At would be nice to finally see Tadić, Redmond, Boufal and Manolo on the pitch at the same time. I suspect we would be a tad more dangerous in the attack with all of them on the pitch. But Puel won't do that.
It's safe to say now that Puel preferred formation is 4-3-3 and I actually think that he's not an inherently a defensive coach but rather a offensive oriented one, but what's limiting him perhaps in Southampton is a lack of player suited for his style of play, especially in the middle of the pitch. To make a 4-3-3 formation work, you need a specific type of midfielders - one's that a physically imposing, playing box to box and getting forward often, have an eye for goal and a pass, like to dribble the ball and barge trough opposition's lines. Can you think of any of our midfielders that fits that description or even comes close? I can't. The best feature of all of our midfielders is that they can recycle the ball swiftly and precisely and get it to more forward oriented player. And they do it, but offer very little or no support in the attack itself, and our forwards can do very little when it's them three playing against 5, 6 or more opposition player. And that's why we can't score a goal, and why we only looked truly dangerous going forward this season when we played in the 4-2-3-1 for those several matches. Because we essentially had one more player supporting the attack and it made all the difference. So it's either 4-3-3 with a renovated midfield or change formation to 4-2-3-1. I don't think Puel will change his style of play, so if he stays the next season we should probably look to buy at least one midfielder which would suit 4-3-3 formation, because with this personnel and Puel in charge i think we're destined for boredom.