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Stoke City were left kicking two pieces of poor defending as they slipped to a Day One home defeat to Swansea. Here are the talking points from the bet365 Stadium. Mark Robins understands the pressure The way that last season ended heightens the need to start this season strongly. If not results, then there have to be performances of a standard to get behind or show real progress. This was a difficult opener. Swansea had nearly 75 per cent possession in the Carabao Cup against Birmingham, whose boss Chris Davies suggested that they will dominate the ball against everyone in the division. It might be easy to predict but it’s still tough to accept as a home side. The visitors looked like a hungry, well-coached team. There were boos at full-time for the hosts. Stoke could still have won a tight game and Viktor Johansson didn’t have many saves beyond the two goals that went past him, which stemmed from frustratingly poor defending. But that’s the Championship this term. It’s going to be tight most weeks and the ability to swing the big moments in your favour – Sorba Thomas taking that chance, Ben Wilmot stopping that cross – will define everything. No one will know that more than Mark Robins, one of the most experienced managers at this level. It;s spicy and everything calms down with wins. FOLLOW OUR FACEBOOK PAGE! Latest Stoke City news, analysis and more via the Sentinel A couple of crosses on Stoke to-do list Twice, Swansea were able to find space behind stand-in right-back Wilmot and get in crosses that defined the game. The defending when the ball came over wasn’t clever either. Eric Bocat, having shown skill going forward and with licence to attack the inside left channel, was caught out in his positional sense. Luke Graham and Maksym Talovierov should have done better for the second goal. It didn’t help the back line that Bosun Lawal limped out at half-time. Mike Pejic, watching on from the press box, was tearing his hair out. And it didn’t help that Stoke didn’t take the good chances that they created, particularly one for Thomas when space opened up for him cutting inside in the second half and another for Eric Bocat, slipped into the penalty area late on. It is imperative for Stoke that they go past deadline day with full-backs they can trust, both in terms of quality and availability. Decision making in the final third Stoke had those couple of genuine good chances but they should have had more. Gareth Owen, watching on for Radio Stoke, said: “Bocat needed to show better quality when he saw the eyes of the goalkeeper’s eyes and smashed it straight at him – when maybe a cross would have been a better decision. “You’ve got Sorba Thomas’s individual decision making. With a better technique, with the quality he’s got, he scores a goal but he decides to smash it as hard as he can and it’s straight at the keeper. “There were other moments in the inside channels. Svante Ingelsson had one when he just needed to roll it across between back line and goalkeeper to allow your attackers to side foot it home instead. Poor technique, he’s hit it too hard and gives no one a chance. “They’ve got moments in the game but a lack of quality from a decision-making aspect hinders how many clear-cut chances you can create.” The forward department, too, will have additions and, after Milan Smit's too-quick hello and goodbye, there won't be much patience. Out of the frying pan There was extra pressure on this game because everyone knew that it was Southampton (a) and Wolves (a) next up on the fixture list. But there are decent players in this Stoke squad: perhaps the best goalkeeper in the division, last season’s leading goal maker, respected midfield additions. The mood was sour on Saturday night and there is a lot of baggage for us all to deal with but the season is just starting, not over. The atmosphere was fizzing at points in the home stands. It inevitably waned a bit when Swansea took the lead – people are exhausted and have seen that kind of thing far too often. But they will get quickly get behind a team that can show it is more than the sum of its parts. Your reaction? Click HERE to join the debate