Personally, I think it is, particularly when we have a new manager in place. Koeman had been here a year already, already had his ideas in place.
He may be stubborn, but we don't really know that yet. He believes this system will work and that the team will be rewarded for their hard work. This could be construed as confidence. I don't know where the tipping point is between confidence and stubbornness, but I doubt it is as early as 3 games. I hope the system clicks in or Puel recognises it won't, but still time for the league. It's the Europa League that has me hiding under the duvet.
Here is a genuine question. When we got Puel we were told he was choice number one. The big one. The perfect SFC fit. We were told he would go back to the Southampton Way. Well, why then are we playing a new system? Why aren't we pressing? We're supposed to play the same way from kids to seniors...
What did you expect them to say? "Claude wasn't really on the radar in all honesty, but he was free and easy to pick up so we thought, sod it, let's give it a twirl. He's probably a bit ****, but hopefully we can put a band-aid on that via our youth teams".
#puelout is actually a thing on twitter. Pretty depressing after three games. The one thing I've been questioning since the diamond formation was brought into play, is what is the 'Southampton Way'? For years now the powers that be have selected candidates that buy into the southampton way. I always thought that might include to a certain extent the playing system seeing as the youth teams were being trained to mirror the first team. So to go for an unproven formation seems an odd move. Maybe I'm just being unrealistic in expecting every manager to play the way we're used to (or it might be the amount of Buds I've had since the final whistle).
Will Puel still be terrible and on his way out "sooner than people think" if he changes to a 4-2-3-1 and we beat Arsenal 2-0? Or will he suddenly be good. Just checking.
He'll get credit for recognizing what isn't working and changing it. But to get that credit, he has to recognize what isn't working and change it.
Neither is there any reason to believe that he will; hence, the begging for him to do so. He has yet to hint that he might look at doing things differently, and the players' comments on the system being admissions that they aren't doing well with it (Hojbjerg and Van Dijk thus far, that I'm aware). If he does, the direction will shift. If he doesn't, the current concerns will turn to calls for a new manager.
Fair point. Here's hoping he does then. Did he play the diamond in his previous teams? That worked? I guess if you've used a system previously and it's had success your inclination is to keep pushing it until it clicks. It doesn't feel the right thing to do though in this instance, granted.
His record is incredibly variable, and I think it's becoming clear why. When it works, it really, really works. When it doesn't, his teams badly underperform.
No. Fonte looked terrible because he could not cover Dafoe one-on-one on harmless crosses. He shouldn't need help on those plays. If he does, then no formation in the world will help because at that point you are essentially saying Fonte is useless and devoting a DM or other player to do his job. He had an amazingly **** game. I mean, I don't want to harsh on him too much because it can happen to anyone. I mean, even if Fonte has lost a step he still wouldn't be this bad. The first time he got beat by Dafoe, he just wasn't paying attention. The second time, he just fell over. It was just one of those days where everything that could go wrong for him did. And Cedric was bad, too including that free Kone header which was not because of formation but simply bad set piece marking. I agree with Beefy that we lacked width, which is a flaw when you play a diamond. But every formation has a weakness. Targett was left exposed on a couple of occasions today. But for the most part, he positioned himself well, and when faced with an overload did the right thing by forcing his man wide and slowing them down. Which theoretically gave us time to get back and pack the middle, except that Fonte couldn't handle simple crosses. I think it is fair to question whether we can play the diamond with the players we have. I'm not sure we do, but the transfer period isn't over yet. The solution might be to simply bring in a better RB than Cedric so we don't need an extra DM to babysit him. I'm willing to write this one off for Fonte. And on the other side, Targett was okay today, and we will soon have Bertrand back. I just think the diamond is being scapegoated here to some extent. And it's not that I'm positive the diamond works, but rather that blaming the diamond might be overlooking the more serious problem that we lack talent. While the transfer window is open, it's more important to address that issue. If Pied is hurt, I think we need to bring in an RB. And now I think another DM. Regardless of what formation we play.
Didn't see the match but I gather we were poor. Gather the diamond is just not working. Can anyone summarise the match, who played well etc?
I don't at all disagree that we're light on talent. But I think that the diamond is magnifying some of the flaws (do diamonds magnify things?), because players who were acceptably okay but not ideal in the old setup are now looking quite bad.
The majority of Saints fans are reasonable human beings who will give any manager and player time. There are also others for whom the glass is not only half empty but has a ruddy great crack in it. One day by the law of averages, the panickers will be right and declare so vociferously....but it must be very stressful to live your life in fear....just waiting for the day that you are right.
