Who Should Take The Blame?

My last post was about Stoke's poor away form. 

I'd like to announce that our form has got better since then, but I would be lying. Stoke's last three matches (including yesterday) is L-L-L. 

One of those loses were at home, against West Ham. 

West Ham, beating us at our fortress. Something's not right, something doesn't add up. There is blame to dish out and it must fall to someone. After the West Ham match, the blame was fired in Pulis' direction. 

The sound of boos and sarcastic cheers echoed around The Brit at the end of the 90 minutes. 

In the post match press conference he was asked what he thought of the fans turning against him and questioning his decisions.

Well those that do question him/turn against him/boo him are not very sensible according to Pulis. 

This is not how you win your fans around. Take note wannabe football managers. 

-----

So, yesterday happened. Another away loss. 

At one point, I thought all 3 points were ours. Jonny Walters put his penalty in the bottom left hand corner, as cool as you'd like. I'll admit I haven't been that nervous for a penalty for a long time. This is the man that has missed his last 2 penalties. 

Obviously I was ecstatic that the goal went it, I was ecstatic for Jonny Walters. I was ecstatic for the 600 fans who turned up to St James' Park. 

But then, Glenn Whelan gave away a free kick in a dangerous area. Cabaye steps up, and sweetly knocks it into the top corner. Begovic had no chance, whether Steven Taylor was putting him off or not, Cabaye nailed it. 

Back to 1-1. Whelan knew he was in the wrong. And if I was Pulis, I would have swapped him for Charlie Adam long before then. Surely now was the time to bring Charlie Adam on?

Nope! We parked the bus! 

We sat back for the remainder of the game, not pushing forward, sloppy passes, more Whelan errors, more shouting from Pulis 'GO ON JON, GO ON JON, CHASE HIM DOWN JON'. 

In the 90th minute Charlie Adam was ready to come on, 5 seconds later he was sitting back down in his seat. 

I honestly don't know why that happened, and I'm pretty sure Charlie Adam and Tony Pulis didn't know what was going on. I honestly believe Pulis was more than happy to walk away with the point rather than try and get the 3. 

In the 93rd minute, another defensive error by the centre back who's not a centre back cost us the game, as Cisse was played onside and he neatly slotted in the winner. 

So where does the blame lie? Is it with the manager for his poor substitutions/lack of the 'correct' substitutions? Playing the players in unfamiliar positions? Playing the wrong formation and sitting too defensively rather than go for the win?

Or is it with the players? Should they be passing more fluidly rather than route 1 football? Should they be aiming to score, and going for the win?

Or maybe, are we just not good enough?

It could be worse...

It's no secret that Stoke's away record in the Premiership is dire.

This season, we have only won one away game, and that was against West Brom in December. However, some Stoke fans think this is a given result as "We always beat West Brom".  It's also no secret that just recently Stoke's performances have also been dire. Fans are getting annoyed with the manager, the players, and with each other.

So prior to today's match against Fulham, our away record was being questioned by the media, and Fulham fans felt confident that they had the 3 points in the bag before the game had kicked off.

90 minutes later, Fulham gained the 3 points.

But you can't deny (whether you support Stoke or not) that this is a fantastic strike from Berbatov, and to be fair, it was fully deserved in the first half.

We started ever so strong, we could have been 1-0 within 10 minutes if Jonny Walters passed the ball to Matthew Etherington just a second sooner. But that was the only positive bit of play in the first half from Stoke City. 

The second half started better for us, it looked like Pulis has given the boys a bollocking in the dressing room during the interval.

And then on the 55th minute the gimmer of hope was there.

Fulham's Dejagah had put his arms up in the air like he was at a rave, whilst the ball was rushing towards him, Blatant handball, blatant penalty, which was awarded to Stoke.

Up steps up Jonny Walters, I could only think of that missed penalty against Chelsea when he was walking backwards to take his run up.

But alas, Walters penalty kick was poor and it was easily saved by Mark Schwarzer.

After this incident, there just seemed to be no fire power behind Stoke. Bringing on Kenwyne Jones 70 minutes too late was not enough. 

The final whistle goes, and my twitter feed erupts. 

But it was strange. Something was different after this loss.

All of the Stoke fans seemed to be in unison. For the first time in a long time, there was no argument among the fans

"We're getting tired of this Pulis"

Some want him out now, some want him out at the end of the season. Normally, I adore Pulis, he's done great things with the club, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to defend him.

He has to drop Walters and leave him on the bench at some point, he has to learn that people have 'off' days, and Walters had had too many 'off'' days for him to constantly start and to constantly stay on the pitch for the full 90 minutes, despite the fact that he always puts in 100%.

We all know that Pulis will select Walters to start next week against West Ham United (in another home match that we NEED to win). 

However, I'm slightly concerned that Robert Huth and Steven N'Zonzi won't be availble for selection next week due to their antics on the field. Huth knows better that he can't put his elbow up in the face of people whilst trying to attack from a corner. 

And N'Zonzi was extremely lucky to only pick up a yellow for this incident.

Today, Stoke were poor. No Stoke fan can defend that performance. And as always, the blame is put on the manager.

So, over to you Tone...