The Club:
Stoke City are battling away in the qualification rounds of the Europa League. They did well to earn their spot there by reaching the FA Cup final last season, where they put in one of their worst displays of the season to be outclassed by Man City. Still, their rewards are a place in Europe and that will give boss Tony Pulis a new challenge and something else to get his teeth into. Stoke are a solid enough looking Premier League side. You don’t expect too many fireworks from them in terms of display, but they will battle and work their way through the season, causing upsets and then letting themselves down the very next game. Are capable of building a good run, and they should pick up enough points to maintain their status. The question about Stoke is whether or not they are just going to tread water from last season, or whether somehow they can find improvement and progression from somewhere.
Players/Manager:
Well Stoke boss Tony Pulis is no stranger to criticism. He drew a lot of attention last season from the likes of Arsene Wenger, who didn’t enjoy Stoke’s direct tactics. The thing about Stoke, is that they may not do things the beautiful way, but they seem to get the job at hand done well enough to keep them as a mid table safety team. There has been speculation about Stoke City taking the plunge and trying to get West Ham’s Scott Parker on board. Parker has been in demand even before West Ham got relegated, with several top teams all chasing his signature. West Ham are holding to their value on Parker, and after fellow Hammer Carlton Cole declined a move to the Potteries, Stoke could well come up empty handed. A better deal for them would be to go and snap up Joey Barton from Newcastle who could leave the Tyneside club for free. They have picked up the injury prone Jonathan Woodgate to try and maintain some solidity at the back, and with the squad at the Britannia acquitting themselves quite well last season, we can expect pretty much more of the same from them. This is one instance where you can look past the players and see what a huge influence the manager really is on the side. If Tony Pulis were to part ways, you wonder how well Stoke City would be able to pick up the pieces as this really is all of his work.
Last Season: 13th
A bottom half of the table finished, as they ran out of steam towards the end of the season. Still, they did reach the FA Cup final, and had some pretty good moments through the season. They scrapped and fought tirelessly, with energy abound and surprised many people. Stoke City did put up some impressive home stats, making the Britannia a very difficult place to visit. We can’t see them really being any more expansive than they were last season, but they do need to find a way to score a few more goals.
2011/12 Projection:
It will probably be more of the same from Stoke this year. They have not made enough move to really change and get better, nor have they been weakened. They are a pretty tight unit at Stoke, and they need to turn the Britannia Stadium into a fortress again, or risk failure. That will be where the bulk of their points will come from and they should be a good threat in the cups. As for their Premier League projection, you can’t see them being anything more than a mid table team. Sure they may well go on a good run and flirt on the outskirts of European spots, but maintaining that is going to be difficult. Tony Pulis is key here, but one wonders if Stoke will be found out more this season. They are a little one dimensional in their approach and opposing teams may have worked out how to get the best of them based on last season. Still, you can expect hard work, you can expect tough tackling, you can expect some direct routes to goal, you can expect plenty of criticism coming the way of Stoke, but at the end of the day, they should comfortably enough secure their Premier League status. They have enough week in week out to stay in mid table.
Finishing Position Stoke City: Mid Table Safety
Premier League Top Ten Finish Odds:
7/4 at Bet365
First Three Fixtures
August 14th: Stoke v Chelsea
August 20th: Norwich v Stoke
August 28th: West Brom v Stoke
