Whether teams can do it on a cold Tuesday night in Stoke is a question often asked in English football with the club being known to make it hard for any team visiting. 

Former England international Peter Crouch spent eight seasons with the Potters and made 261 appearances for the side.

It was under Tony Pulis especially that Stoke gained their reputation with him at the club between 2002-2005 and then 2006-2013 and despite them not being known for beautiful football, they did qualify for European football during his time with the club.

Furthermore, Crouch feels as though their football was effective and they could have beaten anyone as he told BT Sport (via Stoke-on-Trent Live): "At that time, we were the only team who could have beaten Barcelona. Messi and Iniesta came to Britannia at that time, I reckon we could have turned them over because we made it horrendous for teams."

The now 41-year-old was keen to praise his former boss for what they achieved at Stoke at the time though as he said: "I bought into it [Stoke's style] straight away. When I arrived there, there were lots of players playing above themselves. But the attitude, the camaraderie and the group that he'd [Pulis] built, it was amazing.

"It was one of the best dressing rooms I'd ever been part of. You just knew that you were going into battle every day and you were going to get a result because of the work rate, the attitude, the endeavour, the dedication - it was a great dressing room.

"Arsenal was our home banker, we made things difficult. I remember we trained in the middle of the pitch before we played Arsenal, just to cut it all up and they couldn't play. The grass had grown longer, I remember look at Aaron Ramsey and he couldn't see his boot. He was like Crouchy? and I went this is what we do.

"My best line of all time for me and it's one of the best lines I've heard in football was when he [Pulis] said don't get ahead of yourselves lads, you're bang average players in a fantastic system. Well, you can't argue with that."

The Verdict:

Whilst his management style may not be to everyone's taste, Tony Pulis had a lot of success at Stoke back when he was managing them and established their reputation which still lives on today.

For the boss it was more about being effective in what you do rather than necessarily playing the best football and it seemed to work well for the team as well as doing no favours for their opponents.

At Stoke now, Alex Neil is probably taking a different approach with more attention on the playing side of things.

However, a Town Pulis Stoke team would certainly fancy their chances against any opponent too.