Potters blogger Rory Watt lists three things Stoke City must do to secure a win against Burnley

Work on defending set pieces and crossing

Without disrespecting Burnley, I see their main threat coming from set piece positions. They have a few very good set piece takers which could cause a problem with Defour and Boyd in particular, a danger from the dead ball.

With Sam Vokes, Michael Keane and Ben Mee an obvious aerial threat we’d probably be best putting Shawcross straight into the first team, despite Muniesa having a great game against Watford we need a more physical back line for this one.

I hope that during the match prep we go back to man to man defending. After being penalised from two set pieces against Man City and Everton, Hughes changed to the zonal marking technique. We looked poor before but with the zonal marking, we seem to be losing the majority of the first ball in our box.

Most recently we saw Nathan Ake roam to our six-yard box and head home unattended. With man to man at least there would be someone to block his route onto goal because it was all too easy for the Dutch central defender.

Let Imbula have a run in the team!

Imbula demonstrated on Sunday what he is all about. His ball retention, dribbling and power are what we needed to see off Watford, in a game which he and Charlie Adam dictated. With Allen and Whelan coming back into the fold, Hughes’ will be very tempted to change his midfield.

My personal opinion is he shouldn’t modify a midfield that worked (surprisingly) very well against Watford. Charlie Adam has taken his chance very well and deserves to stay in the team and how can you drop Imbula after his Man of the Match performance?

Whether he does remains to be seen but, I think he will play Allen in the number 10 role he’s excelled in this season and play Whelan instead of Adam. It would be harsh but Hughes may want better balance although it may not be necessarily against a team that will sit back and absorb our attack.

Play Mame Diouf in his proper position

Mame Diouf to his credit put in a monumental shift in against Watford, working tirelessly down the right-hand side all game. Alternating between a right winger and wing back throughout the game, he was effective in both attack and defence.

With me saying all this you’d think this was his proper position. However, Diouf is desperately needed up front to offer us a goal scoring threat. Just his physical attributes alone make us a more dangerous team and with his good movement off the ball helps create space for the likes of Arnautovic, Shaqiri, Allen, Imbula etc.

Technically not brilliant, he offers enough of a goal scoring threat to get a start in his proper position. He himself mentioned to the Sentinel that he has a long-term future at Stoke providing, he plays in his best position as a striker.

I hope Hughes chooses him as with Crouch, Bony and Walters our attacks will be too predictable. With Diouf he offers various different alternatives such as willingly running in behind the defence, which may be needed to help us open the game up.