Mark Hughes has studied the shortcomings in his Stoke squad to make best use of resources - Danny Higginbotham

INSIDE FOOTBALL: After a slow start, Stoke have been on an impressive run that sees them two points from fifth

Stoke manager Mark Hughes (GETTY IMAGES)

Just when we think that all the unexpected Premier League success stories have been covered, my old team Stoke City come marching over the horizon with arguably the best Christmas performances of them all. As we head into a January of incredible uncertainty, they’ve demonstrated yet again that the division we’re fascinated with demands shrewdness, lateral thinking and the ability to look at your defeats and weaknesses, and work out what you’re going to do about them.

The strategy behind Stoke’s success makes the team’s trip to West Bromwich Albion this weekend potentially the most fascinating tactical match-up of all in this round of games – for reasons we’ll come to later. But first: how have Stoke managed to beat Manchester City, Manchester United and Everton in the space of a few weeks? Because Mark Hughes has looked at the shortcomings of his squad and changed the system to make the best of what he has.

The weakness is the lack of a recognised centre-forward. For all the technically excellent players Hughes has assembled, ahead of the 2-0 win over Manchester City on 5 December, Stoke had scored two or more goals in only three of their previous 14 games. From that game onwards, they’ve scored two or more in three out of five games.

Hughes looked at three big assets in his squad: Marko Arnautovic and Xherdan Shaqiri – a right-footed, left-footed combination of dynamic wide players who like to play on their “wrong” wing and cut in – plus Bojan Krkic, one of the best passers of the football in the Premier League. Beginning with that game against Manuel Pellegrini’s team, Hughes started deploying the trio in a 4-3-3 formation. Our “average position” graphics show something very significant about how that set-up has worked and the occasions when it is not so effective.

We’ve used average position data from our friends at Opta several times in the column as it is a great indicator of what teams are trying to do. What we’re seeing when Stoke have played the two Manchester teams (Graphic 1 and Graphic 2) is that the centre-backs and full-backs are all pushing up and playing a very high line (Daley Blind’s average position on Boxing Day was in Stoke’s own half, and he was the United left-back). The shaded area in those two graphics reveals the arc of space behind the centre-halves and full-backs which Stoke, with their 4-3-3 formation, are able to exploit. Bojan, the central player of the three and yet positionally the deepest, is pivotal. He is dropping off and drawing out the centre-half, who is eager to go tight with him – because defenders are acutely aware that if Bojan is allowed to turn, face forwards and pick a pass, then there will probably be trouble. Even when the defender is tight, Bojan still trusts himself to make the pass.

For the ambitious, so-called “big” clubs who play a high line with advanced full-backs, there is a far bigger problem. The space between, say, the centre-back and the right-back, is a gaping one for Bojan to exploit with those passes. And because Arnautovic is a right-footed player operating on the left and Shaqiri vice versa, they love to cut in and exploit the spaces between the full-back and centre-back.

Most of the time, Arnautovic and Shaqiri will play narrow, creating space outside them for Stoke’s strong full-backs, Glen Johnson and Erik Pieters. But occasionally the wingers will occupy the wide areas and the full-backs will underlap. In the run of games since Stoke went 4-3-3, Arnautovic has scored four times, Shaqiri twice and Bojan twice. There’s been only one other goalscorer in the team. It’s all about Bojan getting his two mates in behind the back four.

It’s against the “smaller”, more pragmatic teams that Stoke don’t find things quite so straightforward. Our average position chart from the Crystal Palace home game (Graphic 3) reveals how Scott Dann and Damien Delaney operated far deeper. They’re saying: “OK, if Bojan drops off, we’ll still get nice and solid and force him to find the excellent pass.” Stoke were less effective. Palace won 2-1.

The structure and balance are effective further back in the side, too, which is why only four teams in the division have conceded fewer than Stoke. In Jack Butland, Stoke have arguably the best goalkeeper in the Premier League and, because they now have consistent team selection, he is extremely well acquainted with the other members of the vitally important defensive triangle formed by him, Ryan Shawcross and Philipp Wollscheid. In turn, those central defenders form another protective triangle with the midfield “sitter” Glenn Whelan, allowing Ibrahim Afellay and Geoff Cameron to operate box-to-box and those full-backs to advance. What’s so interesting about the West Bromwich game today is whether Tony Pulis will feel the onus is on his side, as the home team, to be ambitious at The Hawthorns – or whether, knowing Stoke’s capacity to exploit space behind, he will be more conservative, like Palace were.

It’s a big few days for the Stoke squad, who have a League Cup semi-final first leg against Liverpool on Tuesday. As we always seem to be discovering, no ruse or strategy goes unchecked for very long. They’ll need to keep light on their feet to maintain their excellent results. In Hughes, they seem to have a manager well capable of that.

Klopp has shown he can be flexible in his approach

We asked last week whether Jürgen Klopp had the flexibility to adapt his system from the 4-3-3 which other sides – Newcastle, West Bromwich Albion and Watford – had counteracted by playing a longer game. The answer of the past seven days has been a definite “Yes”. Klopp changed to 4-4-2 against Leicester and matched Claudio Ranieri’s team up. Against Sunderland this week he went 4-2-3-1, again offering more protection to the back four but also giving his side more protection going forwards.

Get set for a hectic January with so much up for grabs

I think it could be one of the busiest January transfer windows we’ve seen for some time, with teams at the bottom of the Premier League and the top of the Championship desperate either to stay in the top flight with the new television deal around the corner, or to get a slice of it through promotion. I can’t remember a halfway point in one season when so much has been up for grabs. The open nature of the division could also mean one of the big boys spending a bit too much. With perhaps any of six capable of winning it, the incentive to spend is certainly there.