Stoke City: Jack Butland says dressing room words are needed

Stoke's loss to Everton might have been heavier but for Butland's second-half save to deny Arouna Kone

Stoke City goalkeeper Jack Butland says "words need to be had" in the dressing room to reverse the Potters' untimely run of one win in six league matches.

Mark Hughes' side have exited both the League Cup and FA Cup within the last fortnight, as well as slipping to 11th in the table after three successive 3-0 Premier League defeats.

"It's not any kind of crisis," Butland told BBC Radio Stoke.

"But there's things that needs to be addressed and words need to be had."

Following Saturday's latest reverse, at home to Everton, the 22-year-old England goalkeeper added: "We're better than this.

"We've got to try and make sure that performances like this don't continue, in terms of keeping clean sheets and putting the ball in the back of the net, which we've not done enough of.

"We started January well, by winning at Norwich, followed by a good performance against Arsenal.

"But we're disappointed with the last two weeks in terms of falling out of the two cups and this week's two results."

The Potters without their leader

Stoke City are clearly missing skipper Ryan Shawcross, who was injured in the 3-0 defeat at Leicester on 23 January.

Since he went off half an hour into the game at Leicester, the Potters have leaked nine goals in just four hours of Premiership football.

It was still 0-0 against the Foxes at the Kingpower Stadium when he went off with a recurrence of his back trouble - but Stoke went on to lose 3-0 without him.

Ryan Shawcross's first-half injury at Leicester was his third back problem in the last 12 months

Butland kept a clean sheet in the League Cup semi-final second leg at Anfield, only for the Potters to be beaten on penalties, after which Jakob Haugaard came in for the 1-0 FA Cup defeat at Crystal Palace.

Two more 3-0 league defeats have since followed, against a previously misfiring Manchester United at Old Trafford and then on Saturday at home to Everton, when the club's new record signing, £18.3m midfielder Gianelli Imbula, made his debut.

But the positive news, after initially fearing that Shawcross would be out for a month with his third back injury in the last year, there is a chance he might still be fit for Saturday's trip to Bournemouth.