Saints 1 Hapoel Be'er Sheva 1 - Match & Meltdown Thread

[striker]

I am absolutely spitting with rage.

 

Right from kick off we were awful. Players just standing around watching the play, no one running, making space for the pass. Absolutely no runners into the box from midfield. Austin looked knackered before he kicked the ball.

 

Redmond...... seriously this is now a major issue. Makes lovely little runs on the ball, ties the defender up in knots and then F£CKING STANDS STILL ON THE EDGE OF THE BOX LOOKING TO PASS only there's no b@$tard to pass to because all the midfield are sitting back waiting to pass the ball back to Forster so he can have another go at slicing it into the directors box. Note for Claude: I watched this happen at least FIVE TIMES tonight. Either Redmond needs to p!ss off and leave the ball alone or the midfield need to be flooding the box because there's knack all point crossing to Austin when he's got three defenders crawling all over him. If this doesn't change, the f£cking skates will be back in the PL before we ever work a goal through Redmond.

Ifs all very nice wanting to keep possession and play this tippy tappy rubbish but it won't work if players off the ball don't actually move and create passing options.

Southampton are a premiership side. That means players should know their position and the job required, and be able to make a decent attempt at every other position on the pitch. There is enough money available that the quality of players bought should be a cut above the rest. Shrugged shoulders, players pointing out to other players where they should be standing etc are completely unacceptable at this level.

I don't give a flying brass monkeys left nut what is going on with Fonte - he is paid to do a job and tonight he should have been on the pitch doing it. No excuses.

Possession football.... no damn good if we aren't getting results from it. I completely get why the ball is worked up one side and then comes back because nothing is on. BUT THAT IS ALL THAT WILL HAPPEN IF PLAYERS DONT MAKE RUNS INTO THE BOX.

Yet again the opposition have had one shot on target, got the goal and Yet again another major result goes against Saints. Possession is less than useless if this is the result.

 

 

**** off..

 

Well that is just it right? When all we have is Austin to score then the defense knows to target him. A PL defense can shut down any one player. You need multiple threats to attack consistently.

[kermitsaint]

Only thing to blame for us being out of Europe is a lack of a clinical edge. Anything else anyone is moaning about is utter ********.

 

Also that lack of clinical edge could not be forseen so I'm only blaming the actual application of that, and a lot of that goes to Long and Rodriguez. Both of whom have had more than enough chances this season to look like being able to put the ball in the net and neither have stepped up. The board were right to not bring in another striker in the summer IMO as Long had begun to prove himself last year and Rodriguez was right to be given a chance. Austin has stepped up but Long and Rodriguez haven't. VVD has missed some sitters in the competition as well by the way which any one of would have put us through in hindsight but these two especially have been poor. Neither can have any complaints if replaced in January.

 

Puel, tactics, desire, Redmond, or whatever anyone else moans about can not be held responsible for the simple fact that a little more of a cutting edge and we'd be through. We've not been outclassed by anyone, we've not been out played by anyone, we've not been tactically outdone in any game, we've simply lacked a cutting edge and it's cost us. The decision making from young players like Redmond can be blamed but he's going to be frustrating, he's 21 ffs. Experienced players like Long and Rodriguez need to step up when given a chance, and they can moan about not being given enough football but that's football nowadays and someone like Austin has dealt with it and delivered when given a chance. These two haven't.

 

That's where my frustration lies, we were so close, basically a goal away and it's not like we haven't had the chances to score that goal, we've not taken them. That's where we'll learn and next time we get in this competition we'll be stronger for it. We need to be more clinical and it really needs to be addressed in January.

So you don't lay any blame on Puel for the negative play , the constant slow and tedious back passing ?

 

Cutting edge is important but we are barely creating chances . This is due to Puel and his tactics .

The players have shown that we can play quickly and aggressively and decent chances can be carved out . More chances means more chances of goals .

We don't play to our strengths at all . Thats Puels fault .

 

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[trousers]

I'm taking solace in the knowledge that somewhere in a parallel universe Romeu wellied that clearance down the line and the game finished 0-0 with everyone praising Puel for his master tactics of shutting out a decent side.

