'I know if they are not playing on a Saturday they are not happy...'

T is 10 months now since Mark Robins was introduced as Stoke City manager, rather than head coach, and Jon Walters made the succinct point: "I think Mark's befitting of a manager, isn't he?

- Peter Smith

And, sure enough, Robins has had to do plenty of managing.

In the second half of last season the key point was probably dealing with key players as they returned from injury, when to push them and when to give them time out to give Stoke the best chance of picking up enough wins to stay up.

Now availability has felt like a different world and Robins has to juggle a squad where everyone is desperate to be involved but they are all individuals with various circumstances.

Lamine Cisse, Tomas Rigo and Robert Bozenik are getting their first tastes of the Championship after arriving from overseas, Jamie Donley his first taste after starring in League One.

Ben Pearson hasn't played 30 league games in a season since 2020, Tatsuki Seko just had a marathon campaign across two continents, Steven Nzonzi hadn't played since May before he joined late in preseason.

Ashley Phillips and Maksym Talovierov missed most of preseason.

There are constant decisions to try to make sure that Stoke keep picking up points in the short-term while also working players up the gears to get the changing room as strong as it can possibly be to deal with the challenges further ahead.

So it's getting minutes into players when the time is right or keeping faith when they have earned a run in the side or giving them a day off, like this week, when that is needed too.