After last night’s result it’s now very unlikely we’ll surpass last season’s points tally, which I think means it’s justifiable to ask what has gone wrong given we’ve spent £30million on two players alone over the past 12 months.

INJURIES

The most sympathetic way of looking at it is that injuries have cost us. For me, there have been five key ones.

1. Shawcross has been a huge loss at various points and hasn’t come back fit this time.

2. Johnson for me has been an equally big loss at both ends of the pitch. He’s our biggest outlet out wide.

3. Bojan has rarely been at his best this season, possibly as a result of his injury.

4. It wasn’t down to an injury, but Diouf was obviously affected by the death of his mother. Some disagree, but in my opinion he’s our best striker and would have scored 15 goals had he played up front for most of this season.

5. It’s only a recent one, but Butland’s injury has certainly cost us some points in recent weeks. We would have beaten Swansea and given Liverpool a game with him in goal. I don’t blame Given for any of last night’s goals, but we’re undoubtedly a weaker team without Butland.

Even if you agree that injuries have been our biggest problem, I think questions do have to be asked about the amount of muscle injuries our players have picked up over the last two seasons. At the elite level you can’t dismiss that as bad luck I’m afraid.

RECRUITMENT

Questions also have to be asked of our recruitment. This isn’t me being wise after the event either as I was quite vocal over the summer in saying we would miss Moses’ pace. Shaqiri is clearly a talented player, but to not also sign a wide player with pace was a mistake. To not do it in January (they may have tried, of course) was an even bigger one given Shaqiri’s struggle to find consistent form and his patchy injury record.

I have some sympathy for Hughes regarding central defence because we do have five players in Shawcross, Wollschied, Muniesa, Wilson and Cameron that have played plenty of games there. However, many people will question why we didn’t sign some cover in January.

In midfield, Imbula has got the attributes to be a top player and shouldn’t be judged too harshly until after a full pre-season, but signing him after also signing Afellay does raise questions about the blend of midfielders Hughes has signed. On current evidence, we’re still lacking an all-round midfielder in the N’Zonzi mould. Given how important he was to us, it’s got to go down as a fault of Hughes that he hasn’t found a similar player in two windows.

PLAYING STYLE

At their best, Stoke have looked an outstanding counter-attacking team. The win over Manchester City will go down as one of our best ever Premier League performances. However, those performances have been extremely few and far between. Generally, Stoke don’t break anywhere near quickly enough, no doubt in part because of the lack of pace I’ve mentioned. There also seems to be a lack of movement of the ball throughout the team.

Furthermore and more worringly, despite signing several excellent attacking players, we have struggled in virtually every game in which the opposition has played on the counter. Our win percentage in games in which we’ve had more of the ball is appalling. Even last night Stoke had more possession, which tells you everything about how effective the two sides’ playing styles were.

I have seen Stoke’s style described as walking football, which pretty much nails it. There are lots of technical players in the team that are comfortable on the ball and can retain it in tight areas, but there’s a lack of players with the ability or desire to beat a man and a lack of players willing to make runs ahead of the ball. Too many want to stand behind it and be the passer rather than the receiver. Again, this comes at least partly down to recruitment as in Bojan, Afellay and Shaqiri in particular Hughes has signed three very similar players that often appear together.

SELECTION

Generally, one of Hughes’ biggest strengths has been his ability to pick the right players at the right time, but this season he can certainly be accused of trying to fit too many similar players into the same XI. When you sign lots of good players like we have, it becomes difficult to leave some of them out. But that is what Hughes has needed to do for the good of the team.

The way in which he has rotated up front has been particularly counter-productive. None of the strikers have had a run of games to establish themselves as first choice. Diouf had two recently but was then dropped for Joselu, who had one and was then replaced by Crouch, who was then replaced by Bojan last night.

Such a lack of continuity is obviously going to affect the team, but it also makes it virtually impossible for any of the strikers to prove their worth. Perhaps we need a new one, but I like Diouf and Joselu for different reasons and don’t think either has been given a fair crack of the whip this season.

Finally, it’s a relatively minor point, but Hughes’ substitutions have always been a weak point of his. This season they have often been ridiculous, with both wingers regularly replaced by strikers to leave us with a 4-2-4 and nobody to put a ball into the box. There doesn’t appear to be much of a Plan B, or at least not an effective one.

LOOKING FORWARD

As is always the case, there will be fans calling for a ‘clear-out’, but only crisis clubs have clear-outs. Another problem this season was that we started so slowly, no doubt partly because of the overhaul we had last summer; this time I hope we can retain the stars (getting Arnautovic to sign a new deal is crucial but looking less likely) and add three or four players.

For me, a pacy winger should be the top priority to compete with Shaqiri and hopefully Arnautovic.

After that, a top-class striker could take us to the next level. I don’t think Berahino is the answer and don’t know enough about players like Lacazette and Batshuayi to say whether they are right, but I believe we will spend big money in this area. It’s an enormous test of Hughes to sign the right player that can hold up the ball like Joselu, stretch a defence like Diouf and perhaps finish better than either of them.

I’m reserving judgement on Imbula for now and hope that he can be the N’Zonzi replacement once he’s fully adjusted, but Hughes needs to have a good look at him over the summer and sign someone that offers more defensively if Imbula isn’t up to the task.

We also need a new centre-back irrespective of Shawcsross’ fitness IMO as Wollscheid, although he’s had a good season, can definitely be improved upon. Even if he starts as first choice, we need a third player to compete and cover as Muniesa unfortunately can’t be relied on to keep himself fit (or in position a lot of the time).

You could make a case for adding competition in the full-back areas, but I really think it would be a mistake if we change half of the team again. We need some continuity as next one will be huge for Hughes to prove he is the man that can lift us from a top-10 side to one which can challenge Europe.

Before then, I just hope we can win at least a couple of the last four games to make certain of a top-10 finish and go into the summer feeling a lot more confident than I’m sure we all do this morning!