More goals from midfield a must, says Pulis

Stoke City manager Tony Pulis wants to see more of his side’s goals coming from midfield as they push for a top-half Premier League finish.

Despite sitting up in ninth place, the Potters have scored only 27 goals in the league this season with only Wigan scoring fewer.

Just eight goals have come from midfielders in all competitions for Stoke this term, and Pulis is not satisfied.

“I want to get more goals off them,” he said. “Where we’ve been a little bit disappointing is the fact we haven’t scored enough goals from other areas.”

“That’s what we’ve got to look at and analyse. We could do with more goals from wide and midfield – it’s something we’ll look at an talk about further down the line.”

“They get opportunities, there’s no question of that, given the number of balls we get forward. They’ve got to contribute more to help us score more.”

Stoke face a tough month starting with a trip to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea on Saturday, before hosting Liverpool in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup and then league fixtures at home to Tottenham and away to Manchester City.

The Potters are four points away from the 40-point safety barrier, and Pulis said there would not be any talk of contract renewals in the squad until they are guaranteed Premier League football next season.

“When we get safe, (chairman) Peter Coates usually sits us down and we go through things,” he said.

“We will decide then what we are doing with players.”