Lou Macari: Video nasty no way to get over City's Hammers horror
TONY Pulis will have spent the weekend thinking long and hard about how to approach training this week.
After a home defeat, and when you're struggling for results in general, it's left to the manager to come up with the answers.
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PICTURE THIS: Kenwyne Jones celebrates after scoring against Liverpool at the Britannia Stadium on Boxing Day, a far happier memory than Stoke's recent defeats to Fulham and West Ham.
But what to do with a tricky trip to Newcastle United coming up this Sunday?
Do you have a go at the players, or do you soft soap them to help build up their flagging confidence?
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Do you break the usual routine and give them a treat to help with team bonding, or do you just get out on to the training pitch and put them through their paces?
Or do you take them off to Dubai for a few days in the sun?
That worked a treat for QPR last week after they returned home and got a result at Southampton, but I'm not sure a few days in the desert is the answer for everyone.
It might just be that Rangers got the right breaks at the right time at St Mary's to win a tight game.
Those breaks certainly aren't going for Stoke right now judging by Charlie Adam's injury-time shot against the West Ham cross bar on Saturday.
It's when you are in a bad trot that you notice such misfortune.
You are probably getting the same breaks go for you when you win tight games, it's just that you prefer to put it down to a great header or a fantastic shot – and forget about the foul you got away with in the build-up to a goal.
So how do you approach the start of the week after a bad result?
When I was manager at Stoke, I wouldn't give the players the choice of 90 minutes in the pouring rain on the training ground or a re-run of Saturday's game on video in a nice warm room.
They were good characters in those days, but they'd still plump for the warm room if given the chance.
But bcause they were good characters, you knew they could take any criticism coming their way.
In fact, I'd often get into the dressing room after a bad performance and they'd be having it out among themselves, so I wouldn't have to say anything myself.
Nowadays, however, I'm not so sure the modern Premier League player is quite so happy accepting criticism.
How often do we hear a Premier League manager come out publicly after a game and say that their players were a shambles.
Did we hear it from Arsene Wenger after Arsenal's shambolic defending against Tottenham on Sunday?
Sometimes, if I thought it would help, I would treat the players to a meal out to break the routine a bit.
The bill would be on me or the club... and it was a treat for the lads.
But today, your average Premier League player could foot the entire bill himself with the loose change in his pocket.
He might even think about buying the restaurant as well if he fancied it, so that option isn't really open to Tony and his Premier League counterparts.
So what is the answer for Stoke? Well I'll take a stab at what I believe is a pretty simple solution when you think about it.
I would have them on the training pitch working hard, but then I would have them in the nice warm room to watch a DVD afterwards.
But instead of re-running the West Ham defeat, or the loss at Fulham the week before, and risk one or two falling asleep or sending a shiver down their spine at any mistakes they made, I'd instead re-run the Boxing Day win over Liverpool.
I watched the game that evening and have to say it was not only a terrific display by anyone's standards, it was also a typical "Stoke City" performance.
What you saw that night was players closing down the opposition, pressuring them up the pitch to win corners and throws in dangerous areas, getting their tackles in when they had to, and generally busting a gut for the cause.
There was fine finishing as well when it counted, but in the main there was hard work from start to finish.
I wasn't at the game on Saturday, but whatever else was or wasn't going on, I can't believe for one moment that the Stoke players worked as hard as they did that night against Liverpool.
It doesn't matter whether or not you decide to play a man in the hole, or employ this tactic or that.
Unless you carry out the basic of working hard, you are in trouble.
9 Comments
by Stoke_Oracle
Wednesday, March 06 2013, 12:29PM
“In training...How about practice in the oppositions half, shooting practice, and passing out from the back withoot hoofing it!!! In Whelans case passing forward to our own players would be a start...
Then pick the right players in the right positions with 2 wingers of which one should be Pennant and have the b***s to go and attack....Having said that it has 0-0 or 1-0 to Newcastle written all over it because Pulis has not got the capacity for change and the stubborn fool will still be playing Walters and Whelan despite them playing awful for the past 3 games and he won't bring Pennant back anyway. Wonder if it actually registered that people actually cheered when he brought Walters and Whelan off. Be it to late to have any effect as usual. I stil think the players we have are good enough, it's the tactics and selections that aren't”
by CptFurious
Tuesday, March 05 2013, 11:23PM
“It's hard to motivate yourself to do any job when you are set up by management not to succeed. I think the player's lack of commitment comes from the negative system that they are forced to play in. If you look at the games we have played well in (Liverpool, Southampton, even the 4-2 defeat at United) it has been when the players have actually been allowed to have a go at the opposition. Since the turn of the year I have seen nothing that resembles positivity from either the team selection or the way we go about playing the game. The fans and the players have always had a symbiotic relationship, when they give us something to cheer, we cheer, and in doing so encourage them to play better, which in turn makes us cheer more etc etc.
Furthermore, I'm sick and tired of Managers (Pulis and ex-manager Macari in this case) using 'luck' and 'bad luck' as excuses; especially when they don't fully understand what luck is. A poor refereeing decision is bad luck, a shot deflecting off a beach ball is bad luck; these things are out of the player's control. Charlie Adam hitting the bar is not 'bad luck', he was trying to get the ball in the back of the net and failed. This is most certainly in his control and is therefore definitely not bad luck.”
by Davejjohnson
Tuesday, March 05 2013, 8:28PM
“Lucky win ? We played them off the park.”
by Hadis53
Tuesday, March 05 2013, 3:40PM
“Sour grapes perhaps, Juzzah? The only thing lucky about that win was LIverpool were lucky not to get tonked by 5 or 6.
Luck evens out over the course of a season and you finish pretty much where you deserve to. For Stoke that probably means mid table but bottom half. For Liverpool it probably means no better than mid table top half, despite their pitiful delusions about being good enough for the champions' league.
Why don't you go and post on your own team's board about their manager's failings rather than coming here to criticise ours?
We are going through a bad spell at the moment just like all clubs do at times but it wasn't that long ago we were on a lengthy unbeaten run. We all want the best for our respective clubs but I hope Stokies never become the sort of fans who think they have a divine right to win all the time, like some others I could mention.”
by Juzzah
Tuesday, March 05 2013, 2:49PM
“Hadis53 - One lucky win doesn't mean he isn't out of his depth!!!”
by Pottersruleok
Tuesday, March 05 2013, 2:48PM
“With this article, you can really tell Macari is an ex manager, blaming the players and not the manager's own tactics. The results and performances this season just prove that our fine win over Liverpool was just pure luck not any sign of us being a good team ! The only videos Pulis needs to be watching is instructional ones on how to play proper football and how to be a manager in the 21st century in the Premier League!”
by Hadis53
Tuesday, March 05 2013, 2:09PM
“Pulis wasn't out of his depth on Boxing Day was he Juzzah, when we played your lot off the park?”
by Juzzah
Tuesday, March 05 2013, 1:33PM
“But surely a lot is down to the fact that Pulis is out of his depth, he has lost his way and can take the team no further!!!”
by alfie12
Tuesday, March 05 2013, 10:28AM
“I think Lou is right its mostly about attitude not tactics. Since boxing day the willingness of all the team to work hard has gone. Whether against high profile or lesser opposition the spirit shown in previous seasons has been lacking. Last season being in Europe was apparently the reason for drop off in form. At the moment a number of players seem to want the season to end after playing fewer games and a quarter of the seaon to go. The team need to show more respect for the fans who help pay their inflated wages. If it obvious they are working hard the fans will be behind them all the way win or lose. Millionaires feeling sorry for themselves impresses no one.”