O’NEILL: COLLINS CAN PUT NAME FIRMLY IN FRAME
NATHAN Collins has the clear message that the path to a regular first-team spot is open – like it has been for Harry Souttar – as he prepares to stake his claim again for Stoke City tonight.
Collins is expected to line up in a back three in the Carabao Cup last 16 tie at Aston Villa (7pm) as Michael O’neill weighs up how to balance his selection.
The manager had virtually split the squad for league and cup duties, but the impressive performances of Souttar, as well as Tashan Oakley-boothe and Lee Gregory, saw him shake that up for a 1-0 Championship win at Preston last weekend.
And he insists Collins is an integral part of his plans too as the 19-year-old competes for a shirt with James Chester, Danny Batth, Morgan Fox, Bruno Martins Indi and Souttar.
“We have competition for places,” said O’neill. “Nathan has done well. We’ve been pleased with him in the cup games.
“I think he is a little bit more suited at this minute in time to playing in a back three. If he was playing in a two it might be a little bit more challenging for him as a young centre-back.
“Certainly in a three he looks very, very comfortable and that’s the purpose (of giving players’ opportunities). If Nathan gets the chance to play (against Villa) he can show he’s capable of dealing with a game at this level and give me more confidence in terms of considering him for league games as well.
“He’s an integral part of the squad, as the young players are now. That’s what we want to build going forward.
“The younger players had been too much on the outside, for me, when I arrived and we’ve managed to get them much closer to it.”
Oakley-boothe, aged 20, joined Stoke from Spurs in January and impressed on the right of the midfield three at Preston, having taken the place of Nick Powell.
O’neill said: “I thought he played very well. He showed some really good moments in the game.
“He’s adapted since coming to the club in January. It’s taken him a little bit of time but that’s natural when you bring a player from a club like Tottenham where he has predominantly played under-23s football
and maybe been on the periphery of the first team with training.
“It took Tash a little bit of time, but he’s stronger physically than when he arrived.
“We knew he had quality and I think he’s showing that now on a daily basis in terms of how he’s training. He’s got fantastic pace as well and I think you see that when he gets on the ball high up on the pitch, he’s capable of making things happen.
“He’s turning out to be the player we believe he can be.”
The matches keep coming thick and fast for Stoke but they do give O’neill a chance to share around the minutes to keep most of his big squad fresh.
And he’s not hankering after the relatively quiet life of an international manager.
“No, not particularly,” he said. “When I made the decision to come in I knew what I was coming into. It was a challenging experience initially and then obviously with Covid it was challenging and then to come back and finish the season and quickly turn it around.
“All of those things have been different, but it’s all part of management.
“I’m enjoying the regularity of the games, to work with the players and the challenge to try to build a team that can be at the right end of the league.”