Forester

Yes good summary. I thought that in the first half the players largely won their individual battles on an awful night for football. I was hoping for the “ugly win” that often ends a losing run. Hodgson, seeing that we we just sitting back and waiting for counter attack, decided to take a player out of the congested midfield and go 433. I expected MP to react and bring on Bednarek and go three centre backs. What happened? Absolutely nothing. Palace bossed the second half and that was their third game in five days. I cannot believe we sacked a tactically astute, experienced manager in Puel and brought this guy in. Some of our thick fans who could not work out that the fag end of last season was unprecedented must be delighted with what they are seeing. I was there in the days of Branfoot etc. We WILL go down unless there is the biggest transfer window we have ever taken part in, change the manager, or both.

This is spot on. I am optimistic given Old Trafford result, and crucially we have the greatest advantage you could ask for in terms of Palace three games in five days. This is our chance to get ahead of the dreaded “point per match” ratio which is the absolute minimum needed to stay up. Failure to win would be very grim I fear given the makeup of our remaining home games...

Some limited changes to capitalise on leg weary Palace I think. 4231 with McCarthy, Pied, Hoedt, Yoshida, Bertrand, Romeu, Hojberg, Davis, JWP, Tadic, Boufal. Hit them with Long, Redmond as second half goes on. Stephens doesn’t deserve to be dropped per se, but think we need overlapping fullbacks

Thought long and hard before driving up yesterday having been full of cold and seen so many disappointments of late, notably Wembley. Just goes to show why we love football so much and you can never tell! A few thoughts: - haven’t seen it on TV yet but we all thought it was handball at the time down our end! - Good to see the passion/anger between Yoshida and Hoedt when Lukaku got between them for the header. We need to see this much more -thought that apart from that one moment both centre backs, Romeo and Hojberg were excellent base backed up by hard work from JWP, Tadic and Boufal. Boufal really looks a class player -after a nervous start with distribution, McCarthy settled well - unlike Wembley when frustration boiled over, the fans were positive and supportive from minute 1 -my disappointment was with Lamina and Gabbi who were woeful when they came on. Their only remit was to use energy, win the ball and retain it to wind the clock down, but this seemed beyond them. What on earth has happened to them? - finally my daughter thought that Redmond bug*ered off down the tunnel rather than join his team mates in thanking the fans at the end. Any one else confirm? Tuesday is massive.... Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

As has been picked up on earlier, Palace match is a great opportunity as it is their third game in five days. Last year it was our misfortune to have the worst Xmas schedule, yet another thing that made it a weird season upon which to make any judgements. So would pick a team for this with an eye to the Palace game: 3-5-2 with Forster, Stephens, Hoedt, Yoshida, McQueen, Pied, Hojberg, Davis, JWP, Sims, Tadic

While still a majority want him gone, interesting to see its more even than the poll on MP which is almost universal in wanting him out. In my opinion Puel was a perfectly sensible appointment, did a good job with very different circumstances. And if you take the big picture Les has presided over four consecutive years of top 8 finish, two seasons of European football and a cup final. For a club of our size that is a good record. He has been instrumental in a number of very good signings over the years. I think he is in the dock on two grounds, the failure to replace Pelle and Mane adequately and the decision to sack Puel. Puel should have been backed in the summer, the malcontents shipped out (like VVD) and a tall target man signed. So in my opinion he has had a poor six months. Let’s see if he recovers in January window....

Yes I rate him and would be very supportive in a summer switch. I am worried about a relegation battle and a young inexperienced manager, so timing not great, but perhaps a gamble worth taking. No guarantee that Derby would agree to talks of course, regardless of compensation.

Can’t believe some are moaning about this. £75 million, world record, is great business and may help attract a good replacement soon with a war chest for MP replacement. I hate seeing good players move on but he hasn’t been the same player this season as we all know.

Romeu was on record as being a fantastic supported of Puel, said he breather confidence in him and we had a good level of security in front of our back four last season, including the bore draws at the fag end of a long season in May. This is one of many, many things that have gone backwards despite hours of uninterrupted coaching time following the Wolves Reserves fiasco

I know Nick it is hard work getting it into thick skulls. As I trooped out today having shipped five goals, and contemplated the long journey coming up Saturday, I looked back longingly to the 4 goals at both Sunderland and Watford, the 3 goals at Wet Spam and Bournemouth, the wins at Boro and West Brom and, most enjoyable of all, the wins at Anfield and Emirates en route to Wembley. This season we have won on the road just once, 1-0 at Palace who at that time had yet to score a goal all season back then. Still, if the three dull May home games never to be repeated was too much for some of our headbangers to cope with, I guess it’s is all too much....

This is a very good post. I am dreading the long drive north on Saturday. Not sure how much came across on TV but the booing of Redmond was widespread, not just vocal minority, and the chant of “sacked in the morning” again had mass support. For those who travel to games we enjoyed good trips under Puel, 4 at Watford and Sunderland, 3 at Bournemouth and Wet Spam, wins at WBA, Boro, and of course fantastic wins in the League Cup at Arsenal and Liverpool. Previous season under RK wins at Chelsea, Spurs, Man Utd etc. This season we have one away win, and the away fans are absolutely low as a snakes belly. Putting money and time in and minimum expectation is commitment. Currently I don’t see that commitment from too many. Redmond backing out of tackles, Lamina a shadow of his former self. The historically poor decision to fire Puel was explained by some (albeit not those who know) as having lost the dressing room. So how are those precious wallflowers who didn’t like him getting on now? We are sleepwalking to relegation under MP and he needs to go tonight.

