After yet another disappointing loss against Bournemouth on Wednesday night focus now turns to
The Potters', next fixture against Bristol City.
Now winless in five The Potters will really need to start putting points on the board if they don’t
want to find themselves looking at the bottom of the table for the foreseeable future.
The Potters will now face a Bristol City side who will look to bounce back from their loss against Leicester City.
Here’s everything you need to know about The Potters' upcoming game against The Robins.
Team News:
Unfortunately, there is no good news on the injury front. Ryan Mmaee, Wouter Burger and Enda
Stevens will all be out of action. As Alex Neil stated in a recent interview “On the injury front there is not massive changes.
Neil went on further to add that he thought “the middle of the park is really important” to Bristol
City which suggests there could be a change in formation from the five at the back against Hull City.
Focus may be drawn to a more midfield-heavy formation such as the 4-1-4-1 seen against Norwich
City with Ben Pearson acting as the defensive midfielder.
Aswell as this, Alex Neil has set about making improvements have been made towards the team's
morale. The team has stayed in Bournemouth this week. Neil stated clearly that he wants to build a
good dressing room atmosphere with him stating “You’ve got so many new players coming in at one time, you want them to spend as much time together as possible.”
Hopefully, this will see a much-needed improvement to Stoke's recent performances by collecting
three points on Saturday.
Predicted Starting XI against Bristol City:
(GK) Travers, Hoever, Rose, Wilmot, Gooch, Pearson, Laurent, Johnson, Vidigal, Wesley, Junho
The Manager:
Nigel Pearson is by no means an unfamiliar name. From taking Watford to potential survival and his legendary stint at Leicester which saw The Foxes go from what seemed to be inevitable relegation to survival. He has without a doubt proved his worth at multiple clubs.
Pearson will certainly provide a challenge for The Potters with Alex Neil believing that Pearson's main asset is the midfield.
The double pivot is something which Pearson teams focus heavily on. With Pearson's team aiming to really take control of the midfield. Supporting the double pivot are two wide midfield players who will often look to assist through the inside channels.
Neil believes that if Stoke can control the midfield Stoke can come away with three points.
Head to Head:
Stoke has been the most successful team overall, winning 27, drawing 15 and losing 20.
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