TIME FOR CHANGE
Potters boss O’neill to make alterations for Championship visit of Preston
MICHAEL O’neill is ready to freshen up his Stoke City starting line-up in a bid to get back to winning ways against Preston.
O’neill has named the same side for three successive games and is hamstrung by having only 14 fit senior outfield players.
But Sam Clucas is building up sharpness after a double hernia operation and Christian Norton made an eye-catching cameo appearance when he came off the bench at Birmingham last weekend.
O’neill has also promoted a group of under-23s to the firstteam picture and loan winger Rabbi Matondo is hoping for game time to help his bid to make the Wales European Championships squad.
“If players get the opportunity it’s down to them to take it,” said the manager. “It’s as simple as that. They have to earn the opportunity too. They earn the opportunity by how they do when they come up to train, particularly the younger ones. Then we put them on the pitch.
“Young Christian Norton is an example of that. He came up to train well and then got the opportunity to be on the bench, had a couple of little cameos from the bench and has looked quite promising.
“That’s the pathway you have as a young player. You have to take the opportunity when it comes along. His opportunity is there because the likes of Clarke and Campbell are out injured.
“It’s nice to see the young player come and take that opportunity and if he gets the chance against Preston, I’m sure he’ll not let himself down.”
Stoke have given more minutes to players aged under 23 than any other team in the Championship this season but it is a balancing act about how quickly and how many more are pushed forward.
O’neill said: “We’ve got young players around the first team and a number of young players who have played a lot of minutes this season, which I think is important.
“What we don’t want to do is jeopardise young players by putting them in too early and them maybe having a negative experience. Players also have to earn the right to play.
“I think what you’ll see against Preston is that the team will be freshened up a bit and hopefully those players will take the opportunity.”
O’neill admits it has been a transitional season, with Stoke now having work to do to make sure of a top-half finish.
“It has been transitional because you’ve seen players like Harry Souttar come into the team, Nathan Collins come into the team, Joe Bursik come into the team, Jordan Thompson become more of a regular and we’ve coped with, at times, a lot more senior players being out as well,” he said.
“The important thing for me this season was to first of all gain stability. I think we’ve done that. The team and club is more stable. We’re not looking over our shoulder at League One and we’re disappointed we’re not closer to the play-offs.
“Whatever term you choose to put on that I suppose is up to the individual but from my point of view I think we’ve taken a lot of steps in the right direction but equally we’ve had some negative experiences as well. Over the course of a 46-game season I think that’s what you’re going to experience.”