Gary Rowett getting closer to the mobile Stoke City starting XI that he wants

Gary Rowett leaves Germany encouraged by Stoke City's progress in pre-season

Stoke lost his two consecutive friendly matches with Meppen and Hamburg this afternoon, lining up different teams in the 45 minutes.

A young camp paid the price for missed opportunities and a defeat against hosts Meppen and was good for a goal of Erik Pieters against Hamburg when two decisions reversed the match. 19659004] Read more

First, Ryan Shawcross was penalized for detaining Fiete Arp and Aaron Hunt after a free kick by Jakob Haugaard – Erik Pieters was severely judged guilty of committing a Khaled Narey's fault in the box.

example of playing games in the wrong way. We felt that the only way to do it was to play the younger team in the first half and there were some brilliant moments but it was a bad goal to concede of course.

"The second half was closer to a team than we" It's a very frustrating match in some respects, because facing a very good Hamburg that was relegated last year, we look very comfortable for 30 minutes and then the referee decided that he did not want us. to win and he would help the opposition!

"The free kick, for me, was not a free kick and it was a nice end and then the penalty is just ridiculous, is not Erik won the ball and because he won the ball, he eventually hit the guy after and he gave a penalty.

"The guys then dropped their heads as if we had did something wrong, but just for 30 minutes we pressed the ball very well, we worked very, very hard in hot conditions and I was really happy.

"This 30 minutes was probably as good as we looked at it up here because we said, it's the closest we've had to a team with everyone and I am very happy. I think there are a lot of positives.

"Again, if you look at the site, you will see that we have lost both games, but I think we have been very good."

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Stoke v Meppen: Haugaard, Edwards, Tymon, Sweeney, Souttar, Sorensen, Imbula (Cameron, 23), Bojan, Campbell, Crouch, Berahino.

Stoke v Hamburg: Haugaard, Bauer, Pieters, Shawcross, Martin Indi, Cameron, Allen, Etebo, Bojan, Crouch (Afobe, 60), Berahino (Diouf, 73).