Thomas Frank
Is your body still burning from yesterday?
It was this morning, I must say! I hate losing, no matter how but it is what it is, looked the game back and very pleased with the performance overall. I think if you look over 90 minutes there could only be one winner and that was us. Then of course, I respect how football works and when you don’t take your chances first half and so on, but we at least should have got a draw. First half, it’s even more dominant than I thought after I looked it back. I looked at the numbers; 63% possession, 9-2 in shots, the number of chances in dangerous situations – that is very very impressive compared to what team we are actually facing. Many positives things to take away from the game, and we need to learn from the things we need to improve.
Quick squad update?
Bryan Mbeumo and Ethan Pinnock will miss Wednesday, hopefully they can be available for Saturday although that is too early to say yet. The rest are fine. Mbeumo suffered a minor hamstring issue so it’s not a big one because I would just rule him out for the next couple of weeks, so that’s why we took him off so hopefully we took it in the early stages so he can be available for Saturday.
Quick insight on Marcus Forss. He did very well in the Oldham game – is it difficult for someone like that to sit and wait for the opportunity?
I think you need to be that in any team, more or less depending who you are as a player. Especially when you are a youngish player that hasn’t established himself yet – I’m 100% sure that he was playing in the Championship, he would be the number one striker but of course we went a level up and we need more than one good player. I think Marcus has gone through a very good development as a player and as a person, so I would say when he was younger, he was knocking on the door, now he knows what he needs to do. I like him, we like him and when the opportunity is there, then that’s where he needs to be ready. Then I and my coaching staff, especially in this case, it depends a bit on Kevin O’Connor and sometimes it’s Brian Riemer. In this case, Brian is very on top of him in terms of extra training, feedback and video to make sure when he gets the minutes, he’s ready.
Stoke have lost once at home in nine games in all competitions this season. How hard will you have to work to get to the next round?
It’s going to be a unbelievable physical battle, not only tough duels but also the running, the pressing, defending and attacking so we need to be absolutely on it. We need to put the same intensity and output out there like we did against Leicester. I don’t think I managed to win over there, so we have something to prove! We know it will be difficult, but of course we believe we can do it.
For this game, do you plan to mix it up or do you want to try and go for the jugular and field more first team players in order to get you through to the next round?
We need to put a strong team out there. We want to have a chance to progress to the next round so you will exactly see how the team looks on Wednesday. I will definitely not make as [many] changes as I’ve done in the first two rounds – we will go strong.