No they weren’t, but they did see the Leicester debacle

This is a very good post. We have won only one game away all season, against a Palace side that at that time had failed to score a goal this season. The other three wins at home were against 10 man Wet Spam (stoppage time penalty having been outplayed second half), 1-0 against WBA thanks to Boufal late magic and beating the most demotivated Everton side you could imagine. Throw in the humiliation to Wolves Reserves and it’s massive deterioration from the very competent Puel even if he wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I will be amazed if we aren’t stuck on 19 points after 21 games and that is relegation form. A reminder that because of Wet Spam switch of venue we have majority of games away in second half of season. Time to pull the trigger on MP

I think that we will retain until the summer, unless there has been a big hissy fit behind the scenes which we wouldn’t know about

t I confess to once turning up wanting us to lose for this very reason, and it was Steve Wigley. Got my wish that he was sacked, but sadly we still went down! While we were in a worse position league table wise there are some uncomfortable parallels as that season we wasted a lot of very winnable home games before Xmas. While Harry had his faults for sure, the team he put together was much stronger after January but we had left things to late. So since then I vowed to be careful what you wish for!

For most of the first half I thought we blunted a below par Chelsea and gave them one real chance that Willian wasted. Will watch the free kick on tv but judging from reaction on here and elsewhere it sounds like a poor wall. But our approach in the second half until Boufal came on was woeful. I used to enjoy away trips under Puel, Koeman and MP, where we would dominate the ball and win, lose or draw be there giving it a go. Worrying performances in terms of attitude and stomach for the relegation battle from Redmond, Gabby and Lamina. They all look like they are hating life out there right now. Question marks still for me on concentration levels for Hoedt too. As I have said on the Manager thread we have only got Spurs to play for the first time and highly likely to see us lose that too. Then in second half of season we have extra away game because of Wet Spam Stadium shambles. Udders game is absolutely huge and if, god forbid, we lost that I could see us stuck on 18 points after 21 games with Liverpool, City, Spurs and Chelsea all to visit St Mary’s gunning for title or European football. I can see the argument for firing MP now. I can’t possibly imagine he could survive a failure to beat Udders. Finally what on earth was the fight between two Saints fans next to the food and drink bit in the concourse about? Embarrassing...

Spot on. I struggle with our less intelligent fans not understanding the difference between a 53 game season and what may be a 40 game one, a fully fit squad with Lamina and Hoedt versus last year, etc etc etc

I am not too sure you gave that much thought, did you? The rest of the post if you read it again seeks to help you answer the question you pose.

We face a serious battle to stay up and this struggle is underestimated in my opinion. Consider the following: - ignore the Udders match coming up as that is actually the first time we have played the same team twice. So the true halfway point is after the Chelsea and Spurs games. Then we have played all 19 teams once, and I don’t see a point in either game. So we will be stuck on 18 points, double it and you get to 36 which is relegation in all likelihood. - because of the Wet Spam switch we face extra away game in second half of season. And our home matches are tougher with Chelsea, Spurs, City and Liverpool all to come down here all chasing title or Champions League football - we have had a virtually injury free squad, stronger than under Puel, and because of Wolves Reserves fiasco have had no European or League Cup distractions. Again much easier than under Puel. We must assume that injuries and suspension will increase after Xmas - there isn’t any evidence that we are any better now than we were in Aug. He has week in, week out, uninterrupted coaching time. Where is the progress? I would never have sacked Puel, but this guy feels a downgrade and I don’t see a reason to sit and gamble given all of the above that he will suddenly come good. I think we have a good squad, a tall striker apart. He isn’t getting anything like maximum from them.

Enjoyed that, and by the way parking in AFC Bournemouth car park for just one pound!!! Close enough to kick a ball to the stadium too! Back to the football thought it was an excellent game with unusually high number of clear cut chances for both teams. I thought Forster, Bertrand, VVD and Romeo were all excellent. Well done Pied after an understandably shaky first ten minutes. I was very critical of MP before the Everton game. Irrespective of the results, these last three games show some evidence of a coaching pattern and coherent tactics which I wasn’t seeing earlier in the season. Let’s hope we have turned a corner.

You are thinking of stopping going to games because this guy got the book thrown at him for homophonic chants? Crikey. That is some sacrifice...

Spot on. Wenger used to moan that away teams didn’t open up at the Emirates. Why the hell should they?

Granted that was as poor an Everton side as we will probably ever see, however you still have to dispatch teams like that and we did so with some style. As others have said we get good crosses in most game but there is rarely anyone hungry to get towards six yard box to finish. Cue Austin! I thought both fullbacks, JWP, PEH and Boufal were excellent too throughout. Been critical of MP, deservedly so, but well done to the manager too. Let’s hope he has learned something from today, and it will do wonders to confidence.

Armstrong and Horne both terrific players, albeit Horne more of a Romeo player than a modern number10

I am disappointed that he hasn’t been fired this week, but will put all that to one side come kick off time as this is a very significant fixture. The echo showed a scary comparison with our home results in our last PL relegation campaign, and many will remember that we squandered winnable fixtures under Wigley. Although we finished bottom we were a much better team in my opinion under Arry with better players signed and he got Crouch scoring. But the home fixture list was much tougher after Xmas. It is hard to see us being above 20 points come halfway stage if we don’t win this one. If we don’t, and performance again is poor, I will vent my feelings at the final whistle but not before