While they may not be everyone’s favourite team, credit where it’s due to Tony Pulis for turning Stoke City from perennial Championship contenders to Premier League regulars, the Potters avoiding relegation since their promotion back in 2008. However, with the list of cynics growing ever longer with each passing season, chairman Peter Coates opted to relieve Pulis of his duties at the Britannia Stadium, pointing towards the need for a fresh approach with the Staffordshire-based side.
It was evident the 55-year-old had taken Stoke as far as he could, with their usual brutish approach failing to reap the benefits this season as much as they had in the past and while Pulis won’t attain his dream move to Athletic Bilbao any time soon, he is still deserving of praise for the work he has done with the club.
His successor Mark Hughes was appointed in his place, fresh from his torrid time with Queen’s Park Rangers and eager to prove his doubters wrong. The Welshman may not have been the preferred appointment amongst fans, but he brings with him a wealth of top flight experience and is keen to right some wrongs following his stint at Loftus Road.
The changes began immediately with the likes of Dean Whitehead, Matthew Upson and Rory Delap all released, the trio amongst others an epitome of the physical methods often adopted under the stewardship of Pulis. While Hughes may not have his teams playing a style of aesthetically pleasing football similar to that of Barcelona or Bayern Munich, he’ll still bring an altered approach to the Britannia.
This is highlighted when comparing Stoke and Fulham during Hughes’ solitary year at the helm of Craven Cottage in the 2010/11 campaign, during which the Cottagers secured an eighth place finish; the second highest in their history. Unsurprisingly, Stoke in the same season regularly adopted a long ball approach, with 19.9% of their passes being long balls; a Premier League high that season.
In comparison, only 12.6% of Fulham’s passes were classed as long balls, a significant difference of 7.3%, giving an indication to the type of football that Hughes prefers to play. Even during his time at lowly QPR, only 14.1% of their passes were long balls, a 4% difference in comparison to Stoke’s 18.1% over the same period (January 10th to November 23rd).
Furthermore, during his 12-month stint with Fulham, the Cottagers completed nearly twice as many passes (12463) as Stoke in the same season (6626), reinforcing Hughes’ preference to see his side retain possession rather than aim for a lone target man as a means of attacking the opposition.
Unsurprisingly, Fulham’s ability to keep the ball over the campaign was significantly higher than that of Stoke, with the former’s average possession standing at 50.1% - a figure that over the last four seasons is the only time they’ve averaged more than half of the possession in a season - compared to the latter’s 38.9% over the same year.
Much of this is down to the utilisation of a ball playing midfielder in the starting XI, with Danny Murphy pivotal to the system under Hughes that season. The 36-year-old’s average WhoScored.com rating over the campaign was 6.9, with only three players - Brede Hangeland (7.15), Chris Baird (6.92) and Mousa Dembélé (6.91) - attaining a higher score over the year of every Fulham regular.
This is further reinforced in that of all the accurate passes the club made in the season, Murphy was responsible for 15% of them, while in the one game he missed, Fulham succumbed to defeat at the hands of West Bromwich Albion. A move for the midfielder is highly unlikely, although Hughes could well look to draft in a player who can operate in a similar vain to that of Murphy.
The natural replacement for the veteran midfielder would likely be Charlie Adam, such is their similarities both physically and in playing style. However, this season hasn't been as impressive for the Scot as he might have hoped. Adam ended the season with a pass success of just 71.9%, a far cry from Murphy's 80% with Fulham during the 2010/11 season, with the figure perhaps lower as a result of the Scotland international forced to operate higher up the pitch and play more long balls, such has been Pulis' gameplan. As a result, the former Blackpool captain was responsible for only 6.3% of Stoke's total accurate passes this year, teammate Steven N'Zonzi (14.7%) the closest to matching Murphy's contribution.
Yet, while Adam may've seen his passing stats eclipsed when compared to that of Murphy, the Stoke man created more clear cut goalscoring opportunities this season (6) than Murphy in the 2010/11 campaign (5), despite making 10 fewer appearances this season than the current Blackburn Rovers midfielder did under the stewardship of Hughes. What's important, however, is that the Welshman has himself a player in the squad that will look to receieve the ball from a defence that have regularly been associated with the need to aim for a targetman as a means of attacking the opposition, as noted by the above stats.
Partly responsible for this have been defenders Ryan Shawcross (255) and Robert Huth (161), the pairing making up two of the top five players to have attempted to most long balls for Stoke this season, a figure that will undoubtedly be lower in the upcoming campaign should Adam sit closer to the defence and look to receieve possession rather than see the pairing needlessly hoof the ball upfield. Furthermore, with Hughes at the helm, the mindset instilled in the squad by Pulis has the potential to instead be replaced by the need to retain and recycle possession, largely evidenced by Fulham during the 2010/11 season.
Evidently, the change in system at Stoke would ensure the club distances itself from their current mantra to accommodate a more aesthetically pleasing playing style. A cornerstone to this will likely be the utilisation of a ball playing midfielder in a similar role to Murphy during Hughes’ solitatry year with Fulham. The need for an alteration in approach is essential to a club that have stagnated in recent months and while Hughes may not have been high on the most wanted list with a number of Potters fans, he will bring with him a change that will only push the club forward and away from the ‘long ball’ tag that has all too long been associated with Stoke City Football Club.
