'Unacceptable' Stoke City performance, missing men and an angry fan base
It took an injury time equaliser for Stoke City to rescue a point at home against Cardiff. Here are the talking points from an angry bet365 Stadium.
A very un-Stoke home performance
There are different ways to defend and, if it works and you can keep clean sheets, no one will complain too much in the end if you’re marking space, marking men or doing some kind of spiritual dance.
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The most likely way of Stoke to get out of this hole in the long-term is to become a team that is greater than the sum of its parts rather than expect superstar individuals to be found who can carry everything up with them. A willingness to buy into a team philosophy has been an encouraging underlying aspect through a tough few weeks.
But Stoke, particularly at home and especially in home games they are expected to win, have to be aggressive and urgent in attack. They have to be positive and forward thinking. It’s always been a non-negotiable over the best part of the last 160-odd years. The demand is for the complete opposite of what, for a large part, supporters got against Cardiff.
Stoke still got a draw but it was a performance that was a kick in the stomach and Narcis Pelach emphasised the lack of competitiveness as being a major issue.
He said: "There is a feeling of anger and disappointment. That's the feeling that I have. I'm really disappointed with the performance today and in my opinion it was unacceptable. Of course I am responsible for this but we have to compete much better than we did today."
“I didn't see this coming," he added. "The last two performances we competed ok. We didn't have that feeling. We played well on the ball against Sunderland and Luton but today we maybe had more ball possession but I didn't like it. We tried two wingers today, we have changed something, so instead of playing Eric Bocat on the last line we played with Koumas on the last line and Million. Wingers on both sides. But it didn't click as I would want.
“But we need to go to the basics. This happens in football. We are young and we need to understand what the game is. The game is this: you need to win your battles and you need to win your second balls. If not, there is no chance. We didn't do it today.
“I didn't see it coming. It didn't happen before at that level. Sometimes you win more (battles), sometimes you win less. If you are playing against the top three then you will lose more battles, if you play against Burnley, of course, but in this game I didn't expect it all. We need to find a way to compete much better than this.”
Get out of jail cards aren’t handed out often
There have been a few games in Stoke’s history that have been genuine turning points, lines in the sand for what is acceptable and what is expected with a clear contrast between what happened before and what happened afterwards.
The 3-2 Boxing Day win over Sheffield Wednesday under Michael O’Neill was an important recent one. The crowd was furious that day – even angrier than now – until unexpected injury time drama. The important thing is that O’Neill made that win, that revolt-stopping let off, count by following it up.
When the crowd gets as restless and frustrated as this, there is no getting away from the level of pressure being on the head coach in particular. It doesn’t matter about long-term plans or grand designs, it’s all about the here and now and getting enough points and putting in performances that can quickly convince everyone that the team will pull in the right direction.
Missing physicality
Sam Gallagher and Bosun Lawal, two of the more powerful players in this squad, will help address the biggest complaint at the moment – and hopefully Ben Pearson soon too – while the gauntlet has been thrown down to Wouter Burger to muscle back up the central midfield pecking order. Tatsuki Seko and Andrew Moran – described as more like an 8 and a 10 respectively by the head coach – are currently seen as more aggressive options as 6s.
January is around the corner too and Stoke will have to prioritise what business they chase. Players with presence will be near the top of the list.
A squad assessment and missing men
It was quite surreal that Bae Junho was the second longest-serving player in the starting XI, following Ben Wilmot and followed by Million Manhoef, who only joined in January. Junho was the sole representative of the 19 signings from the summer of 2023 that was billed as such an opportunity to reset and rebuild. Enda Stevens was absent with a knock.
Not being involved at all will be food for thought for Jordan Thompson, Niall Ennis and Andre Vidigal a couple of weeks away from the transfer market opening. If Stoke are going to strengthen then, and they must, the route back to game time seems unlikely.
