Calm down everybody. It's a long season.

yes we lost our third game of the season, but one swallow doesn't make a summer, and one snowflake doesn't make it winter either. Yes some of the selections and tactics were questionable, but it's Tony's team. The team he saved from being relegated last season. Give the guy a break, we're in a far better position than last season and as long as we retain our premiership status then who are we to complain, lets not get above our station. I feel the reason we played so negatively against manure is entirely justified after the thrashing we received at old trafford last year, yeah it was a great game to watch but it doesn't do your season any good having such a negative goal difference the size of Portsmouth or Hull. which brings us nicely to the comparison between the two promoted teams from last year. Could Hull's current predictament be anything to do with the style of tactics they employ, and these appear quite similar to what the angered mob have proposed stoke should follow.

fred, you must be one of those old moaners, who get on your nerves while sitting watching the game - moaning about everything - even when winning.

i remember an old moaner sitting next to me, moaning about a player who had a great game and even scoring later - moaners should be ushered out of the ground - PULIS IS A BRILLIANT MANAGER

I have been moaning for ages that our lack of possession, indeed willingness to let the opposition do as they like with the ball, will be our undoing. I don't want to see another weak knee'd roll over like this ever again!!!

Keep the faith!!

Come on you stoke fans, stop moaning & get behind your team. Even teams like Chelsea and ManU have off days/bad games etc. Don't forget we have only to been back in the top flight for one season, and we certainly don't have the ready cash to spend on top players like Rooney & Defoe. Stop moaning and get behind your team!!!!

You bunch of turncoat, gutless children.

Yes we had a bad game against manchester united, we deserved what we got. Would you have written the same letter after the two previous games though? I really doubt it, so why suddenly soil yourself now?

Tony got us promoted and finished us just sly of mid table last season, coming from second from bottom to do so.

Teams have bad spells all the time, and that's all it will be! So dry your eyes Cinderella

All teams, even Man U & Chelsea have bad games.

Unfortunately we don't have the cash that the top clubs have, so buying players like Rooney, Ronaldo & Defoe etc, is out of the question.

It's about time you people stopped moaning and got behind your team. Don't forget that we have only been back in the top flight for just over one season, and TONY got us there!!!

Dude how can you rely on the old "TP got us promoted" line. Yes Pulis performed a miracle in getting us up, yes he deserves our thanks but that doesnt excuse bad tactics and squad selection.

Its not a bad spell, its a spell of managing the team poorly which got us what we deserve. Nothing.

I dont see how someone who does something good makes him fire proof when he gets it wrong. No one is calling for his head, but he shouldnt be immune to fans venting when he clearly got it horrible wrong against chelsea and man utd.

On Saturday, the team did not perform well against arguably one of the best British sides if not the best in Europe. A couple of weeks earlier, they out perfoprmed themselves against one of the other top sides.

Two years ago, the club was in the Championship before it won automatic promotion to finish a credible 12th in the Premiership. The club was written off from day one and has earned the respect of other clubs and their managers and TV pundits alike.

So I might be forgiven feeling that my fellow fans have lost their sense of perspective in criticising the Manager who achieved all of this for us. What planet do many of our fans live on? We are a small unfashionable club without a huge fan base and without the millions that bankroll the top Premiership clubs and now also Notts County. We are doing very well all things considered. Thank you Mr Pulis and thank you Mr Coates.

Try having Gareth Southgate for a manager you fickle ingrates.

You miss the point im trying to make Tom. I did say TP deserves thanks for getting us where we are. Thats not in question. But just because he did, doesnt mean its fine and dandy for us supporters to then have to watch such poor decisions being made with the team. Its a crying shame we set our stall out as 10 men in the 18 yard box against chelsea and man utd because we know that our "small and unfashionable team", as you put it, can take the fight to the big guns like we did with arsenal last year when we gave it a good go.

And arguing that its because Man U are great is poor, Burnley beat them because they were lucky and gave it a go. Upsets happen. Its the magic of football. But you dont get upsets when the farthest forward striker you have is on his own marked by vidic and ferdinand in the centre circle.

Why does everyone seem to miss the crucial point that although Pulis has worked a miracle, why is it being overlooked when he makes wrong choices and forces us to watch very poor games that we have paid good money for. Id still pay the money anyway because I love Stoke and he got us in the Premiership, the best league in the world after all. But it would be nice to know we at least had a chance and might actually enjoy watching the game, instead of knowing it was all over before we kicked off.

i completly agree.

Fact is, the only team in the top 4 we managed to not concede against after playing ultra defensive last season was Liverpool, and we were lucky.

Against the big 4 we can't expect anything so we may as well give it a go.

Managers are there to be criticised. Do you think Rafa doesn't get criticized just because he won the Champs League?.. He gets stick week in week out for playing Lucas, and no doubt for the defeat last night v Fiorentina.

Last season TP was getting criticized for constantly playing Cresswell. It's normal, and its every fans right to express his opinion.

There was no change once we went a goal or 2 goals down.

I don't see why team or manager should avoid criticism when throughout a 90 minute game the team only has 39% possession and 1 shot, yes, that's 1 shot in total.

