Recent upturns from Villa, Wigan and Sunderland leaves Stoke City looking vulnerable at the bottom of the Premier League and pressure mounting on manager Tony Pulis and his infamous style of play.

Overview

“And you can hear Tony Pulis coaching down on the touchline from here,” said ESPN commentator Jon Champion during Stoke’s recent 1-0 defeat at Everton.

He was half right - you could indeed hear Pulis yelling above the noise of 33,977 other people at Goodison Park – but rarely has the definition of ‘coaching’ been stretched so far. Sadly for Pulis, the fact that you could hear him did his cause for continued employment at the Britannia Stadium about as much good as the 1-0 defeat which stretched his side’s run to one win from their last 25 away matches and plunged them deeper into the relegation mire.

“Go on Jon,” Pulis would yell as another ball was lumped down the field. And Jon Walters would indeed gamely lollop after it. “Go on Cameron,” he would yawp as Jerome stepped up to do the chasing next. “Go on Steven,” he yelled at N’Zonzi as the hint of a chance to close down an Everton move presented itself. And that was pretty much it. “Go on Peter,” “go on Geoff,” “go on Glenn” – like I say, to call it coaching was stretching things slightly. The valued, useful input of a Premier League manager?

The reason you could hear Pulis shouting was because the entire crowd, whoever they supported, knew that Everton were going to win – Stoke were as threatening to Everton as the cast of the Pineapple Dance Studios would have been to the starting line of the 1976 Philadelphia Flyers – and they were bored.

None of this is very new or revelatory. Tony Pulis has always unashamedly set his teams up in this way – Gillingham, Portsmouth, Bristol City, Plymouth – and engaged in a sort of applied maths lesson. It is his opinion and belief that if the ball is placed in the opposition penalty area as soon and as often as possible then more goals will result and so his teams put it there every chance they get be that from corners, free kicks, long balls, long throws, goalkeeper clearances. The quality of the ball in doesn’t matter as much as the quantity. Pulis wants that ball in the danger area frequently and once it’s there he just stands and waits, and shouts, until one drops to one of his players and they stick it away.

Purists may hate it, frantically washing their hands and scrambling for DVDs of old Swansea matches to cleanse themselves of the experience, but Pulis has always had two things on his side.

The first thing is circumstances: almost always faced with building a team with far fewer resources than the ones he was supposed to be competing against it was an easy way to make his sides unpleasant and difficult to play against on a budget.

The second is results: Pulis has famously never been relegated despite bossing clubs highly prone to demotion, and he has taken Stoke from the middle of the second tier to the Premier League and kept them there with an FA Cup final appearance and decent European run thrown into the bargain. Clubs like Charlton and Wolves have been burnt in recent times by getting rid of managers who had apparently “taken the club as far as they could” when in actual fact that was as far as the club was ever likely to go and the only way from there is down. Brian Clough may have claimed he could train monkeys to play football the way Pulis endorses, but not many managers would have enjoyed the same success at Stoke taking over when he did in 2006.

The problem Pulis now has now is those two main defences are starting to drain through his fingers. He’s not scrabbling around at Gillingham and Bristol City any more, and few top flight managers have had as much money to spend in the transfer market as him. He’s lavished £70m on creating this team since 2009 and has recouped just £10m the other way. The idea that Stoke would engage in a necessary evil to get them to the top level and consolidate before progressing and becoming more expansive once settled has long been shown up as a fallacy – they’ve spent more than most and they’re just as one dimensional as ever.

And the results are no longer there to back him up either. One win in 25 games away from home, a league lowest 28 goals scored this season, two wins from their last 22 fixtures, one from their last 14 in the league, none from their last seven of which six have been lost. As Aston Villa, Wigan and Sunderland suddenly start to pick up form Stoke are precariously placed three points and two places outside the drop zone with five games left to play.

