Views as Stoke City enters the season’s final 13 games
When the topic of how many more points a club needs to remain up is the first topic of casual conversation among supporters, it’s not a very reliable indicator for any club. With 13 games remaining in a very difficult season that has already sparked sincere discussion about whether this is the worst period in Stoke City’s history, it is, however, where they are.
If you’re looking for hope, you should know that the players Steven Schumacher has used in his last two games—a win and a loss—have received standing ovations for their effort. This is a far cry from the collapse at Blackburn Rovers, which concluded with a chant informing the team it wasn’t fit to wear the shirt.
“We’ve got to make sure that we’re ready to stand up for the fight and that’s what we keep asking the players to do,” said the head coach. “I know we’ve got the right characters in there to get the results we need.”
It’s unclear exactly what outcomes Stoke needs. In order to guarantee safety in the Championship, managers typically aim for the 50-point mark, although it seems improbable that three teams won’t fall short of it this time around. Following their loss to Ipswich last night, Rotherham already has to win a title in order to get to 50 points, and they need to score 1.6 points each game to reach 40 points. In order to worry the 50s, Sheffield Wednesday has to score 1.6, which is almost twice as much as they are currently scoring.
From this vantage, the mid-40s would give a team half a chance of survival in this surreal season when the top four are all on target to surpass 90 points. Late 40s would probably see you over the line.
Stoke are concerned about two things. It’s been exceedingly difficult to score and to maintain clean sheets. So what is the best way to average the required number of points per game, or more? In his last two games, Schumacher has played compact and narrow, keeping Stoke in the game. When a team concedes two or three goals before halftime, as they did against Leicester and Blackburn, it is doomed to defeat. Since the beginning of November, the team has only scored more than once in a game on two occasions out of 19 games. It is just as demoralising as anything else.
So to the grind. A new experience for a manager who has built his reputation on swashbuckling attacking football but a case for needs must. If Stoke can turn a good portion of these 13 games into draws and win two or three of the others then they won’t be far away. It is damning to be in this situation, of course, but fans will get behind a team that plays as a team.
It did seem like Schumacher had found a nice balance in his opening six matches, winning a couple, drawing three and losing unfortunately at home to Birmingham. It would be nice to end the season in a position when he can find that again – but his priority has to be to end the season above the dotted line.
