And it looked so promising after Crouchie's equaliser. It seems obvious that RVP made a difference. He is class. How come other teams can win away but we can't. It could be 4 away wins out of the five PL games this afternoon.
Because other teams have managers who actually have an actual gameplan instead of just hoping for a 0-0 or 1-0.
You so called stoke city fans are really starting to piss me off thats why i stopped using these forums, pulis has got stoke into the prem something godlike macari could not do! we are in europe top of the group as we speak! facup final last season! lost only 1 in about 22 home games! and still knobby stoke fans still slag pulis off, well lets go back to the mick mills/alan ball/macari era when we actually were ****. ****ING grwo up and thank pulis for what he has done for this club.... Macari won nothing yet some idiots on here reckon he was better manager than tp, macari was long ball all the time.
I wasn't a supporter under Macari. I started supporting Stoke during our ill fated 1997/98 season, when I was about 8 or 9.
Just who is this robot creep? Or rather who was he before the name change. Sounds about 14 years old. Obviously one of look where we are now brigade. One of that clan t'other day was rabbiting on about moaning when we are winning AND playing well, just to put the record straight we may be winning some, apart from the home game against United, we have NOT been playing well. Suggest those characters start their own Forum
Whats the point in hiding behind the past and not understanding how you can improve! Even Brian Clough fell on his own sword and TP hasnt achieved enough to tie that mans boot laces!
COUCH THE ROBOT.. ERM TAKE A LOOKSEE AT THE FULHAM BOARD.. you did use the words "Dirty Thuggery" I REST MY CASE.. as I said Pot/kettle just in case you STILL can not find that post.. Date 20/11/11 time posted 6:49pm thread title "Tonights game" And you were NOT defending me on that thread so.. WHOM is right and WHOM is wrong CROUCHTHE ROBOT.... ME thinks you are here to wum other teams fans.. Answer on a postcard.. i think you.
errrmmm potter you are very infantile about this i have said sorry so accept it otherwise we will have a row lol, i am not a wum look at my post on the arsenal board, or have you and decided to leave that out???? oldnicky you are not worth a reply so go ahead and make yourself look even more stupid than you actually are if thats possible.
smithers boot laces lol he got us to an facup final and the furthest in europe ever!! you comment does not make sense my friend.
All i will say on this matter is thus!!! we are in the premier league i serve lou macari in my job as he bets quite a lot and even he as said pulis is the best manager stoke city have ever had.
On the plus side for you guys, you are playing us at the Britannia which means you will score a good win .
First time I've been on since yesterday's defeat and I find myself again being wound up by the disrespect shown by stoke fans to each other. I feel it is disrespectful to say everyone who does not think as you is deluded or to question his loyalty to the cause, never mind the obscenities being thrown around. However certain you are of your own convictions people will have different views and IMO each is as relevant as everyone else. Debate is healthy, Passion is healthy, Bigotry is not. I've said this before but we must be respectful to each other, especially newbies, for this forum to flourish. I would ask that the moderators take this on-board and strive to tone down the combative nature of many of the posters here. Perhaps a 'Welcome to all Stokies on this board' sticky thread might entice new blood and those who only read and never post. One thing I am sure we all agree on is we want Stoke to continue to play in the Premiership... At least most of us also agree Pulis has done wonders getting and keeping us where are now and the general media/other fans are finally getting what Pulis hopes to achieve (i.e. steadily increasing the football style without compromising the work ethic) The point of contention is of course style, specifically in our away games. Pulis sets his team away in the PL to hold until 60-70 minutes then will make a decision at that point to stick or twist irrelevant of who they are.... He feels that this, over a whole season, will bring us the best overall result in league position. The past two seasons however have shown that this is debatable. I do feel sorry for the heroes that support our team away in the PL, I can't even assure them that this is the best long term strategy, all I can say is on balance what TP has done for the club has been remarkable and to keep faith. Either that or boycott away matches in protest..... This is the only way TP is going to listen; certainly nothing said on boards such as this is going to change his mind or even come to his attention. I'd also like to re-iterate we've been royally screwed by the FA giving us 6 away games after the Euro matches. To be honest from what I have seen so far of our strategy in Europe away from home he is being more adventurous - I hope this is a pre-cursor to a change in style over the coming seasons in all competitions. In my opinion Pulis is our second best manager ever but does not get the credit he deserves and won't until he's gone. On topic I feel we matched Arsenal until RVP came on, then we were slaughtered.... IMO we'd have lost however we played on this specific occasion. And so onto another home tie in yet another cup competition. Play the academy players I say. Did I hear somewhere we now have 7 games in 23 days????? The price of success I guess. Finally, if anyone feels personally slighted by this post, take a deep breath, count to 10, and if you have nothing nice or at least indifferent to say to me then please don't bother.
