Stoke Fan View: 3 ways we can end the Palace hoodoo

Don’t allow crosses into the box

Benteke is a striker who has consistently got the better of us down the years and this has usually come from wide positions, with balls flying into the box. With Zaha and Van Aanholt providing the width for the Eagles, it is essential we stop the supply at source.

This essentially means that both wingers need to work incredibly hard and help double up on the attacking wide players, something that our wingers aren’t often the best at doing. On Palace’s right hand side Arnautovic will really have to be on top of his game to help stop Zaha from creating a yard or two, something he’s not struggled doing against us in the previous fixtures.

Although Benteke is also a nifty player on the deck, there’s no doubt that his biggest influence in a game comes in the air or from balls into the box. His highly skilled anticipation in and around the box is do deadly, I just hope Ryan and Bruno are on the top of the game and not allow the big Belgian anything in the final third.

Don’t play Afellay on the wing

As highly as I rate Afellay I can’t comprehend Hughes’ decision to play the Dutch midfielder out wide on the wing. It showed against West Brom as he kept coming narrow and we had no out ball down the right hand side for the majority of the game.

When youngster Ngoy came on the game changed in our favour, as we had someone who was willing to stay wide and drive at defenders. Ok his end product wasn’t the best but I’m sure that this will come in time with Ngoy and although he didn’t deliver the killer ball it was quite clearly evident we were better with him on the pitch.

Hughes should not only be considering Ngoy but also Ramadan who recently returned from the AFCON a beaten finalist. Ramadan in my opinion hasn’t had a decent enough chance yet and has been harshly done by in terms of lack of game time especially considering that when he has played well he’s been dropped the following week. This shows the inconsistency in Hughes team selection which often aggravates many Stoke fans.

Don’t be afraid to drop players Hughes

It seems that this season Hughes has gone against everything that made him successful at Stoke in the first place, dropping players like Imbula and Bojan for players who offer nothing. I think personally this comes down to favouritism as after watching Charlie Adam for a long time, there is no way he matches the output of quality that a dynamic Imbula does.

Also, persisting with Joe Allen in the 10 role has to stop, this is not a position he can fulfil long term and as highly as I rate Joe, the beginning of the season seems to be looking more and more like a fluke. We could seriously do with dropping him deeper and player Shaqiri in that role or maybe going 4-4-2 with Crouch and Berahino and try something different, instead of being inept and predictable with the line ups.