Stoke City legend Mike Pejic reviews a home defeat to Coventry ahead of this afternoon’s Championship trip to Cardiff

The common explanation when managers make so many changes to a starting XI these days is that they have all the medical, fitness, nutrition and sports science staff they could want and it is flagged up when players are tired.

My response, I’m afraid, is that football clubs have all the medical, fitness, nutrition and sports science staff that they could want – so players should be able to get through three matches in eight days – particularly when they have a free week to follow and especially, underlined and in bold, when they are just coming off a win after four straight defeats, especially when their position is so precarious at the bottom of the division at this stage of the season on a perfect, manicured pitch at Stoke City.

Stoke had shown in a new 3-4-2-1 formation that they could dig in to get a crucial result against Queens Park Rangers. We denied chances and ground out a win. All the build up to that game and the understanding you then took from how it panned out are so important as players. You could see a fighting spirit from your teammates, a togetherness that was an important first step after a really horrible month. Three points were not only much needed but must have felt hard earned for that team. A job well done.

To then go into another home game against Coventry and make six changes has me scratching my head a week later. My dear lady wife must think I’ve got a nit problem!

There were two enforced changes because of injuries to Daniel Iversen and Luke McNally. Ok, that happens. It is important to note that those two players are not in wide positions but in the backbone of a compact formation, absolutely crucial as goalkeeper and centre-back. To then make four additional changes because players were tired had me flummoxed.

In that system, Wouter Burger is a big part of the backbone – and he had scored the winner against QPR, Bae Junho is a big part of the backbone because he played in behind Niall Ennis with a free role. Ennis is a big part of the backbone because he is the main striker and the one player we have with experience and hunger to get behind defences with his movement.