Michael Owen injury woes not in his mind, says Stoke City boss Tony Pulis

“Nope, MyVince. What Pulis wants is what I have to support as there is no other choice, at least for the next ten years. Might as well join the party.”

“OSullivan,
shame on you !
This sounds very much like a criticism of Mr Pulis's tactics.

Try not to forget that we are still evolving”

“The reason probably is that we dont play 4-5-1.

We play 4-2-3-1 and each of those three behind the lone striker is supposed to sneak in behind to snatch goals. But they are lagging too deep, because they have to protect the defenders.

The problem starts with them and their mindset with regards to offensive football. They are standing much too deep, and as consdequence our midfielders fill in too deep as well.

Then when Shawcross and Wilko dispatches the longballs from deep, the midfielders dont have much of a chance to catch up.

Defensively our system may read more like 4-5-1 with Walters, Kightly, and Etherington becoming like wingbacks every day. They're good, but again when long balls are hoofed, they don't have time to assume their proper positions in the system.

When we've allowed ourselves the time and chance to build football from defence with the two holding midfielders passing the ball to those further forward, our game has been much prettier.

However, top clubs let defenders play with the ball. When you play QPR, West ham, Villa, and Sunderland there is no time for neat ball, because they come right at your defenders. We're not the only team that struggle playing those teams who are a bit like ourselves like we used to be not too long ago.

It's very easy to disrupt teams playing that way. We did it ourselves for years. It's for us to find out whether we ant to go forward with a new system or whether we want to be stuck at what we were good at but failed to get us above 48 points.”

“"We were really in the ascendency. With the possession we had on Saturday and the amount of balls we were getting into the box, we needed someone around Crouchy who can get on the end of stuff."

That is what's known as 4-4-2 formation Tony !!! Not 4-5-1 !!!”

“Ok, I'll be the one to ask. who is the player that has failed to outdo Jones ?”

“how ell = how well”

“Everyone's talking of how ell Owen would work with Crouch, but dont forget that there is also a question of how he would work with Jones, who seems to be a little back in Pulis' good books.

There's an interesting stats comparison between the two at http://tinyurl.com/d75gklr

It really doesn't offer clear cut conclusions, but it does point to the fact that Jones got thrown aside but was replaced with a player who has failed to outdo him.”

“Hasn't the vale got a website?”

“Funny really, like with Pennant, Pulis (and the world) knew EXACTLY what he was getting with Owen but decided to bring them on anyway and neither are playing for Stoke City. Figure it out for yourselves.”

“stoke knew what they were getting when they signed him an injury prone player...will we ever see him in action???...who knows...one thing is 100% sure though...demba ba is rattling them in for newcastle...just what we need right now...a matchwinner who is fit...how ironic is that???”