Stoke City Triumphs in Shocking 90-Minute Extra Time Victory!
BBC Radio Stoke's Mark Elliott discusses how the return of Eric Bocat and Junior Tchamadeu have helped Stoke City back to the early season form that put them at the top of the table.
[Shutterstock] Full-backs, it turns out, are quite important. Stoke City have looked like a different team going forward, at least since the return to fitness of two of their natural full-backs in Eric Bocat and Junior Tchamadeu. Bocat regularly inverting high, almost as a number eight whilst still offering some width and covering defensively on the left helped Stoke break Oxford down a few weeks ago, whilst Tchamadeu has instantly resumed his position as one of the league's most dynamic and threatening right-backs since coming back from an injury suffered at AFCON with Cameroon.
Both were good again against Watford and Stoke have had to be patient not to overuse either as they build up their fitness after injury. Aaron Cresswell, the club's other senior left-back, is out and at right-back the hole left by Tchamadeu was never successfully filled by a succession of centre-backs playing out of position. Maksym Talovierov never looked nearly as comfortable on the ball, Ben Wilmot lacked the athleticism to overlap with the same intensity and Bosun Lawal suffered two injuries trying to replicate Tchamadeu's ability to get up and down the touchline.
At times, Ben Gibson, another centre-back has had to play left-back leaving Stoke without any real dynamism coming from full-back on either side and that in turn has hurt their wide forwards. All of the above did their best to fill in as square pegs in round holes and deserve plenty of credit but the return of Tchamadeu in particular gives Stoke so much more balance. The Potters injury crisis has affected every area of the pitch but after the win against Watford, Million Manhoef spoke honestly about the additional options he has on the ball and the added threat he feels he can provide from the right wing when he knows Tchamadeu is in the team and will overlap or underlap enthusiastically.
Balance, variety and athleticism were all missing as Stoke slipped down the table either side of new year but six goals in their last two games suggest much of that is back. Latest Stoke City news, analysis and fan views Listen to Stoke City content on BBC Sounds