Mark Robins takes Stoke City encouragement as he hints at injury boost..
Mark Robins can see welcome signs on the Stoke City training ground ahead of a mid-week trip to Bristol City.
Mark Robins can see his Stoke City side start to create more chances after a few weeks’ work on the training ground.
Robins, who brought in new coaches James Rowberry and Paul Nevin and moved Ryan Shawcross in for first team duties, has made it a priority to address Stoke’s scoring record to help shift the team up the Championship table.
That has meant making better use of the ball and he has been able to take encouragement from what he is seeing in practice at Clayton Wood and start to see when it matters, like against Hull and Cardiff in the last two games.
“The significant (improvement I’ve seen) is in possession,” said the manager ahead of tonight’s trip to Bristol City (7.45pm).
“Certainly there is a lot more willingness to get on the ball and pass it. Really, when we came in, there was an element where out of possession we did really well, in possession we kept giving the ball back to the opponents, so we kept having do to the job out of possession and we got a lot of practise. You want to retain that and try to enhance it.
“I think goal scoring has been an issue so the three goals we got on Saturday were really pleasing and the types of goals we got as well were also pleasing. There were other chances we might have taken and the quality of chances had gone up in the game as well.”
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Stoke were missing Andrew Moran, Ben Wilmot, Lynden Gooch, Sam Gallagher, Million Manhoef, Sol Sidibe, Eric Bocat and Jordan Thompson due to injury against Cardiff while Nathan Lowe and Ali Al-Hamadi were cup tied.
Robins keeps his cards close to his chest in terms of comeback timetables but he hints that the squad should be boosted soon by returning bodies.
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“The bigger the squad, the better,” he said. “The players coming back have got quality and game understanding, they’ve got a lot of Championship experience under their belt. Also their availability takes everything up a notch too because everyone is fighting for places, not just in the team but in the squad as well.
“I am really hopeful that we can get them back really soon and they’re starting to make that reintroduction from, really, now.”
Bristol City had won four and drawn three of their previous eight league games before a home defeat to Swansea on Sunday.
Robins said: “I’ve been there twice already this season with Coventry, one in the League Cup and one in the league, and they’re a good young team. They’re set up in a way to make life difficult for you and they were and are a pressing team. They’ll come to try to press. They’ve changed shape slightly throughout the season but retained, essentially, a box in midfield, three at the back and Nakhi Wells or Sinclair Armstrong up front.
“They’ve got a good young squad. There was brilliant work done over time by Nigel Pearson when he was in there to start with and carried on by Liam Manning. They’re a tough team to play against and always going to Ashton Gate it’s difficult but hopefully we can come out with a really good performance and positive result.”
