washsaint

This season Puel has taken a ton of stick - rightly at times, wrongly at others. Today he showed why he will be an excellent manager for us: he outmanouvered Mourinho tactically and some of our attacking play was sublime. Now we have a striker that can actually convert chances we look a different team even without VVD and JWP is looking like a truly quality player and with Gabbiadini in the side Redmond is thriving. Today, Puel, the players and fans did our great club proud and I am really liking what I am seeing from Puel now. Could be exciting times ahead if we can keep VVD - only player I would not shed tears over losing is Forster. If Koeman truly wants him, fleece the Scousers and get a decent replacement in. Thank you Saints for a brilliant attacking show - much better than our abject surrender back in 2003.

You are either a Skate on a windup or completely clueless. CP has just delivered a first major Cup Final in 14 years and had the team playing amazing stuff today in a game we deserved to win. Disappointed to lose but for anyone to have a pop at the management/team today is bang out of order.

100% spot on mate. Proud to support Saints and we could not have asked for more from the team today. Hope Leicester get relegated because that c**t Vardy taking Virgil out could well have cost us the trophy.

Proud of the team and the fans there. They gave it their all and played magnificently....I look forward to Puel having a full pre-season with the team. His coaching is clear to see now he has had time on the training ground and with a striker who can actually score the future looks bright. Gutted but we gave it a right go - unlike under Strachan where we were terrible.

Get a life.....Was it Forster that gave away the free kick for their first? Was it Forster that left Zlatan unmarked? All our team played really, really well. I am greatly encouraged by what Puel has achieved on the training ground and this bodes well for next season. The best Cup Final for years.

Totally undeserved win for Utd.....Only 1 team in it for most of the game. Terrible lino, some poor decisions defensively by us and a gutting defeat. I would say all the Saints team can hold their heads up really high. They played out of their skins and should have won that game.

F88k off you t**t.....no keeper in the world saves that and he got fingertips on it.

Romeu just gives away too many free kicks in dangerous areas......quality player but he has to cut that out.

The canal was closed due to the warm temperatures.....beaver tail, really? Did go to a pub for lunch that reminded me of a Wetherspoons....all old boys supping on their pints!

Where in Ottawa are you? Was up there on business last week and again next week. Interesting place....

Agree, just like Leicester last summer - stability worked for them and taking a risk paying out massive contracts.........

errrrr........no it does not maintain our points difference over Sunderland. It increase it: we won you know

What are the cry babies on this forum going to complain about over the next 2 weeks then? Great performance after a dodgy start - and for all you JWP haters: f*** you. he was superb today as he has been on the whole recently. 7 or 8 would have been a fair reflection of that game and I think you can safely put to bed any thoughts of a relegation battle - much to the disappointment of quite a few on here I'm sure.

DOn't understand how Davis has kept his place. He has been s***e....for all the JWP haters, he has been performing way above Davis who is the most overrated underrated player of all time.

Mush - you are a t**t of the highest order. Full of s**t and full of non-ITK angles. IF you truly believe this result was all on Puel you are more stupid than you come across. This is on Les Reed and co - naively thinking we had enough strength in depth before the season. We are woefully short of attacking options in Center Mid - we badly missed JWP there tonight. We do need to play through the middle more but Davis and Clasie were absolutely terrible tonight and offered nothing in the center - hence the big gaps in the middle when we broke forward. I think that if Puel can bring in some of his players in the summer and have a full pre-season we might see some good stuff next season. Boufal should be a star. For all the wailing and knee jerk on here we still have a Cup Final to look forward to - and about 90 other clubs would love to have that. Still, I'm sure even winning that wouldn't be enough for some the self-entitled p***ks on here.

Real shame - did not deserve to lose that except our central midfield, Romeu apart, is abysmal. Just don't get the love in for Davis (who I thought was terrible) and Clasie was very poor. We rely on trying to cross the ball into the box too much (badly) when we have no-one to win those crosses. Thought they played well 2nd half and Boufal was outstanding whereas Tadic was absolutely terrible again (as he has been pretty much all season). We need to start winning games that we boss. We are simply not clinical enough and I thought we really missed JWP tonight - Davis was too slow and held play up and Clasie was just rubbish.

Oriol Romeu, Ryan Bertrand?

Prat - ever thought that the team that played Wednesday would be exhausted after that effort and, primarily, the same team that beat Leicester a couple of days before? We have a ton of injuries and we do not have the strength in depth - that is clear. But what a stupid statement: we are in the EFL Final with a good chance of winning for gods sake - something neither Koeman or Pochettino achieved.

I feel sorry for Lewis - hung out to dry. Absolutely nothing in front of him and no central midfield to speak of. Abysmal performance and abysmal management by Puel. We have real problems - if we lose VVD in the summer I dread to think what we will be like next season.

Agreed - Reed has not really kicked on like I Hoped he would. Reed and Clasie have been very poor - but then so have pretty much everyone.

We are so light on quality in the squad. Reed and Clasie have been terrible. Gardos looks exactly what he is - a player who hasn't played in nearly 2 years. Isgrove should have been shipped out some time ago. All in all, a waste of time tonight. The Board have let Puel down - a blind Albanian could see that we needed a significant injection of quality in the window and yet here we are. the cupboard is bare. One ray of light has been Josh Sims who looks like a real talent.

Disgusted with the team that has been put out. Absolutely disgusted. We may as well have just forfeited the match and refunded all the poor buggers that have paid to watch this utter ****e.

Not sure how when they are playing like strangers and can't pass the ball to each other! Certainly a case of 'after the Lord Mayors show' and really shows we don't have enough strength in depth (although all the injuries don't help).

It also helps we have started to get more players forward so Redmond does not always have to check and wait for players to join the attack. I really do think that Puel is starting to get us to play that he wants and this is because he has longer on the training ground with the players. We tore a very poor Leicester side apart and completely outplayed Liverpool. Even the performances against Burnley, WBA, etc. we played pretty well but just couldn't finish chances.

Looking at RAWK, they seem to be pretty complimentary about Saints and say we fully deserved to win both games. The most interesting thing for me was that quite a few noted that although we have played many more games than Liverpool, we looked much, much fresher and had more energy. Despite our (many fans) frustration with the rotation policy it looks like Puel was right all along. Not only did we look fresher than Liverpool but our 'fringe' players such as Yoshi, Stephens, Sims, etc. all have game time under their belt and don't come in cold. I hope the fans now give Puel the support he deserves for being only the 4th manager to get us to a major Cup final.