O’NEILL CONSIDERING HIS STRIKER OPTIONS
All City’s frontmen are available for selection ahead of crucial league encounter
STOKE City manager Michael O’neill has a cleaner bill of health than in recent weeks ahead of a crucial clash against Cardiff City this weekend.
In central midfield, where various personnel have been missing through a mixture of injuries suspensions and ineligibility, the problems appear to be dissipating, as Joe Allen and potentially Sam Clucas are available for selection again.
Stoke’s captain missed the midweek Carabao Cup tie with Brentford after requiring stitches in a gash which weren’t quite ready to be removed by Wednesday.
But O’neill has revealed he’s ‘fine’ for the visit of Cardiff to the Potteries.
Clucas, meanwhile, has been absent for the last two matches across league and cup competitions with a quad injury suffered against Bournemouth in the last home Championship fixture.
He is now rated as a ‘doubt’, and that is the only real immediate issue in that area of the field, notwithstanding the long term spell on the sidelines for Nick Powell.
The only fresh injury concern for O’neill is to young Alfie Doughty, who, after only featuring for the first time since the win over West Bromwich Albion on Wednesday, is confirmed to be ‘unavailable’ for the weekend’s return to league action.
That means returning strikers Abdallah Sima and Tyrese Campbell both came through their first starts and appearances, respectively, for some time without any setbacks.
When asked whether they had had any reaction in the aftermath of the Brentford game, O’neill confirmed: “No, none at all. They’re both fine.”
That sees the Northern Irish manager in the welcome position of having an effectively fully fit frontline to select from for the first realtime this season, just at a time that they’re struggling for goals.
It’s only three in the last four matches now since the October international break and only one, Jacob Brown’s strike against Sheffield United, coming from a forward player.
And O’neill believes he had ‘good’ options at his disposal to address this issue now, particularly compared to last season.
“We felt that one of the things that we struggled with last season, more than most,” he explained,” was the ability to change games within games with substitutions where you could inject a bit of quality and a bit of speed into the game in the final third of the pitch.
“I don’t think we had the options last year off the bench to be able to do that with the strikers that we had at the club.
“With the system that we’ve played, predominantly, you’re ideally looking for strong partnerships between players that can link the game and play together and, obviously, be a threat as well.
“There’s a lot of work still to be done on that, and that’s where our real focus is as a team because I think a lot of our play, in terms of with the ball in a back three, in a midfield five, has been very good, I think wing-backs have contributed well. We just need to find that right blend at the top end of the pitch.”