 

[austsaint]

I'm taking solace in the knowledge that somewhere in a parallel universe Romeu wellied that clearance down the line and the game finished 0-0 with everyone praising Puel for his master tactics of shutting out a decent side.

 

 

I'm with you Trousers. Elsewhere in that parallel universe Yoshida got that 93rd minute header on target and one all praised Puel for holding his nerve.

[CB Fry]

I'm taking solace in the knowledge that somewhere in a parallel universe Romeu wellied that clearance down the line and the game finished 0-0 with everyone praising Puel for his master tactics of shutting out a decent side.

 

Fine margins. I'd we had snuck the 0-0 I would be relieved but not happy. If Puel had achieved the objective, great, but he didn't.

 

From now on I will be referring to our manager as Fraud Poo-hell.

[Heisenberg]

game finished 0-0 with everyone praising Puel for his master tactics

 

[trousers]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2248[/ATTACH]

Is that your own photo or one you grabbed off the internet?

[Baird of the land]

Hmm well that went well tire out first xi, injure Austin and still go out.

Well I guess the no rotation crowd can't complain about this result.

My feelings, it was annoying and typical of our complete lack of cutting edge this season.

Worried about how we'll not end up mucking up much needed win at weekend too.

This season may fast become about concentrating on trying to beat Liverpool in league cup.

[JRM]

Fine margins. I'd we had snuck the 0-0 I would be relieved but not happy. If Puel had achieved the objective, great, but he didn't.

 

From now on I will be referring to our manager as Fraud Poo-hell.

 

I prefer calling him Clueless Claude. It's his dour mumbling miserable press conferences that don't inspire the fans at all; can't say I've warmed to him in his time here and think his personality is reflected in the performance.

 

Having said that those moaning about Redmond worth remembering he is young and in fact record signing Boufal has been a bigger let down in terms of having minimal contribution to our season. Joining a long list of useless record signings.

I'm plssed off at the missed opportunity. Who knows when we'll get such a chance to progress in Europe.

[Plastic]

Nobody wants to watch a 0-0, which was clearly the aim yesterday. That's pulis-style anti football. I'm as ****ed off today as I was last night.

So many wayward passes, players not running for through balls and then blaming the passer, so little movement, it was almost played at walking pace. So much anger and frustration with each other, all blaming someone else. Austin did well until his injury, tadic looked quality when he came on, VvD obviously looked good, yoshi solid, sims had energy, everyone else was largely anonymous.

 

Didn't help that some ****s in chapel thought it was funny to shout 'wooooooaaahhhh' at Forster when he touched the ball. Why the **** would you do that unless you were a ****ing skate?

[ADutchSaint]

I cant say i was surprised with last nights display cause its been something we have seen all season and i said have it before and ill say it again, rotation doesnt work. It has never worked for any club and never will.

 

Anyway at the end we should be ashamed that we failed to qualify in a group with a terrible Inter and 2 other mediocre teams.

[Saints foreva]

Slept on it. Still fuming.

[100%Red&White]

If anyone knows that utter f*cking nonce at the front of the northam in the face paint and top hat can they please tell him to sort himself out. He's a f*cking mess and an embarrassment to our club.

 

And to think most of us have mocked TCWTB for all these years and then along comes TBCWTRAWSF.

 

What grinds the most is we should have been home and dry weeks ago but recent form has been shocking. Away to Prague and then to go out so meekly last night, players and 'support', feels like a stiff kick in the minerals.

[St_Guido]

I am absolutely spitting with rage.

 

Right from kick off we were awful. Players just standing around watching the play, no one running, making space for the pass. Absolutely no runners into the box from midfield. Austin looked knackered before he kicked the ball.

 

Redmond...... seriously this is now a major issue. Makes lovely little runs on the ball, ties the defender up in knots and then F£CKING STANDS STILL ON THE EDGE OF THE BOX LOOKING TO PASS only there's no b@$tard to pass to because all the midfield are sitting back waiting to pass the ball back to Forster so he can have another go at slicing it into the directors box. Note for Claude: I watched this happen at least FIVE TIMES tonight. Either Redmond needs to p!ss off and leave the ball alone or the midfield need to be flooding the box because there's knack all point crossing to Austin when he's got three defenders crawling all over him. If this doesn't change, the f£cking skates will be back in the PL before we ever work a goal through Redmond.

