[aries22]

I advocated Pulis’s appointment immediately he left Crystal Palace in August 2015 but I now want him to go. I think it was Beefy who a few pages ago that Pulis lacks imagination and bottle and is out of his depth with flair players to work with. Spot on, especially imagination and flair. None whatsoever. And scared stiff to take eminently winnable games and game situations (2-0 up against Watford) to the opposition. Only West Ham last season (4-2) stands out.
City will thrash Albion, and surely then that and the next game will be enough for our chairman and owners to act. I haven’t seen anything from our chairman, in fact, but then I don’t keep tabs on the West Midlands local press, so I don’t know if he’s said anything.
But 30% possession every game and sitting back and defend, defend, defend, defend, concede, lose (as someone so accurately described it) is not acceptable from any team in one of the world’s best and most-watched leagues. To not have a proper go from the first whistle is not acceptable. Like many others on here, I am turned off by Albion now, and that’s a really bad sign.

[BaggieMan]

Double ‘Like’ from me Aries if we had a button.

As you well know, I was anti-Pulis from even before Day One and campaigned against his appointment. I wasn’t saying I was smarter than the pro-Pulis boys who saw him as a some sort of god blinded by his short time at Palace. It was just that living where I do, I perhaps saw more locally what he did at Stoke.

I can only hope and pray that the contagious disease of anti-football he brought with him is quickly eradicated although, even today, he still divides Stoke City.

I only hope that the owner, the Chairman and CEO are strong and forward thinking enough to act and to act now before it’s too late and we fall into the abyss.

[4evaabaggie]

Baggieman, I know you are and always have been anti TP, but to continually attack other Albion fans for giving him a chance, he came in to do a job and he did it, he hasn't taking it on further. No one on here has said he is a God or been blinded by his past, good or bad. He was limited by the squad we had and the poor transfer Windows, that said he has failed to cover positions where we are inadequate, played players out of position and now has continued down his route even with better players available. I will not call for an Albion managers head but I will no longer try to justify why he should stay or excuse his shortcomings.
Not having a go at you BM, just asking you to not aim so much bile towards other Albion fans after all, we all want the same thing, a premier league title with our name on and to be champions of europe. Although I would settle for entertaining football.

[Beefy 1965]

Kicking off on Twitter big time
Just found this on here from a x journo

Let me start my stating that I believe Tony Pulis is the best thing to happen to West Brom since Gary Megson, for reasons I’ve laid out endlessly before, and won’t go into again here. I stand by everything I have said.

Furthermore I still think most of the people who don’t like him never wanted to like him and had no intention of ever giving him a chance. The venom directed at him has been disproportionate and wholly unfair – a mixture of naivety, blind hysteria, and in some cases willful ignorance. I don’t stand with those people, and I never will.

But even I, a disciple of Tony Pulis, am losing faith in his methods.
The Southampton performance was indefensible. To set up to draw against teams of that calibre – teams below you in the league, inferior teams, with the team we have, the team Pulis deserves huge credit for building, is baffling.

The same can be said of the display at Leicester on Monday night, of West Ham at home and Brighton away.

I agree with Tony Pulis when he says it is ‘fine margins’ in the Premier League. It is. But we should have been home and dry at Leicester – another poor team where, like Southampton, the manager is facing the sack.

We were never going to score from open play at St Mary’s because frankly we weren’t trying to. The same can be said of the goalless draw at home to West Ham – another inferior team with a manager under pressure.

I am a huge admirer of Pulis. He was exactly what we needed in 2015 and despite the charges of playing boring, rigid football, I have always urged the naysayers to see the bigger picture.

He inherited a mess, on and off the pitch, and the turnaround has been swift and successful. For every season he has been our manager, we would have got relegated if someone else was in charge. I am convinced of that. He has cleared out the dross and replaced it with the most talented squad I’ve ever seen at the Albion. It is a half-decent striker-short of being very, very good.

He oversaw the most impressive transfer window at West Brom since Gary Megson purchased Butler, Clement, Lyttle, Santos and Taylor and kept us up.

Yet he’s managing it like it’s still rubbish. This squad can play, it has pace, it can pass. They are good footballers, but it’s like Pulis only sees fighters – battling for that precious point, keeping the opposition at bay – without thinking that maybe it’s the opposition that should be worrying about us.

Where was the goal going to come from on Saturday? A set-piece? I’ve never been one of those fans who mock us for scoring lots of goals from corners (a goal is a goal is a goal…) but this team is so much more capable of solely relying on that.

The level of caution in his team selections is reckless. It is failing because it doesn’t make sense.

Chadli is not a winger, neither is Rodriguez. Rondon is not good enough, yet the one thing (the only thing) he has going for him is he can score headers in the box – so play wingers. If you insist on playing Rondon, you have to play Phillips, or Brunt, or McClean.

