mrfahaji

No question that was one of the worst performances we've had in recent memory, but given many are comparing Puel & Koeman, how much worse, if at all, was it than away vs Midtjylland? Both equally inept, but one was pointless possession and the other was aimless long balls.

If you look at most of our '1 for 1' rotation it doesn't seem so bad. Is Clasie for Hojbjerg a huge up- or downgrade? As much as Bertrand is a great player, McQueen has acquitted himself very well. Yoshida has put in MOTM level performances at times while Fonte has looked a bit suspect. The issue is more that our best XI isn't strong to start with, so slighty weakening a couple of positions doesn't turn a very good side into a good one, but rather an average side into a poor one. Nowhere illuminates the overall problem more than central midfield (forwards yes, but Austin is injured). Romeu plays every week because without him we look terribly soft through the middle, so no rest for him, and we are left to rotate a handful of players in the hope that a combination will click and come to life. So far it hasn't, because they are all much of a muchness. We can at least see the pairings that simply don't work (JWP & Clasie), even though Puel still went with this option in the last game...

Can't have them being swung round willy nilly.

It's not like Fonte is turning his back on us when we're on the up and making a march for the top six. Will be disappointed if he goes to Everton, but can hardly deny him a chance to move to one of the big clubs IF that proves to be the case. He has been an excellent captain through the years, but I'm not sure he has been one this year. Although his form has been a bit iffy, the main reason I'll be ok with him going is if he is (now) a bad egg in the camp.

I thought Darren Kenton was a good signing

Bleidelis will, for me at least, always be associated with that Tranmere game.

Too far back for me, but just asked my dad if he'd ever heard of the guy, he wrote back with "god yeah, Dougal is our leader!" It's great romanticising hooliganism of the past, knowing full well that if the same things happened today my response would be "run away! run away!"

Me too, I was always a fan of Frankie! Seem to remember it being from a great pass from Le Tissier, though could be getting mixed up with a goal Nicky Banger scored (does he count as crap?) One more for me - always wanted Scott Bevan to make it because he played for the same Tyro team as me (a few years up).

Just to stick my oar in, I mentioned back at the start of the season that there had been a bust up on the training ground with Puel and one or two players. I didn't mention names at the time, but it was in fact Shane Long. Since then things have improved and of course Shlong could now be happy as larry. But given he hasn't exactly had a stellar season so far, I'd be surprised if he thought Puel was the best thing since sliced bread... (thought I'd go all out on the idioms...)

Was that 3-2? I recall us losing to them the year they finished bottom and had Nordin Wooter playing for them. That name makes me think we shouldn't be restricted to Saints players

2006 - 2009. I was right all along. Can't believe we got rid of him.

Got his autograph, convinced he was going to be great!

Made me laugh in it's original form. Now it's anodyne, don't bow to the pressure!

Agree with this, our morale and corresponding energy levels seem to fall off a cliff easily at the moment, but are not necessarily bad from the off. I voted in, but worth noting that if we lose to Burnley we could find ourselves in 15th. Looking at the fixtures, only Leicester have a game you'd be surprised to see them win, so 14th is more than possible, and as much as Burnley are a side we would naturally hope to beat, at home they are a tricky outfit. Just seen Puel's down to between 7 and 10/1 on oddschecker for next manager to be sacked. The next, as yet unappointed Hull manager is 6th favourite Imagine that.

Luis Boa Morte. Was one of my favourite non-Saints players, and then he signed for us. Always thought he was dangerous when he came on, but Hoddle would restrict that to the last 10 minutes of games. Obviously he went on to be pretty good at Fulham. Edit: Maybe he wasn't "crap", but he was hardly used by Saints.

It's amazing how "winning football" quickly morphs into "exciting football" in the giddy haze of people's memories.

I think he's put forward a valid point. If we're going to dismiss everything on here on the basis of it being opinion not fact, we may as well close the site down.

WGS put a lot of emphasis on fitness, and it showed with the number of goals we scored late on. However, I don't think our style of play was as high tempo or with anywhere near as much pressing as we played under Pochettino. I'd say under Pochettino we had the fittest team, it's just that even a super fit side struggled to keep up the necessary intensity of that style for 90 minutes.

Would agree, perhaps with Hojbjerg over Clasie (though by no means definite). The problem is that neither of these two really seem good enough, and while Davis is decent he doesn't offer the all round game and goal threat that you want from the most attacking CM. Add to that that Austin is injured, Tadic is struggling to regain his early season form, and Forster has looked unconvincing for a long time, and you can see why we're having trouble winning matches at the moment even without rotation, regardless of the manager.

God this is a depressing phase, any hope before Christmas has been dashed by the last three games. Trouble is, I'm not sure there is one obvious fault. It would be easy to blame Puel (and I have to say, why would he pick JWP & Clasie when everyone can see it doesn't work?) but we also seem to be way short of good players. Complacency and/or poor organisation in the summer to get what we needed in.

Wasn't too bad in the first half, we just weren't getting enough in the box. Second half we just fell completely flat following their goal. But it's never going to be easy when you're a) losing to West Brom and b) a team who can't score goals.

True, and my comment also does a disservice to Burnley, who are doing pretty well. However, I'm sure that most would have expected us to fairing a little better, and others have mentioned, our form from the turn of the year was pretty exceptional - in fact I recall it was second only to Leicester. And VVD is off. Great.

Half way through the season we're going to be 1 point ahead of Burnley.

So frustrating. I can sort of see it with Tadic as I think he was going down anyway (not that I agree with it), but Boufal went over when the ball was still there to play, and could possibly have drawn the foul anyway if he hadn't flopped over. I've seen players (not Saints) dive when they could have just kicked the ball into the goal. Absolutely ridiculous mindset.

Losing at home to WBA following the Spurs result would be hugely disappointing, but we hardly deserve to be behind... for now at least. Let's see how we respond, if we collapse or run out of ideas, then of course it's another question mark. (that comment is not a direct response to Batman, rather to those calling for Puel's head because we conceded a goal...)