Puel out

[ally_uk]

He is boring.... Boring football. We are going backwards.....

[Pamplemousse]

Looking through the posts on here & other threads the consensus seems to be that Poch is a fantastic manager, one of the best around.

 

His first full season in English football he had playing in his side . Artur B, Shaw, Lovren , Clyne , Morgan , Big Vic, Lallana , pre injury JRod & Rickie . How many of them wouldn't walk into our present side? Bertrand ahead of Shaw maybe and possibly Gabbi over Rickie ( although personally I wouldn't ). I think it's pretty unarguably the fact that the others are far better than we've got now.

 

So with one of the present games top managers who already had half a season in English football, with a group of players far superior than Puel has, where did we finish ....8th , that's where. Plus a pathetic cup exit at Sunderland

 

I point this out not to compare Poch with Puel as there's clearly no comparison, but to add a bit of realism to the debate. Some people's expectations are way too high. If Poch with that squad could only manage 8th, realistically why does this season come as a surprise to anyone.? If 8th with that group was great, why is 10th or 11th with a cup final suddenly manager out territory. We could even still finish 8th, as we sit 9th . Which of course is only 1 place below the great season Poch had.

 

 

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I mentioned this a couple of days ago, and surprise surprise, nobody had a valid response.

[Daft Kerplunk]

Looking through the posts on here & other threads the consensus seems to be that Poch is a fantastic manager, one of the best around.

 

His first full season in English football he had playing in his side . Artur B, Shaw, Lovren , Clyne , Morgan , Big Vic, Lallana , pre injury JRod & Rickie . How many of them wouldn't walk into our present side? Bertrand ahead of Shaw maybe and possibly Gabbi over Rickie ( although personally I wouldn't ). I think it's pretty unarguably the fact that the others are far better than we've got now.

 

So with one of the present games top managers who already had half a season in English football, with a group of players far superior than Puel has, where did we finish ....8th , that's where. Plus a pathetic cup exit at Sunderland

 

I point this out not to compare Poch with Puel as there's clearly no comparison, but to add a bit of realism to the debate. Some people's expectations are way too high. If Poch with that squad could only manage 8th, realistically why does this season come as a surprise to anyone.? If 8th with that group was great, why is 10th or 11th with a cup final suddenly manager out territory. We could even still finish 8th, as we sit 9th . Which of course is only 1 place below the great season Poch had.

 

 

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With Poch you could see what he was trying to do almost immediately and the players needed to get fit enough to play that way. It was generally a more exciting style. He did have the benefit of not losing so many of the players that had us on the up to that point of course so the core team spirit was there.

 

With Puel, sometimes the football has been good but more often than not, and especially at home it has been dreadful but what are we are trying to be as a team?

 

Poch has a very clear style and this was evident from the beginning when he took us over, I'm not sure what Puel is bringing to us just yet.

[Whitey Grandad]

He is boring.... Boring football. We are going backwards.....

 

Well, sideways actually but I get your point.

[Oldeuboi]

How can a team that plays boring football have the 5th most shots in the league?

[Lord Duckhunter]

I mentioned this a couple of days ago, and surprise surprise, nobody had a valid response.

 

They won't because there is no response to it. With this group of players he's doing a decent job.

 

 

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[SKD]

They won't because there is no response to it. With this group of players he's doing a decent job.

 

 

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Bull****. Poch is a fantastic coach who gets the best out of players (Dele, Kane, lallana, Jay Rod, Shaw, Chambers to name a few). Players are going backwards under Puel, especially the forwards.

 

If you honestly believe that Puel's getting the best out of this team, you're deluded.

[saintadam]

To be very brief....

 

League Cup - obviously had a brilliant run and enjoyed.

Europa League - shocking tactics led us to being knocked out

FA Cup - let's not even go there.

