Stoke City: Narcis Pelach must accept clear Sheffield United mistake | OneFootball

The Spainard's three-at-the-back formation did not work at Bramall Lane

Narcis Pelach has had a tough time in charge of Stoke City so far, and his latest roll of the dice did not work out as the Potters were easily beaten on their travels at Sheffield United in their last Championship outing.

Pelach had overseen just one win in his first six games as head-coach heading into the trip to Bramall Lane, but looked as if he had something to build on after the Potters had gone four games unbeaten with a thrashing of Portsmouth, and draws to Swansea City, Norwich City and Bristol City.

His opening losses against Hull City and Middlesbrough had seen his side set up in a 4-4-1-1 formation, with Million Manhoef, who is a right-winger by trade, playing through the middle behind Leicester loanee Tom Cannon, yet Pelach's switch to a more rigid 4-4-2 after the trip to Boro looked to have worked, as his team picked up points in each of those aforementioned games.

It came as somewhat of a surprise, then, to see Stoke line up in a 5-4-1 set-up to take on the Blades on Saturday, and the boss' decision to deploy an extra defender instead of an attacker did very little to stop the hosts cruising to a routine victory.

If anything, it helped them to control the game, as the Potters relinquished the ball way too often due to lack of numbers in their own attacking final third.

Stoke take on Derby County in their next league game, in a crunch match for Pelach and his side as they aim to pull away from the bottom of the table, and based off last weekend's viewing, he needs to revert to a more cohesive set-up with four defenders to give his side the best chance of all three points against the Rams.

Stoke could not trouble Sheffield United due to Narcis Pelach's tactics

It was always going to be an uphill task to go to Bramall Lane and even nick a point from a Sheffield United side that was yet to lose on home turf and were firmly in the play-off places before the game, yet Stoke's set-up both with and without the ball meant that they had little chance of even having a sustained spell of possession in the 90 minutes, let alone numerous clear-cut chances.

United began on the front foot, and Stoke's back three of Ben Gibson, Ben Wilmot and Ashley Phillips already started to look stretched early on, with just 14 minutes on the clock as the hosts took the lead through Kieffer Moore's tap-in from Alfie Gilchrist's long-range effort.

Wing-backs Junior Tchamadeu and Eric Bocat could do little to stop the constant flow of attacks down either wing, with Jesurun Rak-Sakyi and Harrison Burrows both able to cause trouble due to the lack of defensive solidity they were facing up against.

The Potters allowed 14 shots on Viktor Johansson's goal in just the first 45 minutes of the game, and had their Swedish international keeper to thank for keeping the score at only 1-0 at the interval, after a fine stop to deny Vinicius Souza from 30 yards out.

It got no better for Stoke in the second period, as they again sat back in a deep formation and gave Sheffield United way too much room in midfield to work the ball around, with the second and final blow delivered by former Potter Tyrese Campbell.

Rak-Sakyi pounced upon Gibson's unfortunate slip to find Campbell just oustide the six-yard box, and he swiveled and sneaked the ball under Johansson with relative ease to make it 2-0 with just five minutes of the half gone.

The issue that Stoke have is that once they are a goal down, history shows that they are very likely to lose, with their last win from behind coming in September 2023 against Bristol City, so they cannot afford to sit back and allow a team like the Blades to control the game and barely come out of second gear to coast to victory.

Pelach's side could have grabbed a late goal to make things interesting as Phillips and Lewis Koumas each spurned chances, but the reality was that they were not at the races in South Yorkshire, and the Spainard's experimental formation had only contributed further to the defeat, rather than helped to avoid it.

United ended the game with 58% possession, 31 touches in the Stoke penalty area to the Potters' 12 in theirs, as well as with over 12 more shots and over 170 more passes than their visitors, so it is clear that Pelach must re-think his tactics as his players take on a lesser side at the bet365 Stadium this weekend.

Pelach must switch to a 4-3-3 formation against Derby

Stoke welcome the Rams on Saturday in pretty dire need of a win to not only lift spirits among players and fans, but also lift the club away from the bottom three, which they are just a point and three places away from as it stands.

Pelach has undoubtedly been dealt a tough hand at the bet365 Stadium, but one win in his opening eight games in charge is not a welcome statistic regardless, and he has little time to change his side's fortunes with a packed winter schedule on the horizon.

It goes without saying that a return to a four-back formation must happen on Saturday, and that young Spurs loanee Ashley Phillips has certainly earned a place in the starting eleven after he came out of the Sheffield United game with some credit, and then scored in midweek at Southampton in the EFL Cup.

Summer signing Tatsuki Seko was one of the Potters' more impressive performers in his first start for the club since his move from J-League side Kawasaki Frontale against the Saints, and so he deserves a maiden league start in midfield against the Rams alongside Wouter Burger and Andrew Moran, who have looked relatively comfortable next to each other in recent weeks.

The front three pretty much picks itself for Pelach at this moment in time, with Million Manhoef, Tom Cannon and Lewis Koumas each the clear standouts in their respective positions so far this term, admittedly amid weak competition for their places.

Stoke desperately need to secure all three points against Paul Warne's men this weekend, and Pelach has to get his starting team spot on to give his side the best chance of a vital win in ST4.