Wednesday 21 September 2016 10:48, UK
Mark Hughes is under pressure at Stoke City with the Potters still without a win at the bottom of the Premier League. But where has it gone wrong? Adam Bate takes a look...
It's not so long ago that Mark Hughes was being praised for his work in the Midlands. And rightly so. Having taken Stoke to their joint-best league finish in 40 years in his first season at the helm, he's repeated it twice more. Three top-half finishes in the Premier League.
That Hughes had done so by overhauling Stoke's style of play is a complete vindication of the decision to turn to the Welshman. Last season, his side recorded best ever numbers for short passes and passing accuracy. This was the improvement that many fans had craved.
Having already introduced players of the calibre of Xherdan Shaqiri, Bojan and Marko Arnautovic, the signings of Joe Allen and Wilfried Bony mean Stoke have arguably the strongest squad anyone can remember. It's also coincided with their worst ever start.
Nothing changes the mood like results and Stoke's have been abysmal. They have already conceded four goals in a game three times this season. Defeats to Manchester City and Tottenham can be explained away but losing 4-1 at Crystal Palace is a different matter.
Factor in the back end of last season and Stoke look to be a team in some disarray. Remarkably, they have conceded four times in a match in six of their last 11 Premier League games. That's twice as many beatings as any other team has suffered in that time.
Six points from their last 12 games is the sort of sequence that harks back to Hughes's miserable spell as Queens Park Rangers manager, a tale that ended in relegation. That too was a talented group of players that appeared to lose their way. It's a warning from history.
Here in the present, it's set-pieces that represent the most obvious indicator of Stoke's problems. They have conceded more goals than any other side from dead-ball situations with Palace striking twice in this fashion last weekend.
Some of their difficulties can partially be explained by a clampdown on holding in the penalty box. It was this that led to Ryan Shawcross being punished for a shirt-tug on Nicolas Otamendi in the opening home game of the season against City.
"We are seriously thinking of changing our approach to set-plays," said Hughes recently. "We have to consider zonal marking, which I have never done in my career." So far, Stoke have stuck with the man-to-man approach but with little success.
When four more goals followed against Spurs, an exasperated Hughes said: "It's just taking responsibility, attaching yourself to people in the box and doing your jobs. At times we're too lax in terms of our defensive work and that's a collective thing."
And following the defeat at Selhurst Park came a defence of his methods. With Phil Bardsley having also been adjudged to have fouled Everton's Ashley Williams from a corner, Hughes hinted that his players were now standing off opponents. "We talk about set-plays," he said.
"Everyone is given a responsibility, a man to mark. We had a problem earlier in the season that we were being targeted by referees after the new directives. Whether that's playing on the guys' mind and they're not getting close enough. We need to get back to basics."
But dig beneath the surface and it emerges that these deficiencies have been in evidence long before the new directives. Stoke's top-half status had masked a decline in their effectiveness as a defensive unit - one that's particularly been apparent from set-pieces.
Hughes's men scored the fewest goals from set-plays of any Premier League side last season. That's one thing. But they have issues in the other box too. Stoke conceded 19 goals in this fashion last season. Only Bournemouth and relegated Norwich let in more than that.
Graziano Pelle's header for Southampton in March was typical. "It was highlighted to the guys that they needed to do their jobs and stop players making runs inside the box," Hughes said. "Individually and collectively we failed to do that. We conceded from the first corner."
Perhaps it needs more than highlighting. The old-school training ground work that Tony Pulis would drill into his side may have been boring, but it was effective. It's not only supporters who feel some of the better values of the Pulis years were worth retaining.
Marc Wilson left for Bournemouth last month but his words before leaving resonate more than ever. "I think we've gotten away from being a tight compact unit when we lose the ball," he said. "It would actually help if we ever did any defensive training, which we don't."
For all the limitations of those Stoke sides' of the past, they never went 15 Premier League games without a clean sheet. It's the worst run in well over a decade. No wonder that the call from Hughes is for the team to be "more solid and resolute" from this point forwards.
"I've always said the balance is still not right," Sky Sports pundit and former Stoke defender Danny Higginbotham explained to his Twitter followers. "Not enough want to defend. Stoke need to go back to basics. Defend as a unit, attack as a unit."
Of course, that balance is a tricky thing to get right. Much like how Roberto Martinez's spray-painted David Moyes' Everton machine in shiny new gold only to allow the engine to fall out, Hughes has been tilting things in one direction at Stoke for three years now.
It's time to restore some discipline and control to Stoke's play but that won't be easy if the type of players who can do that are no longer around. Even functional sides can overachieve if bound by a work ethic. Without it, more talented ones can lose their way entirely.
It seems that what Pulis refers to as "strong mentality" is the characteristic worth retaining above all else. His West Brom side is not the most entertaining in the top flight but they showed it in abundance to make light of the pressure and beat West Ham 4-2 last time out.
Now it's Stoke's turn to show they can pull out a big result when it matters most. They've done it before, winning five from seven after a winless run at the beginning of last season. If Hughes is to get the chance to deliver a repeat, Saturday would be a good time to start.
The opponents? Pulis and West Bromwich Albion, of course. Ominously, though also unsurprisingly, they are the team that's scored the highest percentage of their goals from set-pieces of any Premier League side over the past three seasons.
Win well and Hughes will have gone some way to alleviating the crisis by showing how Stoke have moved on from the football of his predecessor. But lose and the timing could hardly be worse. It'll add to the sense that much of what once made Stoke successful has been lost. A big weekend awaits.