League - the position might be about right, or maybe 1 place higher, but the points tally is pretty dire considering the progress we have made. Boring football for large parts of this season Hull game was the most boring game that I have watched in a long time and I fell asleep at half time. Shame I didn't fall asleep for the rest of the game. We started the season off really badly with some weird formation that no one wanted or could play.

 

So you can look at this season and ask whether the EFL Cup final is enough, as the other cup competitions certainly weren't nor really the league. If we finish 8th/9th then that might gloss over some things. However, I suspect that we will finish bottom half.

 

This sums up our season perfectly. I'm not impressed with Puel yet but would probably give him another season to prove himself. Unless there is no truth in "he has lost the dressing room". If key players don't like him it should be easy peasy -get rid! No smoke without fire..

[Saint_clark]

How can a team that plays boring football have the 5th most shots in the league?

 

When we actually play the way he wants to it's very good, but for some reason we spend long periods of the season not playing that way.

[danjosaint]

I feel of we do give him next season (which les will) it could end very badly not only in league position but players leaving, unfortunately nothing will be done while takeovers are being talked off

[danjosaint]

When we actually play the way he wants to it's very good, but for some reason we spend long periods of the season not playing that way.

 

I think we do play the way he wants, the games we've excelled as many are saying are the games things are at stake ie Wembley plus semi finals so seems like players playing for themselves

[SKD]

Bull****. Poch is a fantastic coach who gets the best out of players (Dele, Kane, lallana, Jay Rod, Shaw, Chambers to name a few). Players are going backwards under Puel, especially the forwards.

 

If you honestly believe that Puel's getting the best out of this team, you're deluded.

 

Just to back this up with stats. compared to last couple of seasons:

 

Long - gone backwards

14/15 - 7 goals 7 assists (41 appearances)

15/16 - 13 goals 6 assists (34 appearances)

This season - 5 goals 3 assists (42 appearances)

 

Tadic - gone backwards

14/15 - 5 goals 8 assists (37 appearances)

15/16 - 9 goals 14 assists (40 appearances)

This season - 3 goals 8 assists (40 appearances)

 

Between those 2 alone, we've lost 14 goals. It'd be unfair to compare Jay (hardly played due to injury), Redmond, boufal & Gabbi as they didn't play for us last year.

[Saint Albert]

I feel of we do give him next season (which les will) it could end very badly not only in league position but players leaving, unfortunately nothing will be done while takeovers are being talked off

 

Assuming nothing drastic happens with player departures (a major assumption I know), I expect that next season will see an improvement in league results simply because there will probably be no Europa League football.

[SKD]

Assuming nothing drastic happens with player departures (a major assumption I know), I expect that next season will see an improvement in league results simply because there will probably be no Europa League football.

 

We've not had Europa Leauge football since early December.... have performances really improved since? Overall, other than the odd game, I wouldn't say they have.

[shurlock]

Looking through the posts on here & other threads the consensus seems to be that Poch is a fantastic manager, one of the best around.

 

His first full season in English football he had playing in his side . Artur B, Shaw, Lovren , Clyne , Morgan , Big Vic, Lallana , pre injury JRod & Rickie . How many of them wouldn't walk into our present side? Bertrand ahead of Shaw maybe and possibly Gabbi over Rickie ( although personally I wouldn't ). I think it's pretty unarguably the fact that the others are far better than we've got now.

 

So with one of the present games top managers who already had half a season in English football, with a group of players far superior than Puel has, where did we finish ....8th , that's where. Plus a pathetic cup exit at Sunderland

 

I point this out not to compare Poch with Puel as there's clearly no comparison, but to add a bit of realism to the debate. Some people's expectations are way too high. If Poch with that squad could only manage 8th, realistically why does this season come as a surprise to anyone.? If 8th with that group was great, why is 10th or 11th with a cup final suddenly manager out territory. We could even still finish 8th, as we sit 9th . Which of course is only 1 place below the great season Poch had.

