im also playing stoke at the moment.. at the 1st season i finished about the middle and at the 2nd i finished 6th.. its quite easy to get good players in premiership, since too many are for loan, for reserves for many teams, or backup.. when you can get a good player just get him, even if you dont have the money try at 48 months.. i play direct game, standard/counter with higher tempo, more aggressive, stick to position (4-4-2). although at my starting 11 is only shawcross from my starting lineup, stoke has a good squad to work with.. try to get players on loan, delph (retrain ml great winger), wilshere, adam johnson maybe, wright-philips, kyle walker, bertrand..
for the starting lineup i would select:
dl higginbotham
dc shawcross/phil jones (great player, must buy)
dr delap (great player also great long throws.. worked better than corner kicks for me)/hargreaves after one year, free
mc whitehead as deep playmaker defend/ delap* maybe if you get someone like kyle walker on loan (or buy him) as ball winner
ml etherington is a good player, although i use him as a rotation for delph at the 3rd season
mr pennant, although his work rate seems to get him out of the game for 10-15 minutes many times.. you can use either delap or whitehead also there, with defensive roles when defending. i use stanislas there now and wright-philips (for free after 2 seasons, since i sold pennant to everton for 6mil euros). i also use kyle walker at the wing, since i dont want a wing back but a rigid 4-4-2, he seems to do the job there as well. great buy generally.
sc sidibe is a great target man. great player. and walters also as a defensive forward. but better use 1 of them to your starting lineup, since these two work better at a support role, and use a advanced forward/poacher/deep lying attack next to them. i use carlton cole there (scored 30 goals for me last season) and for his rotation vaughan from everton. maybe i'll use vaughan at the starting 11 later, if he does well, as a defensive forward attack, something like a defensive poacher. i also got zamora at the 2nd season, since the years for sidibe seem to have passed.
at the middle i've also bought cattermole/scott parker (only 4mil, was injured for 4-5 months, although he seems to recover well for me) and as deep lying playmaker defend joey barton. i 've spent money at the middle, since i want my 4-4-2 to become a 4-5-1 when playing with better teams, OR when playing against teams that use dmc and amc. the man marks seem to work bad when the opponent uses a dmc and amc, like chelsea for example. NOT leave these players unmarked. if my opponent uses a 4-5-1 with a dmc and two mcs i get the one striker (the support one, zamora, you can use walters) to man mark the opponent dmc, not the dc. walters will do the job well for you.
some english players for you from an old post by me
"phil jones, great player, imo becomes better than terry when he has 180 potential, if you re lucky..jack robinson the DL from liverpool also sometimes has a 180 potential, great full back with individual training for quickness.. at my last liverpool save i had hart, ridgewell, jones, shawcross, g.johnson (get walker as DR for a lower team for 6.5 mil, becomes almost like glen johnson), cattermole (almost 10mil), huddlestone(same if you re lucky), milner, gerrard, carrol. i can also think of rodwell, lennon (would sign easily for almost good english clubs), crouch, kevin davies great technical target man from bolton, sturridge (also have seen him at a 180 potential), scott parker (great dmc, even for the best league teams), hargreaves (free after one year), ashley young, smalling, reo-cocker, onuoha (great dc for englad, i ve signed him many times), richards, barry (man city usually sets them at transfer list), vaughan from everton (with individual training at finishing was a great player for me after almost 3 years.. poacher with high work rate, and finishing at about 17 after these years), paul robinson DL from bolton, lee bowyer for first year, alan smith at loan for lower teams, albrighton, delfounesso, wright philips easily transfer listed, gibbs from arsenal too, shelvey (great!), ashley cole for free after some years, if you re lucky, adam johnson easily transfer listed, fabian delph (need some work at the start, he had some serious injuries), wilshere if you re lucky, ive managed to get him on loan for 2 years and later buy him, addison, alex smithies (gk becomes good player), dawson, curtis davies, leighton baines, andy johnson (great poacher, and easily you can get him on loan), warnock, zat knight, jermaine jenas, all very good players.."
in english leagues i try to sign english players.. brazilians/spanish dont seem to work well for me. if you sign one although, i 'd recommend not only to view with technical skills but also aggression, work rate, bravery, and balance.. all the english typical wingers for example have great balance.. lennon for example, not so strong but great balance. wright-philips, milner, joe cole, stanislas, and many more. its more important i think than technique and in england, they would keep the ball better than a technical player with no balance, for example neymar who could lose the ball at a more aggressive game.