Stoke were denied a third consecutive home victory in the Premier League when West Ham fought back from two goals down to draw 2-2 at the Britannia Stadium last weekend.
Hughes' side are 13th in the table, but only three points above third-bottom Leicester City ahead of their trip to White Hart Lane.
And former Wales boss Hughes is striving to establish the right blend between keeping it tight at the back and posing a threat going forward.
"The key is just to build the performance," he said. "Sometimes you'll need a certain type of play and you'll have to be offensive and at other times you'll have to be a little bit more defensive when the momentum shifts.
"We've got the capacity to use a lot of game plans – we can play counter-attack, we can play the possession game or we can be on the front foot as we were last week."
Stoke face a Tottenham side who head into the game on the back of a trip to Greece, where they beat Asteras Tripolis 2-1 in the UEFA Europa League on Thursday.
Younes Kaboul, Kyle Naughton, Aaron Lennon and Emmanuel Adebayor are all set to come back into contention after being left out of the squad for that victory.
Hugo Lloris is also set to return after missing the trip to Greece due to suspension and Hughes remains wary of Mauricio Pochettino's side, despite their historical poor form after European exploits.
"They made a few changes from their Premier League side on Thursday and you'd image that some of those will come back in," said the Stoke boss.
"You look at Tottenham's team sheet and they've got good quality and have spent a lot of money on individual talent. On their day they can beat anybody so it's up to us to make sure we don't allow them to have one of their better days.
"We have got to be strong and solid ourselves. We have got threats that they will be worried about as well so in terms of confidence, we're looking forward to it."
Hughes expects Marko Arnautovic to given the all clear to feature in the capital despite breaking his hand in training, while Peter Crouch and Phil Bardsley return after serving one-match bans.
Marc Muniesa will also be back in contention after missing the West Ham clash with an ankle problem, but Dionatan Teixeira is out after breaking his foot in training.
Pochettino must decide whether to hand a first Premier League start the in-form striker Harry Kane, who has staked his claim with six goals in his last five games.
Tottenham have won their last three games against Stoke and conceded just one goal in the process.