 

 

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Hard to disentangle cause and effect - MP arguably made those players better as the testament of many of those players demonstrates. Lets not forget that at the time of MP's arrival people were calling for Lallana to be dropped/sold; Jrod was still struggling to find his feet in the PL etc.

 

Let's also not whitewash things and project some idealised version of the players: Lambert was a great servant for us but MP only really saw his twilight years during which he was much less effective (in hindsight his precipitous decline after leaving us is no surprise); likewise Big Vic had bags of potential but was still very raw during MP's reign. It took Wanyama a season to come into his own by which time MP was long gone.

 

As for Rickie over Gabbi

Edited 1 May, 2017 by shurlock

[Dig Dig]

I wouldn't mind seeing Puel stay, especially with a (hopefully) better quality and settled squad. If he does go however, I'm pretty sure we could find better. Marco Silva would be ideal for us.

[whelk]

Looking through the posts on here & other threads the consensus seems to be that Poch is a fantastic manager, one of the best around.

 

His first full season in English football he had playing in his side . Artur B, Shaw, Lovren , Clyne , Morgan , Big Vic, Lallana , pre injury JRod & Rickie . How many of them wouldn't walk into our present side? Bertrand ahead of Shaw maybe and possibly Gabbi over Rickie ( although personally I wouldn't ). I think it's pretty unarguably the fact that the others are far better than we've got now.

 

So with one of the present games top managers who already had half a season in English football, with a group of players far superior than Puel has, where did we finish ....8th , that's where. Plus a pathetic cup exit at Sunderland

 

I point this out not to compare Poch with Puel as there's clearly no comparison, but to add a bit of realism to the debate. Some people's expectations are way too high. If Poch with that squad could only manage 8th, realistically why does this season come as a surprise to anyone.? If 8th with that group was great, why is 10th or 11th with a cup final suddenly manager out territory. We could even still finish 8th, as we sit 9th . Which of course is only 1 place below the great season Poch had.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I am not in the Puel out camp but Poch's 8th felt a lot better and obviously beating City, Chelsea Liverpool roundly at home made it even more satisfying. Also an 8th with 56 pts.

[nta786]

I mentioned this a couple of days ago, and surprise surprise, nobody had a valid response.

 

1) we had 56 points- nowhere near that this season

2) football was more attractive under Poch (granted we had some drab games but not as much as this)

3) as a newly promoted team in its second year- it is more than great

4) our 2013/14 squad is far worse than the one now ffs. We had Fox and Hooiveld and Gazzaniga for example playing in the home game at Spurs that season and we still only lost 3-2- we also had a 17 year old JWP so it was great to finish where we did that season.

[James]

1) we had 56 points- nowhere near that this season

2) football was more attractive under Poch (granted we had some drab games but not as much as this)

3) as a newly promoted team in its second year- it is more than great

4) our 2013/14 squad is far worse than the one now ffs. We had Fox and Hooiveld and Gazzaniga for example playing in the home game at Spurs that season and we still only lost 3-2- we also had a 17 year old JWP so it was great to finish where we did that season.

 

Was about to write something very similar to this. People are also comparing Poch's 8th with our current position. IMO with the fixtures we've got and the form we are in we won't finish in the top half let alone get another 15/16 points. So, in reality, Poch's season will likely be far better than where we finish up this season.

[vectraman]

Looking through the posts on here & other threads the consensus seems to be that Poch is a fantastic manager, one of the best around.

 

His first full season in English football he had playing in his side . Artur B, Shaw, Lovren , Clyne , Morgan , Big Vic, Lallana , pre injury JRod & Rickie . How many of them wouldn't walk into our present side? Bertrand ahead of Shaw maybe and possibly Gabbi over Rickie ( although personally I wouldn't ). I think it's pretty unarguably the fact that the others are far better than we've got now.

