Source: Team_Talk
Away-day attitude frustrating Stokies
TEAMtalk's Mark Holmes explains why Tony Pulis continues to frustrate Stoke City's supporters during a period of almost unheralded success.[LNB] The following blog is about Stoke City. If you are not interested in the subject matter, then navigate away from this page. Do not read it and then moan that you didn't want to.[LNB]Stoke are very much a club on the up. Ten years ago they were playing in what is now League One, five years ago they were in the Championship and just three years ago they were a handful of games into a Premier League season almost everyone expected to be a disaster.[LNB]Now they are an established top-flight team playing in Europe, expected to do well in the two domestic cups and comfortably finish inside the top half of the league. One high-profile journalist recently suggested they could challenge for a top-four spot, while many others have claimed they are top-six contenders.[LNB]Stoke fans, myself included, always knew those suggestions were ludicrous but we accepted it was a sign of the progress we had made yet again in the transfer window.[LNB]We signed three England internationals in Jonathan Woodgate, Matthew Upson and Peter Crouch; a midfielder in Wilson Palacios that is a clear step up from anyone we have signed previously in that area; and a striker in Cameron Jerome that provides us with the pace we have lacked in Ricardo Fuller's absence.[LNB]While we knew talk of the top six was ridiculous, Stoke fans do expect another season of improvement, evolution and success. We believe the squad is strong enough to do well in all four competitions and we believe our first XI is good enough to beat any side at home and at least the bottom five or six sides away from home.[LNB]Maybe that is wrong. We convince ourselves we haven't got carried away by the positive press, but maybe we have. Away wins in the Premier League are hard to come by for any team and maybe myself and other supporters are getting ahead of ourselves believing we should be winning six games away from the Britannia each season.[LNB]I genuinely don't know whether expectation levels regarding results have risen too high - neutral fans, I'd like to hear your views - but I know for certain that we are entitled to expect better performances away from home.[LNB]Against Manchester United the other week Stoke kept possession well, played football on the floor, attacked in speed and in numbers, and had the Premier League champions rocking at times. We showed no fear whatsoever and came away with a draw that was the least we deserved.[LNB]Against Swansea on Sunday we looked incapable of passing, played kick-and-rush football, attacked slowly and in no great numbers, and never looked like winning the game.[LNB]We are in our fourth season in the Premier League and had drawn with Manchester United and beaten Besiktas in the last week, yet went to newly-promoted Swansea with 10 men behind the ball and the attacking intent of a sloth.[LNB]Tony Pulis said afterwards that we looked the team more likely to score after the first 15 minutes, and I'd agree, but I'm fairly certain Jon Walters' shot that hit the bar was our only effort in the first half. Hardly swashbuckling.[LNB]And don't forget our last away game was a 4-0 defeat at Sunderland. Before that we won at West Brom with our only shot of the game and drew at Norwich with a 93rd-minute equaliser. This is not a knee-jerk reaction; our away performances are simply not acceptable.[LNB]When survival was our only aim, supporters put up with it. Any point on the road was a bonus and how we picked them up didn't really matter to us. [LNB]But it does now. We spent £20million in the summer and have a squad that most would agree is one of the best 10 in the country - so the club can no longer claim to be over-achieving. [LNB]We should be finishing in the top half of the Premier League this season and we should be picking up points regularly away from home. But if we can't do the latter I fear we won't do the former and that is why Pulis is facing arguably the biggest hurdle of his reign to date.[LNB]He got us promoted, he got us established. He turned us into a side that relied on a long throw to a side that can match the champions at home. He transformed the club from one that nobody wanted to join to one that Crouch said was the only one he was willing to leave Tottenham for. [LNB]Yet still, in our fourth season in the Premier League, Pulis has us playing damage limitation football away from home. He would have been delighted with a 0-0 draw at Swansea and has said little to suggest he believes there was any great problem with our performance at the Liberty Stadium.[LNB]Well, as someone who wasted £35 on a ticket and spent 12 hours out of the house to get to South Wales, I can assure you that there was plenty wrong with it.[LNB]But all he needs to change is his own attitude. [LNB]Stop treating every away game like a trip to the Nou Camp and start to have a bit of faith in the players you have spent a lot of money on. Stop hoping for draws and start believing in victories. [LNB]Stop fearing the opposition, Tony, and start to let them fear us.