Do you really need to play 3 holding midfielders? No. Not when two of them are very good and you have Chadli and Morrison. No one is bringing the ball out. Rondon won’t hold it up, ever, so there’s no point in continuously knocking it up to him. Why buy Rodriguez and play him out of position?

Playing for a point in most games makes sense when all you have going for you is hard work and organisation. But it’s an insult to treat this set of players, the players you bought in, the same as the ones they’ve replaced. What was the point in buying them if we aren’t going to change?

What worried me about last night was this post-match comment: ”Second half we changed it and had a lot more chances.”

No we didn’t. We really didn’t.

Rodriguez had one chance, and he should have done much better (he needs to better, full stop). Chadli had a pop shot from 20 yards which the keeper should save.

But that was it.

I worry when a manager isn’t honest. Pulis has been very honest about our shortcomings in the past. It’s one of the reasons I like him. The shortcomings at the moment though are his, and what worries me most is Pulis means it when he says ‘we created a lot more chances.’ That he actually believes it.

Above all, my biggest fear is Pulis just doesn’t have different gear to go. This is what he does, who he is, and it won’t change, because he doesn’t know how to. I want to be wrong. I really do.

[talkSAFT]

"............he has failed to cover positions where we are inadequate "

Can someone tell for sure what John Williams' role is.

What say does the HC have in transfers?
Does CEO attend training sessions (to understand why our attacks consist of a boot upfield and then give no support to the frontman (if he manages to control it)? Does he challenge HC's fall-outs with players such as Chadli, Phillips, Pocognoli, etc?

[drewks]

Kicking off on Twitter big time
Just found this on here from a x journo

Let me start my stating that I believe Tony Pulis is the best thing to happen to West Brom since Gary Megson, for reasons I’ve laid out endlessly before, and won’t go into again here. I stand by everything I have said.

Furthermore I still think most of the people who don’t like him never wanted to like him and had no intention of ever giving him a chance. The venom directed at him has been disproportionate and wholly unfair – a mixture of naivety, blind hysteria, and in some cases willful ignorance. I don’t stand with those people, and I never will.

But even I, a disciple of Tony Pulis, am losing faith in his methods.
The Southampton performance was indefensible. To set up to draw against teams of that calibre – teams below you in the league, inferior teams, with the team we have, the team Pulis deserves huge credit for building, is baffling.

The same can be said of the display at Leicester on Monday night, of West Ham at home and Brighton away.

I agree with Tony Pulis when he says it is ‘fine margins’ in the Premier League. It is. But we should have been home and dry at Leicester – another poor team where, like Southampton, the manager is facing the sack.

We were never going to score from open play at St Mary’s because frankly we weren’t trying to. The same can be said of the goalless draw at home to West Ham – another inferior team with a manager under pressure.

I am a huge admirer of Pulis. He was exactly what we needed in 2015 and despite the charges of playing boring, rigid football, I have always urged the naysayers to see the bigger picture.

He inherited a mess, on and off the pitch, and the turnaround has been swift and successful. For every season he has been our manager, we would have got relegated if someone else was in charge. I am convinced of that. He has cleared out the dross and replaced it with the most talented squad I’ve ever seen at the Albion. It is a half-decent striker-short of being very, very good.

He oversaw the most impressive transfer window at West Brom since Gary Megson purchased Butler, Clement, Lyttle, Santos and Taylor and kept us up.

Yet he’s managing it like it’s still rubbish. This squad can play, it has pace, it can pass. They are good footballers, but it’s like Pulis only sees fighters – battling for that precious point, keeping the opposition at bay – without thinking that maybe it’s the opposition that should be worrying about us.

Where was the goal going to come from on Saturday? A set-piece? I’ve never been one of those fans who mock us for scoring lots of goals from corners (a goal is a goal is a goal…) but this team is so much more capable of solely relying on that.

The level of caution in his team selections is reckless. It is failing because it doesn’t make sense.

Chadli is not a winger, neither is Rodriguez. Rondon is not good enough, yet the one thing (the only thing) he has going for him is he can score headers in the box – so play wingers. If you insist on playing Rondon,  you have to play Phillips, or Brunt, or McClean.

Do you really need to play 3 holding midfielders? No. Not when two of them are very good and you have Chadli and Morrison. No one is bringing the ball out. Rondon won’t hold it up, ever, so there’s no point in continuously knocking it up to him. Why buy Rodriguez and play him out of position?

Playing for a point in most games makes sense when all you have going for you is hard work and organisation. But it’s an insult to treat this set of players, the players you bought in, the same as the ones they’ve replaced. What was the point in buying them if we aren’t going to change?

What worried me about last night was this post-match comment: ”Second half we changed it and had a lot more chances.”

No we didn’t. We really didn’t.