Ifs all very nice wanting to keep possession and play this tippy tappy rubbish but it won't work if players off the ball don't actually move and create passing options.

Southampton are a premiership side. That means players should know their position and the job required, and be able to make a decent attempt at every other position on the pitch. There is enough money available that the quality of players bought should be a cut above the rest. Shrugged shoulders, players pointing out to other players where they should be standing etc are completely unacceptable at this level.

I don't give a flying brass monkeys left nut what is going on with Fonte - he is paid to do a job and tonight he should have been on the pitch doing it. No excuses.

Possession football.... no damn good if we aren't getting results from it. I completely get why the ball is worked up one side and then comes back because nothing is on. BUT THAT IS ALL THAT WILL HAPPEN IF PLAYERS DONT MAKE RUNS INTO THE BOX.

Yet again the opposition have had one shot on target, got the goal and Yet again another major result goes against Saints. Possession is less than useless if this is the result.

 

 

**** off..

 

You summed it all up perfectly. Our football these days is BORING & largely INNEFFECTIVE. Puel's cautious nature is finally infiltrating our DNA & its awful to watch.

[kwsaint]

Puel got his tactics completely wrong last night. On the rare occasions that we pressed them, they paniced, and their keeper looked very dodgy and was flapping at crosses. Instead we sat back, got hit by a sucker punch. OK to keep it tight against Liverpool, not against this lot. We simply didn't move the ball quickly enough to trouble them

 

Also don't understand why Redmond was still on the pitch at the end. I am sure that there is a decent footballer in there somewhere, but he was clueless last night.

 

We need to get a striker in the New Year break, offload Rodriguez. I am sure that the famed black box has some names.

[sandwichsaint]

If anyone knows that utter f*cking nonce at the front of the northam in the face paint and top hat can they please tell him to sort himself out. He's a f*cking mess and an embarrassment to our club.

 

 

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Agree, he was the single worst thing about the whole piece, embarrassed us right across a whole continent. Reckon he/it was a skate on a wind up (fair play if it was!)

[Adkins' Bus]

I am absolutely spitting with rage.

 

Right from kick off we were awful. Players just standing around watching the play, no one running, making space for the pass. Absolutely no runners into the box from midfield. Austin looked knackered before he kicked the ball.

 

Redmond...... seriously this is now a major issue. Makes lovely little runs on the ball, ties the defender up in knots and then F£CKING STANDS STILL ON THE EDGE OF THE BOX LOOKING TO PASS only there's no b@$tard to pass to because all the midfield are sitting back waiting to pass the ball back to Forster so he can have another go at slicing it into the directors box. Note for Claude: I watched this happen at least FIVE TIMES tonight. Either Redmond needs to p!ss off and leave the ball alone or the midfield need to be flooding the box because there's knack all point crossing to Austin when he's got three defenders crawling all over him. If this doesn't change, the f£cking skates will be back in the PL before we ever work a goal through Redmond.

Ifs all very nice wanting to keep possession and play this tippy tappy rubbish but it won't work if players off the ball don't actually move and create passing options.

Southampton are a premiership side. That means players should know their position and the job required, and be able to make a decent attempt at every other position on the pitch. There is enough money available that the quality of players bought should be a cut above the rest. Shrugged shoulders, players pointing out to other players where they should be standing etc are completely unacceptable at this level.

I don't give a flying brass monkeys left nut what is going on with Fonte - he is paid to do a job and tonight he should have been on the pitch doing it. No excuses.

Possession football.... no damn good if we aren't getting results from it. I completely get why the ball is worked up one side and then comes back because nothing is on. BUT THAT IS ALL THAT WILL HAPPEN IF PLAYERS DONT MAKE RUNS INTO THE BOX.

Yet again the opposition have had one shot on target, got the goal and Yet again another major result goes against Saints. Possession is less than useless if this is the result.

 

 

**** off..

 

Pretty much this!

