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Post by Danstoke82 on Apr 9, 2008 11:14:46 GMT
As manager of my beloved Stoke City FC, I will always support Tony Pulis to the highest order. Back in February, I wouldn't hear a bad word said about the man, however, after recent weeks, if not months, I and a growing number of Stokies no doubt, have seemed to be a bit worried that the old and negative Tony Pulis is making a return after such hard work he has done to make us think otherwise this season. 7 points in a couple of months is piss poor, something needs to be done to get back to winning ways. So the question is where does Tony Pulis go from here, because lets face it, this cannot continue, if he has a real ambition to take us into the Premiership and he is truthful in what he says, about us being there next season, then things have got to change. The 3 obvious things which Tony Pulis MUST address, I believe, for these last 4 absolute critical matches are:
1) Tactics and style of play:
The much publicised "long ball" system that Tony seemingly adores, simply just doesn't work anymore. Teams have sussed our style of play as the overpaid media morons have repeatedly thrown negative comments at it, mainly during our successful spell back in February. Teams have worked out who our aerial threats are and are starting to mark them out of the game. Leon Cort being one. Although he attacked Palace's goal with a few headed attempts, he didn't have man marker too far away at any time. The knock up ball to Mama just isn't working. Mama is getting beaten to these headers now quite regularly. Surely that is the sole reason why Mama is picked each week. Mama fits Pulis's system like a glove, however, the system isn't working, thats obvious to us all, therefore Mama needs to drop to the bench. I've also noticed, and this was very evident in the Palace match, that we rarely close the opposition down and let them come at us. Absolute suicide if they have two pacy wingers. Stoke don't deal well with quick and tricky wingers thats obvious, we never really have done, so to let a striker or midfielder run at us and have a free look at goal is pure craziness surely. We would do well to start playing the ball across the floor more and not boot it away as soon as we are on the defensive, because we just give away possession to bloody easily. We are also playing too fucking deep, constantly was the ball being hoofed up the pitch only for Mama and Shola to be reaching the centre line at that time with no one in attack, and Cresswell would then try and run a 100metre dash to try and regain the ball, whats that about? strikers shouldn't be behind the half way line!. Tone needs to have a re-think and adapt a new style to our play otherwise we are basically very predictable.
2) Drop the under-performers or players that simply are not good enough:
How long will Pulis stick by Sidibe, Pugh and Griffin for?. I actually think bringing Griffin back was a mistake as Carl Dickinson had pretty much established himself as our first choice left back and Andy Wilkinson slotted in well at right back. The fact that Griffin was having a mare at Derby and is quite clearly not a Premiership defender, I cannot see how he was going to improve our game in anyway, even if we do get promoted. Griffin has been pretty poor since his return and is the shadow of the player we witnessed last season. He's not a right back, but Pulis persistently puts him there. He's not a skipper, but Pulis persists in handing him the armband, there must be a reason behind Pulis's decisions, the right ones have got us to where we were, top of the league and looking good, but unfortunately, the wrong ones are now becoming more and more evident, they are catching up with us and I think bringing back a player who's confidence must be at an all time low was a terrible decision. Danny Pugh, is a squad player at best, his best performances have come from the centre of midfield, unfortunately for him, there are better centre midfielders than him, so for that instance, he should be no more than a sub to bring on for us, not a first choice left back over Dickinson. Pugh has been pretty poor for us since he joined, a stand-out midfield role against Newcastle, really, being his only performance worth mentioning. He looks shaky and panicky at the back and that was bloody clear on Monday night as Sinclair gave him the run around. Every time he got the ball, he just whacked it away, when there was options to roll it off instead to a free player. He gave away possession a lot during that match and surely now, Pulis has to drop him in favor of Dickinson, that must go without saying. Dickinson should be a starter each week, end of story, and it is unfair on the lad to keep having to make way for a player who is a lot worse than him. Mama Sidibe has been a real source of discussion all season. Whilst I will never question his work ethic, the fact that he is a striker and has only scored 2 goals all season is pretty poor really and for Pulis to pick him every week has been wearing thin for a large part of this season. He has scored the same amount as Jon Parkin, who cannot even get in the squad at the moment and Richard Cresswell who is playing out of position has scored more, even our centre-backs have scored more goals. Mama is playing because Pulis loves the style of football that suits a player of Mama's build perfectly, unfortunately, for us it's not getting us any goals. The work rate is great, but the whack it to Mama to head onto the on-rushing striker has been found out by our opponents, hence the problem with us scoring goals like we were before, goals seem to now be at a premium. If we are gonna get anywhere near promotion now, the style of play needs to be changed and Mama needs to move to the bench and give the Ameobi and Fuller partnership the chance it needs. For Pulis to pick Mama over an apparent unfit Fuller on Monday night, was pure ludicrous. Fuller, whether half fit or full fit, will always change a game, he is the only player we have, bar Liam Lawrence on occasions, who can outline how a game will go single-handedly. If Fuller was in from the start Monday night, the result may of been different, but Pulis's apparent loyalty to Sidibe came through in that instance. For Pulis to say earlier in the season that they were "desperate for Mama to score" was quite an embarrassment really, he is a striker, he should be scoring or at least posing some sort of threat at goal in any game, Mama very rarely produces any prolonged threat at goal, usually meaning that the opposition only have to concentrate on marking Fuller out of the game. With Mama in the side, it pushes away decent strikers like Adam Rooney, farmed out on loan all season, but worth a go surely and Martin Paterson, okay, he wasn't that good for us, but he has done okay at Scunny this season. Mama, love him or hate him, is taking a valuable spot in the starting eleven, I will always cheer for Mama as he wears the red and white stripes, but his spot is valuable and could be taken by a striker who may cause opposition defences to defend harder and perhaps not fully concentrate on keeping Fuller quiet, oh if only Fuller had a twin brother.
