Tony Pulis – Should he stay or go?

With supporters increasingly frustrated by recent results and performances, and attendances falling, is it time for the manager to be relieved of his duties?

Tony Pulis has achieved success each and every season during his two spells in charge of Stoke City, but that impressive record hangs in the balance this year.

Despite sitting eleventh in the Premier League, the club find themselves at the foot of the form table since the start of 2013 after collecting just four points, and they have yet to secure a sixth consecutive season of top-flight football.

Stoke`s poor record away from home in the top-flight has continued this year and the club exited both cup competitions in the early rounds. Meanwhile performances at the Britannia Stadium have done little to reward the ferocious support from the terraces.

What many thought was going to be a season of forward transition is gradually turning into a downwards spiral.

The summer signings of Charlie Adam and Steven Nzonzi raised expectations that TP was finally about to move away from his one-dimensional approach, but that has ultimately failed to materialise. His deficiencies have continued, despite him having a plethora of expensive footballing talent at his disposal.

New signings quickly find themselves playing out of position to accommodate players who are out of form, whilst Pulis` desire to stay compact and ‘stay in it for as long as possible` continues to drain the life out of games.

The problems at full-back still persist despite the manager spending over £100 million on new players and his midfield pairing are still asked to concentrate predominately on their defensive duties rather than to try and pull the strings in the opposition half.

Ever since Stoke signed Peter Crouch in the summer of 2011, months after the club had played some positive football to reach the FA Cup final, the Potters have gone on to become even more direct than they have ever been.

With the departure of Ricardo Fuller at the end of last season, there is not a single player in the current squad who can provide those moments of brilliance that the great Jamaican used to conjure up which would get the supporters on the edge of their seats.

This season has seen the 4-4-1-1 system changed to 4-5-1 with Crouch becoming a largely isolated figure upfront. Pulis may well say that his team have kept the ball better this year, but that should be expected from a team that plays five across midfield. At the same time, though, it has limited our attacking threat.

Playing 4-5-1 is perfectly fine, but it should only be used when you have the players capable of supporting the lone front man with a fluid approach and give them a degree of freedom to orchestrate openings.

I don`t think that is it unreasonable to expect, on a more regular basis, the football being served up during the club`s run to the FA Cup final when you consider the excessive amount of money spent on player recruitment over the last five years.

Pulis bemoans the fact of trying to meet the supporters` expectations year after year, but he had found a winning formula during the 2010/2011 season and yet it is as though he has taken it away and replaced it with his ‘survival first` tactics, which was totally unnecessary. As the saying goes ‘if it ain`t broke, don`t fix it.`

It is certain that the long-ball approach will be deployed for the rest of this season with safety yet to be secured, but whether it is acceptable for the team to continue with this style of play, which is becoming very predictable to play against, only the chairman can make the decision of whether or not to relieve his manager of his duties come the end of the season.