Lambo, I love you! On the way back from the match on Saturday with FLT and lovely FLT junior, the sad Leyton Orient story came on the radio and I said to Fats that that could so easily have been us, yet here we are, cup finalists (and everyone knows that we were robbed that day and were the best team) and we're in the top half of the most competitive league in the world, for goodness sake, having also played in Europe!! We're generally respected and liked - and yes, I know that that may not be important, but it is to me - and we're not Sunderland!! Maybe I've experienced (from afar) too many relegation battles and actual relegations and yes, maybe I am a "happy clapper" but I also think that Puel deserves at least another season to build his team, hopefully without too many long term injuries to critical players. People moaned at losing Poch and Koeman within 3 years and speak of lack of loyalty) yet want to get rid of Puel after less than a year - if we'd been relegated this season then that may have been understandable but not in the situation we're in. Maybe I'll be changing my views at the end of next season but at least I'd have given him a chance and as Lambo said, Puel could be another Lawrie... wouldn't that be fun?!
I'm not saying he isn't the man for us or that I want him to go, give him time it might work out really well. I just don't understand why we pride ourselves and the academy on playing expansive, attractive football to then hire someone who - in his first season - has predominantly played a negative game IMO. Hopefully with less games and more of a stamp on the squad this summer, that will change. But if this first season is how Puel always wants to play, surely having every age group in the academy play the same way and formation as the first team is pointless and the whole system would need adjusting? That's the bit I don't understand because we've kind of lost our identity in the way we've played this year. I thought we'd always appoint someone who played attacking football like we've had for so many seasons now. I remember Les doing an interview saying Claude hadn't had much time to work on the team and formations etc on the training ground because of the turnaround of games. But now he's had that extra time with the squad, but I don't see much difference. Like Les said last night, we have high standards and that's something we shouldn't play down. We can't progress without them.
BBC SPORT Southampton boss Claude Puel: "It's important to finish with good concentration in the last games. On reports that his job is under threat: "I'm surprised to see speculation about my future. For me it's been an interesting season with many games. We also got to the final of the EFL Cup. "I came here for a project, to continue this work and improve the young players." It seems the hate campaign hasn't filtered through yet, come on lads you have to try harder.
The Diamond and slow, possession football was deliberate in the first half of the season to guard against player burnout throughout the season. The style of football has changed since the end of January and we are playing a more progressive style now generally.
Were we really playing more attractive, attacking football under Koeman? Poch I'll grant you is a visionary, but Koeman, while his methods were certainly effective, was always happy to have us play without the ball and hit teams on the break. We scored more freely under Koeman than we have done under Puel, sure, but then Puel didn't have Pelle or Mane to put up front.
Does playing on the break mean it's not entertaining though? I don't remember too many people complaining about the style under Ron while he was here. The odd game of course but not generally speaking. There was plenty of home games under Poch too where we struggled to create anything, plenty of sidewards passing, dominate possession etc... sound familiar? People seem to forget about that though...
I disagree. Possession football is only boring when it's ineffective. The same applies to a defensive set up - Anfield in January wasn't remotely boring. I have found us frustrating at times this season. But I have spent less time looking at the seagulls and pigeons in St Mary's than I often did under Koeman.
17 in our last 10 games is hardly a dearth of goals. I would say that only the Bournemouth, City and Hull games were ones that we weren't entirely effective offensively,. which games out of the last 10 were you disatisfied with?
Yeah I couldn't take my eyes off the Hull game... I know that's just one game but look at the 5 games before Hull. We played good football against Chelsea (despite the loss we did playou good football) and Palace but the Bournemouth 0-0 was just awful! Then we barely created a chance against Man city; I think we ended up with just one shot on target. Plus the West Brom performance was pretty dull too. We have defintely been boring to watch over the majority of the season, obviously there are exceptions such as Watford. If he does stay then I hope this is something that will be addressed. Maybe a couple of additions in the summer and less fixtures will help the situation.
See my above post. Also, goals do not neccassarily mean we played good attacking football, defensive mistakes/luck/set piece etc can come into play. Overall I just think we have taken a step back in terms of the quality of football we have been paying to see - don't get me wrong if results improved then I wouldn't be complaining, but they haven't really. Willing to give him time though and am most certainly not calling for his head.
Entertainment is in the eye of the beholder I suppose. We are often told that the PL is the most entertaining in the world. But only one PL club is still playing in Europe, and their Portuguese coach is often being accused of being negative. A lot of people (not me) find Italian football boring. They've won four World Cups playing like that, and are always competitive at international competitions, regardless of how strong or weak their squads may be. Yeah, I do remember the criticism of our style under Poch. A lot of our fans failed to recognise the distinction between a high press and a high line, and couldn't understand why we often dominated for long times without scoring, only to go down to the sucker punch we were always vulnerable to. You're right, all that seems to be forgotten. A bloke at the City game said to me "I wanna see fast, attacking football like we had under Poch". That City side would have mullered us if we'd set up like we did under Poch imo. (I suppose we got mullered anyway, but you get the point).
Man City were just too good for us, WBA was a good team performance and we got 3pts at a team that is above us in the table. Hull came for a draw and the Bournemouth game had chances at both ends as I recall. You can't score 3 or 4 goals every game especially against the top teams.
Touche! Disagree again about Bournemouth though. A game of two halves. First half was all us, but in the end we were lucky to come away with a point. No real complaints from me, Boscombe deserved their point. And to my utter surprise, it really did feel like a derby.
Our last game was dull. Chelsea was exciting. Palace was exciting. Sunderland was exciting. Watford was exciting. Wembley was exciting. Lecixetaer was exciting. Liverpool home leg was exciting. Even the City defeat was a good game. I want someone to post after a good game that they thought the game was dull and Puel isn't up to it. Anyone can say that after a bad game.
Very good post. I also like the Italian teams. Think Juve are great to watch, their first half against Barca in the 1st leg against Barca the other week is probably the most enjoyable half of football I've seen this year. Converesly everyone raved about the Spain team that won the WC in 2010, and I thought they were dull as ****. They won pretty much every game 1-0 and while almost constantly keeping possession was very effective, it wasn't half bloody boring imo.
I've not said he's not up to it, I've said perhaps he needs more him time and that we have, in my opinion, played boring/negative football (with a few exceptions) which tends to go against everything the board/club have set us up to do at all age groups.
