Jaden Dixon and Sol Sidibe are both training with the first team ahead of the new Championship season.
England youth centre-back Jaden Dixon has been told not to get bored of doing the simple things as he bids for his breakthrough at Stoke City.
Dixon, who joined Stoke from Tottenham last summer, capped a fine debut season in the youth set-up by signing his first professional contract and gaining a call up to the under-17s European Championships.
Now he is training full-time with the Stoke first team, playing the second 45 minutes of last Thursday’s first friendly of pre-season at Chester alongside Ben Wilmot, while fellow 17-year-old Sol Sidibe played the first half.
Head coach Steven Schumacher is getting a closer look at his progress this week in Cork, and said: “I said to Jaden when he came off the pitch (at Chester) that he’d been excellent again. He really impressed us in the back end of last season and he’s going to be a really good player.
“He gave the ball away twice in the second half and both times that he gave it away he’s played a pass when he had a simpler pass available. I said not to get bored of doing the simple things. We already know how good a player he is, he doesn’t need to show us something that’s too difficult. He’s excellent, he really is.
“And we know Sol, He obviously came on for us in the Bristol City game [on the final day of last season] and he did really well in a slightly different role to what he’s been used to.”
The slightly different role saw Sidibe sit in the middle of a midfield three, flanked by Josh Laurent and Wouter Burger, assuming the responsibility that role entailed – in the knowledge that it will be useful for his individual game as well as the here and now.
Schumacher added: “You’ve got to control the tempo, dictate what we’re trying to do with the ball and then secure it when you haven’t got the ball if you play that number six role. He’s learning it. We know he can run forward and he’s got a goal in him, so learning this role will help his development too.”
