#PulisOut? Why the inevitable can’t happen soon enough
It won’t be a surprise that I disagreed with Tony Pulis’ appointment as West Bromwich Albion manager back in January 2015.
Yes, the club was on the brink of calamity.
Yes, we had witnessed systematic mismanagement by the chairman, a series of short-sighted mistakes ultimately culminating in the disaster of Alan Irvine.
Yes, it appeared that without some radical reformation, a strong, no-nonsense leader with a stiff-upper -lip, we would watch our team fall into the abyss, but history could not have been clearer in its lesson that radical times do not always call for radical solutions.
I saw Pulis’ contract as yet another short-sighted mistake. A get-out-of-jail-free card that Jeremy Peace could not resist. And while it seemed to make sense to save Albion from relegation, it would only leave players and fans disgruntled mere months later. I’d like to think my prophesy has come true. Under Pulis we have seen West Brom bumble towards 13th and 14th place Premier League finishes, and while there has admittedly been no threat of relegation, the manner in which this has been ‘achieved’ has been so laboured, so lacking in excitement, so boring, that I can’t stand to watch another season like it. My argument is that this tediousness, this stagnation of our football club can’t end soon enough.
The Pulis Ceiling
At Stoke City, for which his gladiatorial style of football is most remembered (could he do it on a…), Pulis’ best Premier League finish was 11th place back in 09/10. Two seasons later, he took them to Europe off the back of an FA Cup final defeat and a 13th place Premier League finish. It was after a similarly drab 13th place two years later that he and Stoke parted ways. It had not been spectacular, but he established the recently promoted club as a Premier League team.
With West Brom, he has managed 13th and then 14th place respectively. A small regression that, while it may reverse a place or two in coming seasons, will almost certainly see no long-term improvement. Why? Because he’s already hit his ceiling. This is not, I would argue, the result of average transfer spending, nor any growing quality in league opposition. But it is what has kept Pulis as a bottom half manager at Stoke, Crystal Palace and now at Albion. It is rooted in the way he plays football.
Let’s Talk About 4–4–2
If we take a look at Pulis’ 4–4–2 from a tactical point of view, it’s not difficult to see why his teams will always struggle to garner enough wins to finish any higher in the league.
The success of 4–4–2 is that it can be an extremely effective defensive formation in the way it is able to limit space. In Pulis’ system, with often four centre backs and three/four centre midfielders, the aim has been to stop the opposition scoring at all costs. With the seventh best defensive record in the league, you could probably call that a relative success. However as a result, the team’s ability to retain possession and break forward is severely diluted, and the consequent brand of football is horrendously dreary.
Despite its defensive merit, 4-4-2 is difficult to pull off from an offensive standpoint. Unlike 4–2–3–1, 4–3–3, 4–1–2–1–2, it has only three horizontal lines. Defence, midfield and attack. When the ball is won back, there are fewer options going forward for the man on the ball. Essentially, with fewer lines and no ‘number 10’ to link the forward players, the transition from defence to attack has to be much more direct. That is why, traditionally, 4–4–2 has been the go-to ‘long ball’ formation. Goals usually happen on the counter attack, from wingers breaking forward and putting in crosses, or from direct balls over the top to the strikers.
At Albion, the chances of either of these things happening successfully are slim. The evidence lies in the abysmal 34 goals scored last season, the second worse total in the league. And it should come as no surprise considering that since Tony Pulis joined the Baggies, almost every player with offensive flare has been shunned for a more tactically ‘disciplined’ man.
Winger Callum McManaman consistently lost his place to centre midfielder Craig Gardner, the positive left back Sébastien Pocognoli was dropped in favour of centre back Jonas Olsson. There was no effort to play or to keep the exciting winger Silvestre Varela when he was on loan. The most frequently used technical player was Stéphane Sessègnon, who was almost always played out of position and has now been released.
Goals? What are they?
All you need to do to see a good example of 4-4-2 is look at the Premier League Champions Leicester City. Who’d have thought that a team that defends 80% of the time could be so exciting to watch? And what’s the difference? Claudio Ranieri realised, as Pulis seems to have forgotten, you actually need to attack and score goals to win football matches. That is why one will be forever condemned to mediocrity, while the other is drinking Prosecco from the league trophy.
I accept that the quality of the players available makes a tremendous difference, but mentality and philosophy have to come first. Ranieri played attacking players in attacking positions, he understood that a balance of pace and physicality was needed up front to successfully counter attack. He was not relying on Craig Gardner to take players on, nor on Jonas Olsson to be his overloading full back.
It is no great shock that West Brom relied on set-piece goals more than any other team in the league, scoring 37.5% of their total goals from free-kicks and corners. All in all, the above makes for a terribly boring team to watch. When a manager has clearly put no thought into how to score a goal, has no intent to give the fans exciting football, it is nothing short of frustrating.
Boing Boing
West Bromwich Albion probably won’t get relegated under the leadership of Tony Pulis. Not unless the disinterest of the Chairman or the board gets so acute that they stop funding transfers completely. The man has proven that he can galvanise enough of a togetherness, and organise a team sufficiently to stay in the division. If that is as much as you need as a fan, then continue backing him.
But for those of us who have had season tickets, who enjoy not only willing our team to win but watching them play, we implore this apathy to end. It will happen at some point, that much is inevitable. Jeremy Peace does not do long-term managerial appointments. So instead of wasting these next precious years in mediocrity, allowing our manager to invest in dull players that future bosses have to deal with, let’s start the new chapter now. Whether it will be for better or worse, only time will tell. I only ask that it might be exciting.