Eric Bocat's role in Stoke City reinvention and the key relationship

There’s been a lot of chatter about formations at Stoke City already this season because it has all seemed to click since that deadline day switch to a back three.

That is actually what was happening when Stoke were playing a back four like we were in the opening three games of the campaign. We had a centre-back at right-back and a left-back who wasn’t suitable at defending in deeper positions.

So what system is suitable for the players you have? You wouldn’t ask Georgie Best to play right-back or Gordon Banks to play up front – although Banksy would have loved to and did so in our training five-a-sides. In an ideal world you don’t want Ben Wilmot at right-back and you know the vulnerability of Eric Bocat at left-back but everything could slot nicely into the formation that Mark Robins started to use against Norwich.

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It looks obvious in hindsight, particularly after the sale of Sorba Thomas. You put the system around the players, not the players around the system.

We’ve got two players who are at home at wing-back in Bocat and Ben Johnson, with Junior Tchamadeu and Luca Bombino trying to stake their claims when they get the opportunity.

For Bocat, we are seeing his strengths. He’s in a team and a role that suits him. It’s what you do with the space behind him. You’ve got to have a solid threesome and the left-sided centre-half has to be competent at going out to the left-back position and fill that hole when it’s needed, otherwise you pay the price. That’s an important relationship for Luke Graham to get right.

The left and right centre-backs will both need to go and defend in a wide role as well as central. They have to be adaptable because opposition teams will always look to attack that wide space. You have to get your timing right when you’re covering so there are no big gaps to hit. When do they edge out? Do I stay in here or do we go out?

These are the kind of decisions that players have to take responsibility to make. It is down to the coaches to make sure they have worked on it thoroughly so that you can trust the players to get it right more often than not in different scenarios.

So having wing-backs who can defend and attack and are full of energy is crucial – but the priority in any team is always that spine down the middle.

I’m repeating myself a little but what a change in midfield. Djibril Soumare suits sitting midfield and that means Ethan Galbraith is released a little bit to go everywhere. If Soumare wasn’t there and you play three attacking midfielders it might look more forward-thinking on paper but they wouldn’t have that key man to release them. There’s a chance it might suit a particular fixture but over a period that space in front of the centre-backs would be picked at. You always have to look and get the balance right.

I am glad that we have got the competition in there and the talent to control a game and understand what to do in and out of possession and on the counter attack.

There will be options for Robins and his coaches to weigh up going into the different fixtures that you get in the Championship. It worked to play George Hirst and Sam Gallagher up front together against Charlton, for example, while it worked to play Lamine Cisse with his pace as a sole striker at Watford.

They are clearly working hard behind the scenes rather than just relying on sending out the same players in the same set-up. The challenge is always different depending on the team you’re up against. You won’t always get it right but it’s an exciting place to be as a manager in the week building up to a match, thinking about your plans and the various permutations.

They also have the back-up on the bench to make tweaks when needed. There is the flexibility to make a like-for-like change of player, change a role or change the whole system. The important words are that you have got to be ready for change and you’ve got to have your answers.

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