Player Focus: Maturing Arnautovic Enjoying Freedom in Fluid Stoke System

“A fantastic person with the attitude of a child”. That was Jose Mourinho’s assessment of Marko Arnautovic when managing the Austrian during a season long loan at Inter. It was a deal that the Serie A giants declined to make permanent, fearing that the winger - then just 20 years of age - was too much of a wild child. They already had Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

The Swede is a player whom Arnautovic has been compared with throughout his playing days, initially due to his early career path - trading the Eredivisie for Italy - but also his physical attributes. The Stoke man, now 26, openly admits Ibrahimovic’s influence on his game and the hipster top knot hairstyle is no coincidence either.

However, Arnautovic recently stated of his idol, “I copy many things from him. But you cannot make a comparison. He has achieved much more than I have and he is capable of doing things that I could only imagine.” While clearly not the boldest of claims it showed a certain modesty that many doubted the Austrian would ever realise. It’s led to an impressive development in not only his own individual performances but more pertinently his integration into Mark Hughes impressively assembled side.

Arnautovic has now scored in back-to-back matches to take his tally for the season to 7 - a league total already at its best since breaking through in the free scoring Dutch top-flight with FC Twente. It’s come through hard graft and the acceptance that he is a key player to the team as a whole, allowing his teammates to get the best out of him and vice versa where previously he was often criticised for being too individual in his focus.

The fact that Arnautovic now has players around him that can not only match his technical ability but also read his movements has been crucial. While Stoke have had strong players in their own right in recent seasons, the likes of Glenn Whelan, Jon Walters and Peter Crouch were never likely to be on the same wavelength as the Austrian. You’ll often find it’s the players with the most creativity and flair that cut a frustrated figure in a side unable to coax the best out of them. With Bojan back fit and the arrivals of Ibrahim Afellay and Xherdan Shaqiri in particular that’s certainly not an issue.

Stoke are now a side like no other in the Premier League, making them unpredictable whilst remaining hard to beat. The stronger physical specimens in their attack in Arnautovic and Shaqiri are stationed out wide while the guile and movement of Bojan allows for both to cut inside to find pockets of space. Where before the main aim was to get balls into the box from wide areas that is no longer the case.

Instead it’s up to the wingers to make intelligent runs from out to in and get in behind the opposition defence. Arnautovic is flourishing doing just that, whilst still capable of playing from wide to deliver the sort of ball that brought Stoke back on level terms before he went on to net the winner last time out against Everton.

He is now relishing the responsibility on his considerable shoulders in this side. Were it not for his 10 direct goal contributions (7 goals, 3 assists) Stoke would be 13 points worse off. Moreover, of his 7 league goals 6 have come against Manchester City (two), Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester United and Everton. Arnautovic is proving the player for the big occasion having also helped his international side storm through their qualifying group to reach Euro 2016.

Some would argue the 26-year old is performing so well in such matches to put himself in the shop window but for the time being the former Werder Bremen man is clearly enjoying his football at Stoke having developed a fantastic understanding with the rest of those in Hughes’ new look front four. Having somewhat lost his way last season, starting just 20 league matches, it’s been quite the turnaround.

The Stoke boss told the club’s official channel, "We tell him until we are blue in the face to shoot more, to be perfectly honest, because he has great power". The faith being shown in him is certainly paying off. Not only are Arnautovic’s figures for shots (2 from 1.5) and dribbles (1.6 from 1.3) up from last season but so too is his defensive work rate.

Tackles and interceptions per game are also up from the previous campaign, and Hughes is finally getting the best out of a player that had failed to realise his undoubted potential before now. With a rating of 7.85 from WhoScored for the month of December, only Riyad Mahrez (8.14), Mesut Ozil and Odion Ighalo (both 8.00) have been in hotter form this winter.

Arnautovic said last year that he dreams of a return to the Champions League having got a taste in his first season with Werder Bremen. While that’s unlikely to come to fruition at Stoke - despite sitting just 6 points adrift off of Spurs in fourth - an appearance in next season’s Europa League is by no means out of the question for this improving Potters side. In such an open and unpredictable campaign Hughes’ men may need as much to keep their prized assets content. For now, though, this assortment of nearly men may yet be able to return to the fore in the most unlikely of settings.

How impressed have you been with Arnautovic's progress this season? Let us know in the comments below