‘We have played some excellent football and not got the results’
STOKE manager Michael O’neill has provided an insight into the behind-the-scenes work in the aftermath of Wednesday’s Carabao Cup exit to Brentford. Looking ahead to today’s visit of managerless Cardiff City, O’neill has been offering his thoughts on how they will set up under caretaker coach Steve Morison. Here are the edited highlights from yesterday’s press conference...
How concerned are you about the recent game management and the nature of the goals conceded?
It would be remiss of us not to be concerned.
We looked and went through it with the squad, aspects of the game on Wednesday and that followed a little bit of a pattern from Saturday as well.
But we’ve got to get back to winning games, the squad knows that, I know that, and this game gives us the opportunity.
As I’ve said many times, we should not get too high when we’re going well and, equally, not get too low when we have a difficult time, and we’re in a little bit of a difficult time at the minute.
Cardiff won’t be easy, will it?
No, it’s never an easy game, they’ve had a difficult period. They were unbeaten in the first four league games, so then they’ve had a difficult period post that. When there’s a change of manager, it brings other people into the equation who hadn’t been playing in recent times.
But we don’t envisage anything dramatic in terms of what they’ll do. Their personnel are the same. Steve Morison’s in charge. He’s worked with the under-23s so it’s not like he’s come in from outside the club either, so we would expect a lot of consistencies. Against Cardiff you have to defend your box. The ball will come into your box at every opportunity from dead-ball situations, from long throws in particular. They have a big physical presence. But our focus has to be on how we play as well.
We have to make sure that we’re good with the ball because that means that we get the type of game that we want, and if we get that type of game then hopefully we can show our quality and that will allow us to win the game.
How do you stop dropping points?
It is a concern that we’re going ahead, particularly in the last two away games where we’ve been
ahead, probably even more than that if you take Preston (North End) into consideration, and unfortunately, we haven’t managed to win the game. There’s a bit of game management in that and we have to learn. Possibly a little bit of inexperience has led to that, but we’re disappointed.
A big part of the Championship is grinding out results, so we have to develop that as part of our makeup because we’ve played some excellent football this season and possibly haven’t got the results that that’s warranted.
Is it important to find a way of winning again?
Yes. We’re going to lose games. It’s the nature of the league. It always is heightened when they come together as they have done in the last three games.
But we’ve been good at home and we were unlucky in the last home league game against Bournemouth to lose.
So we have to go and continue with how we’ve played at home this season, which has been on the front foot, we’ve played some excellent football, and make sure
that we hammer home our advantage and take more of the chances we’re creating.
What about injuries?
We’re still without Nick Powell and Morgan Fox.
Sam Clucas is a doubt and Alfie Doughty is unavailable as well. He has a hip injury.
Joe (Allen)’s fine, everyone else is good. No reaction from Sima or Campbell, none at all.
Did Wednesday throw any players into the mix?
They’re always in the mix.
We made five changes, but when I look at the changes we made, they’re all players that could start a game for us.
They have started games for us on a regular basis, maybe Demeaco (Duhaney) less so, but he’s come in and he played in the league game against Hull (City) for us as well, when Tommy (Smith) was suspended.
The squad that we have, they train together every day so they’re always in with the opportunity to play and we reviewed the game back and we’ll pick a team that we believe can win the game.
What about the young players, they’re on a learning curve?
Young players will make mistakes, but senior players make mistakes as well.
I wouldn’t focus too much on that. What we are getting is a number of younger players getting a lot of Championship minutes under their belts, which is all part of their development, but they’re in the team because they deserve to be in the team, in my opinion. Their level of performance will keep them in the team as well. We’re here to pick a team to win games, not just develop players. But we’re at a stage now where the focus is making sure that we win games.
Do you feel you’re striking a balance in the areas you want to?
I think so. We’ve been consistent with our system.
We’ve played different variations of three at the back and I think that suits our players, the players we have within the club and the players we brought to the club. We probably haven’t found a partnership in terms of strikers yet, but injuries have made that difficult for us because we’ve never had everyone fit at the one time to review that.
We essentially have four young strikers with Steven (Fletcher) being the experienced one. As the season progresses hopefully we’ll find the right formula.
What has Ben Wilmot’s impact been?
Ben’s been a really good signing. He has versatility in terms of where we’ve asked him to play, he’s played on the right and the left of a back three.
Then, because of the situation where we lost Tommy (Smith) late last week, we had to push him in to play as a wing-back as well and he just goes about his job. He’s an excellent professional. He’s still a young player and only 21, but he’s been very impressive since he’s come into the club. Every day in training, how he trains, how he approaches his game, he’s serious about his football, and we’re delighted to have him.
Have you been impressed with Joe Bursik?
Joe’s an excellent young keeper. He had a poor game at Derby (County) and was left out, but he’s reacted in the right way and he’s come back into the starting team for the last two games.
I thought the other night he made some very good saves.
So he’s just got to continue in the vein of form he’s in and continue to improve and work hard.
I think he’s got a lot of potential as a young goalkeeper.
Is it a selection headache over the strikers?
It is. We felt that one of the things that we struggled with last season, more than most, was the ability to change 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.
We’ve changed in personnel and Tyrese coming back is still in that process, but certainly the options we have now are good options. With the system that we’ve played predominantly, you’re ideally looking for strong partnerships between players that can link and play together and link the game and be a threat as well.
So 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 and a midfield five has been very good. Wing-backs have contributed well, we just need to find that right blend at the top end of the pitch.