Sad as Stoke City lost their backbone

The typical justification for managers’ frequent modifications to the starting lineup these days is that they have access to an abundance of medical, fitness, nutrition, and sports science personnel, which helps them identify signs of fatigue in players.

My response, regretfully, is that football clubs have access to as much medical, fitness, nutrition, and sports science staff as they could want; therefore, players should be able to complete three games in eight days, especially if they have a free week coming up and, more importantly—and this is highlighted and bolded—if they are fresh off a win after four straight losses and, more importantly, given how vulnerable their position is at the bottom of the division at this point in the season on Stoke City’s immaculate field.

Stoke had demonstrated their ability to persevere in order to secure a vital victory over Queens Park Rangers in a new 3-4-2-1 formation. We worked hard to win by denying opportunities. As players, the anticipation leading up to the game and the knowledge you gained from how it turned out are crucial. After a very awful month, you could see your teammates’ battling spirit and unity, which was a crucial first step. For that squad, three points had to have felt like hard work in addition to being desperately needed. Excellent work.

Due to injuries to Daniel Iversen and Luke McNally, two changes had to be made. Alright, it does occur. Notably, the two players are positioned in the core of a tight formation rather than in wide positions, and they serve vital roles as the goalkeeper and center defense. I was perplexed that four more changes were made because the players were fatigued.

Bae Junho is a significant element of that system since he played in behind Niall Ennis with a free role, and Wouter Burger is a big part of the backbone because he scored the winning goal against QPR. Being our primary striker and the only player with the expertise and desire to outmaneuver defenders, Ennis plays a pivotal role in the backbone of the team.