BBC NEWS: Stoke City Manager Narcís Pèlach has informed Stoke City Board and Fans He will Be Leaving Stoke City Football Club this Week Because of..

Stoke City find a new player as Narcis Pelach continues work in progress.

The big talking points from the Carabao Cup defeat at Southampton as Potters boss gets a good look at the depth of his squad.

Stoke City came back from 2-0 down at Southampton to have a chance cleared off the line when they were looking to go 3-2 ahead – and then ended up losing at the death.

A team featuring nine changes from that which lost 2-0 at Sheffield United on Saturday looked to be dead and buried when they trailed by two goals after just 35 minutes, but this team is nothing if not resilient and proved it by battling back to give themselves a chance of a quarter-final place. Alas, it was not to be.

A defensive work in progress
Stoke were prepared to concede a lot of the ball and territory to Southampton, but not all that many big chances because they were prepared to defend in numbers and with discipline. Barring the goals, the only other real moment that Southampton had was when Adam Armstrong burst in from the right and had a shot well saved at the near post by Jack Bonham.

They were frustrated to concede from a set-piece, although it was excellent movement from Taylor Harwood-Bellis, and were unlucky with the penalty, although Narcis Pelach talked about what Jaden Dixon should have done better rather than criticise a poor referee. They gave James Bree too much space and time at the end to win it.

There was encouragement – Russell Martin said: “(Stoke) defended so well and in big numbers. Credit to them, they were fighting, they were really well organised, well coached, like we knew they would be.” – but everyone who has followed Stoke over the last few years recognises that doing everything right for 89 minutes doesn’t mean anything if they gift a goal or two or three along the way.

A work in progress then and challenges will be different in the next three big Championship games than they were against Southampton.

Pelach said: “We were doing it well. Southampton had a lot of the ball and a lot of patience. I’ve played against Russell a lot of times with Norwich and Huddersfield and I know how he plays. I think he’s one of the best coaches you have in England. We asked for a lot of resilience knowing we were not going to have the ball for long periods of time, but we can always defend, putting another body and another body in the line of the ball. We defended the box well and limited their options – and above all we didn’t lose players along the way, which is normally what happens. As you don’t have the ball you become tired, you lose one player along the way and there is a gap. But we stayed there.

A Stoke team that can score
A big difference with this Stoke side, however, to ones which have conceded big moments in recent years is that you always think there is at least a possibility they can score, even if it’s out of nothing. There is pace and dynamism with Lewis Koumas, Andrew Moran, and Million Manhoef and Tom Cannon can take chances. They are still in games even if they’re behind.

It was a difficult night for Cannon and would have been easy to be frustrated. Sky Sports had just thrown up a map of his touches deep in the first half when he held the ball up excellently to set in motion the moment for Ashley Phillips’s goal. He was in position to take his own goal when Junior Tchamadeu’s cross was deflected in the second half.

Pelach said: “It was a hard job for him. He had been asked not to press the centre-backs, to let the centre-back come onto him, because as soon as he goes they would pass to the other one and make him double run. ‘Just stay there in front, close passes in side and wait until we had the chance in transition. We will not have many, two or three maybe, so you need to take the options you have’ – and he did. He did a great job for 60 minutes and I didn’t want to change him but I had to because there is another game on Saturday.”

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