F365’s early loser: Stoke City and an uncharacteristic demise

Ian Watson

This isn’t how it was supposed to end. Not for Stoke, anyway. For a club who established themselves in the Premier League by rattling cages and getting in faces, the meek manner of their relegation highlights just how far the Potters have slumped. 

The home defeat to Crystal Palace neatly summed up why we are waving goodbye to Stoke after a decade and a day in the top flight. Paul Lambert’s side created two shots on target, with one of them requiring a significant deflection to give them a lead they once again failed to retain.

It was the hosts’ fourth consecutive draw and the seventh of Lambert’s 14-game reign. They have lost 18 points from winning positions this term, which points towards a vulnerability you would never associate with Stoke until recently. 

Nor would Stoke have ever been viewed as the well-mannered hosts they have shown themselves to be this term. The Bearpit, not all that long ago viewed as the epitome of the uncomfortable away trip, has become a favourite stop-off for teams on their travels, with the Potters having lost more matches on their own patch than any other Premier League side.

Despite one last attempt to rouse their players, even the locals had given up the fight, knowing all too well what was coming once Palace started to play after the break. The Bet365 Stadium was half-empty before the board went up to inform Stoke they had five minutes to offer at least the illusion of a fight. Where normally it would be greeted with an encouraging roar, today it was met by those who remained with an apathetic shrug. 

You cannot blame the supporters for failing to maintain their usual vociferous standards. For too long, going back to before the start of this season, the club have taken that support and given nothing back in return.

The management, in the boardroom and on the bench, stripped the team of its identity which, while the Stoke approach may not have been fashionable, it was effective. At various points during their run of three consecutive ninth-placed finishes, the question was been asked: ‘How do we take the next step?’ When continued evolution was required, embracing the traits that got Stoke to where they were while supplementing it with improved technical quality, the Stoke supporters saw regression. 

Precisely two years before he was justifiably sacked in January, Mark Hughes had the Potters in seventh place in the Premier League having recently beaten Man Utd and Man City, with a forward line of Bojan, Xherdan Shaqiri and Marco Arnautovic showing that Stoke could match most for power and technique. They missed out on a place in the League Cup final after losing on penalties in the semi-final to Liverpool, and it has been downhill ever since. 

Some dreadful recruitment decisions have played a huge role in the Potters’ decline. Stoke were a side not used to slashing the cash and it showed. In the week before that shoot-out defeat,  they spent a club-record amount on Giannelli Imbula. The midfielder flopped spectaculalrly, as did subsequent big buys Saido Berahino and Kevin Wimmer. They played the loan market with no greater success, with Wilfried Bony contributing a total of two goals last term, which was still one more than Jese. The Potters have already cut their losses on the summer’s big-name recruit after he went AWOL while he was supposed to be on compassionate leave. The mother of his prematurely-born young son offered a suggestion, though, as to where he had been, and it certainly wasn’t helping Stoke’s cause. 

Despite bringing in dud strikers, it was other deficiencies which saw Stoke plummet down the table and that ultimately cost Hughes his job. Paul Lambert, who cared not if he was the Potters’ ‘50th choice’ , which he may well have been, took over the team in the bottom three having conceded 20 more goals than West Brom immediately below them and 20 more than rock-bottom Swansea. 

Lambert’s plan was simple: “We can’t keep conceding the amount of goals we’re conceding, that puts too much pressure on everybody. We have to be more resolute in what we’re doing, stronger and more aggressive with it, and if we do that I think we’ll be fine.” In short, it was back to basics, which satisfied many Stoke fans who could see their team becoming a soft touch. 

Lambert deserves credit for plugging a leaky defence. Under his management, Stoke have gone from conceding 2.17 goals per game to 1.15. But that defensive improvement came at a heavy cost at the other end. Under Hughes they were scoring a goal per game, which dropped to 0.69 under Lambert. Only once in 14 matches have they netted more than once.

If Stoke could have combined their attacking output under Hughes with Lambert’s defensive foundation, it would have seen them score more and concede fewer than Southampton, Swansea and Huddersfield – the three sides immediately above them. But they never achieved that balance and that simplest of flaws has led to the tears we saw on Saturday lunchtime.

It took the Potters 23 years to climb back up when they last suffered relegation from the top flight. The club will be aiming for a swifter return this time but a difficult summer awaits as they look to clean up a mess entirely of their own making. 

Ian Watson