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Stoke City manager Michael O’Neill needs to make a crucial decision over who is going to be his first-choice striker, as the 50-year-old looks to recover from his first set back at the Bet 365 Stadium.

O’Neill enjoyed a promising start to life at Stoke after taking over from Nathan Jones, with the Potters winning their first two matches under the 50-year-old in the Championship at Barnsley and at home to Wigan Athletic to raise hopes of a revival.

However, Stoke’s last two games against Cardiff City and Blackburn Rovers both ended in narrow defeats, highlighting some of the problems that O’Neill has inherited in the squad, which he needs to swiftly improve to help guide the club to safety this season.

O’Neill has decided to alter the shape of his side, switching to more of a 4-3-3 formation, with both Tom Ince and James McClean playing either side of a lone forward – and it looked like the new Potters manager had found a better balance to build a platform for results in his first two games, but back to back defeats will leave questions over whether it can work in the long-term.

Lee Gregory was largely the first choice under Jones at the start of the campaign, and he started O’Neill’s first three matches in charge but failed to get on the score sheet – and following the Potters’ 1-0 defeat at Cardiff City, where the 31-year-old was subbed off after 58 minutes, he was dropped on Saturday for the 2-1 defeat against Blackburn.

Sam Vokes came into the starting line-up against Blackburn in Gregory’s place for a rare start in the Championship, and although he did offer more of a physical presence up front for the Potters, he was not given the sort of service that he needs to start scoring goals on a regular basis.

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It was perhaps telling that O’Neill brought on both Mame Biram Diouf and Scott Hogan, instead of Gregory, as Stoke chased a route back into the game in the final half an hour - and although the Potters did manage an equaliser thanks to an own goal from Corry Evans with ten minutes to go it was not enough to earn a point.

One of Stoke’s issues so far this season has been their lack of goals up front, with Gregory, Vokes, Hogan and Diouf scoring just seven goals between them in the Championship so far this campaign – and O’Neill will need to try and find a solution to get Stoke scoring more goals.

There is the option of strengthening his attacking options in the January transfer window, with the Potters being linked with a move for Ross County forward Ross Stewart, but were O'Neill to bring in another centre forward he would likely have to sell at least one of the Potters' current strikers considering it would be a challenge to keep everyone content.

Stoke will need to ensure that by the end of January they have established a first choice forward to lead the line and produce the goals needed to get them out of trouble - and O'Neill's team selection over the next few weeks will demonstrate whether he feels any of his current options can be relied upon in the long-term.