 

So with one of the present games top managers who already had half a season in English football, with a group of players far superior than Puel has, where did we finish ....8th , that's where. Plus a pathetic cup exit at Sunderland

 

I point this out not to compare Poch with Puel as there's clearly no comparison, but to add a bit of realism to the debate. Some people's expectations are way too high. If Poch with that squad could only manage 8th, realistically why does this season come as a surprise to anyone.? If 8th with that group was great, why is 10th or 11th with a cup final suddenly manager out territory. We could even still finish 8th, as we sit 9th . Which of course is only 1 place below the great season Poch had.

 

 

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We won't finish 8th not with Liverpool, Man U and Arsenal to come. No chance. We won't get as many points as Poch did either. No chance.

The performances this year have, on the whole, at home been sh1t. 17 goals, 9 of which in 3 games.

So many poor games this season. Poor as in boring. I don't mind losing to good sides with a fight, but there is no fight. Against the top teams we've rolled over and had our tummies tickled.

That is down to Puels tactics. Two up front? Never. Not once has he tried it, even though we can't score. Long - his stats look poor. But how many minutes has he played? What run in the side has he had? None. Play one game, sub next. How does that help confidence?

Down to the manager, boring bloke, boring team to watch. Get rid of and bring back some excitement.

Season ticket with Puel next year? No chance. I've never been so bored as watching the turgid crap this season (with a few exceptions).

Also poor recruitment. We could all see goals may be a struggle without Mane and pelle, but we did sod all. Lost fonte. Bought nobody. All on the cheap, all depressingly predictable. I dread this summer, expensive exits, cheap replacements. Sorry Saints, a **** poor season. Yep, Wembley was great, but complete luck we got there playing reserves v reserves for first three games. **** in FA cup, **** in Europe. Bye bye Claude.

[Whitey Grandad]

How can a team that plays boring football have the 5th most shots in the league?

 

Can you separate home and away figures from that? There is a big difference between our home and away results. Against Hull at halftime we had a record of zero shots. That's not zero on target, that's zero shots in total. And one corner.

[Saint_clark]

1) we had 56 points- nowhere near that this season

2) football was more attractive under Poch (granted we had some drab games but not as much as this)

3) as a newly promoted team in its second year- it is more than great

4) our 2013/14 squad is far worse than the one now ffs. We had Fox and Hooiveld and Gazzaniga for example playing in the home game at Spurs that season and we still only lost 3-2- we also had a 17 year old JWP so it was great to finish where we did that season.

 

Bit of rewriting of history to say our football was more attractive back then, he gets Spurs playing great football now sure, but I clearly remember a stubborn single minded attitude to playing the ball side to side on the edge of the opponents box for ages and regularly failing to actually carve out decent chances. It was this places biggest criticism of him.

[shurlock]

Bit of rewriting of history to say our football was more attractive back then, he gets Spurs playing great football now sure, but I clearly remember a stubborn single minded attitude to playing the ball side to side on the edge of the opponents box for ages and regularly failing to actually carve out decent chances. It was this places biggest criticism of him.

 

The football was more enjoyable to watch. And whatever struggles we had, they were probably down to personnel more than anything. Beyond Lallana, Jrod (who got crocked) and a fading Lambert, we had little in the way of an attack or options to change things.

 

Still happy to bet with you that we don't score as many goal this season as we did in 2013/14.

[Dusic]

The football was more enjoyable to watch. And whatever struggles we had, they were probably down to personnel more than anything. Beyond Lallana, Jrod (who got crocked) and a fading Lambert, we had little in the way of an attack or options to change things.

 

Still happy to bet with you that we don't score as many goal this season as we did in 2013/14.

It was certainly better to watch, attacking teams with pressing, pace in certain areas, power...just like Spurs are dominating with now, albeit with lower league position due to having inferior players.

 

Puel is taking away the good things we had in place, which Koeman adapted slightly.

 

We are so lacking in any sort of physical power now, a massive reason we struggle to record wins.

