Three lingering questions for Stoke City to solve as plates spin on burning issues
Two goals from Andre Vidigal turned the game around for Stoke City to win 2-1 at Crewe Alexandra as they continued their preparations for the new season. Here are the talking points from the third friendly of the summer.
Steven Schumacher has got 23 players onto the pitch in Stoke’s first three friendlies of pre-season as he continues to weigh up his squad and options, what departments are looking strong, who is coming into his thoughts and who might be short of game time over the course of the next few months.
It has been interesting to see Mehdi Leris be used at right-back, Lynden Gooch get a run out on the left wing, Andre Vidigal used on either flank, Jaden Dixon getting a good taster at centre-half and Sol Sidibe showing what he can do in that important midfield holding role.
The Crewe game was a good opportunity to get closer to answering big questions for this pre-season. Is Junior Tchamadeu ready to stake his claim as number one right back? Is Emre Tezgel ready to stay and get enough minutes for this stage of his development or will he be better served by a loan? Is there enough depth at centre-half? But it still doesn’t feel like there is a firm resolution on those fronts yet.
There are other ongoing lines of discussions that aren’t really questions. Everyone knows that Stoke want to bring in a striker or two. Everyone knows that the midfield is a little bit in flux. Everyone knows that it’s now only two-and-a-bit weeks until the start of the new season. It’s five-and-a-bit weeks until deadline day and there are a lot of plates spinning.
Ben Gibson was back from a minor back injury that forced him out of last week’s friendly at Cork to lead Stoke out at Crewe.
The summer arrival got his second 45-minute run out of pre-season, this time next to Ben Wilmot, before Michael Rose and Jaden Dixon took over.
Schumacher said: “(Forty-five minutes) was always the plan (for Gibson) this time. He’d only played one 45 so far, against Chester, so it was 45 here and then hopefully he’ll get 60 at the weekend (against Stockport).”
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