No one wants to hear that’ – Mark Robins has his say on Stoke City’s big problem
Mark Robins is preparing Stoke City to take on Swansea in the Championship at the bet365 Stadium
Mark Robins has spelled out the importance of creating more opportunities to score goals as the priority for Stoke City.
Stoke are the Championship’s lowest scorers with 28 goals from 31 matches so far this season, less than half the number of table-topping top scorers Leeds United (66). The number is 11 fewer than expected according to the data collectors – only behind Coventry (12.6) and Swansea (12.5) in terms of not taking as many chances as they should have.
But Stoke have only taken 339 shots. Only Preston (320), Oxford (319) and Plymouth (302) have had fewer than that. The stats suggest that Stoke have been less willing to take on shots that have less chance of going in although Robins can point to moments like Nathan Lowe’s goal at West Brom – turning in a wayward effort from Junior Tchamadeu – which was created by the circumstances that are created by just taking a shot in itself.
Robins is preparing for a home game against Swansea on Saturday (3pm) hoping for his first league goal at the bet365 Stadium, having scored three there in the FA Cup last weekend against Cardiff.
There have been six blanks in the last 10 league games and Robins was asked at his pre-match press conference what he had learned from a mid-week defeat at Bristol City.
He said: “You hope that people learn from mistakes that we make but that’s not necessarily the case. You would hope that people understand that communication is key in terms of distances between units but also distances between each individual. You can’t switch off from a player that’s around you and you need to be aware of what is around you.