[doddisalegend]

Hard to disentangle cause and effect - MP arguably made those players better as the testament of many of those players demonstrates. Lets not forget that at the time of MP's arrival people were calling for Lallana to be dropped/sold; Jrod was still struggling to find his feet in the PL etc.

 

Let's also not whitewash things and project some idealised version of the players: Lambert was a great servant for us but MP only really saw his twilight years during which he was much less effective (in hindsight his precipitous decline after leaving us is no surprise); likewise Big Vic had bags of potential but was still very raw during MP's reign. It took Wanyama a season to come into his own by which time MP was long gone.

 

As for Rickie over Gabbi

 

and yet in that final season he still bagged 14 goals (and 10 assists) none of our players are even close to that this season which is **** poor really.

[doddisalegend]

It was certainly better to watch, attacking teams with pressing, pace in certain areas, power...just like Spurs are dominating with now, albeit with lower league position due to having inferior players.

 

Puel is taking away the good things we had in place, which Koeman adapted slightly.

 

We are so lacking in any sort of physical power now, a massive reason we struggle to record wins.

 

our squad is full of technically good but light weight players (other than Romeu) we get physically bullied a lot this season by teams with big athletic players really need to rebuild the spine of the team this summer.

[adrian lord]

People gallantly defending Puel are assuming that we will finish the season holding our current 9th position. Not so sure myself.

[Whitey Grandad]

It was certainly better to watch, attacking teams with pressing, pace in certain areas, power...just like Spurs are dominating with now, albeit with lower league position due to having inferior players.

 

Puel is taking away the good things we had in place, which Koeman adapted slightly.

 

We are so lacking in any sort of physical power now, a massive reason we struggle to record wins.

 

We are weak in the air. When was the last time we scored from a thumping header?

[Heisenberg]

People gallantly defending Puel are assuming that we will finish the season holding our current 9th position. Not so sure myself.

 

I don't see much movement now as teams around us look equally half assed. Sides like Watford will see staying up as an achievement, Bournemouth and Burnley too.

 

Finishing 8th or 9th for me isn't an achievement anyway... Not if you're 20 odd points off 7th.

[The Cat]

Can you separate home and away figures from that? There is a big difference between our home and away results. Against Hull at halftime we had a record of zero shots. That's not zero on target, that's zero shots in total. And one corner.

 

What's the fascination in the difference between home and away form? All games are played on a similar size pitch and worth the same number of points. If we won all our away games but only 5 at home and finished in the top 4 we'd still have people moaning. Mainly, I presume, because the wins didn't come when they were watching!

[Stu Man Do]

We are weak in the air. When was the last time we scored from a thumping header?

 

Bertrand at Chelsea? With the amount of crosses we seem to want to blast in from all angles though you'd think a pelle type player would have been on the agenda.

[Lord Duckhunter]

We've not had Europa Leauge football since early December.... have performances really improved since? Overall, other than the odd game, I wouldn't say they have.

 

And we haven't had VvD or Austin since Jan.

 

If you took VvD, Mane , Pelle & Vic out of Koeman's side from Jan till end of season do people seriously think we'd have finished 6th.

 

Puel has been given the worst group of players since Nigel Adkins and surprise surprise he's lower in the table. Personally I think 10th with this group plus a cup final is every bit as good as 8th and no cup final with Poch's side. I actually seem to remember the Sunderland meltdown thread where people complained about him concentrating on the league and expressing the opinion that they'd rather drop a couple of places in exchange for a cup run. That was obviously pony.

 

If people think this season is unacceptable, they're going to have years and years of upset.

 

 

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[Winnersaint]

And we haven't had VvD or Austin since Jan.

 

If you took VvD, Mane , Pelle & Vic out of Koeman's side from Jan till end of season do people seriously think we'd have finished 6th.

 

Puel has been given the worst group of players since Nigel Adkins and surprise surprise he's lower in the table. Personally I think 10th with this group plus a cup final is every bit as good as 8th and no cup final with Poch's side. I actually seem to remember the Sunderland meltdown thread where people complained about him concentrating on the league and expressing the opinion that they'd rather drop a couple of places in exchange for a cup run. That was obviously pony.

