‘IT’S BEEN A HARSH LEARNING CURVE IN THE LAST FEW GAMES, BUT ULTIMATELY WE HAVE TO LEARN. AS A TEAM WE NEED TO MOVE ON’
STOKE City head to Blackpool for the first time in a decade looking to get back on winning form. Here is Michael O’neill’s prematch press conference...
CAN YOU PUT YOUR FINGER ON WHY STOKE HAVE LET LEADS SLIP?
I think if you look at the game on Saturday, individual errors initially are the problem.
The first and second goals are down to an error and then the decisions we make in the second goal are very poor.
Then a little bit of anxiety creeps in and the third goal is similar to goals we’ve lost in recent times. I think when you lead in games as we have done in three of those four games and you ultimately lose them it’s always going to be disappointing.
We have to look at that – is it a mentality thing or is it a tactical thing? The reality is that we’ve not defended well enough at those moments in the game and we’ve been punished for not defending well enough. That’s the key really. Things have happened at different times. I thought we were well in control of the game at Sheffield United when we conceded almost against the run of play. Saturday’s was incredible really because the goals happened in a short space of time.
That shook us, you could see that, in terms of our body language a bit. We’ve got to learn from that as a team. It’s been a harsh learning curve in the last few games but ultimately we have to learn, we have to move on and get ready to play.
BLACKPOOL HAVE STRONG WIDE MEN AND HAVE HAD IMPRESSIVE WINS, INCLUDING SATURDAY’S AT SHEFFIELD UNITED. YOU WON’T WANT ANY FRAGILITY IN YOUR TEAM THERE?
No we’ll not. We have to play against a team which is going to be very hungry.
They’ve come up from League One via the play-offs and for a number of their players it’s possibly their first season in the Championship and they’ll be very keen to show they’re more than capable of playing at this level.
I think you always get that from clubs.
Players always want to catch the eye as well so they’ll have a real hunger about how they want to play. We have to match that. It’s the first thing we have to match. Then obviously we have to play our own game as well. We have to go and play. Conditions up there can be tricky with the wind but we have to deal with that.
The most important thing is that we were 3-0 up on Saturday and to be 3-0 up we must have done a lot of things well. We have to focus on the positive – and address the negative as well. That’s what we’ve tried to do since Saturday.
MORE THAN 2,000 STOKE FANS GOING TO BLACKPOOL?
It’s a fantastic travelling support. Obviously Blackpool is a bit of an attraction! But that’s brilliant, we’ve had great away support this season.
We’re aware that we’ve lost games away from home when we’ve been in good positions so the next two games give us the chance to put it right. It’s great we have this level of support.
AS AN INTERNATIONAL MANAGER YOUR TEAM BECAME VERY DIFFICULT TO BEAT – ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT BRINGING IN SOME BATTLE-HARDENED AND MORE EXPERIENCED PLAYERS TO KILL THE GAME? OR TO HOLD PEOPLE TO ACCOUNT OR CALM THEM DOWN?
You always look to your experienced players in those situations. I don’t envisage us bringing in those types of players at this minute in time if I’m honest. We have to believe in the players we have in the building, we have to believe in how we play.
I thought a lot of our play on Saturday was excellent.
We’ve played some really good football this season and we don’t want to become just a battlehardened team to be honest because I don’t think ultimately that will get us to where we want to go.
If you look at us this season and go through the games to say we were outplayed in that game, there aren’t many teams you can say have done that. I think that shows the team has made a lot of progression.
The results in recent weeks have been severe on us, there’s no doubt about that. They’ve obviously affected the mood compared to where we were in the last international break.
But it’s four games and we have to show that, if anything, that this is the experience we learn from and there are certain things in games we have to do better.
SIX OF THE NEXT NINE GAMES ARE AWAY – DOES THAT TAKE PRESSURE OFF PLAYERS?
I hadn’t looked that far ahead! Not particularly.
Our home form has been terrific this season. Only Bournemouth have come and beaten us in the league and we’ve drawn two games against Cardiff and Barnsley when clearly we felt we should have won both games.