Losing to united might be normal, but rolling over and getting humiliated isn't. Better to go down fighting than to pull your pants down and take it.

Regardless of the league table, United aren't that strong. They won't win the league. Scholes old, Berbatov can't score (accept against us), Nanis had some shockers, Valencia is still Wigan standard and they lost Ronaldo and Tevez. With 4 strikers available we should have played 4-4-2, especially after the first half hour when it looking like we would struggle to keep a clean sheet.

i feel some sympathy for pulis, he's trying different methods against the big four and it's a tough business. they are among the best 6/7 club sides in the world.

however i think pulis needs to understand that while reargard actions will be tolerated away and even at home against the other three, he has to understand that to be so negative against "them" won't be tolerated by most supporters. we loath them so much that to see a stoke team go out with such a pitiful attitude against them hurts even more than the defeat. We could understand last year given the quality of our playing staff. But most supporters will now be of the belief that we have strengthened enough to throw off at the least the most defensive of our gameplans now.

thats not to say go gung ho against a team as good as united, but just to give ourselves a chance of causing a threat. to think a little more about what WE can do to hurt THEM. Rather than just the other way round

it may also be more acceptable if it ever bought results but to my knowledge our efforts playing 1 up top have thus far yielded a point, at liverpool. a single point, i'm positive we'd have picked up more than that if we'd kept to our tried and trusted 4 4 2

1 up front takes the wind out of the crowds sails immediately, on saturday they never recovered. It was our worst performance in the premier league, not just the teams. we just knew what was coming. if 1 up front has that effect on the crowd, it's reasonable to suggest it has a similar effect on the players.

i know we can, on our day, upset the big boys. So it bloody well annoys me when we don't even try to

Cheers Foster, I seemed to be the only one who doesnt think getting you promoted makes you infallable!

TP has worked wonders but id like him to continue that and not throw it all away unnecessarily by starting games in a manner in which we will never stand a chance of winning them whether we should or not. 5-4-1 with centre backs as full backs is doomed to failure, and 4 or 5 results gives good solid evidence to this!

I too get fed up with the old moaning goats at the brit, who criticise our team from start to finish no matter what happens (luckily there's only the one near me but he still gets my hackles up). I always support and encourage our team 100% and I also think constructive and fair criticism should be allowed on these forums. Otherwise we might as well all sod off to China and support the Communist Party instead.

@Tom, were you at the Brit for the Chelsea match mate because it sounds like you were watching a different game. Yes our defence played a blinder that day but I disagree that the whole team "out performed themselves". Yes Chelski scored in both periods of added on time, but after a promising first half we were parked in our own half for most of the second 45 (or should that be 50) minutes. We invited pressure and our midfield didn't know what to do with the ball when we got it. I was sick as a pig when Chelsea scored the second goal but the harsh truth is that we would have been lucky to come away with a draw that day.

Since the new signings have come in the team has looked a bit out of sorts, but playing devil's advocate they have had tough games to play.

Huth played well against Chelsea but I agree with those who say he looked too slow when he was played out of position on the right against Man U. Not sure about Collins yet - he was decent against Chelsea, anonymous versus ManU, and look at the daft pen he gave away at Bolton. Whitehead is OK but I've yet to see him offer more than any of our other defensive midfielders.

As for Tuncay - we can't decide when or where to play the poor guy. He looked good on his debut vs Sunderland (came on as a sub, as usual) but has had no support when coming on in the other home games. You could see his frustration with our negative second half tactics against Chelsea because he got outnumbered every time he touched the ball.

I have faith that TP will fix things soon. It hasn't helped that Beattie and Fuller have not always been available, but let's not have too much team tinkering Tony.

Everton will be a tough ask on Saturday, they are on fire after a weak start to their season, so we'll need strong character to get a result at Goodison. Come on Stoke!

Before TP can tinker with tactics against the so called better sides he has first to determine who plays best in which position because until he does its like playing with 9 or 10 men.
Delap, Whelan, Shawcross and Faye cover every blade of grass during a match and normally for a full 90 minutes unlike others.
Delap has proved far more effective on the left wing, when deployed, whereas Mathew Etherington isn't even a good winger let alone a striker and hasn't to date given a 90 minute performance but keeps getting a pick.
Huth is a far better player than Wilkinson, but it was obvious he is a centre baxck as he kept drifting into the middle leaving us exposed as did Danny Collins who himself doesn't know where he should be playing as shown against Man U he was in every position except left back, yet Higginbottom is solid at the back, good going forward and rarely strays out of position.
Dean Whiehead ???? what is he adding to the team that others can't.
Why are Lawrence and Etherington called wide players when both can be found nearer to the centre than the touch line, Man U never had to check to see if their wide players were where they were supposed to be "WIDE".
We will never keep hold of the ball when there is 20 to 30 yards between the forwards and the midfield, so whilst Sidibe isn't a prolific scorer he does hold the ball up to allow the midfield to catch up, but I'm sure will be well down the pecking order once fit.
Come on Tony just because we have paid big money for some of these players doesn't mean they warrant an automatic pick.
Pick the right team not the most expensive!!!!