After a disappointing loss and showing at Oxford, Steven Schumacher wants his main players to take ownership of their performance and strive for better.
In their first game following the international break, Stoke never found their footing and lost 1-0 at Kassam Stadium. Schumacher acknowledged that his team deserved to win.
Although Stoke’s performance was in contrast to their last two away games at Middlesbrough and Plymouth, where they faced a club that gave them less room to attack on the break, Schumacher was not pleased with how they met the challenge.
The head coach stated: “I felt there were too many players who were not at the top of their game. Oxford is not as open in how they set up, and you don’t get as many possibilities for counterattacking. Nevertheless, there are still opportunities there to perform better. While there are a select few who may look back on this and claim they didn’t perform up to the quality we have been witnessing, there are also a few exceptions who can walk away looking proud. We were awarded what was just.”
Every week of the Championship presents a new set of problems, and Schumacher must figure out how his revamped team can meet them all.
“We need to perform better in the games,” he declared. I just told the players and the coaching staff that all we discussed and everything we were ready for with Watford happened.
The results were evident. Today was exactly what we prepared for, and even so, in the second half Oxford played with more energy, landed on second balls better than we did, and the goal changed the game and gave them something to hold onto. Sometimes a team can surprise you, and you have to adjust and understand how they might have gotten the better of you. We didn’t attack with enough quality, and ultimately we ran out of ideas.”
Schumacher was also annoyed that his team gave up the game’s solitary goal shortly after the break, especially as it appeared that the first goal would certainly win at that point in a tightly contested match.
“That tends to be the case in these games at this level,” he stated. We feel let down. It was a bad objective. We attempted to maintain the throw-in, but unintentionally allowed their player to cut back, leaving someone unmarked in the box. From our perspective, the goal was disappointing, and the day was unsatisfactory overall.
