Michael O’Neill identifies key Stoke City issue to fix for promotion challenge

The team has been designed by O’Neill to dominate a lot of possession in games.

Despite holding the majority of the ball, the team have struggled to convert that into goals which has cost the side dearly.

The Potters find themselves 15th in the Championship table as the season draws to its closing stages. 

One win in their last nine league games has seen Stoke fall down the table and out of play-off contention.

Without finding a 25-goal a season striker, O’Neill will need to find an alternative solution to the team’s current problems in front of goal. 

But the former Northern Ireland manager believes he is the man to figure a way out of the issue to help Stoke challenge for a promotion place. 

“We have to find a way to do that [convert chances],” said O’Neill, via the Stoke Sentinel. 

“Sometimes it’s an individual thing. You need a player with that individual bit of magic that creates a goal or a chance out of nothing and probably we’ve had to manufacture a lot of goals. 

“We’ve scored a lot of good goals this season but a lot of team goals more than individual goals. That’s something we look at.

“We have signed players who can play with the ball and try to dominate games by having the ball. 

“There are a number of teams in this league who don’t play like that. A lot of teams work on the basis of being good out of possession and being good on the counter attack. 

“Some teams have changed. Blackburn are a good example where they are less possession based and play more on the counter attack and sit deeper.

“Probably where we have fallen short is that we’ve not capitalised enough on the possession or opportunities that we’ve had consistently in games.”

O’Neill’s position at Stoke has come under pressure amid this poor run