JUST IN: Bae Junho tells South Korea press about life at Stoke City under Narcis Pelach

Bae Junho tells South Korea press about life at Stoke City under Narcis Pelach

Bae Junho is grateful for the trust being put in him by new Stoke City head coach Narcis Pelach

Bae Junho is embracing the trust put in him by Narcis Pelach as he tries to reproduce his best Stoke City performances for South Korea.

Junho tops the Championship assists league for this season thanks to the five goals he has laid on so far under Pelach and he showed signs of his class in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Millwall to head into this international break.

The 21-year-old playmaker is now in Kuwait for a World Cup qualifier (Thursday, 2pm), telling the press pack from Seoul how he has been enjoying life under his third boss in 14 months at the bet365 Stadium.

“The new coach likes me a lot and trusts me,” he said. “I think he’s finding areas where I can excel tactically. That’s why I can show such a good performance and it’s important for me to show that performance on the national team now.

“We haven’t lost in the last three games at Stoke and I think we’ve been playing decent games. I’m confident. I think I need to work hard to show a better performance than when I was called up last time.”

Narcis Pelach referenced the number of days he’d been at Stoke City in a couple of answers either side of a draw with Millwall to head into the international break. He knew it had been 50 days last Thursday since he had been unveiled at the bet365 Stadium and it conjured the thought of him scratching a tally chart on his office wall. Managing Stoke, in the neutral’s imagination, might come with that kind of perception.

After all, one of the first questions for Steven Schumacher in his opening press conference last December had been about Stoke being a poisoned chalice. The first question for Pelach in September was just, why Stoke?