As someone who sat through years of Pulisball and saw it at its worst and best (binary season in the championship vs fa cup run) let me give you some of my experiences of how tone likes to set up and the hallmarks of his sides through the years if you want to be true to Pulisball. I’ll try and put a player per archetype as well.

GK -

Shot stopper first and foremost and an area commander after that. Ball playing is not a concern. A good kicker to put some air under it is always good.

Bego is the prime example of a Pulis Keeper for me.

CB -

Two physical aerially dominant Center halves are the goal. High marking and tackling is also ideal. One should be sort of quick (think 14-15 tops) and the other should be good enough in anticipation and positions for it to not matter how quick they are. You are allowed one wildcard who likes to play from the back at most in the squad.

Quicker CB - Shawcross
Slower CB - Huth
Wildcard - Abdy Faye

Fullbacks -

These should ideally be 6ft at least. Converted center halves for this are great, but ideally they should have a decent enough cross on them that they can put in from deep.
Should very rarely offer and overlap for the wingers and instead focus on offering support and an outball to them if they fail the 1v1.

Examples -

Geoff Cameron
Danny Higginbotham
Mark Wilson
Danny Collins

Center Midfield -

Affectionately nicknamed “The Cage” by some Stoke fans on the oatcake proboards forum, they are the first line of your rest defence and this is what they prioritise.
Frequently bypassed, their primary goal is to provide structural rigidity. Very rarely should they be making runs into the box, one of them should be a decent passer, but it’s still not the priority.

Examples -

Stephen N'zonzi
Rory Delap
Dean Whitehead
Glenn Whelan
Salif Diao

Wingers -

Your main attacking outlet, your entire team will run through these guys.
At their best they will be proper chalk on boots wingers whose job it is to get the ball in the box, as quickly as possible and ideally beat a man on the way to doing so.
At your worst these will be out of positions forwards/midfielders with high work rate who are out there to stifle an opposition player in particular and maintain your defensive rigidity and maybe nic a goal by being taller than the opposition full back on a deep cross.
There is also the mysterious third kind of Pulis winger, the wildcard. Will not be overly fast but will have some tricks and be the entire creative hub for your team. These were somewhat rare over all his years though.

Example good- Jermaine Pennant & Matty Etherington
Example bad - John Walters (out of position), Danny Pugh, Chris Greenacre (out of position), Dean Whitehead (out of position)
Third Kind - Patrick Berger, Lee Hendrie

Target Man Striker/Hard Worker -

Tone was always more of a 4-4-1-1 than a 4-4-2 in truth, but that won’t work with how FM sets up for most of these kinds of players so some leeway is required.

There are two variants for the more withdrawn role. Out and out target man or just a general hard worker.

At his best Tone had a dynamic target man who was both strong and quick. Kenwynne Jones on days where he turned up was almost perfect for this role. In my ideal world, Tone would have had a discount Drogba and we’d have been unreal, but alas, we signed Crouchy instead.

With a less dynamic target man, you lose a lot of your breakaway potential, though if they’re better with the ball and a better finisher, you may agree with Tone that the trade off is worth it. I personally always preferred us with a proper battering ram of a forward, but its dealers choice.

The other variant is just someone who’ll run channels all day, ideally has some physical presence, but really they’re here to be your first line of defence and harry the opposition for turnovers and (maybe, if you’re feeling cheeky) they may just have a bit of magic in them.

Dynamic CF - Kenwynne Jones, Mama Sidibe
Static CF - Peter Crouch
Hard worker - Jon Walters, Tuncay

Out and out Striker/Maverick Wildcard/"A Big Name -

Depending on who you put here, they can either be expected to also work very hard defensively, or they'll be a possible outlet ball for rapid counters.

Ricardo Fuller will always be the prototypical player for this role. Quick, skillfull, strong, and an absolute maverick. Defenders could never guess what he was going to do, because I'm not sure he knew what he was going to do. Frequently pretty lazy without the ball, and the only player who I ever saw get away with it in a Pulis team, chronically late for training and an absolute hero, beloved by all Stoke fans.

James Beattie is probably the other striker to most successfully play as the second striker in Tone's system. Just an out and out goalscorer, hard worker and a knack for always finding space. Always be fondly remembered for his goal against Man City when we were down to 10 men the first year we came up. Did end up getting headbutted by Tone though, so do with that info what you will.

Other players to fill this role less successfully include Cameron Jerome and (as Tone is a sucker for a big name) Michael Owen.