‘MILLWALL WILL TRY TO STOP US FROM PLAYING, SO WE NEED TO BE BRAVE WHEN WE DO HAVE POSSESSION...’
STOKE City head to Millwall looking to bounce back from two straight defeats and claim their first win in London since 2014. Michael O’neill has been previewing the game in his prematch press conference.
STOKE SHOWED THEY COULD COMPETE AGAINST BOURNEMOUTH – BUT WHAT ASPECTS CAN YOU IMPROVE?
I felt we could have been better in terms of our choices in the final third.
I felt we put the ball into the box at times when we didn’t have enough numbers in the box.
I felt at times our runs into the box could have been better. We just looked at times a bit hurried. At times in the first half, more so, we allowed ourselves to be pressed but to be fair to the opposition their pressure was good.
Equally there were solutions to that which we could have found a little better in terms of our choices on the ball. Our positives were that we were up against a team unbeaten this season and there was very little between the sides.
We didn’t feel that we were overawed in any way. We went to the last whistle to try to get something out of the game and I felt we deserved to get something out of the game.
It was just disappointing to lose and the nature of how we lost was the real disappointing thing.
We review the game with the players.
Sometimes you don’t go into micro
detail because you have to play another game again in three days and we have to build them up again to go and play against Millwall on Saturday so our focus has shifted to that now.
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM THE MILLWALL GAME?
I think Millwall is always a tough game away from home. We know that.
They have been very set in how they’ve played for certainly last season and this, with three at the back in either a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2. We know what to expect. They’re a hard working team, a well organised team. They’ve got themselves into a good position in the league. They had quite a few draws early in the season as well.
We will go there and try to play the way we have done in all the previous games. I think they will try to stop us playing so we have to try to be above that and make sure we are brave in possession.
And given that we’ve had two set-backs, the key is not to have another one and try to make sure we win the game.
WILL YOU THINK OF FRESHENING UP THE TEAM?
I think we have to look at it. We have one or two injuries that come into our thinking and we have to look who is suited to come into this game.
We have a game again on Wednesday (against Brentford). I’ll freshen the team up if I think it’s the right thing to do but probably injuries are going to drive me to make some changes as well.
WHAT ARE THE INJURIES?
Sam Clucas has a quad injury, not as bad as we first feared but for probably 10 days to two weeks he
will be unavailable to us. Unfortunately Nick Powell has a crack in his fibula. It’s a little crack but it’s not displaced. He will be for six to eight weeks, that’s the time frame that we’ve been given. Tyrese is good (after his appearance). He trained today so all good. Again you can see the benefit of him being on the pitch. He gets chances, he showed that in the game.
I think he had three chances and hit the target with one, just couldn’t get onto the third one and had a header that he maybe will feel he could have done better with.
It was just nice to see him back on the pitch.
It’s going to take him a bit of time, obviously. He’s not played football at that intensity and speed in his build up because with the under-23s you can’t replicate that.
It was a positive 20 minutes for him and good to see him train this morning as well.
Demeaco Duhaney and Alfie Doughty are both back in the mix after illness and ready to play if needed.
Morgan Fox is still training with the medical team. Abdallah Sima trained this morning but probably needs another couple of sessions before we are able to consider him for the match day squad. More realistically, Brentford is an option for Sima to be reintroduced.
Leo Ostigard is fine after illness as well.
Tashan Oakley-boothe is ok. He played in the 23s on Monday night. He probably needs more minutes under his belt before he can push to get back in our match day squad. Obviously we have quite a lot of competition in midfield at the minute so he has a bit to do there. He’s getting as many minutes as he can with the 23s.
RARELY HAD BACK-TO-BACK DEFEATS AT STOKE, WHAT’S THE MOOD LIKE IN THE CAMP?
The mood’s fine. The players were disappointed obviously to lose but they gave everything in the game and it wasn’t a performance we were overly disappointed with. We were disappointed with the result of course.
The players are fine. They’ve come in and recovered and trained well and our minds turn quickly to the next game. We can’t dwell on the situation but equally we don’t want a run of two defeats to extend any further than it is currently.
WHAT’S YOUR ASSESSMENT OF THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE SEASON AS THE LEAGUE TAKES SHAPE?
I don’t look at that side of the league table too closely at this minute in time. We’ve been in the top six since basically day one but we’re out of it now on goal difference, so that isn’t a huge factor for us.
What you do see is what’s beneath us and there’s obviously not a lot of points between ourselves and what’s beneath us but equally we’re only two points off third. It’s a very, very tight league as we know. The results this week again emphasise that with teams going away from home and getting results that people don’t expect them to get. A lot of that comes down to the number of games we’re playing and the turnaround of teams. It makes it very difficult to get that real consistency in your play and results. We’ve had two set-backs but we’ve played the three relegated teams and Bournemouth in the first 13 games. We’ve played, for me, the four best teams in the league in the first 13 games so hopefully now we can see where we are, see the level we’re at and we can get a winning run together.
CAN YOU SEE ANY CHANGE IN HOW MILLWALL SET UP?
Not really. They’re consistent. Gary has played with a back three for most of the time he’s been there. They’ve played with Benik Afobe, who won’t be eligible to play in this game so there’ll have to be a change there for them.
But we pretty well know what to expect. They’ve got some very good players, Jed Wallace is a good player and always a threat. They’ve got (Sheyi) Ojo on loan as well who is a threat. It’s a tough game, Millwall is always a tough game. We’ll have to be at our best to try to take three points.
INJURIES MUST BE FRUSTRATING AS YOU TRY TO NAME A CONSISTENT STARTING XI?
I think we’ve tried to do that as much as possible when injuries have allowed. We’ve particularly done it with the back three and we’ve been consistent with what we’ve done tactically since the first game of the season. It means when players come in they are well versed.
We train the team in that way and do a lot of work on the training ground so when players do come in it doesn’t upset your rhythm too much. I don’t believe we’ve suffered from that this season. The games that we’ve lost, particularly Bournemouth and Derby, were down to errors and being punished for those errors.
That’s the unfortunate nature of the league and game in general that we’ve suffered in terms of that but as a team and what we’ve tried to do we’ve been consistent since the first game.