James

Looks excellent - so nice to see how he's progressed from being subbed on v Leicester. Is better than Yoshida now IMO.

You raise a decent point in that actually Puel is fighting against "recycled criticism". The slow play thing has become the buzz word of the Puel detractors but agreed can't really be used to describe tonight. Bottom line is 17 goals at home isn't good enough and the majority of the people who phone into Solent only go to home games.

I'm not saying that but you can't tell me that it's all down to the players. Just look at Gabbi, came in and was scoring out of nothing and given a couple of weeks of SFC coaching and he also can't hit a cows arse. But sure, it's all down to the players and nothing to do with the coaching they receive 5 days a week...

You realise it's the Manager that has to sort the "abject finishing" right? If we hadn't been saying this all season it wouldn't be an issue but fact is we've tried endless combinations since day 1 of the season and our finishing has been consistently crap. Even Gabbi seems to have had his confidence drained. Only constant is Puel.

Poch took us from a newly promoted team with a squad that included players like Hooiveld and Danny Fox to 8th in the table. Puel has taken a very good squad of players and finished in the same position but we are closer to the relegation places than to the place immediately above. In any other season our points tally would be good enough for about 13th which, considering we finished 6th last year, isn't good enough. Problem for me is that we've had the same problems since August and have continually been making excuses for Puel but he just cannot rectify it. That, for me, means he's got to go. I saw a stat on Sky Sports the other day that, bar Boro, every team that has changed their manager has done so for the better points wise. I'm not sure consistency is all it's cracked up to be and that m convinced Puel should be getting more out of the squad we have.

We'd have been more likely to win if you'd have predicted 25-0 Stoke.

Pamplemousse certainly doesn't as if he did there's no way he'd be as staunch a Puel supporter.

Heisenberg would be proud of this wind up.

If Stoke score they will win.

Spot on. Clueless subs.

Exactly. We've been making the same excuses since August and CP can't change it. We've also seemingly neutered a top striker. Time to go Claude.

Not convinced. Stoke are no slouches at the back.

But, unfortunately, you can't win if you can't score.

Bringing on Rodriguez over Austin and taking of JWP in one of his better games are both objectively poor decisions.

No, you've predicted that we'd beat a lot of teams on the basis of performances where we haven't gotten results. Appreciate the positivity but we can't continue to make excuses for our lack of goals. It's been the same excuse since August.

If I could count the number of times you've said that this season...!

Boufal on!?! You've got to be kidding.

Good to see the rotation policy continue to the final week of the season! Shame for Clasie - has been decent in his last two games. Is better than Davis as a DM for me.

We had the same problems when VVD and Austin were fit as we do now. Yes, we might have picked up a few more points than we currently have if they'd been fit but let's not pretend that people weren't equally frustrated by our style and lack of goals earlier in the season because they were. Our failure to adequately replace either Wanyama or Mane has cost us. IMO we didn't even try to replace Vic as Hojberg isn't the same profile of player. Boufal was arguably a decent replacement for Mane (well as decent as we could have attracted in the summer) but his performances haven't been good enough this season.

The real worry is that the same excuses have been trotted out all season. We aren't improving and, if anything, are getting worse. We need to stop the rot and unfortunately that means a change of manager as soon as we can feasibly replace him.

Is your unwavering support for Claude wavering? Surely not.

We won't get rid of him, I just can't see it.

Not sure where we go from this season. Players will no doubt be sold and we have no momentum, players we need irrespective of the inevitable sales and a manager who cannot get us going.

Three games, no goals. Not good enough. Won't finish top half at this rate.