Pulis defends Allardyce as former West Ham boss labels fans ‘deluded’

Sam Allardyce has labelled West Ham fans “potty” and “deluded” for believing their team should play like Barcelona.

“I need to assess the squad and take it from there”, Allardyce said on Tuesday.

“He came here and has not played as much as he would have liked but that really lies with performance analysis”.

‘You analyse everyone’s performance on Prozone and you look at the contribution they make on a game-to-game basis.

“So players who don’t play, generally don’t play because they drop themselves, not because you have dropped them”.

Austin’s future at QPR was the subject of intense speculation during the summer with a number of Premier League clubs credited with an interest in the forward, but QPR managed to keep hold of the player despite relegation to the Championship.

“And you also judge with your own eyes and then use your experience to decide who is best equipped at that moment”.

“In my view, you know the best performances”. You are not quite playing at your top level. And if you have a problem, can I resolve it for you?

Dudley-born Allardyce was officially unveiled as the Sunderland manager yesterday, and now has just a few days to turn his team into one that can trouble Albion, and Pulis doesn’t doubt that he will.

West Ham fans were split on Allardyce’s appointment in 2011 and despite leading the club back to the Premier League during his first season in charge, the former Bolton chief was consistently criticised because of his team’s perceived long-ball style. What player can we get, were can we get him from and more importantly, is he good enough?

‘We have got this week to try to win the first game and, after that, it becomes even more hard to win it if we don’t’.

“As soon as I was appointed West Ham manager in 2011 the big debate was whether I would follow the “West Ham way”, which nobody could ever define but, whatever the hell it was, apparently I didn’t play it”, he said.

“He laid down the groundwork for the next manager who is now reaping the rewards”.