Great post steve_scfc - agree with it all. I probably overreacted yesterday, but I do not take kindly by being threatened by some keyboard warrior, don't suppose Sgt enjoyed it either.. Hey ho, roll on Liverpool
I actually thought the game was going to plan (in Tones head), we were level, frustrating them, 70mins in & Jones & Jerome were just about to come on, then they scored. RVP changed the match, with the help of some poor defending & dodgy keeping from Asmir. Considering who we were up against, i thought it was our best away performance this season, just need a bit of lady luck.
Yes well said steve_scfc. Debate is healthy and opinions will differ which is what makes reading and responding to posts on here worthwhile. Personal insults are not on. Why do we support the team? - because we are passionate about them and we all want to see them do well and stay in the Premier League. The 'oldies' amongst us, including myself, witnessed the Waddo era when we were last in the top flight and it's the place to be. The attention we are now getting is well deserved and long may it continue. We are all delighted when we win but equally disappointed when we lose. We are the fans; TP is the manager and will take credit when we win and the brickbats when we don't.
That's one of the best posts I've ever read on here, Steve. Well said. Let's tone down the animosity on here and maybe it'll become a place where people enjoy posting again.
The cause of more disappointment with the away form, is not so much the defeat, because Arsenal is alaways likely to be a bridge too far, but yet again our refusal to even contemplate coming out of our shell until we have to chase the game. Take Norwich v Liverpool - on another day Norwich could have been 3 down at half -time, but they came out and had a go, and up until the last 5 minutes, bossed the second half. Perhaps fortune does tend to favour the brave? Now look at the second goal Arsenal scored - Arsenal held the ball for nearly 3 minutes, with Stoke putting zero pressure on the ball; eventually Arsenal manouvre some space leading to 5 Stoke defenders appealing for an offside, that clearly did not exist. Our approach does need to be more adventureous, even if that only entails playing 20 yards further up the pitch, because once we are unlocked defending so deeply there is no chance of a recovery tackle. We all know our away statistics, can anyone justify the same approach, time after time after time? Our next away game is Bolton - a team completely devoid of confidence. Will TP actually drum into the guys, "get at them", or will it again be the cautious approach which invariably seems to lead to defeat, and which has seen our previously excellent away support decrease by over 70% in the last 3 seasons?
I think the points rasied by Steve are both solid and constructive! I personally disagree with the Europa comments, purley because the standard has been poor, but thats not TP's fault we can only play what is put in front of us and to date we have handled it well. I have always said, and will contiue to harp on about it, games against the likes of Arsenal, Man U, Chelsea etc should not be the gauge for which we judge our ability, style, performance....... it is the games against 7th down! The Arsenal game just highlights our ineptness and some of the repeated errors that ultimatley costs us points and GD over the season. The rotation policy (if thats what you can call it) which isnt a rotation policy, the players that are not fit/are fit (Stoke Fit????????????) the players that we spend a fortune on and then either dont play or play our of position, or the combinations that work which we then throw out of the window, show a distinct inabilty to manage an evolving squad on multiple fronts! Losing to Swansea (convincingly), scraping a point at Norwich (undeserved) and winning at West Brom (Fuk knows how) show our flaws and lack of ability to play against teams that have spent a fraction of the money compared to the funds invested in our squad and reminds me heavily of previous seasons; Fulham and Blackpool killing us last year were prime example and there were many more - we had terrible form against the bottom half teams! I personally wouldnt be too bothered if we get dumped out of the carling cup (although I hope its a good game) and I dont care much for Europe, not because I am a half hearted fan, but because I think we need all our strength and form to be invested into the premier league, because judging by how some of the smaller and new teams are playing, we may have a hard year ahead of us - again! Regardless of our dislikes, likes or preferences, there will be very few sensible people who will disagree that the "eveolving squad" was still frail and learning last term, and playing in mutiple comps this term has just complicated the approach by the management team - they can paper over the cracks...........etc............. IMO!
To be fair you had completely nullified us until RvP came on, we showed no signs of scoring before that.
Steve A bloody FANTASTIC POST one of the best to date... As I did say on another thread.. Which, I deleted because it was way OTT you are quite right.. we all support the same club and I agree with 99 per cent of what you have said.. Agree with Smither's that T.P. is coming across as a little slow thinking away from home but hey, we' were playing Arsenal and face it.. they are class, a class above us Stoke. Robin, i saw the whole game on line matie.. And, I said as much yesterday.. we Stoke did in fact do a job on Arsenal and I was happy enough with how we were playing. And, I also said, RVP was the difference.. he really was world class which, is why Arsene brought him on... Until then, I think we did very well so in some respects T.P. didn't do too much wrong apart from IMHO bringing on Diao and NOT Palacios. Good luck for the season Robin, Arsenal although not at their best were just TOO GOOD for Stoke City. There is no shame in saying that. Steve, thanks again for that post... brilliantly written and ALL of us should think before having a go at a fellow Stokie which is why I had words with.. Crouch the Robot.
