Stoke City boss expected to shake up selection for Southampton cup tie Team news from Clayton Wood as Stoke City prepare for a long trip south in the Carabao Cup.
Narcis Pelach is expected to give players such as Tatsuki Seko and Sol Sidibe a chance to stake their claims to be part of his plans when Stoke City take a break from Championship action with a mid-week Carabao Cup trip to Southampton.
Stoke head south for a tricky fourth round, round of 16, tie on Tuesday night (7.45pm) in the thick of three successive three-game weeks – and with important league games coming up against Derby County, Blackburn Rovers and Millwall.
Ashley Phillips, a centre-back on loan from Spurs, got his first taste of action under the new head coach on Saturday in a defeat at Sheffield United while midfielder Seko, a late summer signing, has had cameos in the last couple of weekends and 17-year-old Sidibe has had to be patient for his minutes. Jaden Dixon, Emre Tezgel and Jack Bonham are also likely to be brought in for a chance to impress.
He said: “They need to understand that I’m not the type of coach who is going to give free starts. I am not this. I see what the team does and I protect that. If the players that are playing are performing – unless they have a physical reason or mental reason – I try to stay consistent. If performances are not right a player doesn’t perform in one game and then goes into another game and doesn’t perform then I’ll change him because that’s the job and coaches need to make decisions and players need to perform. If not, another one will do it for you.
“That’s the way I talk to them, it’s the way I want, the way going forward in this club: no free starts. If you come in it’s because you’ve done something good in training or there’s a reason from a physical point of view with another player maybe. But there is a reason behind it. I’m not the type of coach that I will sit down and do line ups because I have a feeling. No. I sit down and look at the fitness of the players that are playing, I ask if they can sustain it for another game, I look at how the players who are not in the team are performing in training, if there are signs they could perform in the next game because of the opponent or the style of play or the game plan. That’s how I make decisions.