 

A few people bemoaning Yoshidas missed chance and Van Dijks in previous games, but we really shouldn't be relying on our centre halves to get the goals!

[stknowle]

Our football these days is BORING & largely INNEFFECTIVE.

 

These are facts that no-one can realistically argue with. Our new manager has turned us into a boring and ineffective football team.

[warsash saint]

Wow.

 

Exactly my thoughts too.

 

Can't blame Puel for the missed chances in Inter; VvDs miss in Israel and Yoshida's tonight. We're a bit slow moving the ball at times and that might be deliberate (can't think why) but overall, its our missed chances that has caused us going out. The amount of grief Redmond gets is unreal. He's young. He'll improve. Jesus, its even what we are known for. Sims was 10x worse today and gets a standing ovation (I'm not saying he shouldn't be encouraged either).

 

The booing of Redmond in the Northam at the end was completely and utterly wrong.

 

Plus 1

 

More times than not Redmond beat his man last night but agreed his end product was not up to scratch - mind you the lack of players in the box did not help!

[warsash saint]

Agree, he was the single worst thing about the whole piece, embarrassed us right across a whole continent. Reckon he/it was a skate on a wind up (fair play if it was!)

 

He had some nice Christmas lights on his bike though as he cycled away from the stadium last night

[Whitey Grandad]

The Lino having his flag up was the biggest clue

 

And the referee holding one arm straight up indicating that it was an indirect free kick.

[Cabrone]

Yes, we all know that we don't have much cutting edge but that doesn't excuse the performance last night. It was pathetic.

 

If you go out with a negative mindset, playing purely to avoid conceding then chances are you'll get suckered and guess what happened.

 

We should have been at them from the kick off, pressurizing their defence and forcing mistakes. Had we done that I think through sheer force of will that someone would have eventually scored and they would have crumbled. Even if we had gone out at least we could have held our heads up high.

 

This group had 3 extremely mediocre teams in it but our utter negativity meant that we treated them as if we were playing Barcelona. Puel seems to have a 'just enough' mindset which is wrong, last night was crying out for a full blooded performance but Puel thought we could scrape through with the minimum of effort - didn't quite work out did it.

 

Just want to say about Redmond that the guy has got attacking ability and can cause problems but he needs some kind of support around him, what's the point of playing him if no one is going to make those runs into the box? Maybe if Puel didn't pack the midfield with defensive minded players Redmond would do a lot better. I like him and think he can be a real weapon but not with a manager as negative as ours.

[DuncanRG]

I'm taking solace in the knowledge that somewhere in a parallel universe Romeu wellied that clearance down the line and the game finished 0-0 with everyone praising Puel for his master tactics of shutting out a decent side.

 

 

Don't think anyone would be praising the performance even if we'd gone through. It really was terrible - somehow we looked beaten and like we'd already won, all at the same time.

[ALWAYS_SFC]

Not bothered to read much but i sounded like a lot of fun on here last night.

[Pass the Dutchie]

Redmond was the only one trying to go forward at least, and passing some guys now and then. He did have an unfortunate night - and no support whatsoever - but at least his attitude seemed alright.

[Heisenberg]

Not bothered to read much but i sounded like a lot of fun on here last night.

 

Did you go mate? Thoughts?

[obelisk]

Are Saints one of the most boring teams to watch these days? Last night's "performance" was simply continuing a them. If anything they're going backwards - in more than one way.

[saintpat]

If anyone knows that utter f*cking nonce at the front of the northam in the face paint and top hat can they please tell him to sort himself out. He's a f*cking mess and an embarrassment to our club.

 

 

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What, more embarrassing than the neanderthals fighting each other at the end? Or the bloke f'ing & blinding & complaining from pretty much the 1st minute until someone had a word!

Don't get me wrong, that was a very difficult performance & result to take but grow up guys.

[ALWAYS_SFC]

Did you go mate? Thoughts?

 

Nah missed it all, company Christmas do, but someone told me the result and spoilt the evening...

 

Bet you posted about a zillion times about the same thing, oh and i bet Alpine broke his 90min posting record

[Mr X]

Teams must relish playing us they know we have bugger all goal threat in us so if they attack us on the counted the worst result they will get is a draw! Lately teams only need to score once against us and we give up!