Rodriguez had one chance, and he should have done much better (he needs to better, full stop). Chadli had a pop shot from 20 yards which the keeper should save.

But that was it.

I worry when a manager isn’t honest. Pulis has been very honest about our shortcomings in the past. It’s one of the reasons I like him. The shortcomings at the moment though are his, and what worries me most is Pulis means it when he says ‘we created a lot more chances.’ That he actually believes it.

Above all, my biggest fear is Pulis just doesn’t have different gear to go. This is what he does, who he is, and it won’t change, because he doesn’t know how to. I want to be wrong. I really do.

IMHO spot on. Very good post

---

(Hasn't this become a "Tony Pulis" thread now, stairs?)

It'll be interesting to see what (if any) reaction there is from TP regarding the team he picks, and the way they're set up, next. It's a shame that it's Man City.....maybe we should be more interested in the game after that one. Tbh I won't be expecting any change - there's a danger that he'll go even MORE defensive, if that's possible.
Like so many others, I'm sort of mothballing my interest at the moment, hoping that I'll open up the BBC football site soon and see that he's left.

[BaggieMan]

Perhaps we should have a new ‘Tony Pulis’ thread.
Ronnie Koeman is given his P45.... is it catching?
Mark Hughes maybe next and perhaps we could send Uncle Tone back to Sjoke were he belongs.

---

[quote='4evaabaggie'
Baggieman, I know you are and always have been anti TP, but to continually attack other Albion fans for giving him a chance,
Not having a go at you BM, just asking you to not aim so much bile towards other Albion fans

Bit harsh 4eva...  I don't recall ever actively attacking any individual who backed Pulis or ever aiming any bile at them.  I have always said that he was regarded as a saviour when he was appointed and that ideology continued Window after Window with the reasoning that he should be given chance to build his OWN team which he has now done and, in my opinion, we are no better off now or possibly even worse, than when he first came.

It is an identical scenario to that at Stoke - he can't take that extra step higher and causes disharmony within the club and its fans. That is one of the reasons I never wanted him in the first place and never will.

[GlassEyedBomber]

Would you take Koeman instead?

[Sir Megson]

Perhaps we should have a new ‘Tony Pulis’ thread.
Ronnie Koeman is given his P45.... is it catching?
Mark Hughes maybe next and perhaps we could send Uncle Tone back to Sjoke were he belongs.

---

[quote='4evaabaggie'
Baggieman, I know you are and always have been anti TP, but to continually attack other Albion fans for giving him a chance,
Not having a go at you BM, just asking you to not aim so much bile towards other Albion fans

Bit harsh 4eva...  I don't recall ever actively attacking any individual who backed Pulis or ever aiming any bile at them.  I have always said that he was regarded as a saviour when he was appointed and that ideology continued Window after Window with the reasoning that he should be given chance to build his OWN team which he has now done and, in my opinion, we are no better off now or possibly even worse, than when he first came.

It is an identical scenario to that at Stoke - he can't take that extra step higher and causes disharmony within the club and its fans. That is one of the reasons I never wanted him in the first place and never will.

As someone who only read this site for some time before joining recently, you were definitely the most anti Pulis poster on here and were very passionate in your hatred of the bloke - not that that's a criticism of you at all BM, far from it. We're all quite right within our own opinions because that's what makes football so great. Opinions. If it was just a simple sport and only "kicking a bag of wind about" like you hear from some people who don't follow or like football, there wouldn't be so many supporters of clubs the world over, each one as passionate about the whole thing as the next person. Every single thing is important at a Football Club, and there are those that don't understand the intricacies of what makes us supporters tick.

On reflection it's fair to say that you hated the bloke from day one, others we're willing to give him a chance due to the state our playing squad was in after some dreadful management before him - the biggest culprit being Dave McDonough in my opinion. Quite often a name that doesn't get mentioned on here, too. Very nearly the catalyst for our relegation in hindsight considering the awful signings during his time.

I do think it's a little harsh to perceive the exaggerated view of fans as seeing Pulis as a saviour or god - I don't think anyone in their right mind would use those words when describing him. What he did was steady the ship and keep us up. Not that he was the only manager that could  have done it however, but being as fair as possible we do have to acknowledge that he did achieve what he was brought in to do, like the bloke or not.

The current run of form added to some head scratching team selections and dreadful entertainment are three nails in his coffin, get any closer to the bottom three than we are already and the final nail will be there as well as the board will surely act. Will they show ambition and appoint a top manager? Time will tell.

---

Would you take Koeman instead?

Absolutely. I can see why he had the sack from Everton, but I can also see him using the players we have better than what they're being utilized right now.

Would he want to come here is the question?

[Bournemouth Baggie]

Any chance whereby we can arrange a game where we play against ourselves, lose and hope the curse strikes so he’s sacked in the morning