As part of our guest writer slot, this article is by Everton Fan Craig Hoyland who writes a blog here: https://craighoyland1.wordpress.com/
Tony Pulis – The Football Antichrist
As an Everton fan I take a huge amount of pleasure from putting a Tony Pulis side in its place. Not because I have anything against West Brom, in fact I actually feel sorry for the fans who choose to give the club their hard earned money every week only to be subjected to ninety minutes of Pulisball. The reason I enjoy beating his sides so much is this. It isn’t just three more points towards Everton’s march on Europe, when Mirallas, Schneiderlin and Lukaku managed to play past the Pulis double decker bus and his pack of yard dogs it was a victory for football.
The Pulis brand of football doesn’t belong in the Premier League, in fact I’d expect to see his tactics employed on a Sunday morning where half the players are still intoxicated from a Saturday night on the lash, lumping the ball so high that it comes back down covered in snow and flooding the box for set pieces in the hope that the ball can be bundled over the goal line. It’s not what you expect to see in a Premier League where every club is paid tens of millions of pounds in television rights and is the preferred destination of most talented footballers, how Pulis has managed to take his side to 8th in the Premier League is something that continues to baffle me.
The intentions of Pulis were extremely clear on Saturday at Goodison Park. Ten minutes into the game and with the score at 0-0 we had time wasting, three or four of Pulis’ yard dogs were constantly kicking lumps out of Lukaku whenever the Belgian international received the ball, the double decker bus never left the West Brom eighteen yard box and throughout the second half, even with the Baggies 2-0 down, those tactics didn’t change.
Romelu Lukaku was man of the match for me. He had a hand in all three of Everton’s goals, scoring the third himself, and his hold up play before he released Schneiderlin into an eighteen yard box packed with West Brom players to score Everton’s second goal was superb as was Schneiderlin’s finish. A few eyebrows were raised when Ronald Koeman’s team selection was announced at 2pm but Gareth Barry played brilliantly proving all his doubters wrong, Ross Barkley played another great game and is now beginning to look like the player all Evertonians hoped he would be and although the back four didn’t have a great deal to do, they looked solid with the addition of Jagielka and kept another clean sheet.
The game resembled a training session for Everton, the match stats give a true representation of how the game played out and thankfully, the tactics employed by the Premier Leagues football antichrist were deservedly well beaten. I understand that there are times when teams have to play a defensive game against stronger opponents but this wasn’t a one off from Pulis. He took Stoke down the same route and it’s a reputation and stigma that the Potters still have attached to them even though Mark Hughes has greatly improved Stoke’s brand of football.
Fans of Pulis would point out that West Brom are currently 8th in the Premier League. I’d argue now Pulis has reached his target of forty points that they won’t be there for much longer and it would in fact be an injustice to the Premier League and football itself if the anti football tactics of Tony Pulis were deemed to be a successful way of playing what should be a beautiful game.
Bias still alive and well. Everton won at a canter, fair enough but 12 fouls in ninety minutes hardly suggests that Lukaku had lumps kicked off him does it.
Everton weren’t averse to pinging the odd 60 yard ball. The major difference was energy, Everton had it, Albion didn’t.
Albion have scored more goals than every team bar those higher in the table and Palace, they can’t be that bad.
Still if Pulis is in charge they must play football like the antichrist.
Unlike you I watch them every week, no world beaters but they generally have had a decent goal threat and have entertained.
What utter rubbish. Pulis has proved time and time again that he can rescues, promotes and establishes clubs in the most competitive league in the world. Do you seriously believe anyone could do this but for footballing ‘principals’???
Yard dogs? I got that far into your article and gave up, chap. Do you think that fans have any say in who the club appoints as Head Coach/Manager? Of course not….I don’t recall David Moyes’ Everton side setting the world alight with free-flowing football during his tenure, but he did a good job while he was there. Football is first and foremost a sport, so results are King. You can spray the ball about majestically and pass sides off the pitch, but it doesn’t guarantee you a win. A previous Albion manager, Tony Mowbray, was the opposite of Pulis – exciting, attacking football that won plaudits from opposition fans, but usually only after Albion had given them three points. We got no extra points for playing the “beautiful game”. Tony Pulis has had to get results with a relatively small budget, certainly a small budget compared to all the teams above Albion, Everton included, and with the smallest squad in all four divisions.
I always think the phrase “the beautiful game” is most employed by supporters of the clubs with the biggest spending power – they can afford the players who are capable of playing that way, and winning. The rest of us have to get results using the calibre of players available to us for the limited budgets we have.
Don’t feel sorry for us, mate. We can get by without your sympathy. We live in an age of football snobbery and you win this week’s cravat.
as a baggies supporter for 80 years i wholeheartedly back this evertonians views,i am embarrassed by albion,tony pulis,s forte is when they are 4th from bottom,then he can use 9 defenders and play not to lose,as a tv watcher,fortunately,i don,t have to pay to watch them,if i did,i wouldn,t, the baggies p-lay the way i did at school 80 ears ago,kick the ball,run and hope.
One of most enduring myths of all us that you can stay up by just defending. You stay in the league through victories and goals and he’s had quite a few this season.