Mark Robins blasts ‘unacceptable’ Stoke City performance in loss to Norwich
Mark Robins blasts ‘unacceptable’ Stoke City performance in loss to Norwich
Mark Robins warned Stoke City will get punished if they sit off teams as much as they did in the first half at Norwich or lose discipline like they did in the second.
Stoke were beaten 4-2 at Carrow Road in a game that Norwich boss Johannes Hoff Thorup claimed his team should have won 5-0.
Robins was disappointed with the team work on show in terms of how Stoke ran off the ball – and that there were players who were then doing their own thing.
He said: “It was a disappointing start to the game. We gave them too much respect. We gave them too much time and space to dictate the game. (Jacob) Sorensen had too much space in the first 15 or 20 minutes until we changed things a little bit.
“What you’ve got to understand is that if you sit too deep off teams they’ll ruin you, Norwich will ruin you. Norwich are mid-table this season, they’ve been mid-table this season but three points off the play-offs because they’re in that pack of teams chasing for that before the start of this game. They’ve given up too many chances this season. We scored two goals away from home and not come away with anything, which is a disappointment.
“But do not use excuses when we get things wrong and also what we don’t understand as a collective at the moment is that you don’t just go once, you can run. It costs nothing to run, you can run around, if you press once and they by-pass your press, get into another position as your mate goes and helps you out and you do it again until you can win the ball. Then you don’t get torn to pieces when you lose your shape.”
Stoke went behind in the 32nd minute when Trentham boy Lewis Dobbin found space to finish but they were square just before the break thanks to a goal from Lewis Baker.
Josh Sargent restored Norwich’s lead early in the second half and after Baker had a controversially ruled out for offside, a Sargent second and Junior Tchamadeu own goal put the game to bed. Baker pulled one back with an injury-time penalty.
Robins said: “We lost our discipline in the second half after working pretty hard and being made to work pretty hard in the first. We didn’t get it right often enough. You have to run. It’s as simple as that, that’s the game. If you get that wrong and they’re willing to run and they do it at pace and they have good, technical players…
“(Players) went off to do individual things which is totally unacceptable. You have to play in a framework. You’ve got to play within a framework and then you can go and do your stuff, not a problem with it. Final third, go and do your stuff. Milly (Manhoef)’s dribbling when he was brought down for a penalty, not a problem with it. But if you lose the ball, who’s going to fill in, who’s going to be in the positions to stop the attack from them?
“That was the thing that meant we lost our discipline, lost our thinking and then it costs you goals. That’s what happened today.”
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