?
Only one of the huge summer intake from 2023 started last weekend, which is an eye-watering, infuriating statistic, and Pelach would be within his rights to bemoan recruitment from that time and the problems because of it which he has inherited.
But then he also asked Manhoef to play as a number 10 against Luton and then on the right wing against Cardiff, with Bae Junho on the left and then in the middle. It’s creating extra work for yourself. You need to have trust in what you’re doing, stick with it and then you come through sticky periods quicker. Chopping, changing and experimenting feels like tossing a coin in the air.
So the pressure is on, as you’d expect when Stoke are too close to the wrong end of the table. Cardiff at home was our chance to relieve it a little, just like we had opportunities to do that at Queens Park Rangers or at home against Preston. Instead we go into a tricky run of fixtures on the back of a seven-game winless run and four points out of the last 21.
Sheffield Wednesday away will be a tough game under Danny Rohl and that’s followed up by Leeds, Sunderland and Burnley. Strap yourselves in.
We’ve had eight managers since 2018 and it feels like hundreds of players. We desperately need stability and, if I was parachuted in as chairman this morning, that’s what I’d be saying to the head coach. Get that base level so you’re landing well – you’re landing on potholes at the minute.
It feels like we’ve been chasing our tail over the last seven years. I look back at Gary Rowett, who had a rotten start but a decent October, November and December when he won six, drew seven and lost two. He was sacked for not being around the top two as had been expected but we should have realised then that we had slid into a far deeper hole than we had realised the previous summer.
We needed to steady the ship, instead we got Nathan Jones to try to redesign it and Michael O’Neill was brought in to stop us sinking. Since he left in 2022 we have been churning through coaches and signings trying to hit on a formula that works. At the moment we’ve just got to get the fundamentals right before we do anything else.
