[Tom_Wba]

I'd rather just sign players who are great at their positions despite what height they are if he's looking at tall players then we're missing out on a big slice of the market by avoiding players below a certain height...If its true its ridiculous to be honest!

[May68]

Agree with Saft. TP is not adapting to fit our squad, but adapting our squad to fit with his own style.  It's not just the full back situation, but also his predilection for a rigid 442 when we only have two fit strikers, but an abundance of decent central midfielders.  This means we can't make an attacking change from the bench, and also means the two strikers are running on fumes at the end.  I think we can get away with this in the games where we score first as we can just bring defenders off the bench, but it makes us incapable of chasing a game.     

Rather than looking at the half a season he had at Palace, let's look at the 8 or so years he had at Stoke. He crafted them (at great expense) into a team of very tall plodders who fouled and time-wasted from the first minute and who relied predominately on set pieces for their goals.  I honestly think he will do the same with us given time.  Thankfully we haven't started breaking legs yet, but I wasn't happy to see Foster's blatant and excessive time-wasting in recent games.  I hope I'm wrong about this, and if we sign a bunch of 5'6" soft-footed maestros from the continent over the summer I'll concede I'm wrong.    

[Slick_Footwork]

Agree with Saft. TP is not adapting to fit our squad, but adapting our squad to fit with his own style.  It's not just the full back situation, but also his predilection for a rigid 442 when we only have two fit strikers, but an abundance of decent central midfielders.  This means we can't make an attacking change from the bench, and also means the two strikers are running on fumes at the end.  I think we can get away with this in the games where we score first as we can just bring defenders off the bench, but it makes us incapable of chasing a game.     

Rather than looking at the half a season he had at Palace, let's look at the 8 or so years he had at Stoke. He crafted them (at great expense) into a team of very tall plodders who fouled and time-wasted from the first minute and who relied predominately on set pieces for their goals.  I honestly think he will do the same with us given time.  Thankfully we haven't started breaking legs yet, but I wasn't happy to see Foster's blatant and excessive time-wasting in recent games.  I hope I'm wrong about this, and if we sign a bunch of 5'6" soft-footed maestros from the continent over the summer I'll concede I'm wrong.    

You do realise that the team of 'tall plodders' he left at Stoke was an established
Premier League side? The Stoke he took over was a side facing a relegation battle
in the Championship?

Don't get me wrong - I'm a purist and while I never liked Stoke's style or anti football
in general (which is rife across the whole Premier League from top to bottom), some
of this criticism doesn't seem right.

I don't think TP is a the type of manager who's going to win you a title if you give him
a boatload of cash, but he's the type to keep sides in this league and get a lot out of
limited playing personnel.

We very much fall into that limited category.

He wasn't pulled in here to turn us into a side playing sexy football. He was pulled in
point blank to win some home games and keep us up. And barring a miracle, he's done
it with flying colours.

Prior to his arrival, we'd won about 4-5 games in 2 years at home? The Newcastle
game (last year) and Villa (this season) were both 1-0 wins after sending's off.

He's turned us into a side that can compete with anybody at home and stop teams
around us taking 3 points off us at their patch. At home, we've beaten a Southampton
side who came off the back of 5 away wins on the bounce, a Stoke side who are
formidable away and always beat us, and wiped the floor with a West Ham side that
beat us on our own patch under the previous regime.

Maybe we should've put 8 past West Ham and beaten the likes of Swansea, Saints and
Stoke much more convincingly. But from what I can see, his 'rigid 4-4-2' seems to be
working okay with what we've got. Can't see how anything else could've yielded much
better results.

As for Foster, he's always been a time waster. it's something that he did at Blues for
McLeish and has never stopped doing. If you watched him here in the Hodgson era, it
was terrible sometimes. The only reason he's stopped doing it in the last few years
is because we were barely ever leading in a game...

[BaggyBomber]

Another well-reasoned post, Slick, and absolutely spot on. However, some are just set against TP and no matter what he does will not be good enough. Be interesting to learn what their solution to avoiding our nailed-on relegation would have been, if any.

