It didn't help that he didn't understand the question first time round. And the interviewer was nervous in his asking. I'm not even sure, how much he understood second time round as he talked over the interviewer.
Koeman lost a lot of respect, in my eyes, with the manner of his leaving Saints, but his remarks about Josh Sims make him look like a fool.
Yes, that was the first time that he lost his cool in an interview....and he kept his head down at the beginning. That showed this loss got to him.
http://www.skysports.com/football/n...not-to-put-pressure-on-teenage-star-josh-sims Praise from Henry for Josh... oh and that that Redknapp bloke
The interview with Sky before the weekend was telling too. He wasn't his usual cool when talking about his return to us and the reception he may get. He just needed to get in, get out and move on and keep his answers as pleasant as possible. I enjoyed him looking uncomfortable
The Tulips are no brighter, the Pancakes no sweeter & the grass sure as hell ain't greener. We just heaped a lot of pressure on his arse. December is going to be very unpleasant for him.
I only saw the BBC interview and when they were discussing his comments at the end I don't think they knew of his comments about the Academy last year otherwise I'm sure they would have made more of it. Regarding Josh, he did play well no doubt about it but I was a bit surprised at the amount of hype he was getting. Same as McQueen I suppose. Personally, I thought JWP was MoM, or maybe Cedric, or VVW or..............Bottom line is that it was a great team performance that was brilliant at times but somehow didn't quite deliver what it promised.
They said on Sky that several players had a claim for MOTM, but they felt that Josh had made an impact. Puel was also praised for playing him as it lifted the crowd who would want to see how he'd do and it would spice up the team to help and support him...and it would also excite the 16-18 year olds in the Academy who can see the pathway open. It does seem that we are rarely (if ever) going to see our team score a lot of goals. We are playing to prevent the opposition scoring...so we will see 1-0 wins and low score or no score draws....with inevitably some single goal losses. The end result is that we will be comfortable this season, but unlikely to be title chasing. We must remember that Puel is in his first season in a strange league with an unknown team facing frequent games. He must feel this is the way to go for this season at least....let's hope he keeps most of the team for next season and gets to add a couple of new players to stir things up.
P.s. In case that sounds like I think we play purely defensively, I would draw your attention to Klopp's comments after his last game. It was pointed out to him that the opposition parked the bus and then he was reminded of Saints performance. Klopp came to our defence and said that to compare our style to Sunderland's was to do us a great disservice.
Almost agree completely accept that I think we could be easily be scoring more goals. I don't think its our set-up thats preventing it, rather its not being clinical in the final third. More often than not its the final pass that isn't precise enough. Yesterday, for example, Josh was caught in two minds a couple of times neither passing or taking it on himself; Bertrand hesitated on putting in a quick cross (much to Puel's annoyance) and so on. We were as fluid as I've ever seen us, movement all over the pitch. I think goals will come.
We have the worst shot to goal conversion rate in the entire league. Obvious things like shooting from range effect that and stats don't tell the whole story, but the fact it is the worst in the league is telling. Another striker is clearly needed and that will of course being more goals. Will also help if boufal gets a run of games as he may be the answer to our goal scoring problems.
Actually I rather think that we are all too often simply atrocious in the final third (relatively speaking of course). I saw a stat the other day that bore this out. Worst team in the league for conversion of shots to goals. EDIT: Which I now see has been said above whilst I dithered in my hot pastry selection in Greggs.....
Yes agreed & have to give him 10/10 for appreciating a football moment on 83mins, allowing Josh to enjoy his applause & booking Williams for his aggressive moaning for "time-wasting". If there was one opposing player who I thought would have understood the moment, it would have been him - he's totally joined my player w.anker listing.
Stekelenburg never came close to putting in a performance like that for us. My memories of him mostly involve him standing rooted and motionless while Sturridge etc blasted the ball past him from impossible angles. Seems he's improved a bit since that night against Liverpool when he let in 6
A good win, played well and a quite excellent (and very surprising) debut by Sims. Always great so see a young'un demanding the ball and not afraid to move out of position to go get it. He wanted more of the ball than very many senior players have at times this season. I would say, I will say, I am going to say.... Why didn't he play before now? Why didn't he play on Thursday (or is he not in our Europa squad?). Why didn't WE play like that on Thursday? Oh well, let's hope it's not a false dawn. I won't be getting carried away because as rubbish as Everton were, they still opened us up a few more times than they deserved to.
I still think that night clouded a few views of him. He was ok (not great) cover and still played half a season when we did well.
Regarding the amount of gloating in Koeman's direction, yes he deserves some his way... but, unless Puel can match or better Ronald's final league positions, then that is the yardstick of whether we are now better off. If Koeman really was as awful as some make out about the young players, well, we still did pretty good regardless.
