Pejic critical of Stoke team selection

Stoke City are at a cross-roads, according to club legend Mike Pejic, with the Potters failing to find a settled system so far this season.

Stoke sit 11th in the Premier League table but have suffered heavy defeats to Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham this season.

A poor start to the campaign left them in the bottom three until late October, before a positive run of results against the likes of Hull, Swansea and Watford pulled them clear.

Boss Mark Hughes has reverted back to the likes of Peter Crouch and Jonathan Walters in recent weeks, preferring to overlook the talents of Bojan and Xherdan Shaqiri.

Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images

This has left many Potters fans frustrated, and Pejic believes Hughes needs to get more bang for his buck from his foreign recruits and find a consistent system going forward.

“When it comes to selection with whatever system, there has been a constant changing of personnel which hasn’t always been triggered by injuries,” said Pejic, who played 274 times for the Potters.

“Chopping and changing, almost from game to game, means no continuity, no developing of an understanding in partnerships and therefore a drop in confidence.

“I’m not excusing the players themselves here either. They cannot bellyache about being criticised when they are losing matches and committing costly individual errors, the kind we have seen in recent weeks.

“Let’s hear less talk about this from the players and more positive action out in the middle. Then, and this is important, we might see Stoke gaining more points against the higher ranked teams.”