Yahoo News This is Stoke City's biggest game of the season in a defining weekend at the bottom of the Championship
I am sure you are all as nervous as me heading into this weekend, but Stoke City couldn’t wish for a better situation, in the circumstances they are in, than to have two out of their last three games at home, with one against the manager’s old club.
No one will need any motivation. It’s a challenge but it should be a committed approach and that innate desire to do well against your old employers. We all know that if they do the job properly, it will all be ok. We know how the stadium will react if we get it right and if we don’t.
It’s the biggest match of the season. Both clubs are one win away from reaching or crossing that 50-point mark. Plymouth’s incentive is double too because they’ll want to get everyone questioning why Steven Schumacher left them to come to us. And if they lose this one, all of a sudden they’ll be looking at their final two fixtures – Millwall away and Hull at home – and panicking about where they are going to end up.
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You’ll be able to measure the scale of this game on the Richter scale. It’s a defining weekend at the bottom of the Championship from Sheffield Wednesday in second bottom up to Blackburn Rovers in 17th. You get the feeling that there won’t be seven teams still in the soup by Monday morning and we’ll have a clearer idea of exactly what is needed to stay up.
I’ve gone back through the seasons since Stoke came back into this division, and never up to yet have teams gone down with 50 points. The closest was Charlton on 48 in 2020.
But this one is concertinaed at both ends and there are tales of previous campaigns that can give you sleepless nights. Blackburn were doomed with 51 points in 2017, Peterborough United went down with 54 points and a minus-9 goal difference in 2013 and Gillingham with 50 in 2005.
Leicester were relegated with 52 in 2008. You’ll remember
the miserable away end on the final day at Stoke,
while Stoke were busy celebrating promotion to the Premier League.
There are some results that make a huge difference to the table, like Plymouth beating Leicester last weekend, Blackburn winning at Leeds, and Millwall, having also beaten Leicester, following it up by seeing off Cardiff. A big 90 minutes can see a big swing and suddenly all those clubs have the safety line in sight.
It is all giving us all the jitters and how much we could do with Stoke turning this month into a good one. March was fine, with three wins and two losses, but we’ve had three draws and a defeat so far in April and I want to see a sharp improvement in that over the next week.
We’re not quite sure what to expect partly because we don’t quite know what to expect from Stoke in terms of what team they will put out this afternoon nor what system they will play. I try to put myself into the position of a player in this situation and I’d be yearning for a clear plan A. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. If you’re making too many changes between and during games then take a deep breath and try to figure out why.
Daniel Iversen has made the number one spot his own but in front of him the names have been swirling around. Even players in central midfield have been asked to do different roles from game to game.
Good luck to Schumacher against Plymouth. It’s quite emotional but when you’re up against your old club you’ve got to do the business just the same and make sure your team performs.
My first game after leaving Stoke was against Stoke, for Everton, who were actually below Stoke when I joined and had lost eight and drawn two of their previous 10. Stoke fans were quite good to me. I think they appreciated the work I’d done over the years.
You have to try to block everything out and focus on the match but you will have so many things swirling around your head. Emotions are bubbling just below the surface and it’s a big mental challenge. You have to be controlled.
Every time a professional goes out you have to have that determination to win and all the ingredients that go with it to win a match. You have to come up trumps in every second you’re involved. Your concentration levels have to be maximised to deliver to the best of your ability. It is all the more difficult when there’s something unique or an extra emotional charge about a fixture.
You can well imagine running out for a game and your mind is trying to get you thinking about why you’re in that scenario against a club where you spent so long. But changes happen in life and you have to get on with it.
Whatever it takes, Schumacher has to come up trumps in this match. He’s got to find a way to win.
