We continue our series of members’ articles, which review the numbers behind the 2015/16 season, with a look at Stoke City.
To get up and running, we delve into the Potters’ data and compare them to the rest of the Premier League, before assessing their first-team squad, main goal threats and creative sources as we look for some pointers ahead of the upcoming 2016/17 campaign.
Despite finding the net on 41 occasions, Mark Hughes’ side still finished in ninth position for the second successive season. Although they mustered just three points less than 2014/15 – picking up 51 points – it’s fair to say that the Potters’ threat in the final third took a turn for the worse in a season that saw just nine of their players find the net.
7 years, 9 months agoThis goes against the 3-4-3 grain a bit, but I quite like the below 4-3-3:
1) It provides coverage of the best regarded defences (MUN, ARS, LEI, and to an extent a Pulis WBA)
2) It offers BP potential and attacking threat from defence (Baines, Shaw, Fuchs)
3) It means no sacrificing up front with a big 3 and a home/away rotation for the armband between Aguero and Ibrahimovic
No CHE or ARS attack is a concern, but there is a lot of uncertainty around the CHE lineup and ARS seem fairly decimated after the Euros with their most important players (Kos, Ozil, Sanchez & Giroud) unlikely to start the first game.
Cech
Baines, Fuchs, Shaw, JEvans
Eriksen, Tadic, Townsend
Aguero, Ibrahimovic, Lukaku
Jaku, Kone, Watson, Fletcher