Stoke City will try to bounce back to winning ways this weekend when they host Sunderland in the Championship.
It is Stoke’s first game following the international break, which was preceded by a difficult run of seven challenging games in three weeks as injuries continued to pile. Stoke had only two defenders left by the finish. Of course, Alex Neil will remember this game fondly. Last season’s comparable encounter was his final as manager of Sunderland, whom he had just led to promotion from League One before heading south to take over at the bet365 Stadium.
Alex Neil has previously faced Preston North End and Norwich City in recent weeks.
Preston fans, who had already faced their former manager a few times since he left in 2021, seemed to turn up the volume this time, perhaps because Stoke had signed former Deepdale favourites Daniel Johnson, Ben Pearson, and Paul Gallagher this summer… and were still beaten at home.
Sunderland will bring a few thousand fans, as they did when Neil returned to the Stadium of Light in March – though it was much quieter by full-time and Stoke had triumphed 5-1.
The most important thing for Neil, who appears to understand the importance of gaining points over the next three weeks, is to keep abuse to the away end.
“Well, I’ll be getting dog’s abuse from one half and hopefully we play well so I’m not getting dog’s abuse from two halves!” replied the man. “Isn’t that just the nature of football?” We obviously want to win, we want to play well, we’re at home, and we want to go out there and try to win the game with our fans cheering us on.
“We know we need to get more points on the board. I think that’s really quite clear for everybody to see. Sunderland will come here and they’ll be hoping that they’ll be making it a lot more difficult for me in particular. That’s just the nature of the beast.
“In competitive sport, this is what it’s all about. It’s rising to the challenge and making sure that you keep cool and calm under pressure and you can take everything that comes your way and still produce.”
Points, points, points
Anything is possible in the Championship this season and, with so many tight games, it feels like anything is possible at Stoke City too at the moment. Anything is possible over the next week and tricky matches against Sunderland, Leeds and Middlesbrough.
Nine points would shoot Stoke right up a congested table, three defeats and there is no doubt that pressure would be getting intense. You just can’t go too long without winning games, no matter any mitigation.
“The fans have been excellent,” said Neil at one point, “but I’m not naïve and neither are the players to the fact that we need to get more points on board.”
He added: “We need to get points out of this batch of games, that’s going to be really important.
“I’d say the players have been exceptionally bright this week.” I believe it stems from competitiveness, and when you look over your shoulder and see a couple of individuals who can play in your position, standards naturally rise.
“It’s pointless to keep bringing it up. We must accomplish it on the field. The next step is to ensure that we show up, go, and put on a strong performance on Saturday.”
Take in some good injury news. “I would say that the players have been really, really bright this week. I think that comes from competition as well and when you’re looking over your shoulder and you see a couple of people who can play in your position, levels naturally step up.
“There’s no point continually talking about it. We need to do it on the pitch. The next stage is making sure on Saturday we turn up and go and produce a good performance.”
Drink in positive injury news
You could almost see the relief on Alex Neil’s face when he was asked about injury news. Sure, it is still a bad state of affairs to be without two key men to long-term problems in Ben Wilmot and Tyrese Campbell while Lewis Baker is still sidelined following knee surgery.
However, the injured list was so extensive prior to the international break that you risked injuring yourself by simply picking it up. Ryan Mmaee, Enda Stevens, Ki-Jana Hoever, Lynden Gooch, Michael Rose… Stoke will be a very different team.
Angela Smith, who was asking questions in front of the cameras, remarked that it felt like Stoke players had been sentenced to six months off if they stumbled over an eyelash in recent years. Week after week, month after month, season after season, major players have been sidelined for extended periods of time, sometimes with but frequently without any prior history of injury.
It almost sounded like a plea when she asked if the manager could get to the bottom of a problem which has haunted Clayton Wood.
“No,” said Neil. Drat.
“I think when we look at the injuries that we’ve picked up they have varied widely in terms of what they are. If you pick up similar injuries, I think you can put it down to training methods of timescales or different things like that.
“Ultimately what you look at when you’re training any team is the load that you put players through and time frames in terms of adequate rest and all that sort of stuff. There’s no consistencies with that in terms of injuries for us.
“For example, Ben Wilmot’s injury is the result of contact with a post.” That can only be attributed to bad luck. Ryan Mmaee preferred low-intensity football in Europe than high-intensity Championship action. You must keep in mind that Ryan has only played 175 minutes. It’s not like he’s played five games in a row and then collapsed. He only played roughly two games. There is a significant difference between the football they used to play and the game here. Then there’s Andre Vidigal, who had an ankle ligament injury as a result of contact, which I believe is awful.
“So there’s too many different variables for it to be one specific problem.”
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