3) Get rid of the stubbornness!:
Tony Pulis is one of the most irritating managers I have seen in the game, he is so stubborn it's unreal!!. All we ask is for him to listen to public view for once, it's not much to ask, he cannot constantly keep hiding from what the fans are shouting for. The whole Sidibe saga is a prime example of his stubbornness. If Mama is fit, he plays, end of, 2 goals or not regardless of the other strikers we have and what is a real concern is that with Sidibe fit and Ameobi, who has to play because of the cash we spent on him, Pulis will keep faith with them over Fuller. It's insane to think that any manager would choose a 2 goal striker over a 14 goal striker, who at the same time is your main attacking threat. It's kind of like Man United choosing Chris Eagles over Cristiano Ronaldo, it purely doesn't make sense, but Pulis seems to think that it does. The fact that Pulis said we were unlucky monday night was an understatement, we were fucking robbed, a game with enough chances for us to put some real distance between us and Palace, only for that last killer instinct to vanish and to be honest, even if Mama was one on one with their keeper, you just wouldn't be confident of him even hitting the target, I kind of felt the same with Ameobi. It wasn't until Fuller was finally brought on that I felt a bit more confident when we attacked and begged any of our players to get it to him, because their defenders could not handle him.
Pulis must surely have learnt from his mistake that night and the time has come to make changes. Nothing to drastic, but something which may restore the pride we felt almost 3 months ago. We are playing negative and defensive football, something Pulis has prided himself on in the past, fair enough if we had gained promotion by now, then he could of played how the heck he wanted without any criticism, but we haven't, we need to play attacking again, like we were before, attack teams, get at them from the off. Sidibe needs to sit this weekend on the bench. If Ameobi has to play, then so be it. I didn't think very highly of him Monday night, but if he's worth what we paid for him and he scores some crucial goals then I will keep an open mind on him. But the crux of the issue is that Fuller MUST start. He is fit enough and looked sharp Monday night. If Liam Lawrence is still injured, then Cresswell is NOT the answer. Bothroyd has shown that he is more than capable of putting in a tasty cross ball and has an eye for goal. Cresswell has shown he cannot cross the ball, but it's not his fault, he is a striker by trade and thats where he wants to be. Pulis needs to stop relying on other results to help us out, it should have never come to that, we shouldn't be looking at other teams and how they do. We should have pushed for our own cause and not pinned our hopes on others falling behind, that move has backfired too as now a position we did hold where we would decide whether we would achieve promotion, has now gone completely out of our hands, a position you would say was unthinkable a few weeks back. We are doing it the hard way as per usual and we wouldn't have expected it any other way really. This is where it is so important for Mr Pulis, a real chance to prove his doubters wrong, all the people that were 100% against his re-appointment, this is his one and only chance to have the last laugh, if he fails, then surely his position will be untenable and will prove that the doubters were right all along. The two instances, one is win promotion, take Stoke back to the big time and prove his doubters wrong, the second, continue how he is, play negative football, play crazy tactics and blow the best season Stoke have had for years, therefore adding fuel to his doubters fire and making his job unbearable with regards to fanbase and support. Im hoping for the first instance.
SHOW US YOUR THE RIGHT MAN TONY PULIS AND YOU WILL BE A TRUE LEGEND IN EVERY STOKIES HEART, DOUBTERS INCLUDED.
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