Michael Rose explains ‘difficult’ Stoke City change he’s still getting used to.
Stoke City defender Michael Rose is having to adapt to a new manager and a new way of playing for the third time in his short Potters spell.
A change of manager isn’t something Michael Rose has been accustomed to. The Stoke City centre half joined in the summer of 2023, but he is already working under his third permanent manager in the Potteries having been at the club all of 15 months.
Scot Rose began his career with boyhood club Aberdeen, who worked for eight years – including the entirety of Rose’s short senior career at Pittodrie – under Derek McInnes. Next came a move to Ayr United, where Rose – across three separate seasons – played for manager Ian McCall.
More recently, Rose’s first four years in England came with Coventry City, who have been steered by Mark Robins – third on the list of Football League managers by the length of their reign – since 2017. Clearly, working under Alex Neil, Steven Schumacher and now, currently, Narcis Pelach, has been something of a shock to his system which has experienced only consistency in that area.
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The 29-year-old has broken back into the team under Pelach following a beginning to the campaign which was disrupted by injury and Rose now is firmly focused on giving his all for Spaniard Pelach, who welcomes former employers Norwich City on Saturday (KO 3pm).
“It’s been a little bit difficult for me,” Rose said. “I’d never experienced that before in my career until I came here. It was a bit strange, especially last season when Alex Neil left and Schumacher came in, I found it all a bit strange. My experiences took over and I dealt with it. You can’t really think too much about either, you just have to, when the new manager comes in, listen to him, see what he wants to do and try and do exactly what he wants.
“As players that’s all you can do – you can’t really focus on all the other stuff. That’s for the people higher up at the club to do. For us as players, our job is to win football matches at the weekend, whoever that guy is, we’ll just listen to him and try and do it as best we can.”
