For Stoke City coach Narcis Pelach, attack was the best form of defence at the home of Championship challengers Sunderland.
Well, possession, anyway.
Only table-topping Leeds United have scored more goals [five] from counter-attack situations in England’s second tier this season than Regis Le Bris’ Sunderland [three].
And, while Le Bris was without the speedy Romain Mundle due to injury, a front three of Tommy Watson, Patrick Roberts and Wilson Isidor was enough to give Pelach a few sleepless nights ahead of his trip to Wearside.
Stoke’s attempts to stop those Sunderland transitions, meanwhile, could be seen in their in-possession approach. The Black Cats could not break on their visitors, after all, if they didn’t have the ball to begin with.
Stoke, therefore, maintained 55 per cent of the possession at the Stadium of Light. A massive increase on their seasonal average of just 48 per cent.
Stoke City boss altered his tactics to try and stop Sunderland
“I wanted to have more of the ball,” Pelach explains during his post-match press conference, also feeling that Stoke’s energy from the front could disrupt Sunderland’s rythym.
“I wanted to get us into a situation where Sunderland were playing out from the back, I consider that’s where we could be good in the high press. I wanted the game to be like that if we could and the best way to do this is with offensive players. Players with energy who can get forward and press.
“As well, when you have offensive players on the pitch – we played with one 10 as a number six and one six or eight as a number six – you can have more of the ball. That’s what we tried, to try to dominate the game with the ball, knowing that we were playing against one of the best counter-attacks in the league.
“I thought we did quite well. When we lost the ball we delayed it, got narrow and kept them wide.”
And it worked too. For the most part.
Until the 86th minute, when Tommy Watson doubled his tally to leave Le Bris celebrating a first win in seven Championship matches.
With the game stretched and both teams looking for a winner, Stoke finally left Sunderland with room to run into. And, as Patrick Roberts laid the ball back, Watson’s deflected strike zipped past Viktor Johansson in the Potters net.
Tommy Watson’s winner broke Narcis Pelach’s Potters gameplan
“I don’t think today was a lapse in concentration,” Pelach, the former Huddersfield Town coach, argues. “We had a bit of a problem on the right in the second-half, defending that side with Watson. But [his winner] wasn’t lapse of concentration.
“They just come, they come, they come and they scored with a deflection. But it could have happened before, in my opinion.
“I think that the game plan was there, trying to calm down the stadium with the ball, playing with personality and having more of the ball than them. It’s what we wanted to [do]; Try to dominate the game.
“They have good players offensively but, if they don’t have the ball, they cannot show it. This is what we wanted to do, have the ball and possession and make them jump and then when they jump, accelerate.”