Stadium: Britannia Stadium (capacity: 27,743)
Manager: Mark Hughes (third season)
Nickname: The Potters
2014-15 Record: 54 points (15-9-14), ninth in the Premier League
20 Premier League Previews in 20(ish) Days: Stoke City
It is safe to say Mark Hughes has, in the last two seasons, done exactly what he was brought in to do: improve the Potters’ league position while playing more exciting football.
Stoke City will forever be in debt to Tony Pulis for his two separate stints at the club from 2002-05 and 2006-13. In that time, Pulis was in charge of the club’s survival in the second tier Championship, subsequent promotion to the Premier League, an FA Cup Finals appearance and survival in the Premier League.
Still, after the conclusion of the 2012-13 season, Pulis and Stoke City went their separate ways and both have done pretty well for themselves since.
Last season’s 54 points in Premier League broke the club record for points in the top flight, which was actually set in 2013-14 (50 points).
The season started inauspiciously enough, with a 1-0 home loss to Aston Villa, but the Potters finished the season by hammering Liverpool 6-1 in Steven Gerrard’s final Premier League match. They also won both their games against Tottenham Hotspur for the first time since returning to the Premier League, as well as beating Arsenal, Manchester City, Southampton and Liverpool.
Mame Biram Diouf, of whom the Potters picked up on a free transfer last summer from the German side, Hannover, ended up being a great acquisition and led the club with 12 goals in all competitions.
Hughes is having a career renaissance after disappointing stints at Manchester City, Fulham and QPR, most recently. Although prior to that, he had a successful run at Blackburn Rovers from 2004-08 and they finished seventh in the Premier League in his final season there.
It would be remiss of me not to mention that the Potters have one of the loudest and most hostile home venues in a league full of largely overwrought and quiet grounds. The Britannia Stadium may have been built in 1997, but it has retained all the atmosphere of Stoke’s old Victoria Ground, which hosted the Potters from 1878 to ‘97.
Now that the Potters have established themselves as a mid-table to lower-top half side, certainly improving upon that isn’t too far-fetched at this point.
New Faces: Philipp Wollscheid- centre-back (Bayer Leverkusen), Jakob Haugaard- goalkeeper (FC Midtjylland), Glen Johnson- right back (Liverpool), Joselu- striker (Hannover), Shay Given- goalkeeper (Aston Villa), Ibrahim Afellay- winger/attacking midfielder (Barcelona).
While Stoke added a number of players during the summer, they have done a grand job over the last several years of not changing too much of the team and not counting too much on new arrivals.
Last year’s first choice goalkeeper, Asmir Begović, has departed to be a back-up at Chelsea. To provide immediate depth and cover, the club signed Shay Given and Jakob Haugaard. Given was mainly a reserve at Villa, but actually started the majority of games at the end of last season after Tim Sherwood took over. Haugaard started 23 games last season for Danish Superliga champions, FC Midtjylland, and is more likely to be the future. The two new keepers have an interesting contrast of ages; Given is 39 and Haugaard is 23.
Philipp Wollscheid appeared 14 times for the Potters last year while on loan from his parent club, Bayer Leverkusen, and, this offseason, the club signed him permanently. Wollscheid made 129 appearances in the German Bundesliga with FC Nurnberg, Mainz and Leverkusen but, last year, was clearly no longer in the plans of Leverkusen’s new manager.
Glen Johnson was certainly the target of Liverpool supporters’ ire more often than not recently, but there is a reason he has made 300 Premier League appearances since he was a teenager at West Ham in 2002-03. Johnson may not have the pace or technical ability for a club like Liverpool – that fancies itself a Premier League title contender – but is more than adequate as a first choice right-back for Stoke.
Joselu and Ibrahim Afellay never really were able to establish themselves at Real Madrid and Barcelona, respectively; both are intriguing attacking players in their own right, though. Joselu, a former Spanish U21 international, scored 29 goals in 90 appearances over three seasons with Hoffenheim, Frankfurt and Hannover, in the Bundesliga. Afellay, a Dutch international, came up through PSV Eindhoven’s youth system and played in the Dutch Eredivisie from 2004-10, before moving to Barcelona. However, after making 28 appearances in the 2010-11 season for Barcelona, Afellay barely featured and went out on loan to Schalke and Olympiacos the past two seasons.
