SFCMatt

Then don't compare at all mate. Should I compare with Koeman's last 3 games for the club? How about Puel's 1st 3 games for Nice? The point i'm trying to make is that having seen what a manager is capable of gives you confidence he can turn it round. No one would have sacked Sir Alex after Utd won the treble if they'd lost their 1st 3 games of the following season but Moyes was under pressure as soon as results went south. Whether that's fair or correct is a different matter, that's football.

Apples and Oranges, Koeman had a season's good grace. Compare this season to Koemans 1st season. Liverpool A lost 2-1 played really well, unlucky not to get something. West Brom H drew 0-0 shocking game i'll admit. West Ham A W 1-3 could and should have been more. We also beat Milwall away 0-2 in the Lge Cup and the game after West Ham we destroyed Newcastle at home 4-0. Both managers in 1st season. That's comparing apples and apples.

I'm not disagreeing with you on how good the diamond can be, i just want to ask you or anybody else whether in the last 5 to 10 years any English club has been successful using it? I honestly don't know the answer. As has been said before the PL is very different to any other european league. Maybe your right in saying that UK players are less tactically flexible, i'd certainly say that's been proved right when looking at the England team. That's exactly the reason that you hire people with experience in the league your playing in because they know the limitations of domestic players and where they excel. It's about getting the best out of the players and no one can deny that at the moment we're not. Whether that's the system, new manager, players under performing or a combination of all 3, it doesn't really matter. It's Puel's job to make sure he gets the best from the team. I'm willing to give it time, i'm just not sure how much time i'm willing to give it.

Kinda says it all really doesn't it?

I don't know about any other teams but we used it sporadically during NA's double promotion seasons. He used it as more of a shock tactic though to catch the opposition slightly off guard. I think most teams in the top flight nowadays (not all of them) play a variation of the 433 whether that be 451 or 4231 but you could argue that we do too. Our tactic as far as I can see is 41212 which is obviously fairly close to 433 however we have been playing a 4231 which is very different from the diamond. No idea about international teams or foreign teams i'm afraid.

Completely over achieved with us but got the best out of Le Tiss and apart from Adkins double promotions and maybe the WGS cup final year, i've never enjoyed watching Saints so much as under Bally. Massive mistake going to City but he wasn't the first to make that mistake and certainly won't be the last.

Alan Ball, definition of a one man team.

If you actually read what i said, there were plenty of safer options, i did list them. If we were going to risk it then Garcia was a much safer risk. Don't pick out certain points to suit your argument but convieniently ignore everything else. As for going tits up, well it's not exactly rosy in the garden at the moment is it? Nothing else i wrote apart from feeling meh about Puel is feelings but don't let that get in the way of a good rant. Just another point, what exactly is a forum for if not giving opinions? I suggest if you don't want to know peoples opinions then a forum really isn't the best place for you. So as a new poster that automatically makes me a skate? I'm not going to dignify it with a response, there's nothing i can do to prove whether i'm a Saints fan, a skate, a Bournemouth fan or a PSG fan so there's very little point in replying to that. Read my post above #260, if you don't agree then that's fine but i'm not going to argue about it. Ultimately we are all Saints fans and as such have the best for the club at heart we just have differing opinions as to how to go about that. Hence the forum.

If you actually read what i said, there were plenty of safer options, i did list them. If we were going to risk it then Garcia was a much safer risk. Don't pick out certain points to suit your argument but convieniently ignore everything else. As for going tits up, well it's not exactly rosy in the garden at the moment is it? Nothing else i wrote apart from feeling meh about Puel is feelings but don't let that get in the way of a good rant. Just another point Dangermouth, what exactly is a forum for if not giving opinions? I suggest if you don't want to know peoples opinions then a forum really isn't the best place for you.

Please don't make out there was a mutiny within the squad before Koeman left, it's simply untrue. A few were unhappy, one of which has left (Mane) and was always going to leave, one of which would still be here regardless (Targett) and Tadic would have left if Koeman were still here. It's also simply untrue that the core of the squad extending had anything to do with Puel. JWP, Virgil and Fraser signed before Koeman left, Ryan and Shane were still on holiday and had been negotiating with the club before Koeman left and Steven Davis signed before Puel had taken over. Tadic and Cedric i'll give you although Cedric would never have had a new deal had Portugal done worst in the Euro's. In terms of squad happiness, i've heard very different things from you. Confusion about what the new manager expects both on the pitch and at training is what i heard and this is the squad rather than a few isolated individuals.

I think the increase is to do with new training facilities isn't it? What's worrying is why the debt from pre Katarina and Ralph days hasn't started to decrease despite 3 years of minus net spend. No other club in Premier League history as far as i can see has ever done that, certainly not since the bumper pay deals came in.

