|
Post by Paul Spencer on Mar 2, 2011 11:29:35 GMT
I think it’s a bit of a stretch to see TP as a victim of circumstance in all this to be honest. The pursuit of Ba and Jerome (and subsequent capture of Carew) at the expense of Fuller and no effort whatsoever to replace the flair of Tuncay tell you all you need to know about the direction he sees us going in. There may be some rose tinted specs about our pre Christmas form but it WAS miles better than the shit we’re pumping out now. I’m afraid to say there has been a complete loss of bottle somewhere along the line which has caused him to go in to pig headed, flak jacket mode because that’s where he feels most comfortable. He had long since abandoned the two out and out wingers before the niggles set in. I don’t get all theological about it, winning football is what I want but we have to accept that in terms of viewing we are currently as bad as we’ve ever been in the Premier League and going back to the original sentiment of the thread, it’s pretty hard to defend the club from the football snobs and ignorant hacks right now. We’re as willfully basic as we’ve ever been. Maybe I haven't made my point clearly enough Sheikhy, I'll try and spell it out ... I don't believe for a second that 'something has gone on behind the scenes', or 'Pulis has lost his bottle' somewhere down the line this season. Tuncay wasn't ever going to be a mainstay of his first XI, he had already found his replacement (in Walters) before this season even kicked off! Walters can over either flank and play in the hole but he'll do exactly what the manager tells him to do. It's hard to debate the wingers because none of us know what the situation is with their injuries but I fully believe that had the both of them been fit at the same time, since the beginning of the year, then we would have seen them start together more often. He's certainly cutting off his nose to spite his face over Fuller but it's hardly like he hasn't done this sort of thing before, is it? He made and is making mistakes for sure (the same ones he always made) but I really don't see, in the grand scheme of things, much different to the TP we've always had. Of course Mark's original post was spot on but I wouldn't have cried about the journo's in the first place because (of course) they were (and have always been) right.
|
|
|
Post by mcf on Mar 2, 2011 11:39:15 GMT
At the end of the day though he still has plenty of good players to form a really good team.
We could still kick on from here and finish 10th or above and make an FA Cup semi final which would be excellent.
I'm not counting any chickens but I think it could be rectified quite easily and I'm sure he's not stupid.
|
|
|
Post by stokiephil1990 on Mar 2, 2011 11:43:33 GMT
I can see what Journalists are saying but i still think because of our style of play they always have negativew things to say about us win or lose. its the way its been for a while and we are used to it now!
|
|
|
Post by sheikhmomo on Mar 2, 2011 11:45:41 GMT
I do trace it to this season though Paul. After a dreadful start, the form was hot and we were playing some very good stuff. It was in fits and starts but for half a game against Villa/West Ham/Newcastle and Man Utd we were excellent. Decent efforts away against Sunderland Bolton and Everton got no points but deserved perhaps 7. We tore Birmingham a new one for an hour, dominated Liverpool, laughed off West Brom and put in my favourite 45 minutes of the season against Man City.
During this time Fuller and Tuncay were getting plenty of game time and it was two wingers city.
Something has spooked him, he's become scared of flair (despite it serving him well) and his paranioid outburst against the local media only reinforce it for me.
Something happened in December that emasculated him, it may have been Blackpool, it may have not been but you can't tell me we have regressed from October/November to where we are now just through 'circumstance'. It is a contrived move to the bunker..,...for what purpose I cannot fathom.
|
|
|
Post by Paul Spencer on Mar 2, 2011 12:01:05 GMT
I do trace it to this season though Paul. After a dreadful start, the form was hot and we were playing some very good stuff. It was in fits and starts but for half a game against Villa/West Ham/Newcastle and Man Utd we were excellent. Decent efforts away against Sunderland Bolton and Everton got no points but deserved perhaps 7. We tore Birmingham a new one for an hour, dominated Liverpool, laughed off West Brom and put in my favourite 45 minutes of the season against Man City. During this time Fuller and Tuncay were getting plenty of game time and it was two wingers city.Something has spooked him, he's become scared of flair (despite it serving him well) and his paranioid outburst against the local media only reinforce it for me. Something happened in December that emasculated him, it may have been Blackpool, it may have not been but you can't tell me we have regressed from October/November to where we are now just through 'circumstance'. It is a contrived move to the bunker..,...for what purpose I cannot fathom. Exactly! However Tuncs wanted offski (and Tone believed he already had a replacement for him), he fell out with Fuller and at least one of the wingers has been injured. If both the wingers had stayed fit and if the manager hadn't fallen out with Fuller OR we'd taken a flyer on Ba, then I suspect there's a (very) good chance that we wouldn't even be having this debate. And if he got spooked and has decamped to the bunker, then why on earth did he decide to drop his tried and tested 'defend at all costs' full backs and put two midfielders in there instead?
