‘We feel like we’ve lost points we should have gathered and that’s something we need to address...’
STOKE City head to London hoping to get back to winning ways against Queens Park Rangers.
Michael O’neill has held his pre-match press conference, including covering the latest injury news.
THE LUXURY OF A FULL WEEK’S TRAINING – HOW’S IT GONE?
It’s been good. We were able to do a lot of work on the last couple of games and bring that onto the training pitch as well, which has been very useful for us.
It’s a good time to maybe reset. We’ve had a good meeting with the players today and looked at areas we felt we’ve not been good at in recent games and areas we feel we have been good at throughout the season and trying to get back to that.
Training has been geared to that and the response from the players has been excellent.
ONLY FOUR POINTS OFF THIRD – BUT LAST FEW GAMES HAVE FELT ONE STEP FORWARD, ONE BACK. FRUSTRATED BY INJURIES AND SUSPENSIONS?
It’s been frustrating the injuries and suspensions, which you always try to avoid.
But it gives opportunities to players and maybe the ones stepping in we maybe should have hoped for a little bit more in those situations.
We’ve been very consistent in how we’ve worked but sometimes it’s not easy for players stepping in when maybe they have not played for a while.
There’s no doubt, particularly the last three home games, (have been frustrating). We were three-up against Cardiff and draw 3-3, we didn’t play particularly well against Peterborough but won 2-0 and then the result last Saturday against Blackburn.
We didn’t play well. I didn’t think there was very much in the game, a difficult game, but we lost 1-0.
Those are frustrations because our home form has been very, very good this season so we have to look to address that.
If we look at the away form, we had two wins before Bristol City, arguably playing better at Bristol City than we had done in the two wins only to come away with a 1-0 defeat after missing quite a few chances.
That’s frustration for us as much as anything else. We feel we’ve lost points we should have gathered and we have to look to address that on Sunday.
THERE WERE GRUMBLINGS IN THE STAND LAST WEEKEND. DO WE NEED TO BE MORE AWARE OF THE INJURY LIST – AND ARE STOKE BETTER EQUIPPED TO DEAL WITH INJURIES THAN LAST SEASON?
The performance on Saturday was frustrating for the supporters and frustrating for us. It was a bitterly cold day as well so I can imagine that sitting there wasn’t a particularly pleasant experience either.
We have to create positivity in the stadium with our performance. I think we’ve done that for the most part this season, particularly at home. That’s what we have to get back to.
We’ve lost key players and that happened last season as well. It does disrupt you a little bit and there’s a real responsibility on the players who come in to be able to perform in a similar way. All players are different as well and they all have different strengths and weaknesses.
The main focus for us is what we
do as a team and we recognise that particularly in the last few home games it’s been difficult for supporters. We’ve not made it easy for ourselves. Our own level of performance has been inconsistent.
We have to make strides to get that back. You can always say that injuries and suspensions play a part in that. We’ve not been at our strongest. But equally we feel as a squad that we’re more equipped to deal with it.
QPR HAVE RISEN TO THIRD AND MIGHT THINK IT’S A GOOD TIME TO PLAY STOKE?
Possibly but that’s a dangerous thing in the Championship and Mark Warburton is a very experienced manager. I don’t think he’ll approach the game in that way.
They’ve got a little bit of consistency in their play. I think they’re a good side. They had a
really strong finish in the second half of last season.
They’ve managed to make some of those (loan) players permanent, the likes of (Stefan) Johansen is a big factor in that.
And they’ve got some very creative footballers, particularly in the middle of the pitch.
We’ll have to be at our best. We’ll have to take care of the ball because they do hurt you.
But equally if we look at our recent away performances, there’s a lot for us to take into the game and be positive about as well.
THE LATEST INJURY NEWS?
(Sam) Clucas and (Abdallah) Sima have trained this week, which has been a big positive. We have to see how they are.
Today was quite a heavy day for them so we’ll see how they are reaction-wise and whether we feel it’s ready for one or both of them
to be back in the match day squad.
Sima has been out longer than Sam so we need to take that into consideration as well.
But at least the squad looks a bit stronger now with the two players back training.
Tashan (Oakley-boothe) has trained well this week. It’s taken him a bit of time to find his confidence and form again after his injury. If you think his injury went back to March last season he’s had to be very patient.
AN UPDATE ON JORDAN THOMPSON?
It’s not good news on Jordan. He’ll need to have an operation next week, possibly.
We don’t anticipate seeing Jordan for six to eight weeks is the time frame. That was a piece of bad news that we received this week.
We avoided going down that route but when he was running and tried to run he is still having problems within his knee.
The surgeon feels an operation can solve the problem.
AN UPDATE ON NICK POWELL?
Nick has worked with the medical team today out on the grass, which is only the second day he’s been able to do that.
That’s a positive but he’s still a few weeks away from being introduced back into training. At that point we’ll get a truer reflection about how soon he can come back playing.
Nick’s an important player for us. We built a lot of our team with three at the back and a lot of our game was about the build-up. We’ve lost Joe (Bursik) and Harry (Souttar) in recent weeks who are important on that side of things.
Nick’s a very creative player and he’s been scoring goals this season and consistently been a very important player in my period at the club.
IS IT A MATTER OF TRYING TO HANG IN AND GET BY WITH THESE INJURIES UNTIL YOU CAN STRENGTHEN IN THE JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW IF POSSIBLE?
I think when you go through little periods as we are at this minute in time you have to stay together and work your way through it.
Every team has these periods in the Championship and we’re disappointed, particularly when we look how we’ve played this season and we’ve lost seven games. It’s disappointing for us to have lost as many games as that.
But we have to analyse the game and see where we’re developing as a team as well. It’s very important for us to recognise where we’re trying to get to.
The key thing is to be consistent, I’ve said this many times, in how we work and that players know what is expected from them. They’re a good group of players, they work extremely hard.
We’re a little bit young in certain areas at times but those players are developing and I think we’ll come through this period and we’ll get stronger in the second half of the season.
FRANK FIELDING HAS JOINED – CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHY YOU FELT THE NEED FOR ANOTHER KEEPER?
Joe (Bursik) is out for 10 to 12 weeks so we’ve only got two senior keepers, which would leave us with a difficult situation if, for example, a goalkeeper was ill on the day before a game and couldn’t play or picked up an injury.
Joe is a good example. He got hurt in the warm-up for England and if we’d only had two goalkeepers it would leave us with a very inexperienced goalkeeper on the bench.
Young Blondy is out on loan. We don’t have the option to call him back at this minute in time. It’s something we’ll consider in January.
It’s very much, like last season, when we had to sign Niki Maenpaa on a short-term deal – that didn’t work out because he got injured on his first day and then Andy Lonergan as a result of that. We just felt we needed a bit of cover.
Frankie was available and it’s a short-term deal which is good for him and good for us. We’ll see how the situation looks in January.
HOW HAS TOM EDWARDS DONE SINCE RETURNING TO TRAINING?
Tom’s been good. He’s obviously played a lot of games in MLS, 28 which is good for Tom. He’s not had that consistency of play.
He’s been away for 18 months when you count the first loan at Fleetwood and now he’s got a chance to show where he is at this point in his career before the transfer window opens in January.
THERE ARE MORE THAN 1,100 FANS GOING DOWN ON SUNDAY
The support has been fantastic. I recognise that and the players are appreciative of that.
We have to give them something. We have to make the trip enjoyable for them. We have to play well and we want to win the game and send them back on the train or coach happy. That’s the aim of everyone in the building.