Back to the future - Pulis Out?

Great Article -

http://www.breadandbutterfootball.com/back-to-the-future-pulis-out/#_

The position of Stoke City manager Tony Pulis is becoming increasingly scrutinised, namely by the club’s own supporters. We’ve been here before in 2004-5, which saw a 17 game run in which each finished 1-0, 0-0 or 0-1 – 7 wins, 8 defeats and two draws to be precise. Back in 2004-5 this season was dubbed the ‘Binary Season’, for obvious reasons. The football, said the Potters’ supporters, was simply woeful and more than boring enough to close down many an Insomniac consultancy. While Stoke finished the season in comfortable mid-table, the supporters did not believe that received value for their hard-earned – Pulis was removed by the club’s Icelandic board the following summer. Such a mindset seems to be re-emerging among the Stoke fans.

Before I begin in earnest, let me state that this isn’t going to be an unashamed call for the head of Tony Pulis, nor a happy-clapping ‘look where we’ve come from’ reality check. However, a poll ran recently on the ‘Oatcake’ fanzine, asking whether those who voted wanted the Welshman in or out, gives rise to question of whether the fans are happy. It would seem not as, at the time of writing, the result – after 340 votes- stands at 31.2% in favour of him staying, while 68.8% want to see the back of ‘Dull-is’.

Say whatever you like about Pulis’ style of play, it is irrefutable that he has moved the club forward, anybody who tries to explain that away is quite simply deluded. That said, there comes a point where the you have to ask whether the end justifies the means. Take yesterday’s game away at Fulham; Stoke turn up negative and don’t respond until a goal down, opposition close out game and win by the odd goal. This trend is one that can be superimposed upon pretty much any Stoke City away game.

I used to love going to watch Stoke away; descending upon a different city to watch Stoke became something I spent most of the minimum wage I earned washing-up on. Nowadays I’m even more skint as a student and I pick and choose my away games based on ease, and the potential for it to be a good day in spite of the game, but even if this wasn’t the case I wouldn’t waste my money on half of our away games – we simply don’t have a prayer and the 90 minutes generally tends to be a blot on the day. This shouldn’t be the case, as the money we have spent in recent years should be enough to make us more than competitive on the road against the likes of Fulham, Aston Villa and Norwich against whom we have accrued one point.

Our record of one win in 23 league games is not good enough. That win came at West Brom on December 1st, a ground where we always seem to win, so it seems wrong to even count it. Last season we only won four on the road, with one of those coming once again at the hands of the Sandwell Stoke City Samaritans (Albion). The season before that (10/11) saw only three victories – once again The Hawthorns oversaw one. 09/10 had four, despite WBA not being in the division – so it would’ve been five(!). 08/09 had just two – thanks again Shelton Martis of, you guessed it, West Brom. So that amounts to 14 Premier League away victories in just shy of five seasons. With 5 games to play on the road this campaign we have played a total of 90 away fixtures since promotion in 2008. That gives you a win percentage of 15.5%, paltry.

However it is not so much the win percentage that is causing the rapid dwindling of Stoke’s away support – nobody expects us to win every week. It is the way that we set-up that is doing that all on its own. We go into the fixtures with the primary aim of stifling the opposition. We don’t appear to want to win games, we want to stop the opposition from doing so first and foremost, and the time has come where people just can’t justify paying 21st Century prices to watch a game that is drained of any entertainment by our tactics.

For so long I and all other Stoke fans reacted venomously to opposition supporters and sections of the media when they asked how we watch it every week. Over the couple of years this has slowly changed, culminating in an apparent sea-change this campaign. Supporters leave games wondering just how we do watch it. When you watch Stoke away you may as well stay in the pub for the first hour, arrive at the ground to find us either level or a goal behind, and wait until Pulis brings on Jones/Jerome/Kightly – or all three – and proceed to watch us try and salvage a point or perform a smash-and-grab (see West Brom away for the what may as well be the dictionary definition of the term).

Since Christmas the supporters’ opinion-change has been catalysed by the slipping of our usual reliability at home. A defensive horror show against Southampton was followed by a 0-4 defeat to Chelsea, which shattered our previously impressive defensive record. Following this, the surrendering of a 2-0 lead at home to Wigan, followed by us nearly repeating the trick at home to Reading has caused many to question whether Pulis has lost his grip on his tactics, or whether the players are tired of implementing them to the letter. Whatever the cause, the unconvincing manner in which we have performed has been alarming, as we are normally so miserly and reliable at the Britannia.

When Pulis was removed in 2005 he was only gone for 12 months, and his return sparked the steady upturn of the club’s fortunes. With Peter Coates’ backing Pulis took Stoke back to the top table of English football, but now the manager must once more be brought to task over his spending in my humble opinion. Having spent a substantial amount, for a club of our means, in recent years we should be offering more attacking competence in our displays than we currently do.

Personally I would like to see a new assistant manager brought into the club, rather than a new number one, to try and temper the pig-headedness of Pulis’ tactics. At the minute Tony is surrounded by yes men such as Dave Kemp who seem to pander to his regime rather than pointing out the glaring gaps in the team that the supporters can clearly see. The most prominent flaw in Pulis’ system is the persistence with Peter Crouch as a lone striker. The big striker is undoubtedly a good player, but cannot lead the line alone. The last 10 minutes v Newcastle and the Liverpool game on Boxing Day saw Stoke combine power and pressing play thanks to the inclusion of Kenwyne Jones and two wingers, which stood out against the slow, cumbersome dirge that has been served upon for the majority of the season. What the supporters want is to see the team replicate this kind of football more regularly, and feel that it is the manager’s tactics that reign this possibility in. I would urge supporters to be careful what they wish for, but right now Tony Pulis cannot argue that he is undeserving of criticism. The aforementioned stats do not lie, and most frustratingly we are boring as hell.

 

Waddo,

Thanks I enjoyed the read, IMO I think it is to late to keep Pulis as manager, if we had brought in the new assistant for the start of this season and it worked out we would be in a position to keep him but seriously I can't see Pulis standing for that he would do everything to upset the apple cart because he comes a cross as thinking that there is nothing as important as himself!!!

 

Pulis out