Chelsea v Saints Saturday 16/12/17 KO 3.00pm.

See my post above.

Needless to say, 4 wins from almost the halfway point is pretty dire.

 

Sacking our manager and not giving our new manager a chance to evaluate his players before the window.

 

It's good that there are so many poor teams in the league this year. Even if we lose the next three matches, I can't see that the current bottom three could use that to overcome us.

 

Two managers who play the same formation, style and tactically questionable for most of the season. The board need to think long and hard about their next move regardless if Pellegrino stays or goes.

 

Les has too much power. Guy has guys that tell him everything and are basically his spys ( or whatever you want to call them). If Les goes we need to get rid of them as well ( there are a lot)

 

Everton and Leicester sack their managers weeks ago, after hellish fixture lists to start the season with. We start with probably the easiest fixture list imaginable, are adrift of both of them (arguably the two sides who we should most be looking to finish above), and still have our manager in charge...

 

Puel plays the same at Leicester right? Nope
Puel didn't play this way at Nice either

 

Could be a blessing for us to sort ourselves out before it gets too late.

 

And different with the previous with regard to Tadic etc. I just don’t think we’ve had the right manager for two seasons. We’ve been devoid of identity and personality in the team, or the management. I don’t mean I want a manager that wears a Homer Simpson tie, I want someone who inspires players to be their best.

 

Couldn't have put it better.

 

That feels like a really flimsy stretch to back the manager, sorry.

Look, I’m historically a happy clapper, but I’ve really had it now with the ineptitude from the top. The past two appointments have been regressive, and for me MP2 is worse than Claude. It’s barking mad that we’ve got to this point.

 

Take Tadic playing on the right. That is surely an obvious example to use, because I'm not aware of any Saints fans who thinks that Tadic plays best on the right. It is not a brand new MP thing that Tadic is playing on the right. Puel did it too. (Hell, even Ron did it at times; and shock horror, Tadic was poor in those games too).

 

Can’t believe Palace & Spam are just a point behind us. I get the feeling MP was just starting to figure what might make us tick but it’s very late in the day. We’re 18 games in & he’s still not 100% there yet. Certainly board have ****ed up in last 2 seasons but now they’ve really got to get it right with a stick or twist. Problem is, If they stick I can’t see them financially supporting MP in the window & if they twist, who do they bring in? The “usual suspects “ are now all done (won’t consider Pulis) so that would mean another “outside of the box” appointment & I can’t see them doing that in Jan. Think we’re in a bit of a tangle.

 

Puel playing Leicester like he did in the first half of the season for us. Then we tailed off badly. Puel is a stubborn as Pellegrino in terms of changing things up.

 

I doubt Les is full-on picking the team but I could see something here. Pure speculation but maybe Pellegrino, if given a totally free hand, would prefer to get rid of certain players (van Dijk and Bertrand are apparently the obvious candidates, but possibly others) while Les and co aren't prepared to do that. I could then see a situation where it might be made clear the board expect these players in the side. After all it would be somewhat embarrassing for the board to have stuck their neck out over van Dijk only to have the manager leave him out of the side. I don't think that's too much of a stretch. We all know that there's at least some level of expectation the manager should play a certain formation - the same formation all the youth sides play - and a certain amount of pressure to play certain players isn't that different.

I'm not going to say the above is what's happening but I wouldn't completely dismiss the idea.

 

I'm not backing the manager, i don't rate him. but sacking him before the window would be a ridiculous decision. i rated Puel. and both Puel and Pellegrino clearly want player who can cut inside to shoot, players we obviously don't have. we should at least give the manager a chance to play the way that suits him, no?

and if things don't pick up after the window, then get rid and bring in a new manager with a enough time to actually decide what he needs before the summer.

 

It's nice that you've joined me, and others, in the middle ground. It's nice here. Just don't go too far the other direction, and start slitting your wrists every week.

 

You can't predict the future, we will see how he does at Leicester. But for now it isn't anything like he did with us.

 

But surely allowing a good manager to benefit from the transfer window, is even better than allowing a bad manager to benefit from the transfer window?

 

Yes we do. Tadic can (from the left), Redmond can, Boufal can, even Gabbi can play wide as he did at Napoli on occasion.