I am ,50/50 in this. I think we played well under Koeman to get 6th and Europa League, a great opportunity for our club. Puel just gave that away. That is where he lost the fans. He was never going to recover from that after we lost the cup final
Slightly interested who were our better players under Puel once Virgil was injured. I am trying to think of any, does seem to be a lot of the same suspects, but Ralph had Danny > Gabbiadini. Don't get me wrong, u am a huge Ralph advocate, but yesterday his lack of substitutes at fifty mins seemed to remind me of Southgate and that ended well. He needs to get some anger in his belly and become pro active
I'd look at Puel's record after he left us before deciding whether in hindsight we should have kept him long term. He managed fewer points per game with leicester than he did with us and has marginally improved that in France, staying consistently in the 1.33, 1.3 , 1.38 range. Just for comparison, Ralph has managed 1.3 per game in his time with us and his clubs before that have been in the 1.5, 1.7 points per game area.
I think the frustrating thing with Puel that was he inherited a good squad. The frustration was that Puel's team should have done better as the resources were there to do so. I think his performances at Leicester and St Etienne have proved it ws the right thing to do to move on. It is just that the appointments afterwards were so much worse.. The fact that we scored first made expectations rise but we traditionally struggled against Everton. I think we have a long way to go before pannicking.
It's not a myth. It's an opinion. The 'cleansing' of the club was long overdue and Championship football was enjoyable to watch. My opinion. Not yours - I get that. But it is mine.
I agree. At the time it almost cost us our club, but looking back, those years in Championship/League one were bloody brilliant. Plus it has actually led to us having some great premier league years too. We went from battling relegation every season to actually qualifying for Europe.
I was about to say the same thing. 2005-2009 wouldn’t have happened, but then 2009-2012 wouldn’t have either. If it isn’t for the bad times, you don’t appreciate the good times. And the good times never felt so good (so good).
Did the late change of Referee have any influence on the game? Should have been Kevin Friend, but was Andy Madley instead, listening to Solent, Adam mentioned that he seemed not to want to yellow card anyone for what would have been an automatic booking last season. Players were doing the usual falling down at the slightest touch and were not getting free kicks. This seems to be the same in other games.
I thought he reffed it okay actually. I think Allan was lucky not to get a card for persistent fouling, and he missed DCLs blatant dive which led to the Digne free kick into the wall. Oh, and Digne should have been booked for being Digne. But otherwise he was fine.
I thought the MOTD post match analysis was spot on. Everton just delivered cross after cross. Early crosses that in the main our defenders seemed not ready for. Something to work on (at both ends) for next weekend because that aside the score line disguises the fact they were closely matched teams.
We definitely need to look at improving our back line and, puts tin hat on, I would even consider offering someone like Tony Pulis a 3 month contract to just work with our defensive set up for things like free kicks and corners. I don’t like the man, or how his teams play football, but he knows how to set up a defence.
So pleased about that, early indications are that the game will flow better and, after watching teenage athletes and gymnasts crashing onto hard surfaces, jumping and immediately resuming their event, hopefully footballers will be encouraged to man-up and stop writhing around in feigned agony after they've been bundled on to the grass. Last season was ridiculous some players were barely touched but fell over, the game was stopped sometimes after the opposing team deliberately played the ball off the pitch only to see the "injured" player leave the pitch and immediately return.
Bruno Fernandes comes immediately to mind ….. Should be interesting on Sunday as I’m sure he’ll be throwing himself down at the slightest touch ….
Just looking at the Saints highlights and two things about the third goal. 1. WTF was Stephens doing? He should have been marking that space to stop the cross. Plus he clearly didn’t know where Calvert Lewin was. 2. It was an OG. McCarthy stopped the header, and the ball rebounded off of his hand, onto his foot/butt and into the goal.
I thought Stephen’s had his usual / occasional (strike as appropriate) brain fart & just switched off as “we had already lost”!? 2nd goal was a pearler! Bit surprised Ralph dropped a slight dig on motd saying maybe the keeper could have got there? Stephen’s would have been proud of Salisu & the all important first. He should of known where Richarlison was & regardless of a shout from McCarthy or not, it should have been pinged out.
