Stoke City's survival bid was dealt yet another blow earlier this week as the Potters lost 2-0 at home to play-off chasing Preston North End at the Bet365 Stadium on Wednesday night. 

The result leaves the Potters in a perilously close position, with just four points separating Michael O'Neill's side from falling into the relegation zone.

Despite having numerous shots at the Preston goal, that all important clinical edge was found to be largely wanting from the home side's game as they desperately attempted to restore parity after Preston went ahead through Alan Browne.

QUIZ: Can you name the season in which these 14 Stoke City images were taken? See if you can get full marks down below!

Ultimately their efforts came to nothing as Tom Barkhuizen netted with 15 minutes to play, thus compounding the Potters to their 18th loss of the season.

Despite the team's forward players having put in a bad display on Wednesday night, it was a defender in the form of Bruno Martins Indi who received the most flack from the stands in Stoke-on-Trent.

Here, we take an in-depth look at whether the Dutchman really was one of the key culprits of the midweek defeat as we break down the numbers of his performance in our latest FLW Spotlight article....

From a defensive perspective, it was clear that Martins Indi didn't put in a great display for the Potters as the versatile defender was only able to win just three aerial duels throughout the contest against Preston, underlining his inability to deal with the away side's direct style of play.

His lack of confidence in possession of the ball also indicates that the player didn't have the best of days at the office, with the Dutchman launching the ball aimless forward on eight occasions as he continuously panicked when pressed by the Preston forwards.

In addition to failing to adequately keep possession of the ball, the defender only registered a pass success rate of 65.5%, Martins-Indi also failed to really produce anything in the way of creativity when getting forward to join the attack, registering just one dribble and one cross respectively.

In short, this performance as well as others that the 28-year-old has put in this term will surely have many questioning why a player whose strongest position is at centre back is being shoehorned into playing at full back by his manager.

Meanwhile, the Potters will be seeking to bounce back from their midweek defeat this weekend as they travel to West London to take on QPR on Saturday.