Stoke City baggage is making life tricky for a manager understanding urgency

For large parts of a sunny afternoon in Southampton, Stoke went toe to toe against one of the best sides in the division, tipped by everyone to challenge for promotion despite a four-point deduction for their spying misdemeanours.

Stoke have clearly strengthened in key areas this transfer window: Ben Johnson looked a solid full-back, Ethan Galbraith scored his first goal, George Hirst is a promotion winner up front, Djibril Soumare and Svante Ingelsson provide physicality in midfield.

But firstly, the first two goals that Stoke conceded were poor and we have all seen before that you usually pay the price for switching off for a second or two even in this division. Secondly, there is baggage at the club from how the second half of last season panned out – and, of course, the seven or eight years before that.

Mark Robins understands he won’t be afforded the patience, at least from frustrated supporters, of a fresh start this season – although he is trying to keep a fresh mind and optimism about what lies ahead rather than what is being dragged behind.

He said: “I’ve got to (keep a fresh mind). From my perspective you’re always making sure that you try to get to a point where it’s better than where you found it and I think that is happening now and it’s happening quicker than we’ve been able to do before.

“I am happy with a lot of aspects of things. We still need more. We still need more help. We need the players who are injured to come back in and they also need to understand how they need to work to maintain the level of fitness because the league has shifted again, the quality has shifted again. It’s gone up again this season.”

That might all explain a ruthless mood and why Robins was in no mood to mince his words about the subs he had asked to maintain the tempo.

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This was clearly a game when Stoke got weaker and Southampton got stronger as it wore on in the second half and changes were made. By just before the hour mark, Stoke had 12 shots while the hosts had three – although in the final half hour or so, Stoke had two and Southampton had 14.

There is faith that Stoke will get more robust in that respect as players like George Hirst and Ben Johnson settle in. It was Bae Junho’s first start and Djibril Soumare’s first starts of the season too.

The signings of the calibre of Hirst and Johnson, plus Galbraith and Soumare, are why Robins thinks his squad is improving more quickly than at any other time since he joined the club 20 months ago – even if that still has to be proven in points.

He said: “I think we're better than we were last year - but last year we came away with three points. We could have come away with the three points today but we didn't manage to stay on the front foot even when the changes were made. It's disappointing, it was disappointing in the end and even more so when you get a man sent off like that with a man sent off for a clear offside. It was clearly offside."

He added: "It was a great finish from Ethan, a good move down that right side. We had other bits and pieces where you had a bit more quality. You get the ball into good areas. George had one that didn't quite come down for him. He's hit it and it got blocked because he had to wait for it to come down a bit.

"Junho looked dangerous. I thought he looked neat and tidy and a threat. We had the ball in good areas and got some decent quality into the penalty area. I still think we need to get bodies into the box more. Sorba (Thomas) has got to be in a position inside the posts to go and tap in but hopefully he'll find himself in there because he can score. He's a really good finisher when he's inside there.

"We're hoping for a bit more of that and a little bit more luck this week."

Following a summer of speculation about his future, Bae Junho is still at Stoke and there doesn’t appear to be anyone banging the door down heading towards deadline day.

So how to get the best out of a player who has been used on the left and as a number 10 in previous seasons? Who can look like such an elegant player at times but needs to so vastly improve his output in terms of goals and assists?

Here he was operating a little deeper and he caught the eye with how he could influence the build up.

“I thought he was brilliant,” said Robins. “For the goal I thought he was brilliant. He joined in, he rolled his man and he can do that in different positions and he’s not confined to a position. We’re working with him to try to find his best slot for us. I think that was a really good performance from him as well.”

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