 

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[SuperSAINT]

The worst thing about the performance last night was that THAT was the reaction to the Palace defeat?!

[Andy Durman]

Hapoel had one chance and scored. Inter Milan had once chance and scored.

 

The team that scores more goals wins.

 

The best team is the one who scores more.

 

There are no prizes for playing beautiful football with no end product.

 

Puel, Reed and the coaching staff will have to work hard on finding solutions.

 

4-diamond-2 is a defensive set up.

 

I would explore 3-5-2 at home.

[Foxstone]

I like to think of myself being a reasonable, balanced poster on here but god that was poor last night ... There was no energy or control in the team which caused the crowd to become edgy and lacklustre too - The support was a million times less than it was against Inter but the team gave us nothing to get behind them on..

 

Well done Beer'Sheva though... A limited side that with our squad quality we should have comfortably seen off, but they pressed and defended brilliantly and really nullified whatever attacking game plan we had. Also that guy in their midfield who was twice the size of Wanyama ran the show for them, didn't move around very much but he always found their men in space and we did not get near him to nullify him. Their goal was a result of yet another mistake on our part, but he finished it beautifully. If only we could shoot like that!

 

As for the team, nobody really performed anywhere near the required standard with perhaps the honourable exceptions of Virgil and Yoshi, and Cedric was a useful outlet when he did get forward.

Forster's confidence is shot and he needs to buck up - He made the team and the crowd nervous by him being nervous.. I have never seen Bertrand play so badly, at least 3 crosses into the crowd when usually he is so reliable. Our midfield were outplayed by theirs and we never got enough players forward to create a threat. When we lost Charlie our only hope of a goal went off the pitch with him. Long ran hard all night but never got anywhere near threatening their goal.

 

Very, very disappointed... Big changes in tactics and attitude are needed now.

[SKD]

Hapoel had one chance and scored. Inter Milan had once chance and scored.

 

The team that scores more goals wins.

 

The best team is the one who scores more.

 

There are no prizes for playing beautiful football with no end product.

 

Puel, Reed and the coaching staff will have to work hard on finding solutions.

4-diamond-2 is a defensive set up.

 

I would explore 3-5-2 at home.

 

We've been playing 4-3-3 for months. Why do people keep blaming the diamond

[Joe Kirkup]

Apart from the obvious lack of tactical awareness and ridiculous possession football we play, I think that over the last few years our selling and replacing players has resulted in a gradual reduction in the average level of players we have. I now get worried if Davis isn't in the team.

[mrfahaji]

The goal difference rule is extremely dumb and leaves matches vulnerable to getting fixed. It is a huge risk as in game 6 the bottom side might be played five lost five. This method is much fairer regardless

 

Head to head, for this reason, seems fair to me. If you've beaten a side twice, it seems silly that they can progress instead of you just because they hammered the cr@p team by more than you. Goal difference between the two of you is when it becomes a grey area for me, but I can see the logic. The away goals rule as a group tiebreaker is what I think is wrong. Fine if it is in a knockout, but in a group it's ridiculous that the stadium in which you scored your goals becomes more important than how many goals you've scored.

 

These were my thoughts a couple of weeks ago when PSG went above Arsenal in their CL group on this basis - not just sour grapes because it has cost us a place!

 

But as I have said in another post elsewhere, perhaps it's fitting we went out that way given we scored 0 goals away from home in total. Had we lost 2-1 in Milan and 3-2 in Prague, there would definitely be a case of feeling hard done by. Not so much when we've managed 0-1, 0-1, 0-0.

[Adkins' Bus]

We've been playing 4-3-3 for months. Why do people keep blaming the diamond

 

This! I actually think we were better with the Diamond at the start of the season!

[benjii]

I don't think it's fair to blame Puel.

 

We had golden chances in each away game and missed them. Last night we missed a golden chance at the end and gifted the other team their only attack of the second half with an individual error.

 

It's not Puel's fault he's stuck with Austin, Long and Rodriguez. The only real criticism I have of Puel is the over-use of Redmond. Last night it was clear that HBS had a weakness when it came to defending crosses. Redmond on the left never crosses well. We should have probably had Tadic left, JWP right and got a couple of players through the middle.