The much maligned style of play was always said to be a means to an end, and with Premier League status secure and occasional lengthy cup runs who was to argue? Now it’s not only dreadful to watch, it’s also no longer effective in picking up points. Stoke could be at few better grounds to try and end their dreadful run away from home and post some much needed points this weekend – QPR have won just twice at Loftus Road this season – but they’re in trouble regardless of the result here and it may be that the days of Pulis-ball are numbered.

Few tears will be shed if that does turn out to be the case.

Interview

A pair of worried Stokies, David and Mark, join us for this week’s interview reflecting on an increasingly dire situation at the Britannia Stadium. Thanks to both for their time.

Sunderland and Villa suddenly picking up, not the ideal time for Stoke to be in this sort of form, are you going to be the third relegated team? What's the mood like among the fans?

David: It's not looking great for us. We're looking like a team that has forgotten how to win, so there is a very strong chance that we'll be joining you and Reading in the Championship next season. It is really hard to judge though, Wigan are slightly adrift at the moment but they do this every season. I'm quietly confident of survival, but this is based on hope more than anything. The mood is not great, Tony Pulis is getting the majority of the flack, but we'll have to start getting behind the team otherwise it could turn really nasty.

Mark: It’s been going downhill for a long time so it’s not just about form. The warning signs have been there for nearly two seasons now and for many this is just the chickens coming home to roost. We have been told in the recent past by the national media that we were ungrateful when flagging all this up weeks ago but they’ve now stopped saying it now the reality is all too evident. The official line from the club is that our recent form is a blip but many of us consider that the six week period in November and December in which we picked up 20 points while Peter Crouch was injured was the real blip. Most people are still behind the team however and I think if we can get 38 points or more, the fact that Wigan play Villa in the final game will be enough to keep us up.

What do you put this season's struggles down to?

Mark: Almost totally the manager. He has been backed to the hilt financially – we are the fourth highest spenders in the League over the last five years – and his job has been totally secure thanks to his relationship with chairman Peter Coates. We can all speculate as to what the specific problems are but we’ve been going backwards rapidly since the FA Cup Final in 2011. Everybody knows the criticism of the way we play but essentially his approach is to play a percentage game and, as he always says, ‘hope something drops’. We routinely start games with several players out of position . Against Manchester United last week five of the ten outfield players were out of position. He also persists with particular players regardless of form, especially current crowd whipping boy Jon Walters. It’s unforgiveable given the money he’s spent. He’s got away with it while expectations were limited and results good, but the poor results have laid his failings bare.

David: Not scoring nearly enough goals. The manager has to take responsibility for this, he's been banging on about us needing "a bit of luck" but when you're starting games with Ryan Shotton on the wing you're asking trouble. There has been no decent service to the strikers all season really, Etherington is on the decline as a footballer and Kightly is just dreadful. Pennant has been forced out, leaving no other wingers at the club, so it's no surprise we're not scoring and not winning games we otherwise would. The attacking play since the new year has been altogether dreadful.

We've heard increasing criticism of Pulis coming from the Stoke support in recent weeks. Has he run his course at the Britannia? Are the majority for or against him? Are there any stand out potential replacements?

David: I would say the end of the season would definitely be time for Pulis to step down, regardless of whether or not we stay up. I'll always love him for what he's managed to achieve but the football has been on the whole atrocious since we lost the FA Cup final. He has spent a hell of a lot of money and rather than "evolving" the style of football we've gone backwards. As for replacements, the ideal candidate would be somebody like Roberto Di Matteo, but on a more realistic level I want anyone who can turn is into a side that you look forward to go and see. I'm not expecting Barcelona, but more than a couple of shots on target at away games isn't too much to ask.