[bomberbrown1968]

Agree with Saft. TP is not adapting to fit our squad, but adapting our squad to fit with his own style.  It's not just the full back situation, but also his predilection for a rigid 442 when we only have two fit strikers, but an abundance of decent central midfielders.  This means we can't make an attacking change from the bench, and also means the two strikers are running on fumes at the end.  I think we can get away with this in the games where we score first as we can just bring defenders off the bench, but it makes us incapable of chasing a game.     

Rather than looking at the half a season he had at Palace, let's look at the 8 or so years he had at Stoke. He crafted them (at great expense) into a team of very tall plodders who fouled and time-wasted from the first minute and who relied predominately on set pieces for their goals.  I honestly think he will do the same with us given time.  Thankfully we haven't started breaking legs yet, but I wasn't happy to see Foster's blatant and excessive time-wasting in recent games.  I hope I'm wrong about this, and if we sign a bunch of 5'6" soft-footed maestros from the continent over the summer I'll concede I'm wrong.    



There is an old saying that if you haven't got anything good to say, don't say anything at all.

And while I love to read differing opinions I don't always have to agree with them. 

1-0 up against Southampton with 3 unexpected vital points at stake, I'd have taken the ball into every corner, cleaned it before every throw in, gone down with cramp and whatever it took to waste time. Remember Cardiff last year - 3-2 up and looking to score a 4th...................

The "haven't started breaking legs yet" comment doesn't even warrant a reply, but here goes - pointless, cheap, crass and ill thought   

[BaggyBomber]

Agree with Saft. TP is not adapting to fit our squad, but adapting our squad to fit with his own style.  It's not just the full back situation, but also his predilection for a rigid 442 when we only have two fit strikers, but an abundance of decent central midfielders.  This means we can't make an attacking change from the bench, and also means the two strikers are running on fumes at the end.  I think we can get away with this in the games where we score first as we can just bring defenders off the bench, but it makes us incapable of chasing a game.     

Rather than looking at the half a season he had at Palace, let's look at the 8 or so years he had at Stoke. He crafted them (at great expense) into a team of very tall plodders who fouled and time-wasted from the first minute and who relied predominately on set pieces for their goals.  I honestly think he will do the same with us given time.  Thankfully we haven't started breaking legs yet, but I wasn't happy to see Foster's blatant and excessive time-wasting in recent games.  I hope I'm wrong about this, and if we sign a bunch of 5'6" soft-footed maestros from the continent over the summer I'll concede I'm wrong.    



There is an old saying that if you haven't got anything good to say, don't say anything at all.

And while I love to read differing opinions I don't always have to agree with them. 

1-0 up against Southampton with 3 unexpected vital points at stake, I'd have taken the ball into every corner, cleaned it before every throw in, gone down with cramp and whatever it took to waste time. Remember Cardiff last year - 3-2 up and looking to score a 4th...................

The "haven't started breaking legs yet" comment doesn't even warrant a reply, but here goes - pointless, cheap, crass and ill thought   

Totally agree.

[Stairs]

Half full or half empty, Pro TP or not. The proof will be in the pudding. We should put these threads into a time capsule and review them again this time next season.

[talkSAFT]

Half full or half empty, Pro TP or not. The proof will be in the pudding. We should put these threads into a time capsule and review them again this time next season.

Good idea for a thread, Stairs.
Perhaps someone can resurrect last year's postings, eg:

"ONE YEAR AGO TODAY..............
'talkSAFT' was saying Pepe Mel is doing a grand job, but so is Pulis at Crystal Palace.
'WBAMad' replied he'd rather have Pepe any day of the week."

etc etc

[Tom_Wba]

Just to throw another slant on it regarding the height of players Pulis likes Martin Olsson who we nearly signed is only 5 ft 11 so perhaps we shouldn't automatically expect the complete back 4 to all be 6ft+ next season

[drewks]

Just to throw another slant on it regarding the height of players Pulis likes Martin Olsson who we nearly signed is only 5 ft 11 so perhaps we shouldn't automatically expect the complete back 4 to all be 6ft+ next season

5ft 11?? Is that in his heels?