Friday 2 January 2015 16:56, UK
West Brom have played their get-out-of-jail-free card but Tony Pulis will know that no two jobs are the same, writes Adam Bate...
Christmas is a time for board games with the family so perhaps West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace has been indulging in a bit of Monopoly. It’s certainly tempting to picture him leaning back in satisfaction having played his get-out-of-jail-free card. Tony Pulis to the rescue. Fait accompli.
The notion of Pulis as some sort of guarantor of Premier League status is one that grows with the telling. The man himself has come to be defined in such terms. Pulis might not boast the silverware of others but he’s rightly proud of the fact that his career has never been tainted by relegation.
It’s the sort of thing that doesn’t escape the notice of twitchy chairmen who prefer substance over style. Forget the talk of long-term philosophies, with books to balance and the precipice in sight, coaches with an impeccable ability to avoid the drop will always be of interest at this time of year.
Every successful club is built on unity and that is what I shall strive to help bring to Albion.
What Pulis achieved at Crystal Palace was truly astonishing. This was a team that had taken four points from 11 games on the morning they appointed the Welshman last season and were priced as high as 1/20 to be consigned back from whence they came by the following spring.
They proceeded to take 39 points from the next 24 matches, form that - if extrapolated over a full season – could have seen Palace finish seventh, just a couple of points below Manchester United. Ultimately Palace finished 11th, achieving the third-highest placing in their 109-year history.
Of course, Premier League safety is nothing new to Pulis. Back in 2008, he had taken Stoke City into the top flight for the first time in 22 years and kept the Potters among the top 14 in the Premier League for five consecutive seasons. Their approach was distinctive.
With the likes of Mamady Sidibe and Peter Crouch contesting set-pieces, four centre-backs strung across a narrow pitch and the robust presence of Jon Walters on the wing, Stoke were unique. As such, Pulis became synonymous with a direct style of play. Perhaps even a one-trick pony.
“People, especially in this country, are big on perception and I think you do get pigeonholed,” Pulis told the Mail. “I am not what people think I am. That doesn’t worry me because I get on with my job. My view is you play to what strengths you’ve got, and you do the best you can with that.”
But what are a team’s strengths? Taking over at Palace midway through last season was a different test and while Pulis did introduce Cameron Jerome to good effect, it necessitated new tactics. In an interview with the Evening Standard, Pulis stressed that he viewed it as an opportunity to show he was not just a one-dimensional coach.
“When we looked at the players we had at Palace and the system that we felt would suit the players, we came to realise that, if we were going to do it, we had to play very different to Stoke in lots of respects. We didn’t have a target man, we didn’t have someone we could play off. So, yeah we had to change it round to suit the players.”
Defensive efforts were key to their success too. Palace kept 11 clean sheets under Pulis, more than Liverpool managed all season - and the Reds almost won the title. “I think you can always tell Tony Pulis's teams, he's always very organised and has a great structure to follow," winger Jason Puncheon told Sky Sports.
But in this instance it comes with a caveat. In a sense, taking over from Ian Holloway was the perfect storm for Pulis. This was a team playing with enthusiasm but lacking the basic organisation required to compete in the Premier League. That might explain the reaction of Julian Speroni when discussing his impact earlier this season.
“I am tired of talking about Tony Pulis,” the Palace goalkeeper told the Croydon Advertiser. “He took over when we were playing under a system with Ian Holloway where we were playing football but leaving gaps and we were not organised.
“It didn’t take a genius to work out we needed to be more organised. Keith Millen then did a great job before Tony Pulis took over. We had a few good results before Tony came in so that shows you the character and spirit of the team. There needs to be credit for the players.”
Speroni’s view suggests that Pulis requires the raw materials and a Palace outfit packed lifted by the exuberance that typifies newly-promoted sides represents a very different make-up to a West Brom squad that’s a mixture of foreign imports and players who’ve seen it all before. It might be time for another plan.
Whatever his solution, there is little time for Pulis to bed into the role. Albion’s run-in has been hanging over them since the day the fixtures were announced – games against Liverpool, Manchester United, Newcastle, Chelsea and Arsenal complete their season meaning the back-to-back home games against QPR and Leicester prior to that are likely to be crucial.
Pulis is protecting a fine record and the fact that he’s willing to take the job at the Hawthorns in itself offers encouragement that the issue of transfer control has been overplayed and he sees a way forward for this team. As he said of his decision to accept the Palace job: “If I was being thought of as a dinosaur, then choosing the wrong next job I’d risk being extinct.”
It remains to be seen what that plan is but past history tells us that the new West Brom boss will certainly have one. Jeremy Peace may have just thrown down his get-out-of-jail-free card, but one thing is for sure: Tony Pulis isn’t playing games.
