Transfer Rumours The Summer Transfer Rumour Thread 2016

Spot on

Imagine if Virgil had said he was happy with the performance? Or Jay was content with picking up his pay cheque and warming the bench?

We want our team/players to be winners and want to play football. These are the right reactions.

Some fans look for someone to blame or for dramatic issues within the club, but Sport is competitive and about incremental gains.
It's not going well, but it's not so bad that their is no hope

 

The craziest thing about the fans reaction to the formation is that it has been three games and they were complaining after one game! Any manager who plays a new formation and changes it after one or two games clearly wouldn't have confidence in his own players or his ability to coach them. I have ducked out of the formation debate to date as I'll only upset people, but it is laughable that people expected him to change it so quickly. Has anybody done anything new in life and stopped doing it because it didn't work first or second time?? For goodness sake!

What Puel has to do is find that fine line between Robert Burns' spider and Einstein's comments on banging your head.

 

Didn't you get the memo? We're doomed. Doomed I tell you

 

I think we need to be tolerant of opinions here without accusing people of bedwetting etc. However optimistic you are, do you not have an ominous sense of uneasiness given the last 2 home performances?

I'm patient and generally a pragmatist but I really really don't like what I've seen on the pitch and what I've heard from him in interviews and pressers so far. I really was up for Puel on the basis that I loved the high press, but we are playing forwards in the channels, have no focal point to press upfront and are allowing opposition the freedom of St Mary's to build attacks. That's the biggest disappointment to me. I had hoped he would be MoPo MKII and sounds like that's what the club based their search on and that is not what we've had so far. Fingers crossed that changes pretty quickly but of course he must be given a chance.

 

I thought we had returned to the high press when we played Bilbao. It reminded me of the Everton game when Poch first joined us. However, perhaps the players Poch had at his disposal were better suited than the ones we have presently.

 

Don't understand why some people get hung up on what he is like in front of the media. Poch spoke to the media and gave very bland answers, even in his native language. He just sat there really, didn't like to give much away to the media in terms of team news or signings. Then he was completely different behind the scenes.

 

Arsenal away, Swansea Home and west ham away next 3 games , honestly can't see Anymore than 3 points being taken from those atm, Swansea is must win.

 

Very early to have must wins....wanting a win isn't the same. If we lost to Arsenal, but drew to Swansea and West Ham, we would have only 2 points, but it would mean we had lost only to United and Arsenal from first 6 games. Not many points, but would suggest we were hard to beat and could be on the right track. Heck, let's just beat Arsenal.

 

But at the same time shows were not good enough to beat watford, Swansea and Sunderland, not exactly something to boast about. West Ham away is always tricky so im not going to count that one. For me Swansea is a must win, because I don't expect us to beat arsenal or west ham. Sitting there with a possible 3 points from a possible 18 simply wouldn't be good enough

 

This is a good post.
Think I posted something similar after the draw with Watford. I am not a fan of the diamond, not just with Saints but I just don't think it is a balanced or fluid formation. However, it is important we give Puel time to try what he thinks is best and allow him to experiment with his new squad. My only hope is that he isn't too stubborn to change things up come October if its still not working. For Puel, it's all about finding the balance between having faith in your own ability and being able to accept something isn't working and finding a way of changing that. Patience.

 

I'm sure Puel will be flexible if things don't work out...or Les will encourage him to be. But Les will also be more patient that the fans. I don't like what I am seeing but three games....really.

 

Disagree. MoPo oozed charisma even if that wasn't drawn out in pressers. He had a calming coolness about him

 

I liked Poch's interviews, but the real star was David.

 

He's a good looking man, I'll give you that

 

Good points but also has anyone been forced to do a job their not suited for? I have, a couple of times, and all it did was make me really unhappy, stressed and in the end I left.

As far as I can see, and I'm certainly no football expert, but for example Romelu is now being forced to do the job that two players were doing last season and Charlie Austin is being played exactly the opposite way he should be played. No matter how many times you force players to do this some will never fit in the square hole.

So what do we do as a club? Sell these players? Replace them in the squad with....errr....if this continues to fail. After all fact is fact, we haven't won a game yet and haven't really looked 'great' in any match, except for 10 minute spells. We are stuck with the players we have so what gives, the manager or the players?

By the way everyone's favourite fantasist Jack Schitt has posted another small story including some stuff about the famed diamond formation and what his [made up?] contact has been told about this.

Also it really worries me that even during the winning run last season and now this season we seem to have completely forgotten how to keep a clean-sheet, which means we have to score two goals to win a game.

Sorry it's a bit of a ramble and probably makes no sense but hey-ho I've vented at least.

 

It only takes one game to turn us all around. For 15 minutes against Sunderland I think we probably al thought "hold up, I think Puel's going to be okay", but then we saw one of the greatest collective collapses in footballing calm and ability I have seen in a long time. There are two possibilities as to why:

1. After 15 minutes the players simply forgot how to play the system.
2. It only took an average Sunderland side 15 minutes to completely suss us out and nullify the system.

Perhaps Puel can get them drilled so that number 1 is never again a possibility, and make them flexible enough so that 2 becomes much more difficult. Replacing Tadic - who has not yet shown himself capable at 10 - with Boufal might help.

New blood is now essential to get the players feeling excited about the new season - and to create competition for places.

 

Forget the diamond it's all going pear shaped.

 

Great signing for them! He will tear up that league I reckon.

 

Ok, this is just my take on it.

I think there is a massive difference between the 3CB lineup and the diamond we are now playing.
The 3CB formation gave the defence a very solid central core, with all three being, more or less in a straight line and within 10m of each other, with the wider CBs being able to cover the space behind the FBs, fully in the knowledge that the central CB was covering them and the middle.
Plus it had TWO defensive midfielders ahead of it, making the whole system simple to operate.

The new diamond formation gives us a defensive lineup that is effectively a W formation, (full of gaps if not operated correctly, or if there is a turnover in possession when the FBs have pushed upfield - see the move leading to the Sunderland penalty and the Man Utd first goal).
The Puel diamond sees the 2FBs push high up the pitch (on both sides, not just the side where the ball is), the 2CBs play further apart than they would in a normal 442 or 433, and the ONE defensive midfielder is supposed to sit slightly ahead of the CBs, but dropping in between them, should one of them get pulled wide.

There are so many things that can go wrong with this formation, when players are unsure of it, which is why I said yesterday (somewhere) that the key for me is how the CBs work as a unit with the defensive midfielder. Even if those 3 do work as a unit, the wider midfielders, need to fill any gaps through the middle, when the defensive midfielder drops into the defence, or when Romeu gets drawn out of position by chasing the man on the ball.

As I say above, just my take on it. It might work well, with the right person at the base of the diamond, and given time. For all the complaints we have had to come from behind twice, meaning that teams that are happy to defend deep are doing so. It would be good to see how effective the system could be, after taking the lead, forcing teams to defend less deeply and attack us.
My personal preference, given that I am an insecure football fan, who doesn't like change, would be 4231 or the 3CB option.