Potters looking to secure friendlies to sharpen up
STOKE City are hoping to hold re-start warm-up games against Midlands or North West Championship clubs they have already played twice this season.
The EFL has confirmed Stoke will be back in action from June 20, with the fixture list running in the order it was originally intended.
It means boss Michael O’neill, who welcomed his squad back for small group training last week, now has less than three weeks to prepare for nine potentially huge games.
Training will step up in intensity and behind-closeddoors friendlies, as well as in-house training matches, are in the pipeline to help players get back in gear after a three-month break from competitive action.
O’neill said: “It’s one of things we’ve discussed and seeing what the guidelines will allow us to do. We’re looking at those options.
“We’re looking at teams in the Championship who we’ve played twice, for example, and there’s no issue with us playing each other again at this stage.
“In a close vicinity as well, the likes of Blackburn come into that, Preston come into that, Derby for example. They’re all good options for us to possibly play behind closed doors 11 v 11.
“You can structure that game however you want. Perhaps you’ll play three 45 minutes so you’re rotating players – but at the minute we have no guidelines on that.
“Certainly you’d want to go into your first competitive game having done that.
“There are two sides to that, not only from the competitive element and fitness element but also mentally for the players to play in an empty stadium and how they cope with that.
“We’ll do that even with games we play among ourselves, we’ll play hopefully at the bet365 so we can get used to that environment.
“It will be challenging, there’s no doubt. It looks like it’s moving a little bit quicker than we expected.
“We’ve only been back a week and we’ve seen a definitive date for the Premier League. We have to make sure we’re ready to play in three or four weeks.”
Stoke haven’t played since beating Hull 5-1 on March 7 and O’neill is hoping they can pick up where they left off.
He is boosted by the return of Ryan Shawcross and James Mcclean from injury.
But likewise rivals across the division have also been able
to clear their treatment rooms.
O’neill said: “You’d imagine that most teams apart from long-term injuries, like Joe (Allen) and Thibaud (Verlinden), will be squadwise as strong as they have maybe been at any point of the season or going back to pre-season.
“It’ll be interesting, it’ll be a challenge for the players because there’s still a lot at stake in the Championship at both ends of the table.
“And we have to be ready to play. We’re building it up in the next three to four weeks to make sure we come out of the blocks. We have games to win to make sure we maintain our Championship status.”