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Post by u2oxeterstokie on Mar 18, 2008 9:48:37 GMT
STOKE CITY: PLAN OF ATTACK
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STOKE CITY
BY MARTIN SPINKS
09:40 - 18 March 2008
Tony Pulis wants a fox-in-the-box striker on Stoke City's books in time for Saturday's clash with Blackpool at the Britannia.
Pulis is scouring the fringes of Premier League clubs for possible cast-offs like Fulham's David Healy to sharpen Stoke's scoring potential over their last seven fixtures.
And his sense of urgency increased the moment Ricardo Fuller was booked at Watford on Saturday to rule himself out of City's next two games.
Pulis, who has already given up the chase for Portsmouth's David Nugent, said: "We are still trying to pursue one or two avenues with Saturday in mind.
"When Ric isn't doing it, we need another threat. We need that player who has the pace to get behind defences like he can."
Newcomer Jay Bothroyd was recruited on loan for a month from Wolves last Friday, but Pulis sees him as a replacement and/or option for Mama Sidibe in attack.
"Jay gives us another option because he has good ability to keep the ball. I also see him as an impact player in terms of his time on the pitch."
Sidibe remains under close observation for the tweaked hamstring that forced him to miss the goalless stalemate at Watford.
The Mali striker will remain in cold storage for at least the next few days before a decision is made on his possible availability for Blackpool.
"We'll give the big fella every chance," said Pulis. "He's a fit guy and generally a quick healer, but not one we dare take chances on with so many games still remaining. That's why we never took the risk with him on Saturday because he's another who should still have a big part to play."
Stoke's suspensions bite hard for the first time on Saturday as Liam Lawrence concludes his two-match ban, while Fuller and Ryan Shawcross begin theirs to complete a hat-trick of major absentees.
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Post by jezzascfc on Mar 18, 2008 9:54:14 GMT
Interesting that Healy gets mentioned by name - is he one we have enquired about?
We've left it a bit late now me thinks - anyone who wants, or has been told, to go out on loan has probably either already gone or decided to stay and fight for a place.
Still, if TP can pull the proverbial rabbit out of a hat for Saturday, it would give everyone a huge lift.
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Post by stevetheboater on Mar 18, 2008 9:56:11 GMT
I wonder if the sentinel knows something as they put a story on their site this morning then pulled it according to e-soccer'Hit man' at the Brit The Stoke Sentinel - Stoke City FC 09:41 |
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Post by jezzascfc on Mar 18, 2008 9:58:47 GMT
Thomas Hearns to make a seventeenth comeback with a live open air fight at the Brit?
Pete Waterman to reunite with Michaela Strachan for the end of season disco in the Waddington Suite? ;D
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Post by monkeycat on Mar 18, 2008 10:40:19 GMT
Is that what Lordeffinghamhunt tells the ladies: "one's coming soon" ;D
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Post by FullerMagic on Mar 18, 2008 11:39:32 GMT
STOKE CITY: PLAN OF ATTACK " When Ric isn't doing it, we need another threat. We need that player who has the pace to get behind defences like he can."Newcomer Jay Bothroyd was recruited on loan for a month from Wolves last Friday, but Pulis sees him as a replacement and/or option for Mama Sidibe in attack.
"Jay gives us another option because he has good ability to keep the ball. I also see him as an impact player in terms of his time on the pitch." Sidibe remains under close observation for the tweaked hamstring that forced him to miss the goalless stalemate at Watford. The Mali striker will remain in cold storage for at least the next few days before a decision is made on his possible availability for Blackpool. I can't quite get my head around what Pulis is saying there? How exactly is Bothroyd a Mama-type? Wolves and Coventry fans certainly don't describe an athletic hard worker who's good at holding the ball up and competing for things? If he's the "impact player" he describes, are we talking mainly about a late sub? (obv pushing Gallagher further down the pecking order for that role) He sounds much more like the kind of player with pace he describes as cover for Fuller? Certainly Healy hasn't got much pace at all, has he? And neither have people like Helguson. So is he after a fox-in-the-box the headline would have us believe or the pacey player to stretch teams he actually describes? It certainly doesn't sound like we'll be after a targetman, as for some reason he sees Bothroyd as sufficient cover for him even though his game seems very different to Mama's and he's certainly no like-for-like cover? |
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Post by lordb on Mar 18, 2008 12:48:55 GMT
I wish TP would be more flexiable when it comes to strikers.
A big target man who can get a goal or three would be good but equally a shotarse goalpoacher who will keep defenders on their toes will do too.
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Post by mikeyb99 on Mar 18, 2008 12:53:47 GMT
Pulis doesn't say Bothroyd is a target man, but has 'good ability to keep the ball' like Mama.
Gallagher is a better midfielder than forward, hopefully he will take his chance in the following two games that Lawro is suspended and make himself undroppable (thus forcing Cresswell out of the left-side).
Hopefully Pulis can pull a 'Healy'-type out of the bag, we really need a player like that at the moment. Just someone to score the easy goals and be in the right place at the right time, something we've not had since Parkin at the end of last season.
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Post by FullerMagic on Mar 18, 2008 13:01:50 GMT
I know he doesn't expressly refer to Bothroyd as a targetman, but I can't see how he's equipped to even do a pale imitation of the job Mama does for the team?
That's the problem; nobody on the books can come close to doing the job an on-form Sidibe (limited though he is) does and on which it seems our entire gameplan rests.
Despite his 6' 3" frame, Bothroyd has been painted as more a less a Fuller clone in style, warts and all.
Anyway, he does seem to hint that Bothroyd will merely be a potential supersub anyway.
And in talking about the type he wants, he expressly mentions pace as the thing he's looking for, rather than a Healy-like poacher that Spinks' mention of 'fox-in-the-box' implies.
But I suppose it can be boiled down to someone who knows where the sodding onion bag is - that'll do.
Would anyone decent come in if they were going to play 2nd fiddle to the tried-and-trusted Fuller-Sidibe partnership for the last 5 games though?
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Post by MrMagic on Mar 18, 2008 13:04:31 GMT
Is that what Lordeffinghamhunt tells the ladies: "one's coming soon" ;D Class ;D |
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Post by lordb on Mar 18, 2008 13:17:54 GMT
surely its (as in Garth Crooks pronunciation) 'clarse'?
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Post by somersetstokie on Mar 18, 2008 16:33:02 GMT
When does the Loan Transfer Window close?
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Post by FullerMagic on Mar 18, 2008 16:48:37 GMT
A week on Thursday apparently - the 27th.
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Post by Lakeland Potter on Mar 18, 2008 17:21:56 GMT
TP COULD mean that Bothroyd could play as an ALTERNATIVE to Mama in what we could call plan B. ie. he can hold the ball up so could be good alongside a fox in the box type of striker. Obviously, because Bothroyd isn't a Sidibe type as far as the rest of his play is concerned, there would have to be a plan B because I presume Bothroyd wants it plassing to his feet not his head.
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Post by JurgenVandeurzen on Mar 18, 2008 18:07:23 GMT
Im with Lordb
I feel pulis only has one type of striker in his head and his opinion wont be changed. Pulis picks out quality defenders but seems very single minded when serching for fowards....but who am i to argue the guys a legend!
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Post by miffmister on Mar 18, 2008 19:16:50 GMT
AGHHHHH the hit man and her, classic, did anyone else stay up late as a youth and look at the birds dancin with bearly nowt on or was that just me being a perv
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Post by Stick It On Cort's Head on Mar 18, 2008 19:25:22 GMT
Is that what Lordeffinghamhunt tells the ladies: "one's coming soon" ;D ;D ;D ;D |
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