Claude Puel in rotating players in and out of the team shocker.... "Playing, for example. the next three games with the same team is not the solution. The solution is to come back with all the squad, with spirit and especially a good recovery, because for them there is a lot of tiredness at this moment." Rotating the team for the last three games worked a treat didn't it?
Our style of play doesn't fill us with confidence (understatement alert), but we mustn't read too much into losing 3 games on the trot. That can happen. We could have expected the loss to Spurs and the loss to Everton away is no great surprise, so it comes down to one very bad result. We should have got something from WBA at home. Let's see what happens in the next 3 or 4 EPL games. I expect us to get enough points to tick over....that's as cheerful as I'm going get. As for the Norwich game....we have the same chance as Norwich.
Ask 100 fans and you'd get 100 different teams. And they'd all claim to know better than the manager who works with the squad every day in training.
A young team to play and win 4-0. A senior team to play a rotated Liverpool side and take a three goal advantage to Anfield. Is that happy clappy enough? Let's see how I feel on Thursday morning, but in the meanwhile I have no choice but to trust Claude. All this "we need a win" stuff won't have passed him by, but neither will the fact that the game on Wednesday is massive for us. I'll be happy if we get stuffed in the FA Cup and win that big one. Then Hull in the final, please, football gods.
I think we have upset the football gods....probably our hubris. Anyone got any sacrificial lambs, a large blade and an altar.....though it may need a human sacrifice. Any suggestions?
I'll apologise now to you Shepherds for pulling your post up, because it's not aimed at just you.... but... Seriously, all this moaning about the rotation is getting a little boring. For months it was talked about rotation and all though there was the odd comment about it, it was mostly accepted as having to be done. Now we've had three defeats in a row, "rotation" gets thrown into every other criticising post. We needed to rotate. We have had so many games compared to previous seasons that Puel had to mix things up. He has and I think he had to do it. To be moaning about rotation for the last three games is incredible. I read post after post showing how we were the only team with 3 games in 6 days and that every other club had more time for recovery. Some nearly twice the time we had. It is simply wrong to moan about rotation over those three games. I can understand if people disagree on selection for particular games, but he had to change it for those games. The game is different to what it was 10 years ago, let alone 30 years or even the 70 years ago that chap had to go back in his letter to The Echo. Now we have two games this week, one of which is the biggest opportunity we have had for many, many years to get to a cup final. Forget who the opposition is, it is a cup semi-final. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. Yes I'd like to win at Norwich, I want to win every game, but life isn't like that, not for any team. Once we are back to relative normality in the fixtures then yes, I believe it would be time to show some consistency in the team selection. Please, let's allow the manager get on with the job he has to do and move on from the tiring rotation digs.
Time will tell....we were ticking along until just before Xmas. We were happy once....Jay's two goals weren't that long ago. I propose we set aside what happens in these cups (unless we thrash Norwich and Liverpool)....the proof is in the EPL. I'm still hopeful of top 10.
Before anyone even thinks of it the Gods do not accept old gits after all that is what they are. It has to be a pretty young virgin or nothing for them and that is just how it should be. Check out the Iliad and the Odyssey as well as other tales of mythology if you need the proof. I think that young Pompey lad who never seems to get a shag although he is trying all the time should fit the bill perfectly.
Why? Because everybody says that he's so fantastic at set pieces? Any of our other players should be able to get a ball from a set piece into a dangerous area. Ward-Prowse offers nothing else when he's in the team so even though I'm pretty certain he will start Saturday I will be disappointed if he's also starting on Wednesday.
JWP will probably play tomorrow if we are fielding the youngsters....he knows them but also offers experience.
Is Ceridwen Dragonoak Connelly still around? Perhaps the spell has worn off? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...ic/3017536/Saints-lift-curse-of-St-Marys.html
Reading that article reminds me how much l enjoyed having GS as our manager; he said so many brilliant one-liners! Knew how to get the best of his players too.
Yeah you'd think so wouldn't you but apparently we struggle. I also think there's not a lot of difference between most of our CM's and Jwp has improved a lot this year.
