I didn't go and I'll have to wait to see the game on MOTD but we needed 3pts today and we got nothing, and that after going ahead early on. It's got to be worrying for all Stoke fans now. Only Wigan have a worse goal difference than us (compare Man City at +31). Is fortress Britannia beginning to crumble? What has happened to our defence? ShawX and Huth back in the middle today but we still conceded 3 and by accounts defended poorly today. What's going wrong?
And suprise, suprise it was all the ref's fault. Nothing to do with a defense that could 'nt contain Helguson's movement or his ability to jump, nothing to do with yet another variant of a completely clueless central midfield pairing. When we signed Palcios he was supposedly £8m - now due to the sterling performances we have seen from him, the Sentinel talks about him as a £5m ploayer. See, you don't pick a guy and he devalues by £3m. It's pointless going on about it anymore - for me there is only one way to stop the rot and get some spark back into the team, and that is to get someone in who commands respect from the players because of his ability to coach, and actually use what footballing skills some of our team possess. I will bet my house that if the current incumbent were to lose his job, no other PL team would touch him with a barge pole. Higgy was caught sleeping for the first goal, and after the flak that Begovic has taken, Tommy really needs to look at what he was doing allowing someone to slide in a goal from a cross that was 3 yards inside the 6 yard box.
That doesn't have to be by getting rid of Pulis though. We could easily get in a decent assisstant or senior coach who can teach the players to pick a pass, without losing the ethos which has served us so well over the last few seasons.
Paedar, That might be a way, if you believe that TP actually listens to anybody but himself. He has got a coach who was an exciting attacking midfielder, in Gerry Francis. I can't believe that he is an advocate of vthe "hoof it" variety of football that is what we have witnessed for most of the 4 years in the Prem. TP's biggest attribute was that he did engender a never say die attitude in his players - I think that he has lost that, probably through favouritism, constantly playing people out of position, and failing to see any of his own faults. After nearly £90m of expenditure, does anyone think that we are seeing anything remotely different from our first season? We may have better players, but we have a worse team, and that is the fault of one man only.
I don't know much about Francis as a coach, but just because someone was one way as a player, doesn't necessarily mean they'll be the same sort of coach. The classic example for me is Mick McCarthy. Non-nonsense centre half with more broken bones than international goals. Under him, Ireland played some lovely football, overlapping full backs, talented wide players, and Keane and Duff up front.
