I'm not impressed by our recent home performances and if we are playing like this in a year's time then Puel will be in serious trouble if not out of the door already. The way our season has ground to a halt is very unsatisfactory but Puel did get us to a final and very nearly a first major trophy since 1976 so he deserves more time to fix the problems.
I'll take them! I forgot that a mid table finish, with safety secured with 5 games to go in a season that has understandably suffered from upheaval and as a result hasn't been as good as our record season last year, was a terrible season.
Oh hi. Just stopping by to see if things are crap enough with Saints at the minute for me to start posting again? That was a rhetorical question. They are. Things are very bad behind the scenes at the club right now* * you can file that under, either, 1) CBK is back for a good moan again. 2) Here we go again. 3) Only ever appears when we lose.
Puel has to be on borrowed time, it is becoming increasingly apparent how dull we are to watch.. watching Puels body language on the touchline and listening to his interviews he doesn't seem to mind the way we move the ball around. It is clearly coached into the players to play that way, if he didn't like it he would be jumping up and down like Conte or Pep and saying we have played poorly.. according him tonight we played 'fantastic'! We have to be one of the poorest sides in the prem when we have possession. There is no urgency to the rythum we play with and is all very cautious. The CB's are always 10 yards deep in our own half, their first touch is never to go forward and this is the same for the two holding midfielders. I think we actually miss Virgil more in an attacking sense, he always seemed to take that ball 5/10 yards forwards and force the opposition to drop. On one occasion tonight in the first half Bertrand had the chance to cross to a box full of 5/6 saints players and went backwards. This sums up our season in one, on the contrary every time Arsenal for the ball wide tonight they took one touch and wiped it in.. On a side note, having spent 5-10 minutes watching Bertrand tonight in the second half, I have serious doubts he will be here next season. He looked completely uninterested and very ****ed off.
I understand where you are coming from. In all honesty my season tickets this season have felt like a waste of time and money.. I am struggling to think of one game I thoroughly enjoyed at St Mary's this season
Liverpool and Everton I wouldn't describe as enjoyable, they should have been a lot more comfortable! But you are due to get those games each season, that's football Leicester and Burnley granted, if I'm honest. Palace was the only game I have missed so cannot comment. However the point is, we should be able to name more than 5 games that are up for debate as enjoyable in a season that has involved Europe and a cup final run!
I enjoyed this match TBH, 14 shots, more than Koemans average. Its just with the players we have we don't look like scoring from them.
That's absolute crap. Arsenal are not that good, I'll agree, but in Sanchez they have a world class player and we restricted him to one shot. One piece of magic is all it takes. The second was coming because we were pushing up and got caught at the back. As soon as Giroud came on, I knew they'd score one like that. Maya and Jack had a good game - Jack had Welbeck in his pocket. Steven Davis was my MOTM, ran everywhere, showed his skill and class, just wish he could shoot. He was the only one playing balls into Gabby, but we lack firepower up front. Tadic was woeful and should have stayed in the dressing room at halftime. Nathan and Ryan teamed up well and Arsenal back line were all over the place when we attacked them. Sofiane is learning, he did the skill bit, then passed to a free man. I think he's our man for next season. Oriel was great and not so great. Lost the ball at least 3 times in dangerous positions. As for Claude, he went for it. All our attackin options on at the end and we looked like we would get one. But it wasn't to be. However, I think our boys tried as hard as they could. On another day we'd have got one and might have sneaked it, but that bit of magic from Sanchez did for us. As for the ****ing "fans" behind me who bad mouthed virtually every saints player at some point, screamed for us to "get it forward" every minute or so and then threw their toys out of the pram because Sofiane didn't shoot when he was surrounded by 4 players, well they can **** off and I hope they never return.
I was originally going to respond to Onionman's comments about the anti-Puel brigade being Neanderthals but after tonight's performance and coming back to read the comments on this thread, I would have to agree. It was a decent performance and for 60 minutes Claude Puel got his tactics spot on. We played some of the best football I have seen us perform in recent weeks during the first half. Usually I am banging my head on the dash board whenever he comes on the radio post -match but I felt he was correct to say that Southampton did play well tonight. I am not a fan of Puel's style of football and think he will be out of the door pretty swiftly at the end of the season. He had lost a good proportion of the supporters after the Hull but I think too many people on here have posted after being fired up by Dave Merrington's negative remarks post-match. Merrington has never been in favour of Claude Puel yet his analysis little that was positive yet the Saints performance did deserve some credit. Until the first goal went in, the match could have gone in any direction. Arsenal were woeful and this is probably one of the worst Arsenal teams I have seen, Both sides were guilt of poor passing and finishing in the final third. This was not unique to Saints. Players like Steve Davis, Cedric, Stephens and Bertrand all played well tonight.. Romeu was probably one of our weakest players. There is a tendency to be over-protective towards Claude Puel on this board. However, the opprobrium poured against him on Radio Solent tonight was not justified. True, the finishing was poor and the later substitutions yet again unhinged the balance of the squad, but I think this was a half decent performance. Clearly the kind of swash-buckling performances we have seen under Poch and Koeman are alien to the kind of slow, continental football that Puel prefers and there are connoisseurs of this style on this board such as Fats and Onion who prefer this patient style of football. It is not my cup of tea at all and I have found much of this season to be a massive bore. The football has been largely unbearably boring. However, tonight was a decent performance and the criticisms of the ball being passed sideways or backwards demonstrated that many texting in to Solent tonight were not watching. It is fair to criticise poor performances but for much of tonight's game, Puel actually had the better of Wenger.
Must admit to feeling a bit confused at taking Nathan off before Dusan, as I said at the time. I thought Nathan was causing them problems that Dusan never really did.
A season like this was always going to happen given that SFC have been on an upward curve since the beginning of season 2009-2010 when the club found itself in League 1 and floundering on -10. How Saints react to this season's mini setback will set the narrative for the next few seasons. Do they stick with Puel - he is an intelligent man and wants his players to play in the French way where possession is paramount? If a side have players of the calibre of Barcelona it is excellent. Or even Sevilla or Athletic. It is then a case of chiselling an opening for the strikers. If there is a change of manager, then the narrative changes again and that might lead to a demise and we find ourselves playing the likes of Ipswich in season 2018-2019 as anyone from West Brom down in this season's PL could find themselves relegated next season. Just ask Newcastle fans for confirmation.
