Opinion: Stoke City should shuffle transfer priorities amid recent links | OneFootball

Stoke City find themselves short of options having seen several players leave the club in recent weeks.

Liam Delap, Harry Clarke and Tariqe Fosu have been recalled by their parent clubs respectively, with Joe Bursik being sold to Club Brugge.

It leaves Neil in a desperate plight of addressing a number of problem areas in his squad as looks to put his stamp on the team.

Stoke’s business in recent seasons has been poor with a number of big-name players coming in without consideration of style of play or system, or even longevity.

Now, the club are staggeringly short of options in wide areas, with no natural wingers, and just Dujon Sterling available at right-back.

With Karlan Grant and Lyndon Dykes being linked to the club recently, it seems the Potters are prioritising a forward, rather than addressing a direct problem – the supply.

There are creative players at the club, Nick Powell, Will Smallbone and Lewis Baker are the names that spring to mind, but there’s a lack of quality out wide.

That is why Stoke need to prioritise bringing in a right-sided defender into the club to fill a huge void.

Josh Tymon is already available, but there’s a huge reliance on the left-hand side to be the outlet in attacking scenarios.

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23% of attacks come through central areas, according to WhoScored, which highlights the need for more quality in wide areas, and adding a player on the right-hand side will fix several huge issues.

Bringing players in is the hard part, but adding more strikers in the team without improving the supply into goalscoring areas is counter-productive and a waste of resource for a side that have invested poorly since their relegation from the top flight.

Stoke do have a healthy habit of creating chances, as they sit seventh when it comes to xG of chances created, according to FootyStats which does highlight underperformance from strikers.

However, the volume of chances could be increased, as well as the quality with a wing-back being brought in. It will provide better balance in attacking scenarios as well as give a specialist player in defensive scenarios.

There are potential options available. Cody Drameh at Leeds United for example fits the profile of what Stoke need.

He bagged three assists and created a further four big chances last season at Cardiff City, according to Sofascore, with his energy, ability to get forward and back and defensively reliability playing a key part in helping the Bluebirds steer away from the threat of relegation.

Whilst Drameh isn’t the solution, he’s exactly the sort of player Stoke should be targeting right now, rather than filling their squad with more forwards.