Mark: His time is up for most people but then we don’t get to decide so his position may still be secure. If he is going to be asked to turn things around it will have to happen quickly next season. He has never enjoyed a good relationship with supporters, cancelled meet the manager evenings early on and has frustrated even the diehards with his totally negative approach to away games. Many haven’t forgiven him for fielding a second string team against Valencia in the Europa League and didn’t even bother to take a full complement for the subs bench. You can get away with a poor relationship with supporters for so long, until things go wrong then it comes to the surface. As for replacements, I think it’s always hard to say because you never know the chemistry until the manager is working in the club. Wishful thinkers argue for Rafa Benitez but I can see it being either Alex McLeish or Martin O’Neill which may get us nowhere. I would hope for somebody like Gus Poyet but that’s also a risk. Something needs to change however.

Who have been the star performers this season? Where are the weak links in the team and squad?

Mark: Player of the season has been Asmir Begovic. Huth and Shawcross haven’t performed to their usual standard but have still been good. Marc Wilson is not really a left back but has performed well when not injured. Steven N’Zonzi started well then faded. Most have underperformed but then many are being asked to play in unfamiliar roles and as part of a rigid system. Our two first choice central midfielders are yet to score this season in the League but then again they’re not required to. Jon Walters gets stick but he runs his heart out whatever he is asked to do and is rarely played in his best position. Overall there’s not much wrong with the squad that couldn’t be fixed by playing people in the right positions and with a positive approach as we showed when we murdered Liverpool at Christmas. But that team hasn’t been seen since for some reason. In my opinion the weakest link is Peter Crouch but that’s because he doesn’t fit with the way we play, not because of his quality as a player. When we play with Ryan Shotton (a right back) and Jon Walters out of position on the wings, what hope do we have of providing him with service?

David: The star performers are limited to the defenders. Asmir Begovic is one of the best keepers in the league, and I hope we can get a sizeable for him when he eventually leaves. Huth and Shawcross have been consistently brilliant since they signed for us, they've got a bad reputation outside of Stoke-On-Trent, but I wouldn't swap them for many other centre half pairings. Marc Wilson, playing out of position at left back is always missed when he doesn't play. N'Zonzi looked phenomenal at the start of the season but he's struggling for form a bit at the moment. The weak links are on the wings as I mentioned, Ryan Shotton is an ok championship defender, but he's nowhere close to being a winger. Walters and Crouch haven't been very good this season, but you can only do so much with such poor service.

How would relegation affect the club and the squad? Would you be well set to bounce straight back?

David: I wouldn't be too confident about bouncing straight back up, I think relegation would see us lose the important core of our team (Begovic, Shawcross, Huth, N'Zonzi) and if they went we wouldn't be left with much to be confident about promotion. It would depend on the who the manager is too, Pulis has taken us up once before and we are a well financed side, but I have my doubts as to whether he could do it again. Relegation would be more of a disaster for us than it would for yo-yo sides like West Brom, because it was so unexpected at the start of the season. We could finish anywhere in the top 15 of the Championship, depending on the manager and who we could sign.

Mark: Who knows? The Championship always looks like a complete free for all to me. Theoretically, yes. But we’d have to deal with the players we have, many of them aging and on high wages with a relegation on their CV.

If you do stay up, what needs to be done to make things less twitchy next season?

Mark: New manager. If he is to stay with the blessing of the Chairman, he must be given a very clear understanding of what is acceptable, the consequences for failure and how much time he has. The crowd will turn very quickly next year.

David: We need to sign attacking players, especially wingers, who are good enough for the Premier League and play them in their correct positions, and we need to have way more ambition than we do away from home. We've been in the Premier League for five seasons, why are we still trying to hold out for nil-nil draws at places like Carrow Road and Villa Park? Sadly, I don't think Tony Pulis is really capable of doing this as he's just not that kind of manager, so getting a new manager in would definitely relax the majority of the fans.

Scout Report

Stoke’s style of play under Tony Pulis (if indeed it can be called a ‘style’) is infamous, and wins them few friends. The problem is, these days it’s winning them even fewer points. The problem, to an outsider looking in, seems to be that Stoke have become even more one dimensional, and therefore predictable, this season than they were before.

