I haven't been on here in a while but thought I would come on here tonight and have a look around. I can't help but say what I think and I'm pretty sure I'll get slaughtered but well, I feel I need to say it.
What's this obsession with calling very technical, skillfull football tippy tappy shit, you make yourselves just as worse than the people who you get pissed off for calling Stoke a one dimensional long ball team, which essentially is true.
I don't know if any of you watched el clasico this season (Barcelona Vs Real Madrid) but in my opinion it was the best game of football I've ever seen in my life, the technique, skill and movement of Barcelona is second to none, and they aren't tippy tappy, they will get physical if they need to be but they are so quick of thought and skillfull that they make the game look effortless and just incredible.
I just think that we are all getting so obsessed and defensive of our style of play, which is not the way I would play or choose to play/watch however I can see that it works and why change a working formula?
There seems to be some sort of mentality here that everyone is against Stoke everyone hates Stoke etc etc etc. The only reason people might have a problem with Stoke is because of the way we play. I've seen pretty much every game streamed or later on match choice this season, and it's not particularly pretty, we might create and score more goals and win games against teams, but it's not particularly interesting/exciting to me, and seeing my team have regularly 40% possession and pass completion being around 50% is pretty shit to me, seems like a sunday league stat.
Whilst I know everyone hates stats, Stoke have made 600 successful passes less than the nearest team, Blackburn this season, 2000 less than the likes of West Brom, Newcastle, Bolton etc. I want to see Stoke in possession of the football, passing it around, we are good enough too, if Blackpool can do it then we certainly can because our team is a lot better than theirs.
And it's starting to affect me, and I am an obsessive Stoke fan, I have everything Stoke, I love everything football I am absolutely obsessed with the sport. I have already played 10 seasons on the new football manager with us, trying to implement a beautiful passing game into our team, 2 seasons on FIFA trying to play passing football. As much as this is sad, I try at any given moment to try and get Stoke to play in the way that I feel football should be played.
No I don't want Stoke to play like Barcelona (well I do) but I know it's not realistic and achievable at the moment, but something that requires a bit more than hitting it 40 yards in the air hoping for a flick on would be a start. The way in which Stoke play, just seems to make me less and less excited about Stoke. Somehow I find it hard to muster a cheer when I see another long ball get knocked down and put in the net, I'd like to see a bit more flair, creativity involved, something I rarely see in our games.
To me, there is a lot more to Stoke and football than us being in the Premiership doing well. I look back at it now, and I was so much happier under the Thordason, Boskamp etc days, now I'm not saying they were good managers, but at least I felt excited about Stoke City. Pulis respectively has done a fantastic job raising Stoke to the profile they are now, but it fills me with no excitement whatsoever.
I'm not having a go at anyone here through this post, I would fucking love to be in the position of one of you who is absolutely loving it right now, because I would absolutely love to be excited about Stoke, but unfortunately I'm not and I think this Pulis style of football has made a lot of us convince ourself that it's not that bad because our beloved Stoke team is playing in this style, as our love for the club is so strong that we hate to criticise it, especially when we are doing well.
Similarly, I absolutely guarantee that say we were playing this 'tippy tappy' football and another team were playing this pecentage, long ball football, people would be cursing them saying how boring they are, the lack of technique etc etc.
Personally, I'm no fan of it, and possibly (I don't mind admitting it) biased against it as I have learnt to play and watch football and have certain ideas about what I like and what I think is good.
I will always love Stoke City and still probably watch every game but the way we play is really really affecting my excitement and passion for us.
It depends on what people care about most I guess, the actual winning of the game, or the excitement of a game. For me it's the excitement, and Pulis and this Stoke team have taken all of the excitement out of the game for me, I can almost predict everything we do.
I want to be entertained and amazed by my Stoke City not see them bulldoze a team.
*prepares himself for stampeed*