Is Stoke's physicality an issue?
- Published
Stoke City boss Mark Robins was frustrated with the quality of his substitutes in their loss to Southampton on Saturday, but former Potters defender Gareth Owen thinks the starting XI also needs to take some responsibility.
"I'd also look at the starters because some of the changes he [Robins] probably didn't want to make," Owen told BBC Radio Stoke.
"He didn't want to take Eric Bocat off, he didn't want to disrupt that back four, but because he was flagging from a physical perspective, he felt he needed to do that.
"The circumstances for Stoke are a couple of players missed pre-season, two new players coming in haven't been the priority players at Ipswich so they have to get back up to speed, look how many games Sam Gallagher played last year, how many games Ben Gibson played last year.
"The club have come out and said they get better over the course of the season but you don't want to give yourself too much to do. Certainly on the basis of that last 30 minutes, you definitely saw a difference in the physicality of the players."
Listen to the full reaction below or on BBC Sounds here.
Owen: ‘When you get tired you make poor decisions’
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