Friday, 18th April, 2014



West Ham United defender James Collins has praised Tony Pulis for turning around the fortunes of Crystal Palace this season and refused to accept that Pulis’ teams always play the long ball game.

When Pulis took over at Crystal Palace from Ian Holloway in November of last year, the Eagles were at the bottom of the Premier League on four points from eleven games.




“Tony has massively turned them around, as he did at Stoke. They are so well organised and know what they're doing, where to be positioned in certain situations and they are hard to break down”, the 30-year-old wrote in his blog.

“All credit to Tony, because he's done a wonderful job.”

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Collins refuses to accept that Pulis’ teams always play ‘route one’ football, pointing to Pulis' time in charge at the Britannia Stadium, and believes it’s an unfair way to judge the management style of the Welshman.

“Palace play some good stuff and Stoke did as well under Tony Pulis, believe it or not. People said they lumped it, but they tried to play first and, if it didn't work, they'd play the direct ball.

“I think Palace are doing a similar thing – they try to knock it into midfield and, if it's not on, they'll go long.”

West Ham United will take on Crystal Palace in the Premier League this Saturday at Upton Park.

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