I must admit being 54 years old and having seen a lot of seasons and games the away record of 1-2-4 has a familiar look about it
You may have a point about Liverpool. When they are running at you they look unstoppable. Run at their back four and, just like last season, they are suspect.
Really unfair that a new manager comes in and wants to see the players at the club before bringing more players in. He will now know we are missing a quality striker, and the academy is unlikely to produce one soon, he can see that we are missing a creative midfielder but may feel this can be covered by youth, may feel that youth can cover problem areas like RB and CB. A club that keeps on selling it's best creative players will reach a point where they play pretty flat football, we are at that stage. This season is about mid table finish, maybe a good cup run or two with an eye towards summer and sorting out the problems. We are predictable, we are slow in the build up, we do need 20 chances to score, but I feel that if we only had the league and could play the same team game after game we would be much more fluid
We weren't lucky enough to be playing a Liverpool side with Lucas in their defence though. We also had Coutinho and Mane to worry about (everyone mentions yesterday's game turning when Fraser came on - and it did - but little appears to be said about Mane getting injured and coming off. Liverpool were much, much weaker without him. 3-1 could have become 4-1 or 5-1 had he been able to continue). Oh, and Bournemouth had nothing to lose by deciding to go for it. And anyway, I don't see Austin as the sort of striker who you have in your team to "have a go" at the opposition (and possibly not Boufal either, although too early to really judge). Bournemouth did it with pace and power. So did we in our comeback win against Liverpool (when we were lucky enough to come up against Skrtel in their defence). We don't really possess those qualities anymore.
Another game to add to the 'bad' list What Redmond actually brings I'll never know. Him not squaring the ball or attempting to Romeu in the first half is unforgivable in my opinion. If our starting 11 winger cannot see the pass what hope do we have? He has a real attitude problem and seems to have a go at everyone else when he own games needs a lot of attention and development. Whats the obsession with starting him all the time! Tonight's performance again just sums up us this season. We've have no urgency going forwards, are incredible slow and predictable and now appear to have forgotten how to defend, one thing we was relatively good at! One last point, I like hojbjerg and think he is a good player however he is not suited to play on the left or right of the 3 in midfield. For me he is another Romeu, he first thought and touch always seems to be back towards goal to get himself out of trouble and recycle the ball. I don't think he's the right person to create chances and cut defences open. Overall, what a poor performance, again. Tactics for me completely wrong but the worse thing of all is I'm not surprised. All day I felt we had to score 2 and the way we are playing at the minute it seems impossible to get 1. In the past I would have been confident in our defence being able to see it out had we not been able to find the goals we needed.
Some of you need to appreciate just what Puel is/was up against this season; - First ever season managing in a non-French league. - That 'non-French' league also happening to be the most competitive and un-European league in the world. - Adopting a team who have been used to playing a formation/tactic that you do not use yourself. - Having to thus educate them in a completely different formation/tactic etc. - Throw in the extra Europa league games, meaning basically two games every week to prepare for (so many people on here do not appreciate how bloody tough this must be). - Huge expectations from the fans due to previous season's success. - Three of the best players in the squad sold (including the two highest scorers). - Replaced with unproven players (Hjobjerg/Redmond), and others coming back from long injury lay-offs (Austin & J-Rod). - Two of the new signings being injured/not match-fit for the first half of the season (Boufal/Pied). - A group of first-teamers starting the season fatigued because of the Euros (Fonte/Cedric/Long/Davis). - A captain who doesn't really want to be here anymore. - Pressure to involve the youth players more. Jeez I could probably go on. People are bitching because his style thus far is conservative. No sh1t! Look at what he has to play with. Our attacking options are simply very lame at the moment. Long/Austin/Rodriguez are all underperforming imo. Redmond is just not good enough (yet?). Which means Tadic is our sole creative outlet until Boufal comes good. The defensive approach has been necessary. Anyone thinking we could have out-attacked the likes of Liverpool, you're in ****ing la-la land. Problem is, teams know now that defence is our only option, and therefore they are not scared by us. The board need to provide Puel with a spark. And a bloody big one at that. I'd say a new 20m+ striker/no. 10 and winger. If he still plays conservative football when he has a choice, then let's criticise. Until then, it's pretty bloody harsh to blame him tbh. Oh and, cheers Claude for getting us to our first semi-final in over decade.
Wow, now you put it like that, Puel deserves a medal. What a trooper he is. Clearly, none of the team's failings are down to him because someone on the internet said so.
You have to appreciate that deep down inside of Nathan Redmond there is the unlocked talent of one of the world's greatest ever strikers. He has so many goals waiting to burst out of him that his little legs can't yet adjust to doing mundane things like... kicking a football in the direction of one of his own players.
Fortunarely, no rational person ever takes any notice of opinions posted on the internet. It's just a place for angry people to spout various contrasting flavours of bollocks, no?
It is, but its the angry people who make it interesting. The internet would never have gone anywhere if it was just a glorified glee club.
Only the angry, negative people make it interesting though. The angry, positive people are uninteresting. Talking of glee. Where's PL?
Or, just as easily we could agree that every ****ing problem in the world is because of Puel. That's intelligent.
