Opposites suffer same problem

The trend in football is towards ever-greater analysis of performance data, but some outposts of resistance remain.

Take Stoke City, whose manager Tony Pulis is an incurable romantic, devoted to 19th century notions of manliness. In Pulis’s view, the ideal Premier League player is not that different from the ideal soldier in Wellington’s army: obedient, hard-working and, above all, big.

You don’t have to look too deeply into the data to detect signs of trouble ahead. Stoke were the lowest scorers in the top four divisions last season, with almost three-fifths of their 36 league goals coming from set pieces. Some might be tempted to conclude from that information that Stoke’s style was not working. If they keep scoring at that rate, they won’t escape relegation for long. Maybe time for a shift of emphasis?