Supersubpuckett

I was at that game too.....incredible atmosphere. Our football in the 80s was generally highly entertaining, maverick stuff. I'm sure there was one season we finished in the top ten having scored and conceded over 60 goals. The 90s was awful, the 00s workmanlike and then we have what we've enjoyed for the last 6/7 years. Depends what you're own preferences are and how you define 'quality'.

I don't know les, i don't know what's 'going on' behind the scenes and I don'y know any of the players, staff or their friends and family. All I can base my opinion on is what I see at each home game which is a fairly difficult watch - slow, inoffensive football played by a team seemingly unsure of what to do next or with little freedom to follow their instinct. On top of that our recruitment last summer was disappointing in that it feels as though the average quality of the team has declined with a glaring vacancy up front and poor quality cover in defence. The mood within the squad would appear to have darkened, possibly driven by Jose's apparent diva behaviour or the new manager or the new system or something else. None of us know this. We're somehow matching last seasons points tally (so far), which isn't an issue at all, but it's the 'how' which bothers me. I guess we'll only be able to tell at the end of the season, but if it's more of the same then I'm not going to be renewing my season ticket.

Tadic

Sad that, yet again, we appear to have an acrimonious parting with a key player

David Puckett Ruben Agboola

hmmmmm, I wonder if there's another french manager we could compare clod to....someone who, perhaps, has had a bit more success.....

We will get smashed to bits by everton - 15-20 mins of seemingly doing ok, couple of great chances go begging then everton score and the flood gates open. I remember the days we used to lose quite heavily at goodison, could be one of those.

100% this....including the season ticket bit....I refuse to do a 200 mile round trip to watch utter cr4p like that....if the board won't invest or show ambition then why should they expect some of the loyal fan-base to continue to invest and commit to a season ticket

The bidding opens at £40m......so lets see where it goes from there! Chelsea and City will be tearing each other apart trying to sign him.

Ditto...was sad to hear the boos at half time, that would have been unthinkable over the last few seasons and shows just how the mood and feeling from the fans has changed. Great we won, awful game to watch and we seem to have absolutely no idea how to create clear chances let alone find the back of the net.

Why's that then?

I've said it on another thread but he's turned a fairly free scoring, strong team into an uncertain, predictable one that couldn't hit a cows ass with a banjo - redmond and austin might not be like for like replacements but they're close. Those of us who criticise might get accused of being bedwetters but the best perspective is often from afar. We don't know what is said on the training ground, we don't know how players feel about tactics etc so we really can only judge by what we see and it's undeniable that we are a far inferior version of the team we watched last season. The most significant change that took place over the summer was Puel becoming our manager - he has changed the way we play and the outcome of that is what we are subjected to each weekend. On top of that we haven't invested sufficiently to maintain our place as a top ten side and it's clear we don't have the required depth in the academy to be able to rely on them to be anymore than useful squad players. A new owner with some sort of ambition and a new manager would be very welcome this christmas.

Sorry to hear you live in the boro

On the Poortvliet to Pottechino scale, Puel seems a bit closer to the dutchman. I just don't think his approach is working and the inconsistent performances back that up - for the first time in years we can't score goals. I'm just not convinced by him. The squad he has is better than the performances they put in and the results we get.

has to be shearer

I think Everton could win this quite comfortably, letting us pass it around in midfield until everyone is bored and then hit us on the break with some direct, accurate and purposeful attacking. Another 0-3. Puel has the charisma of an empty shed.

100% agree - whats even more concerning is the players don't seem convinced by what they're being asked to do. The guys on soccer saturday have just done a bit on our style of play....basically saying we're not pushing enough men forward and that other sides have clearly worked out how to walk through our midfield leaving the defenders with plenty to deal with.

Players look like they have no belief....in the system, themselves or each other....defensive, contained and predictable. For the first time in years we have no spark, nothing to keep the oppo on their toes or any kind of cohesive play. Dangers of over pruning....too many cuts in the wrong places can damage a tree for life....

I agree it was a good result and accept we weren't going to get too many opportunities to score due to the defensive set up BUT, what was concerning was how we were second to almost every ball. Liverpool looked sharper and quicker all over the pitch. As others have said Austin is not your man for that lone break away striker role, may as well have shoved redmond up there......even though he had a terrible game. The most frustrating thing was the lack of support when we did get forward - absolutely nothing for the guy with the ball to pass to. Liverpool are known to have a slightly wobbly defence under pressure so surely, even if we are playing a cautious game, you go for it when you get a chance. On the plus side we were immense defensively. Long seemed to inject some energy which was great to see.

Long and Tadic contributed 18 goals between them last season - so far this season it's just a single goal. I would say a big part of the problem lies here, rather than the like for like debate.

we will get smashed, they'll get at least 4

he's also in his early 30s and doubt he could do two games per week. I'm sure if we progressed to the latter stages of the europa then he'd be back in there with vvd.

thought we just looked like a tired team today, lacked zip and energy, wayward passing, poor concentration and quite a few players bottling tackles. Completely fell asleep for their first, gave hazard loads of space and then our usual speciality of allowing them to shoot from 20 yds rather than closing down. We were also far too slow when breaking for an attack. most players generally ok but thought clasie looked poor, cuco comically bad and tadic tried too many tricks. Chelsea were excellent, outplayed us in virtually every aspect of the game. Think we'll be in the market for a few defenders in the summer.

morgan and lallana

Adkins interviews were also incomprehensible and he didn't use a translator - maybe part of the southampton way, after all chipsh without mayonnaise isn't chipsh