Pulis hails City attitude

Last updated : 19 October 2011 By Team Talk

 

 

 

 

Faced with a hectic schedule of European and domestic fixtures, Pulis has frequently made a host of changes to his starting line-up.

It means certain squad members - including some more established names - have been in and out of the team, but also that virtually everybody has had a chance to participate.

Overall, given the Potters have lost only two of their 15 games in all competitions this term, it is an approach that appears to be working and Pulis has been delighted with the group's attitude towards the system.

"Everybody, as a professional footballer, wants to play - if you have signed a professional contract, you want to play football," Pulis said.

"The big thing that we have tried to stress on the management side is that with us being in so many competitions and with so many games coming around, everybody is going to play a part and play games.

"Robert Huth got all our player of the year awards last year and hasn't been regular this year.

"But Huthy has got his head down and worked hard, and he hasn't been a problem.

"It's the same with Rory Delap, who has also been in and out - he would have wanted to play every game.

"But if you watch us train and see the attitude around the place it is fantastic, and that is what I want."

Pulis is poised to make several adjustments to his side once again on Thursday night when the Potters host Israeli outfit Maccabi Tel Aviv in their third game of Europa League Group E.

Striker Kenwyne Jones, who has been sidelined recently with a hamstring problem, returned to the matchday squad as an unused substitute for the 2-0 Premier League win over Fulham on Saturday and looks set to start, along with defender Huth and goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen.

Danny Higginbotham - out since April with a knee injury - may also be involved after featuring for the reserves this week, while Wilson Palacios is being assessed as he works his way back to full fitness.

Pulis boosted his numbers over the summer by recruiting Palacios, Cameron Jerome, Peter Crouch, Matthew Upson and Jonathan Woodgate, but feels it is important that long-serving players like Higginbotham, Delap and Mamady Sidibe, who is not part of the European squad but due for a league comeback soon having recovered from his Achilles troubles, continue to have a role as the club progresses.

"We are pleased to see Danny back," Pulis said.

"Also Mama is very close. We need all the help we can get and they are good lads.

"They are people who have been here for a long time and they know the structure and DNA of the football club. They are important people to us.

"I think the basis of the football club is really built on having good people around you.

"As a manager the job is hard enough as it is and you can make it even more difficult if you don't get the right sort of people in.

"I think over the past six or seven years what we have done very well is select decent people, who have come here and really rolled their sleeves up and worked hard.

"Rory has epitomised that - he would be in that top group of players that you would say this club has been built on. He has been a bedrock of the success of Stoke City."

Delap joined Stoke on loan in 2006 before signing permanently the following year and the 35-year-old is grateful that he is still being given the opportunity to be part of the Potters success story.

"If I was being brutally honest, I wouldn't have thought five years ago that I'd still be playing at this level, but I've dug in," Delap said.

"When I came to the club, the gaffer said this is where he wanted to be and asked who wanted to be with him, and he and the chairman have kept their promises.

"We've got quite a few of the lads still here that were part of that."

Source: Team Talk

Source: Team Talk