Verdict from inside Stoke City changing room as players 'feel like we owe performance' to boss
Ben Wilmot says everyone in the Stoke City changing room feels like they owe a performance for Narcis Pelach as he handles the first real pressure of his time as head coach.
Pelach faced an angry backlash to Stoke’s performance in a home draw with Cardiff on Saturday and they are now winless in seven as they prepare for a trip to Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.
But Wilmot, Stoke’s longest-serving first team regular, has complete confidence that the team will start to pick up points and wins under Pelach as the season goes on.
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He insists the boss has everyone’s support inside the squad, saying: “One hundred per cent. I think everybody is really enjoying working under him. I think what he is asking us to do everybody likes. Getting the ball down and playing and actually having the ball rather than being a team who just sort of counter attacks and is happy to be without the ball.
“It’s frustrating when you don’t win, especially because we’ve been working really hard, but I feel like across the board we all felt we let the manager down at the weekend with some of performances and I think we all owe him one in the next game.
“I feel like everybody has got the relationship with him that everyone is willing to put that right.”
Stoke are 17th in the current Championship standings, five points above the bottom three and four adrift of the top half.
Wilmot said: “We haven’t been out of many games, we’ve been losing games by one goal – and if we’ve lost by more we’ve been in the game and missed big chances that have fallen to us and have maybe cost us in the end. I feel like we’re really close but we’ve been on the end of bad decisions, bad luck and it makes the last three or four games look a lot worse than it really is.
“I feel like Saturday is a bit of an outlier in terms of performance because before that I think we’ve been pretty good in how we’ve performed and been close in games.
“I think everyone is enjoying the way we’re being asked to play, it suits the team that we’ve got and we will certainly get there in the end.”
Wilmot is keen to take responsibility to help Stoke claw their way up the table. The 25-year-old defender has led Stoke out twice so far this season and Pelach has challenged him to show he can become a club captain in the future.
“It was nice to hear and nice to know the thoughts of the manager because it’s not often you really get to know the opinion of a manager on you as a player,” he said. “I would certainly one day like to be captain and I’ve always felt like that since I was young. I feel like it’s a real honour and I’d certainly like to do it at some point.
“But while I’m not it’s a case of trying to lead as much as I can and certainly try to lead by example around the training ground day to day and trying to put in consistent performances each week. I’ll just try to do my best day in, day out.”
Wilmot has seen a lot of transition during his time at the club, playing under four managers and alongside dozens of players over just three-and-a-bit years. He has a reputation as a front-footed player but is embracing a change in approach in the new regime.
“I really like it,” he said. “We went through a period of being really hard to beat. I know we gave up lots of shots but the stats show that we have so many men behind the ball that we’re, to a degree, happy for them to be shooting from outside the box or with seven or eight bodies in front of them. That’s not a problem for us.
“But I think it was going to take time for us because it’s vastly different from what we’ve all been used to. I think we’re getting the hang of it and I enjoy it. We’re certainly not not aggressive. We do look to mark space more than players but keeps players fresh for when we have the ball and are able to attack rather than having to exert so much energy going man for man off the ball. I certainly think it’s better in the long run.”