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2011 12:12:42 GMT
I reckon the division is far too close for comfort so shitty chicken knickers Pulis is firmly in 'survival' mode and has been for many weeks. So, he continues with his piss poor 'don't lose at all costs' football which we have to endure but we remain in the Prem and will probably go through the same shit next year, the year after this and so on. I reckon if we ever start a season with ten straight wins we may see him looking at a more attacking entertaining style.
|
|
|
Post by Davef on Mar 2, 2011 12:19:01 GMT
I reckon the division is far too close for comfort so shitty chicken knickers Pulis is firmly in 'survival' mode and has been for many weeks. So, he continues with his piss poor 'don't lose at all costs' football which we have to endure but we remain in the Prem and will probably go through the same shit next year, the year after this and so on. I reckon if we ever start a season with ten straight wins we may see him looking at a more attacking entertaining style. It's hard to argue against the fact that the current tightness of the league has spooked TP out, but like Paul says, it's doesn't exactly explain why he's put Danny Pugh and Marc Wilson in at full back in place of good, solid defenders like Andy Wilkinson and Danny Higginbotham. And Higginbotham is certainly more of a goal threat than Pugh, especially now that we're almost solely dependent on scoring from set pieces.
|
|
|
Post by rognix on Mar 2, 2011 12:31:21 GMT
Totally agree with the sentiments running through the majority of posts attached to this thread. Pulis has done a great job getting the club where it is, but his brand of football is getting the club a bad name now. I am proud of the club and will be until the day I die, but our brand of football is ugly.
|
|
|
Post by sheikhmomo on Mar 2, 2011 12:37:29 GMT
The right back experiment doesn’t surprise me that much. He has never really trusted Wilkinson and he has finally accepted that Huth is indispensible at centre half. Wilson theoretically has a more accurate foot with which to find big John’s head with and he has plenty of experience at playing at the back. Left back is more puzzling, Collins has had an abysmal season and is understandably out of the picture, Pugh has only come in since Ethers has been injured/carrying an injury and is probably seen as providing a modicum of attacking to support the limited Walters. Either way I don’t see these recent changes as evidence of anything other than an abysmal January window and not really any evidence against Pulis’s willful retreat to the bunker.
|
|
|
Post by MrMagic on Mar 2, 2011 12:51:08 GMT
regardless of his reasons for the recent change of approach, Coates really should be sitting Pulis down and telling him to sort it out pronto.
We know that we can do better, we've seen it earlier this season with some great performances. There's no excuse for the tripe we've been subected to since the turn of the year.
We've played 90 minutes of decent football this year, the first half against Brighton and the second half away to Arsenal. That really isn't good enough.
The only issue I have with journo's has been highlighted by Momo, it's the cheap dig about us being dirty. Other than that any comments about our limited mind numbing approach is fully justified. We are crap and we are getting crapper. The only thing that has kept me awake during recent games has been the cold.
|
|
|
Post by Sammz on Mar 2, 2011 13:00:42 GMT
The fact that nobody looks nailed on dead certs for the drop yet and the bottom teams continue to surprise and pick up points has worried Tone. Hence us falling into the ‘let’s not lose’ category that he’s always going to be more comfortable with, especially away from home.
He’s only doing the responsible thing for the club, make sure we don’t get relegated regardless of how we achieve that. I personally believe, when everyone is fit and in decent form, we’re capable of getting a result against anybody with the players we have, unfortunately some players aren’t performing to their max just now but that could turn anytime.
It’s our job as supporters to grin and bear it just at the minute and trust the manager to sort it out. He’s not let us down up to now.
The journo’s can bollox and write what they what. Anybody with a modicum of knowledge of the game knows that we are always tough but fair.
|
|
|
Post by sheikhmomo on Mar 2, 2011 13:16:57 GMT
The point for me though is ultimately not about the style and winning friends, it’s about winning points. In the 12 games in September, October and November with a far more attacking style we accumulated 20 points at 1.66 points per game (European form). In the 13 games since then we have retreated to our shells and humped it longer, longer and longer and got 14 points at barely a point a game (Relegation form).
If the change in style was racking up the points, I’d shut my cakehole but they’re not only hard on the eye, they don’t fucking work do they?
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2011 13:30:17 GMT
The point for me though is ultimately not about the style and winning friends, it’s about winning points. In the 12 games in September, October and November with a far more attacking style we accumulated 20 points at 1.66 points per game (European form). In the 13 games since then we have retreated to our shells and humped it longer, longer and longer and got 14 points at barely a point a game (Relegation form). If the change in style was racking up the points, I’d shut my cakehole but they’re not only hard on the eye, they don’t fucking work do they? That last sentence is it in a nutshell. There was no reason for him to get spooked - we were doing fine. We could have carried on playing the way we were and not been affected. It's his panicky ubercaution that has put us back in trouble. Sitting on a lead has never worked for us under him going back to the Championship days.
|
|
|
Post by Paul Spencer on Mar 2, 2011 14:01:13 GMT
I'm still not convinced that TP's been 'spooked'.
In order for that to happen, then somebody's going to have to convince me that if JP & Matty had both stayed fully fit and if we'd signed Demba Ba then people would still be leveling that accusation at him.
What I can accept, is that the chickens are now coming home to roost and he was wrong to believe, that he could survive without replacing or having cover for 'flair' but he was always going to do that ANYWAY, the fact that he didn't, has got bugger all to do with the league being tight - imho.
|
|
|
Post by mondeoman on Mar 2, 2011 14:22:05 GMT
How I see the remaining matches going based on Stokes current awful form. WHam A = 0 points NCastle H =1 " Chelsea H = 0 " Tottenh A = 0 " Wolves H =1 " Bpool A = 1 " Villa A = 0 " Arce H =0 " MCity A =0 " Wigan H =3 " Gives us 40 points, 50/50 relegation chance !!
|
|