I like that better. We win, everything's brilliant. We lose, everything's ****. We're still going to Wembley though. And we'll probably beat West Ham on Saturday, and everything will be brilliant again.
It's all my fault. It was me who linked bias with cheating. Bias doesn't always mean cheating but when putting it on a referee and his relevance to a game, to say he is biased to me suggests he is knowingly/deliberately favouring one side. Ironically I didn't see a single second of the game to comment but did hear that Swansea had a strong penalty shout for handball in first half. Not given to suggest no bias. I would say if he made so many poor decisions then he had a poor game or the referees a w@nker.
I'm Les: keep him. I chose him for a reason and I will back him. He's been here 6 months and told me he'd need to assess the team. He's dealt with an unprecedented number of matches for this club and had to deal with a long injury list. Results aren't where we wanted them to be, however he had been introducing the youngsters as I requested. A couple of tweaks, a little better run of the green and some better finishing we could be 10-15 points higher up the league. Yes, I'd keep him.
It's the butterfly effect. If we lost to Liverpool (as everyone was expecting) we would have possibly fielded a stronger side against Arsenal and still lost (as everyone was expecting) and maybe sustained a couple more injuries to really f**** our season up. In a parallel world we may not have sold Fonte and we may have lost out on Gabbiadini. My Grandmother could have had a todger and I'd have had two Grandfathers. Either way, I think Les and the board would still have stood by Puel. He is clearly a good coach and has shown tactical brilliance on occasions. Other areas he is frustrating - and I personally do want to see some faster build up play and more bodies in the box firing off shots with confidence - but the Southampton Way is now to give managers and players a chance despite fans swaying with the wind
Well let's hope the same happens again then. You don't see a change and the team win. I'd be happy with that. Since that, we have had a good win against Leicester, a fantastic performance and energy sapping display against Liverpool, then lost a cup game that we played a second string in and a loss to Swansea.
Fair point. In honesty I'm neutral with Puel. I'm not sure yet because I can see some extenuating circumstances. But whilst I'm not sure, I won't damn him, and I'm more likely to give the benefit of the doubt. Is there someone else that could do better? Almost definitely. Is he terrible and a lost cause? Almost definitely not.
As in a previous poster said puel can only do so much with the squad, I felt the same with our beloved Adkins. And pochettino came in and made us compete. FWIW I'm not sure how I feel about puel. I'm not texting 5 live saying puel out, but I am concerned.