Ok here is my take on the whole Pulis thing. Yes I remember the dark days, (for the look at where we are now boys), and yes I know we were languishing in the league one vicinity. Pulis did really well to get us to the Prem on a shoestring and limited budget and for that I will be eternally grateful to TP. BUT and it's a big BUT - We no longer have a limited budget we have a chairman that is probably one of the richest guys in the country and money at his disposal. Stoke did well last season but it could have been a whole lot better if TP had played Tuncay in midfield as he should have done, fielded the right players in the right positions, grew a pair of balls away from home and not lost to all 3 relegated clubs and the clubs finishing 4th & 5th from bottom! We were 2 wins and a draw away from the dropzone ourselves if you look at it in a cynical way. Yeah we had a good FA Cup run but again to be fair it was probably one of the easiest we have had in years Cardiiff, Brighton, Wolves, Westham and then Bolton not one of the top 13 clubs until the final where we lost, and has a result got into Europe by default. Now call me pessimistic but I truly believe with the players we had last season we should of finished higher. TP cannot line a team up to win away from home and also when winning at home you can bet your mortgage on the 63rd minute off will come an attacker and on will come a defensive midfielder. That makes the last quarter of the game unbearable to watch as we get pounded. How many times have we lost games or let leads slip because of this and yet Pulis makes the same mistake everytime. We should have been in the league Cup Final. Winning away at relegated Westham 0-1 up and off go 2 attackers and on come the defensive. Result we lost and Westham march on to face relegated Birmingham that go on to the final and win against a side we beat 3-1 at home! All if buts and maybes I know, but the point I make is that TP never seems to learn from his mistakes and will only play to what he knows. The problem with this is that every premier league manager worth his salt has TP's game plan. The long throw rarely works now, (they know it's coming). 2 games that stick in my mind were Stoke v WBA and Stoke v Wigan. Both managers that day well and truly had Pulis sussed to a T. Both soaked up the pressure until he took off the attackers and then they nailed us. OK WBA took a point off us but Hodgson had already been to Stoke with Liverpool and knew what to expect. TP will not try anything new and will constantly play his favourites. He openly admits his away tactic is to get to half time 0-0 then have a little pop at them in the second half - how **** is that? and fair on away travelling fans - I don't think so! As I've said before on here the week of Wembley I spent over £600 on Stoke first instalement of my season tickets £199.50 3 tickets to Wembley 3x £85 3 x £25 coach travel 2 new away tops £84 the Arsenal game £40 and not to mention food drink, programmes etc! Why am I telling you this? Because after the Wigan game I was more deflated in losing that match than I was at us losing at Wembley. I never expected to beat Man City but hoped we would. I expected us to beat Wigan and I came out of the ground and said to my daughter " I feel like I've just been mugged" I'm not a Pulis fan as you will all know but I am grateful to him. If he changed his ways and grew a pair of balls I may start to respect him more. Another incident for me was the night match Stoke v Brum last season. Alex McClesih came out during the warm up and had his picture taken with home fans and his fans. I thought to myself when does Pulis ever really acknowledge his home fans? I know he has his little pre match ritual of running out after the last playing members name is called out, but even after the game he just runs off into the tunnel. He constatly bleats on about the home crowd getting behind the club but what does he give the fans back in return apart from his charity events? I will be interested to see how next season pans out because I truly believe that unless we bring in a better striker and better midfield players that come Christmas we will be hovering around the relegation zone. 3 really tough home games to start, we can't win away to save our lives, going into Europe with a thread bare squad and players still on the payroll that should be lining up for championship and League one clubs! I want TP to make me eat my words this window and you can all point the finger at me and laugh. But I somehow don't think it's going to happen!
Excellent post Waddo and I agree with a lot of that, especially the part about our tactics away from home. It's a source of frustration for us all and it has me tearing my hair out at times. Stupid thing is, we had one of the the best away records in the League in our promotion season, so Pulis has shown he can be adventurous away from home if he does indeed grow a pair. To balance it out though, we were excellent to watch at home from about March onwards.
That is because Pulis did indeed try something a little bit different and it paid dividends. He left out Collins that treats the ball like a hot potato when he gets it and hoofs it anywhere and put 2 midfielders in defence so that we could properly feed our two most dangerous players, Etherington and Pennant. Didn't work out for Pugh and in stepped Higgy who was amazing for me. Huth went back to where he should have been in the centre and him and Ryan were formidable and apart from Vidic and Rio the second best defensive partnership in the prem. But again on a sour note it's a poor show that when you are 3/4 the way through a season your joint top scorer is a centre half! I honestly thought last season that TP actually did not know what his best side was or how to line them up. As you correctly state that by March he had kind of worked it out by then. Had he not let Tuncay go and kept him in midfield we would have been amazing. Tunners was too Maverick for our Tone though and had to go which was a real shame and to be honest it was at that point I stopped liking TP. We desperately need a serious clean out and some fresh young talent brought in, players that are hungry and not ones that know that no matter what they will be picked come Saturday. Can't think with the exception of Asmir and Tommy what other players are challenging for positions? I may be wrong on that and open to suggestions! Come on TP sort it out I want to see us top 10 next season! City till I die!
The FA Cup final was the worse think that could have happened to this club! All it has done is paper over the cracks and make us think that we are better than we actually are! Although fanatstic, losing in a cup final is no achievement and Europe by default will reward us with nothing, but extra injuries! The first 7 games look awful, 3 home games against big clubs and 4 away games including 2 newbies that will be well up for it (oh and they pass the ball, play football and score goals), a revitalised Sunderland (who I think will be strong this year) and WBA who were excellent under Hodgson! I think with the current squad, and the form we finished last season on, we would be lucky to get a few draws out of a potential 21 points! We could be looking prettty bloddy stupid come August! Hope not!
