Stu Forster/Getty ImagesPeter Crouch was completely ineffective for Stoke in their loss at Swansea.

It was a typical away day for Stoke as their latest loss came at the hands of Michael Laudrup's Swansea who barely broke a sweat in defence all game against the Potters' toothless attack.

The writing was very much on the wall as soon as the team sheet was handed in with the unwelcome return of not only Charlie Adam, but also his partner in static crime, Peter Crouch. I'm not going to launch into a tirade against Tony Pulis about the sale of Kenwyne Jones, as it looks increasingly obvious that he is on his way out, but nothing is confirmed so I can only deduce that the manager thought Crouch was a better option. Alas Crouch put in another insipid performance up top giving the Swansea defenders absolutely nothing to worry about all afternoon as he left the field with the worst passing accuracy and dispossessions of anyone in the side.

- Hicks: Evolving Swans beat subdued Stoke
- Match report: Swansea 3-1 Stoke

I said that last week Stoke were effectively playing with nine men given Adam's inclusion due to not only the player's ineffectiveness, but also the cancelling out effect on Jonathan Walters by sticking him out on the wing. Today was even worse. Using the same logic, today they were eight with Crouch coming back in. With that in mind, and more round pegs being smashed into square holes, in each of the fullback positions, the result was only ever going to be another loss, Stoke's 20th in the last 21 games away from the home comforts of the Britannia.

It's in games like these when you need to be able to count on the shape and its component parts, and with so many players out of position and clearly uncomfortable, is it any wonder the side looked so uneasy all over the pitch? Stoke fans have had to put up with a lot from Pulis. We don't ask to play like Barcelona. We don't even clamour for exciting players. We accept "Pulisball" for all its faults because we have seen it can work. We've even come to accept having a striker on the pitch that scores less than players on the bench. But what the fans are struggling to come to terms with is the manager systematically dismantling that successful side and shape built in his own image because he made such big mistakes in the last couple of transfer windows signing players that simply do not fit in.

While the Chairman and his family must be thrilled at the club's continued presence among the country's elite, they must surely be asking questions of the fact the manager has spent nigh on 90 million pounds with no fullbacks anywhere to be seen and that we signed a 10 million pound striker with no resale value who couldn't play with the eight million pound striker that he was replacing. The same manager will now undoubtedly be going cap in hand once again to buy more round pegs for square holes when for the most part, the answers are available to him already, certainly for everywhere on the pitch bar the fullback positions. All that is stopping him is pride and I fear if someone else doesn't make those decisions for him, the team will spend the remainder of the season regressing for the sake of saving face and throwing away more of the Coates' family fortune in attempting to fix problems he himself has created.

Vis Unita Fortior

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