Stoke and Mark Hughes recently seem to have been lucky with bringing in players who didn’t succeed at higher level European clubs (Bojan Krkić, Marc Muniesa are examples). They have done this again with Afellay and Joselu. But, more importantly, the club has added a number of solid players who will strengthen what’s already a decent team.
Familiar Faces: Marko Arnautović- winger/forward (two goals in 35 appearances), Mame Biram Diouf- striker (12 goals in 38 appearances), Erik Pieters- left back (32 appearances), Ryan Shawcross- centre-back (two goals in 37 appearances), Peter Crouch- striker (ten goals in 38 appearances), Charlie Adam- central midfielder (seven goals in 35 appearances), Geoff Cameron- right back (31 appearances).
I realise that Diouf was already mentioned earlier in this preview, but it needs repeating that his first season back in the Premier League was a successful one. The last time around at Manchester United, Diouf only made nien appearances from 2009-12, and only saw consistent playing time on loan at Blackburn Rovers in 2010-11. He provided an injection of pace and technical ability, plus he had one of the most beautifully simple runs for a goal against Manchester City.
In contrast, you will rarely see Peter Crouch and the words: pace and technical ability in the same sentence. Yet, Crouch has remained remarkably consistent despite now being 34 years old and has scored ten+ goals in three of his four seasons at Stoke. Watching Crouch and his giant six foot seven (or 2.01 metre) frame lumber up and down the pitch is an unswerving joy for this writer.
Marko Arnautović was one of Hughes’ first signings after taking over; he has been about as consistent a performer as you could ask for making 70 appearances and scoring seven goals. Considering the volatile reputation of Arnautović, his development and reliability is a credit to Hughes.
Ryan Shawcross, at this point, is a Stoke club legend. Shawcross was a regular on the 2007-08 Stoke side that won promotion to the Premier League and has been a regular every year since, under Pulis and Hughes. He has also been the club captain since 2010 and, in 2014, was voted the club’s Player of the Year.
Erik Pieters, a Dutch international, has featured at left back regularly since arriving in 2013 from PSV Eindhoven. On the other wing, playing mainly as a right-back, is Geoff Cameron, one of the few players from the United States who regularly features in the Premier League. Cameron has made 110 appearances in three seasons.
The goalkeeper situation seems to be set up so that England U21 wunderkind, Jack Butland, is the first choice keeper. Butland hasn’t featured regularly since he started all 46 matches for Birmingham City in the Championship in 2012-13, but did make eight appearances last season. While the club signed two other goalkeepers, they will more likely be back-ups.
Finally, Scottish international, Charlie Adam, has resurrected his career since arriving in 2012 after a disappointing short time at Liverpool. Adam has created a niche for himself as a tough midfielder who can also get forward and score when needed, and has netted 19 goals in 98 appearances. Also, Adam scored maybe the most unbelievable goal of last season.
One significant loss from last season’s team is defensive midfielder Steven N’Zonzi who appeared in all 38 Premier League matches last season and moved to Sevilla in the Spanish La Liga this summer. As mentioned previously, last season’s first choice keeper Asmir Begović was bought by Chelsea during the summer to be Thibault Courtois’ back-up.
Completely Unscientific/Somewhat Unbiased Prediction: 11th place
This is a very solid group that I am extremely confident will finish in the eighth to 12th place range in the Premier League table. Even though I have the Potters finishing 11th place, I think that’s more a testament to how much every team around Stoke in the middle of the table has added to their respective sides.
The group of: Crystal Palace, West Ham, Swansea City, Stoke and even Newcastle and West Brom is a very evenly matched bunch of clubs. There will also be a club that I didn’t mention that will challenge for mid-table standing this season, because that always seems to happen.
But, I think Stoke have purchased players wisely and Hughes won’t try to change his starting eleven too much on Sunday, when they host Liverpool.
I will be curious to see which of these summer signings becomes a regular, and how soon.
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