Please bear with me, but I need to go back 40 or so years in order to begin examining Stoke City’s past seven days.
Dave Thomas had a tremendous talent when I was at Everton, and we had the money to give him a free role attacking from the left. We would be told, “You deal with the defending down that side, Dave stays up there,” to Martin Dobson and myself. Like John Robertson at Nottingham Forest, he had the positional understanding to be a continuous menace, and he scored goal after goal for Bob Latchford.
In any case, Wolves asked him to play in a midfield position after signing him, and some then questioned why he lacked the same attacking skill. He was given an entirely different assignment from the one in which he had been so successful. It is a peculiar circumstance that keeps happening in football.
This was brought to mind last Sunday when Stoke played Hull and Alex Neil lined up with wing-backs despite months of a massive recruitment push to play a 4-3-3. After such a wide-ranging summer window, you should have fixed your mast to a Plan A, known the number one players for each position, and trusted your number twos to step up in the case of injuries, suspensions, or form. It wasn’t just that playmaker Daniel Johnson was at wing-back.
Injuries forced Neil’s hand, and the back three formation resulted in a respectable performance, even if it resulted in a tie with Huddersfield. In response, I would say that you should evaluate each game on its own merits, base choices on what is occurring in a game, and ensure that players understand what you are asking them to accomplish. How they will be used was the topic of every conversation Stoke had with each of those summer recruits.
You must maintain clarity in your communication and have faith in your judgment. Trust Lynden Gooch to play left-back if you brought him in with the idea that he could fill in there. Make sure you have a player that can drop off Wesley as a number 10 or sprint into space behind him if you bring him in as a target man. Just make sure they are close to him.
A back three was clearly inappropriate for this situation from the start. The start of our issues came from Aaron Connolly’s clever play when we had three center backs vs one forward. Ben Wilmot and Luke McNally weren’t sure if they should or could step out because he was aiming for the space behind the wide center-backs.
Hull had two center backs covering Tyrese Campbell in the back third, two free full backs, and two central midfielders to make it six against three. They had the chance to go up seven to six in the middle third and controlled possession going into the attacking third.
Their full-backs were constantly giving us trouble. We were being overrun by players who teamed up all over the field by wide players who came inside, and our wing-backs didn’t know when to mark or pass on.
Jordan Thompson and Josh Laurent were constantly outnumbered, so I felt bad for them. At the back, in the midfield, and on the wings, we lacked direction. It was similar to attempting to put out a moorland fire while another flame was just out of reach.
To solve the problem, a back four was used. If we didn’t start with a back four, for whatever reason, we had to do so as quickly as we could. especially with injuries, especially with the magnitude of important player ailments that have plagued Stoke, we have a roster and must utilize it appropriately.
Neil has a reputation for being a good tactician in the Championship, but he must take this into account. He must create patterns, write the risks of overloading with noughts and crosses on his whiteboard, and figure out how to reduce it.
He must also emphasize the fundamental defending that has failed for Stoke the past three games, allowing opponents to swivel and score even in crowded penalty areas. You need to be a little bit tight as a boy approaches the byline to cut a ball back. You need to communicate with one another, mark your men, get to the ball first, and clear it. Never ignore a player. It will be a lengthy season if you don’t grasp this defensive technique, which is Class 101.
Pressure mounts quickly if you allow goals but don’t win games. The manager and his team must find solutions. No justifications. You must have faith in the people and the tasks you hired them to complete.
