Well I don't agree. Liverpool were never 'always good'. Man U were just bloody average once upon a time. Chelsea were once a cup team at best. The list can go on and on. There is no reason why a team can't be managed to become better and better. But the truth is that we have lost our upward momentum. It has finally gone through not doing the right things at the right time.
Hilarious Ian, simply hilarious. To date, Puel at this stage had us playing to a plan and we we're a much better side, who looked solid and although less exciting than the previous couple of seasons, we created many chances. You even tell us that we "sounded" like we had a good 20 minutes in a game you didn't see or listen too. Puel had many many 29 minutes when we looked good but never once would you admit that (cup final Apart) You have zero credibility in my eyes. You are so biased against Claude Puel it borders on insanity. What a joke.
Yes, but some people just look at the bad. I always look at what is possible. Not what is not possible.
This is where I totally disagree. I think the problem was that the board could see that season ticket sales would be done if they persisted with Puel. This is why they ditched him as he was reluctant to entertain the idea of changing his spots and playing more entertaining football. The issue you seem to forget that football is about entertainment and, by and large, people were not being entertained by Claude Puel's football. This season, the results have been worse and we have under-achieved, but the style of football is nowhere as near as turgid. As I said, I think Pellegrino has got to put a lot right that went wrong last season and start to re-fresh the squad which has become stale and uninspired. I have commented previously that I think the team will be re-built in January and there will be some significant transfer activity, both in and out of the club. Once this business is done, maybe it is then the time to judge Pellegrino.
In my humble opinion, this is utter bollocks. hypocritical too. 27th August you had decided not to give Puel time. Totally hypocracy. Let's be honest you hardly go to the games anyway. Football is a professional support that, like it or not, has become about results. I love the tactical part of football and in my view, Puel is head and shoulders above MP2 tacticallly.
Total rubbish. We were playing brilliant under Poch and Koeman. The football was a delight to watch, We pressed and attacked at pace. Enter, Claude Puel and the pressing game was dispensed with and the speed of the counter-attacks slowed down to the extent that we were predictable. Few of the imports from Claude's days such as Redmond, Pied, PEH and Boufal have had the impact on the team as Lemina who has stiffened up the midfield. Only Gabbi initially made an impression. If we are still poor after the window, then it will be necessary to judge Pellegrino differently but, at the moment, I feel it will be wrong to let him go. I just feel that the new manager has had a tough job to begin with whereas Claude Puel inherited a decent side who were playing good football and with the addition of replacements for Pelle and Mane, should have continued where Koeman left off. The side definitely lost it's mojo when he took over. It will be interesting to see how well Claude Puel does at Leicester. My guess is that they will do ok but the fans will grow frustrated with the style of football if it does not change from what he was serving up at St Mary's. Interesting to listen to the fan dissatisfaction at West Brom on tonight's 606 as another set of supporters no longer seem content with poor-value entertainment.
As dull as we were last year, we are severalfold more dull this season. This is clear to the naked eye, but it's also very clear in the stats: we are scoring 31% fewer goals per game, in part because we are getting 40% fewer shots on target. I was critical of our reliance on long shots by players with little acumen for scoring from distance under Puel; well, the percentage of shots from outside the box has increased. Exactly no one save yourself seems to be more entertained this year than last. We were mediocre in 2016-17, and I thought that Puel was fairly mediocre himself. We're outright bad in 2017-18, and I'm afraid that I think that matches the performance of our manager, as well.
That's far too logical a statement to make... The board made a mistake last summer. They've now made another mistake this summer. In my view. I don't believe in any way that this particular mistake somehow justifies last summer's actions as being correct afterall. Equally though, that is not to say that they haven't made the situation even worse...
Yeah. I refer back to the commentator's assessment of us, as halftime approached: "Today, they haven't even been able to generate any chances to waste."
Precisely. At Brighton we created absolutely zilch from open play against a newly promoted side after taking an early lead. Don't really remember creating much at Palace after the early goal either.
Ian, can you answer me a question honestly please? How many Saints games did you attend last season? How many Saints games did you see live 90 minutes on television/Pc?
Indeed. People claim we are more attacking, I’m not really seeing it. Puels main downfall was Europa. If we had got out of the group stage he may well still be here. We didn’t and despite reasonable final position and cup final his failure in Europe and dull football was his undoing. The football is approximately the same but our results are worse.
PS Ian, we played some utter **** under Koeman and for the last three months under Poch even, the games were flat and dull. We know he reasons why (because he knew and the players knew that he was leaving) but that doesn't get away from the fact they were dull. Memory can be what you want to see. TLL has already shown us tonight that you gave up on Puel on 27th August - now that's total rubbish mate. You just talk complete biased nonsense. I'd have more respect for you if you said that you've changed your tact this year because you realised you didn't give Puel a chance and this has made you change to now give a manager a chance. I don't believe you see many of our games live at all. I think you listen to the radio, listen to the phone ins and select which fans comments to believe based on what you want to believe or what your agenda is.
This is a good point. However, put it like this - how many of the current squad are actually "Pellgrino" players? He has made three signings including a Polish defender who is an investment for the future. If you look at the number of signings made under Claude Puel's reign, it far exceeds what the current incumbent has acquired for the club. I have a season ticket in the Chapel End so go to the home matches in the league and cup. I cannot comment on away games as I am unable to travel to them as I cannot afford the time. My point is simply to say that Pellegrino has had little time to change to squad and it is premature to judge him especially when he has had to sort out the mess he inherited.
