Back to basics method is reaping rewards for Rowett’s defensive plan
GARY Rowett admits he – and probably everyone else – was guilty of underestimating the hangover from last season on Stoke City’s defence. Mark Hughes had invested heavily in his backline in the summer of 2017 – a big money loan deal for Kurt Zouma; an initial £15m on Kevin Wimmer, £7m on Bruno Martins Indi – only to preside over the leakiest side in Europe over the next few months.
Stoke conceded 50 times in the 23 games before Paul Lambert took charge, letting in three or more in seven games – including five or more on three occasions.
But it was still a department staffed by internationals by the summer and the ship tightened by Lambert (conceding 18 in 15) had given hope Rowett had inherited a platform to build his side on at a lower level… rather than a team which would still be beset by individual errors.
Stoke conceded 18 in their first 10 games, but only two in the following six leading up to today’s trip to Nottingham Forest. It’s been a slow process, but four clean sheets in six games is helping to finally restore confidence in players and their teammates.
Rowett said: “I think we’re probably all guilty in terms of our (high) expectations – and in terms of the potential issues as well.
“When you look at last season and the lack of wins and the amount of goals against in the season, it’s confidence-sapping, it’s demoralising for players. When you start the season and some of those things reoccur it’s hard not to then feel poor about your performance.
“What we’re seeing is a longer period of time than we anticipated, but I would say in the last six or seven games – although in the last 10 games we’ve averaged something like 1.6 points per game – we’re getting there.
“There have been individual performances with the likes of Jack (Butland) and Ash (Williams) is starting to catch up from his lack of game time, Bruno is starting to get to grips with what the Championship is about, Ryan (Shawcross) is starting to come out of that period.
“It’s not easy and that’s really been it. It might sound like an excuse, but the reality is that we concede a shed load of goals last season and it’s difficult to then become a team that keeps clean sheets again.”
Rowett makes no secret of the key to turning that form around. It’s been a case of getting back to basics, regardless of reputation, and a lot of effort.
“Plenty of work, a bit of understanding,” he said.
“It’s really interesting that when you come into a club that’s been in the Premier League you presume that players will know the basics of how to defend as a unit. What you find is that sometimes when you’ve got players who’ve been brought up culturally to defend in a different way they are making decisions to do certain things that are not combined.
“The big thing for us has been to nail down the basics, to speak to those players about that and work out what we need to do and what we don’t need to do.
“I think sometimes you’re guilty as a manager or coach that you presume the simplest of things people will know.
“It’s been getting back to basics really, organising, working out when we start the pressure from the front as well. Rather than being bogged down with trying to press from the goalkeeper we’ve just dropped back a little bit, not massively, it’s not been that much different, but we’ve been trying to do a bit more work on it and nail it down.
“What you’ll find is that a clean sheet will give players confidence. It’s the same players, it’s nothing monumental or earth shattering but we’ve devoted more time to it and tried to make sure all players understand how we want to defend.
“You have to give players credit because they’ve shown an enormous amount of aptitude to do that work.”