[benjii]

Head to head, for this reason, seems fair to me. If you've beaten a side twice, it seems silly that they can progress instead of you just because they hammered the cr@p team by more than you. Goal difference between the two of you is when it becomes a grey area for me, but I can see the logic. The away goals rule as a group tiebreaker is what I think is wrong. Fine if it is in a knockout, but in a group it's ridiculous that the stadium in which you scored your goals becomes more important than how many goals you've scored.

 

These were my thoughts a couple of weeks ago when PSG went above Arsenal in their CL group on this basis - not just sour grapes because it has cost us a place!

 

But as I have said in another post elsewhere, perhaps it's fitting we went out that way given we scored 0 goals away from home in total. Had we lost 2-1 in Milan and 3-2 in Prague, there would definitely be a case of feeling hard done by. Not so much when we've managed 0-1, 0-1, 0-0.

 

Agreed. It changes a league format into a two-legged cup-tie which seems perverse.

[DT]

Woke up, felt annoyed and sick at the result. Heard Puel droning on about how good the Euro experience has been for us on radio. Felt very sad that we have such a bore in charge. Can only result in players playing with the same lack of zip he gives off. Sucking the life out of the team. Can't be a motivating force, and isn't on the evidence before us. Biggest game in our recent history, that was. And he kept Redmond on the pitch. Inexcusable.

[Appy]

Still utterly ****ed off, Puel got it wrong for the last 2 games in the group and that has cost us, he lost my support last night I'm afraid.

 

We should've pressed them from the start as we did against Everton.

[Lallana's Left Peg]

Alot of reaction either Puel or the players or the board. I don't think it is quite as clear cut as people make out, but for what it is worth:

 

1. Quite clearly at the start of the season we were easy to break on and the opposition looked dangerous every time we lost the ball. The tactics that have emerged were a more conservative midfield - both with respect to 'dangerous' passes that would lead to losing the ball and how far they moved forward. It made us stronger defensively. However, it has also really stifled the attack.

 

2. At the start of the season we looked a striker short anyway. In the diamond Redmond was to be a striker but that clearly has not worked out. He does not have the instincts nor the guile. His recent form is really bad and that's even playing as a winger. I like his attributes but he needs to come on an awful lot to be a player in the top half of this league. And that leaves us with Austin - who I really like but clearly has injury issues, Long who's form last season was good in the second half but he has reverted to type this season and Jay Rod who absolutely deserved a chance but clearly is struggling himself.

 

So that means we play more conservatively and create less chances but we do not have the players who are taking them which causes all sorts of issues. There has to be a balance between the two and that responsibility is Puel's. I'm not against squad rotation at all but I don't like it when I see us play with little understanding or cohesion - that is not acceptable. These are professional footballers and they need to be trained and taught.

 

But also the recruitment gambles failed. Redmond hasn't made an impact. Jay Rod hasn't worked out (but as I said deserved his chance). Boufal needs more time but we signed him knowing he was injured so that should have been planned for.

 

Lastly also some of the players have not been playing well - some are lost under the new Manager and some are just not at it. They also need to be better.

 

So I think it's a culmination of things that have caused this situation - some are unforeseen and there is no blame. Some were clearly evident in the summer and were not addressed.

 

I don't know what the answer is - more adventurous football may come at a cost defensively but its worth a shot. It's annoying supporting a team that the opposition must think they only need to score once to get a draw or even a win against - especially with the resources we have at our disposal.

[Evil Monkey]

We have a team of midgets, and no runners from midfield but continue to work the channels and cross to no one. We need a new attacking midfielder just as much as we need a ****ing striker. Davis/Rom/Hoj as a midfield 3 is so limited going forward. Redmond gets too much stick, but 2/3 times last night he had his full back on toast, got to the box and stopped dead when he reached the CB. RUN AT HIM DICKHEAD!

[Saint_Tony]

I think VVD is off in January now. You saw how much it meant to him, but too many others didn't care.