 

If people think this season is unacceptable, they're going to have years and years of upset.

 

 

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Come on LDH stop talking so much good sense we don't expect it of you. A dismissive, 'pony' and a few insults are what we expect!

[St Marco]

Have no idea how people can compare Puel to Mopo. They were totally different and the stats speak for themselves. He took over a team struggling in the pl and turned us around. Puel took over a team that finished the highest we have ever been playing some of the best football we had played. Mopo got 56 points. We would be 13th in that season with the points Puel has currently. As much as I love the guy that was Adkins level.

I am not bashing Puel here but if some people think mopo would of struggled with this squad or puel would have done as good with our 2013 squad they have to be smoking some real good ****.

[Saint Benali]

Totally agree. I wonder if our resident stat people can tell me how much mopo and puel spent in their first full seasons?

[Wimborne_saint]

Plenty of stories coming out about Puel tonight - Press been briefed or just copying from L'equipe?

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/05/01/claude-puels-southampton-future-uncertain-club-poised-review/

 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/claude-puels-southampton-future-under-10336293

 

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/610463/Southampton-Claude-Puel-Nathan-Redmond-Shane-Long-Ryan-Bertrand-Premier-League

[kermitsaint]

I'd like to see Puel given another season. We've had a good year, but not a brilliant year and we, as fans, have been spoilt recently.

 

The main reasons we aren't further up the table are:

 

1) We were painfully short of goals at the beginning of the season and that was made worse when our only goalscorer picked up a long-term injury. The lack of a goalscorer was proven to be the problem when we signed MG.

 

2) We sold our captain and solid CB in January without replacing him, only for our other CB (and best player) to pick up a long-term injury forcing us to play an academy youngster to get by.

 

none of the above are Puel's fault and I challenge you to find a manager that wouldn't struggle in the above circumstances.

 

Another top-half finish and a cup final that we should have won (thanks lino) given the rotten luck we've had this year means he deserves another season.

Could argue that a decent manager could try to set up the team in a way to get Long firing again ?

 

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[Badger]

Plenty of stories coming out about Puel tonight - Press been briefed or just copying from L'equipe?

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/05/01/claude-puels-southampton-future-uncertain-club-poised-review/

 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/claude-puels-southampton-future-under-10336293

 

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/610463/Southampton-Claude-Puel-Nathan-Redmond-Shane-Long-Ryan-Bertrand-Premier-League

 

The Telegraph and Mirror articles look a rehash of the French article and nothing more. The Star goes a little further in mentioning player disputes but that 'story' could esi;y have been picked up from scouring this and the UI forum.

[nta786]

Plenty of stories coming out about Puel tonight - Press been briefed or just copying from L'equipe?

 

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/610463/Southampton-Claude-Puel-Nathan-Redmond-Shane-Long-Ryan-Bertrand-Premier-League

 

Puel has also told pals in France he is uncertain if he will stay beyond the end of the season with a club source saying “The next few weeks are critical to Puel.

 

“Recent performances have not been good and he is under the spotlight.

 

“The board are aware there are a lot of unhappy players in the dressing-room and that is far from ideal going into the summer.”

___________________________

 

jesus a club source apparently can newspapers make up stuff like that? even tabloid ones? speech marks and everything.

[Heisenberg]

Plenty of stories coming out about Puel tonight - Press been briefed or just copying from L'equipe?

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/05/01/claude-puels-southampton-future-uncertain-club-poised-review/

 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/claude-puels-southampton-future-under-10336293

 

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/610463/Southampton-Claude-Puel-Nathan-Redmond-Shane-Long-Ryan-Bertrand-Premier-League

 

Bye Puel

[angelman]

Don't care who manages us, so long as I don't have to sit through another game like the Hull one.