I'm a big enough person to admit when i'm wrong so please, enlighten me in which part is flawed. Like any fan i hope that things get better. I've never asked for a witch hunt. What's undeniably true is teams get most of their points at home and so far against two poor teams we've been lacklustre. If we don't beat Swansea that's nearly a sixth of our home games gone with potentially (assuming we lose to Arsenal) 2 or 3 points on the board, from the exact same home fixtures last year we had 7. That's ignoring United and Arsenal. We had another 4 points from those two games. Are you seriously trying to tell me you've enjoyed the start of the season? As for being one of the most highly respected forward thinking coaches, i'd argue that if that was the case then there would have been plenty of other clubs sniffing around Puel and there's no way we would have got him, especially for free. He may well be all those things in France but sometimes things don't work out. Look at LVG at Utd and compare that to his Barca or Bayern days. Even just before he took charge at Utd he did very well with the Dutch national team. The PL is such a different animal but it's my opinion and i genuinely hope he does turn it around as i completely agree that sacking him would destabilise the club and btw cost us a shed load in compo and to get a new manager in.

FWIW I've heard the same from a family member of one of our English players that several members of the squad are not completely on board with the new management team. In my opinion Puel could be a good manager for us but i have some serious issues with how he is going about it. As a department head (which is what Puel is), he has come into a job where the department he is running has been very successful for 3 years. Why change? When a business has been successful as we have been, change needs to be implemented slowly and it seems like a very big jump we've taken when we could have been better off by taking small steps to gradually adapt to this style of play. There was never any need to change this suddenly and as has been previously mentioned, the clubs philosophy of playing the same way throughout the age groups seems to have gone out the window. As the saying goes, if it ain't broke don't fix it. So why has he changed the way we play? Is it because he feels that the best way to compete on multiple fronts is to play this way? If so, then we have to give him time because we won't find out until we are playing Europa Lge, Premier Lge and the domestic cups. My worry is that it may well be too late by then. Is the change of system down him being unable to play another way? If it is then you have to question the club (specifically Les Reed) as to why he was hired. I also have serious concerns about why this club is letting a relatively unknown manager cut his teeth in this league with what was the 6th best club in England. We could have hired a much safer pair of hands and tracked Puel's development at other clubs before hiring him. What other clubs do you know in our position would have done that? Dyche, Karanka, Howe, Sanchez Flores, Pellegrini and god forbid even Moyes all have experience in England and although Karanka had never managed in the PL he is one of the best young coaches in world football at the moment. Christ he's even managed to get the best out of Gaston which is something Poch couldn't even do and I rate Poch as high as any manager i've ever seen at Saints. Others such as Garcia would have been risks but more exciting risks. I just feel a bit meh about Puel. I also hear a lot of rhetoric from the club about the 'pathway' but a player like Harry Reed is no closer to the 1st team than he was last year as we now only have one holding midfielder in the side rather than two therefore limiting his potential game time. (direct consequence of hiring Puel) I saw Valery in pre season and he looked promising yet the signing of Pied has shown the club don't believe he's ready yet. We've kept hold of Gardos and Yoshida (not exactly set the world alight although not bad players) yet sold Turnbull and still Jack Stephens seems to be stagnating. The reality is the pathway doesn't work in this League unless your really special and those players will break through at any club regardless of manager. Do you think Sunderland or Crystal Palace would have left Shaw in the youth team? We have a very good academy which produces very good talent but if the talent isn't there there is no pathway regardless of manager so lets not kid ourselves that he'll come in and suddenly play kids and comletely revitalise the academy. Do you honestly trust so little in the manager that took us to 7th then 6th that you believe he can't identify talent or lack of talent in our academy and that a new manager will find a hidden gem from somewhere? Lastly the language barrier is an issue. I'm sure it will get better but as fans you want to connect with the public face of the club which like it or not is Puel. At the moment not only do i feel disconnected from him but i can't understand him which alienates the fan base. Why couldn't we have got him a translator? I felt much more connected to Poch even though he rarely even tried to speak English whilst he was here. How this affects the players i don't know but i do know i wouldn't be over the moon if my boss barely spoke my language. It's not time to do anything drastic yet and Arsenal is a free hit for us as we rarely get anything at the Emirates anyway but in the Northam against Sunderland there were rumblings of discontent and i fear a poor result against Swansea could easily turn the atmosphere toxic. That's something the club can't afford to let happen.

I'm only a member so no guarantee of a ticket but booked a hotel already (hotel brunelleschi) in city centre. Free cancellation up until a day before booking so if I can't get a ticket no problem. Only issue is travel which means I'm planning on driving all the way if i do get a ticket. Hell of a journey but can't miss this one if possible. If anyone is in the same boat as me re ticket situation and doesn't want to book travel yet then I'm happy to take a few passengers.