 

I appreciate how far we have come in the last few years. Massive respect for everything Les Reed has done for the club, but the whole project sadly reached its peak, and it is only downhill from here. I think last night signalled the beginning of the end for us.

 

The most sickening thing is the 'we need to bounce back on sunay' bull****. Sunday is ****ing irrelevant. Boro can beat us 6-0 and it wont change much. We needed a result LAST NIGHT.

 

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[broncoboy]

Puel got his tactics completely wrong last night. On the rare occasions that we pressed them, they paniced, and their keeper looked very dodgy and was flapping at crosses. Instead we sat back, got hit by a sucker punch. OK to keep it tight against Liverpool, not against this lot. We simply didn't move the ball quickly enough to trouble them

 

Also don't understand why Redmond was still on the pitch at the end. I am sure that there is a decent footballer in there somewhere, but he was clueless last night.

 

We need to get a striker in the New Year break, offload Rodriguez. I am sure that the famed black box has some names.

 

The stats don't lie. Our inability to score from the chances we do make shows that we lack any incisive strikers. God knows what longs look like . He has been completely ineffective this season. We must be one of the few clubs on the planet who expect that strikers with a poor track record are going to deliver enough goals to keep,us in the top half of the table. Redmond was appalling

last night he cannot recognise who to play the ball to in an attacking move. In fact he invariably passed the ball to the opposition. Out of form average journeymen fail to rise to the challenge. Les the genius I don't think so .

Go on Les sell VVD and Fonte I dare you

[salisbury saints1]

Poor performance last night. I kind of felt the team froze with the expectation and the occasion and only loosened up when went 1-0 down. My next match is Tottenham so hopefully things looking up by then but lack of goals is a serious problem. Any advance on the rumours of sturridge in the window?

[Window Cleaner]

I really can't work out what you all expected, last summer, as part of an ongoing trend, class players were replaced by average ones. There is really nothing much to expect except the actual sawtoothed, mid-table results.

[DuncanRG]

I don't think it's fair to blame Puel.

 

We had golden chances in each away game and missed them. Last night we missed a golden chance at the end and gifted the other team their only attack of the second half with an individual error.

 

It's not Puel's fault he's stuck with Austin, Long and Rodriguez. The only real criticism I have of Puel is the over-use of Redmond. Last night it was clear that HBS had a weakness when it came to defending crosses. Redmond on the left never crosses well. We should have probably had Tadic left, JWP right and got a couple of players through the middle.

 

A few reasons to be critical of Puel, if I may:

 

1. Unless he went knocking at Reed's door in the summer and Reed said no, Puel does shoulder some blame for our lack of striking options.

2. One of the reasons our attacking roster seems so weak is that he hasn't got the best out of the talent they do have. Not consistently, anyway.

3. Last night after Austin went off, we kept putting crosses in to players who were never going to get on the end of them. That's an obvious tactical error.

 

He deserves credit for other things, of course.

 

I really can't work out what you all expected, last summer, as part of an ongoing trend, class players were replaced by average ones. There is really nothing much to expect except the actual sawtoothed, mid-table results.

 

If we followed the trend we'd actually be improving, as we have for six years in a row. We usually replace class players with class players.

[Appy]

I really can't work out what you all expected, last summer, as part of an ongoing trend, class players were replaced by average ones. There is really nothing much to expect except the actual sawtoothed, mid-table results.

 

Results I can take, negative tactics like last night I struggle to.

[Forester]

I am one of many who went to Milan and Prague, and want some more. So really disappointed.

 

From a football point of view we misfired in three of the six games. The home wins and away performance in Milan were very good. But we just needed one of those other games to have seen one more goal.

 

And that is the nub of the issue as others have commented on. With hindsight, the original thinking of sending JayRod out on loan was right - despite most on here kicking back after he scored against Sunderland. But I said we needed two strikers in, and we still need that. Redmond is a good player and will get better, but he needs taking out of the team and recharging his batteries as he looks mentally shot right now.

 

Our league position is fine, and we have the opportunity to be better placed at the halfway mark than we were last season, and semi final of the league cup. So I don't buy all the anti Puel stuff, but he needs significant help in January transfer window or we will lose lots of games 1-0 in the second half of the season.