Now that may seem hard to believe given their reliance on long throws, corners and set pieces prior to this campaign but there has been a change in the wide midfield area for the 2012/13 season which has done them no good at all. Stoke always played a long ball game with a physical defence and strike force essentially punting the ball between themselves over a midfield containing distinctly average players like Glenn Whelan and Rory Delap. But in addition to that they did pose a speedy, tricky threat in wide areas with Jermaine Pennant on one wing and Matthew Etherington on the other. It meant that when the long balls weren’t working there was an attacking outlet on both sides they could use instead, and even when the direct game was bearing fruit there was also quality service coming in from wide areas.

Now in October and November last season Newcastle and QPR both went up to the Britannia Stadium and worked out how Stoke – previously imperious on their own patch – could be beaten. By doubling up against the two wingers Stoke could be forced to play entirely down the middle of the park. By then pushing the defence very high up the field the long balls would simply drop into the space left in behind where Pulis didn’t have an attacker quick enough to take advantage. Rangers and Newcastle both won 3-2 in the Potteries. Whether that was the reason for a change this season, or whether there has been a deliberate change at all, is unclear but Stoke no longer pose that threat in wide areas.

Etherington has had a poor season by his recent standards while Pennant has fallen down the pecking order to such an extent that he has spent most of the season on loan in the division below. I haven’t seen a lot of Pennant this term, but I look at Stoke and struggle to believe they couldn’t do with him, or at least somebody like him, to pose some sort of attacking threat in a wide area. Certainly Ryan Shotton is no kind of winger and this looks a team chronically short of attacking intent and speed. Michael Kightly, a summer arrival from Wolves who initially replaced Pennant on the wing, remains a shadow of the player he was before that serious injury picked up two years ago.

When I saw Stoke recently at Everton they played an incredibly narrow set up, almost a conventional 4-3-3 with Peter Crouch, Jon Walters and Cameron Jerome tightly packed together in attack. Now Crouch and Jerome would certainly stand a better chance of making an impact attacking decent service from wide but behind them stood a midfield three of Shotton, Whelen and N’Zonzi. With Geoff Cameron and Marc Wilson the full backs – neither in their recognised positions – Everton needn’t have bothered cutting the grass to the left and right of the centre circle. Stoke’s front three were serviced exclusively with long balls down the middle of the field – David Moyes had seen this coming and changed his own formation so he could field three centre halves – Distin, Jagielka, Heitinga – against the Stoke trio man for man. I don’t think Stoke would have scored in that game if it was still taking place now nearly three weeks later.

One goal in 25 appearances for the usually reasonably prolific Crouch shows that the system isn’t even working for the person who, physically, would appear best suited to it. Even as a lanky teenager at QPR Crouch was always better attacking crosses than flicking on long balls and that remains the case today. Pulis’ total abandonment of the wide areas as a means of attack is perplexing.

The only threat they posed in the Everton game came from set pieces. The Toffees were guilty of being sucked deep into their penalty area to deal with long throws and wide free kicks – for which Huth, Crouch and others queue up at the far post – and leaving Whelan alone and unmarked on the edge of the area in a position to get clear strikes on goal when clearing headers drop to him.

But really, generally speaking, Rangers will not face a team as limited in attack as this all season. In fact even Harry Redknapp’s beleaguered lot have scored more goals in the league this season (29) than Stoke (28) who have just one win from their last 25 away matches.

Links >>> Official Website >>>  The Oatcake Forum >>> Stoke Mad forum and site >>> Stoke Sentinal

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TacticalR added 16:52 - Apr 19 Thanks to David and Mark. Perhaps we are witnessing the death of the POMO school? As there are less POMO managers, and more possession football, the remaining POMO managers are getting squeezed. In other words, POMO only worked against other POMO teams.
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isawqpratwcity added 13:22 - Apr 20 Good read, Clive. Their 'long ball' strategy seems to fit our last game.
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