Watch Out USLC, "Pulis Culture Has Arrived"... So Could Miami FC Be Stoke City 2.0?

Will the new Miami FC manager lead like his cult-hero dad did?

"Pulis culture has arrived in Miami."

That is what Miami FC proudly declared on social media this week as Anthony Pulis began work as their new manager. It is first job as a no.1, having previously served as an assistant at David Beckham's Inter Miami in MLS.

But what will Pulis culture look like in the USL Championship in 2022?

Pulis culture has arrived in Miami. #VamosMiami I #IAM pic.twitter.com/jzx1KFm3QL

— Miami FC (@TheMiamiFC) February 7, 2022

For any soccer fan who has been watching the English Premier League for more than a decade, Pulis is a name synonymous with Stoke City Football Club.

Tony Pulis, father of 37-year-old Anthony, famously took the Premier League by storm as manager of Stoke, after sealing promotion from the second tier in 2008.

His team of unfashionable, ultra-organized, super-aggressive and hard-working giants played their own brand of football that many purists hated.

Arsene Wenger, sick of seeing his Arsenal team humbled by Stoke, likened it to rugby. This was perhaps not only due to Stoke's physicality... but also because long-throw wildcard Rory Delap was arguably better with his hands than his feet.

Not everyone hated Stoke under Pulis though. Fans of the plucky British underdog narrative gobbled it up.

Whichever side of the argument you sat on, you could not deny that their tactics were effective.

Tony Pulis (right) pictured giving Rory Delap instructions in 2011 :: IMAGO/Sportimage

Under Pulis, Delap developed a long-throw so deadly that it was feared throughout England :: IMAGO/Sportimage

Pulis Snr has managed Crystal Palace, West Bromwich Albion, Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday since leaving Stoke in 2013.

But he has been out of work since 2020.

Those missing him will be keen to see if Anthony is a chip off the old block.

If his opening address to his Miami FC squad is anything to go by, we can certainly expect some similarities.

"The goal is to and make the collective better than the sum of the individual parts," he told his players in footage shared by his new club. "I am a massive believer in these one and two percents. They add up and make a massive difference."

That is classic old-school Pulis culture.  

Unfortunately, Miami play their home games at Riccardo Silva Stadium, which uses artificially turf. So we won't be seeing the old Pulis trick of letting the grass grow long to disrupt opponents fond of tiki-taka.

But look out for those one and two percents.

And remember the face of the guy seen with ball in hand after 11 seconds of the video below. He may well be able to throw it significantly further in a few months...

The first action of preseason ✅ pic.twitter.com/0vKQzSRqDi

— Miami FC (@TheMiamiFC) February 7, 2022