[Badger]

Bye Puel

 

Expect Les to give a reassuring interview any day now letting is know everything in the garden is rosy and there are no concerns whatsover and no one is looking to leave in the summer.

[Heisenberg]

Expect Les to give a reassuring interview any day now letting is know everything in the garden is rosy and there are no concerns whatsover and no one is looking to leave in the summer.

 

Got a feeling it's too late for that. If he's lost the dressing room and importantly the key and senior players he has to go. Additionally the fan base now largely against him, he simply has to go.

 

Reed can acknowledge he got this one wrong..... Bring in Silva and we can look forward to next season.

 

Don't waste another season with Puel

[Ivan Katalinic's 'tache]

Results & performances dipped? Players unhappy with the manager? Rumours Puel can't settle in England? This sounds like a job for "by mutual consent"!

Edited 2 May, 2017 by Ivan Katalinic's 'tache

[the saint in winchester]

It wouldn't be fair to set him a performance target of 6th and then conclude he has failed. External factors like VVD injury, Fonte sold in Jan, Charlie injury have blighted this season. I'm not excited by his brand but at the same time bearing in mind the hand he has been dealt, it's been an acceptable season.

I'm sure the club will have an end of season review but coming into a club that sells off its talent, and in a new country, I would mark his appraisal as "performance meets expectation". Next season will be make or break. Maybe Jan 2018 is decision time.

Edited 1 May, 2017 by the saint in winchester

[LVSaint]

It wouldn't be fair to set him a performance target of 6th and then conclude he has failed. External factors like VVD injury, Fonte sold in Jan, Charlie injury have blighted this season. I'm not excited by his brand but at the same time bearing in mind the hand he has been dealt, it's been an acceptable season.

I'm sure the club will have an end of season review but coming into a club that sells off its talent, and in a new country, I would mark his appraisal as "performance meets expectation". Next season will be make or break. Maybe Jan 2018 is decision time.

 

Agreed. This season's performances and achievement, for me, isn't quite enough to let him go. If we were to strengthen (and hopefully retain key players), I want to see what he can do, fresh, without 'European squad rotation' into the equation.

(If of course, there is substance to the gossip and he's having 'issues', then that's a different matter)

[Pamplemousse]

People gallantly defending Puel are assuming that we will finish the season holding our current 9th position. Not so sure myself.

 

I agree. We'll finish in 8th.

 

All of these reports are coming out because a French sports newspaper wrote an article based on the fact that the fans booed on Saturday. Cracking journalism.

[benjii]

Poch's normal team in that 8th placed season:

 

Boruc

 

Clyne

Fonte

Lovren

Shaw

 

Wanyama/Cork

Schneiderlin

 

Lallana

Davis

Jay Rod

 

Lambert

 

Hooiveld, Fox, etc. hardly ever played in Poch's second season.

 

He didn't have much depth in the squad but out of that first eleven and our current one, I think it's nonsense to make out Poch had weaker personnel.

[Heisenberg]

VVD, Bertrand, Redmand or Puel

[Professor]

Another way of looking at the Premier Table as at 2 May puts the team's performance this year in perspective.

81 Chelsea

80

79

78

77 Tottenham

76

75

74

73

72

71

70

69 Liverpool

68

67

66 Man C

65 Man U

64

63

62

61

60 Arsenal

59

58 Everton

57

56

55

54

53

52

51

50

49

48

47

46

45

44 West Brom

43

42

41 SAINTS; Bournemouth

40 Leicester; Stoke; Watford

39 Burnley; West Ham

38 Crystal Palace

37

36

35

34 Hull

33

32 Swansea

31

30

29

28 Middlesbrough

27

26

25

24

23

22

21 Sunderland

 

Would we be even worse off if we'd had a different management team? Can't say Puel and Black come out of this with enhanced reputations, unlike our previous managers. On balance of probability, it looks like a change would be for the better.