Yahoo News Stoke City team news vs Middlesbrough in first part of gruesome double header
Steven Schumacher will not have the luxury of splitting his squad too much to manage a gruelling week in the north east and south west.
Stoke head to Middlesbrough in the Carabao Cup second round on Tuesday night (7.15pm) before a Championship away match at Plymouth Argyle on Saturday (3pm), with deadline day on Friday expected to be a long one too.
The travelling party to the Riverside might be pretty much the same as the 20-man group that lost to West Brom in the league on Saturday but there will be changes to the starting XI. Ashley Phillips is in contention to make his debut at centre-half after joining on loan from Spurs on Friday while Andrew Moran could make his full debut too.
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There could be a first senior start for Ryan Mmaee since April after two cameo appearances following his knee injury, Frankie Fielding is on standby to replace Viktor Johansson in goal and teenagers Jaden Dixon, Freddie Anderson, Sol Sidibe and Emre Tezgel are bidding for a place in the team.
Ben Gibson is unlikely to be involved at his old club in a three-game week and Enda Stevens (calf), Ben Pearson (hamstring), Michael Rose (ankle), André Vidigal (ankle), Jack Bonham (wrist), Sam Gallagher (calf) and Bosun Lawal (back) are in the treatment room.
Schumacher said: “I can’t take a different squad, we haven’t got enough players because of injury. We’ll have to take a similar squad and freshen it where we can. It wouldn’t be wise to ask those lads who have put in a whole 90 minutes, every one, to go again on Tuesday because that was a tough game against West Brom.
“I’m sure Middlesbrough will be the same and will make changes like they did against Leeds. They still looked really good and beat Leeds 3-0.
“We have to try to do well in that game and get a result and progress if we can but we also have to be mindful that we’ve got another tough league game coming up away from home again a few days later. We’ll pick a team we think is the right one.”
This game is live on Sky Sports but Stoke have sold out of coach travel although it remains to be seen how full it is in the away end. Just under 900 went to Carlisle and it will be a packed following at Plymouth.
Schumacher said: “We made eight or nine changes at Carlisle but everyone put in 100 per cent effort and we got ourselves into the next round. That will be the minimum requirement. We can’t take any game lightly, especially for supporters who spend their money and travel all these distances, getting back late for what they’re doing in their weekly schedules too.
“So we won’t take it lightly but we have to be mindful to pick a team that physically can compete.”
There’s 800-odd miles to cover in the next few days for players, staff, fans and reporters but Schumacher, at least, has experience from his previous club in terms of distance covered. In his first week as manager at Plymouth he covered 2,500 miles with away matches at MK Dons then Sunderland. It was light by the time he got back from Tuesday or Wednesday night games on the road and the players, at least, will make journeys in comfort.
Schumacher said: “You’ve got to look after the players as best you can and get your travel arrangements right. That’s what we’ll try to do.
“You have to be wise with the load we’ll give them on the training pitch. You have to get a lot of your work done on the TV screens and explain that because physically it’s hard when you get back really late from Middlesbrough to go again on the Thursday and prepare to do it again at Plymouth. We have to make sure we do it properly.”