I don’t think it’s a good thing. You have to take the fixtures as they come and hopefully we can give a performance and result for the travelling fans.
WHAT IS THE INJURY NEWS?
There’s no real progress with any of the players (who missed the Cardiff game) with Clucas, Powell, Doughty and Fox still on their way back. Fox has trained today, which is a positive, but he’s still a little bit away from consideration. Sima has a little bit of a groin problem which needs to be examined as well so none of those five we anticipate will be involved.
WHAT IS THE MOOD LIKE IN THE CAMP?
The mood is fine.
We had good meetings yesterday with the players.
We split them into groups; all the defenders, midfield players, forwards.
There are different ways to analyse the game and you’ve got to be careful because when you review a game you have to play another one in a couple of days.
You’ve got to get the balance right. You’re trying to review the game and also lift the confidence of the players.
There’s no doubt when you lose games or throw away leads it affects confidence. Individual errors have hurt us in that so those players themselves, we have to make sure their confidence levels remain high as well.
I think we’re pretty consistent in how we review games whether we win or lose and that’s something the players are used to.
In any game there are positives to be found and there were a lot of positives on Saturday despite the fact we threw away a three-goal lead.
THE UNDER-23S ARE BACK IN A PREMIER LEAGUE 2 PLAYOFF PLACE AFTER A WIN OVER WOLVES – YOU MUST BE PLEASED?
Yes, it’s good. It’s a very young team and we’ve got four or five players out on loan who could be in that team. That’s meant the promotion of some other players, which is good.
They had a very difficult game a few weeks ago here against Villa and they’ve recovered and responded well to that. It’s good to see.
DO YOU LOOK AT FORMATION OR PERSONNEL WHEN YOU REVIEW RESULTS?
We pick a team to win every game essentially and whatever formation we play we never throw the team out to play unless we’ve done work on things.
We’ve been very consistent on that and not chopped between a back three and back four which last season was driven a bit by injury to certain players.
The most important thing is to focus on performances really because ultimately if you’re performance level remains high, I believe that over time you’ll get the benefit of better results. We’ve had difficult results in four games. We’ve analysed all those games in a very similar way to how we would have analysed the game when we beat West Brom and everyone was very positive. You have to keep belief in the group and that they believe in what you’re trying to do and that we can come through this little spell.
NEIL CRITCHLEY IS DOING A GOOD JOB AT BLACKPOOL?
He’s done very well. This is his third season having gone in there and having it disrupted by Covid, when their season was cut short. Last season they did well to get up through the play-offs. This season they had a difficult start and found it more difficult to get points early on but in their last four or five games they’ve done extremely well. It’ll be a hungry team. They’ll have a point to prove individually as well as collectively and they’re in good form at the moment.
ARE YOU SURPRISED TO SEE THEM IN THE TOP SIX?
Not really to be honest. The Championship is hard to gauge where teams are at times and the most consistent thing about the league is that teams are inconsistent.
When you look down the form table it’s very different for a lot of clubs to get consistent results son the board. We’re having a difficult period at the minute and Blackpool have had a good period.
We expect a tough game. They’re in a good place and I’m sure they’re enjoying life in the Championship.
IS IT FRUSTRATING TO LOSE BLOSSOMING PARTNERSHIPS DUE TO INJURY?
Injuries, unfortunately, happen. You always want your best players available and we’ve unfortunately had some games when players have not been available to us. I think it’s given opportunities to other players. I think the squad is strong enough to deal with that. When the opportunity comes for players it’s up to them to take it. I think our squad is strong enough to deal with the injury situation we have at this minute in time.
If you look at the games, we’ve had three narrow defeats and a draw and I think it’s testament that our squad is strong enough. Unfortunately in three of those games we’ve led and we haven’t taken from those games what we feel we should have done.
LOOKING FOR WINS TO HEAD INTO THE INTERNATIONAL BREAK?
Of course. We’ve got two away games and the key is not to look further than Wednesday night and trying to win that one. We’re very disappointed with how we lost the lead on Saturday and the dressing room was a very quiet place as you would imagine.
But we’ve reacted well since Saturday in terms of their approach in training and Wednesday gives us a chance to put it behind us.