doggface

Great effort from all very proud of the team but a golden opportunity missed today. Played v. well but 3 soft goals. Not a puel fan but we have been brilliant last 2 games and the lads are thriving in this system. Surprised people are having a go that Barry came off as he was done in. Long would have run them ragged in et. other than play caceres, not sure what more Puel could have done today. Much better effort than 2003. Sad to say, but the truth is if Fonte played we win that game. He's done a lot right but Les Reed dropped a huge bollock there as wasn't adequately replaced before he left. 40 years of hurt roll on.

Enjoyed that article and difficult to argue with anything he says

Haha mi**** my arse.

Must add the CB's were fantastic throughout the 90. Stephens I thought very impressive with good composure, gave Defoe a torrid afternoon.

1st 20 was shocking but after that full control and played some great stuff. Great to see 4-2-3-1 back and I thought the whole team played really well despite sunderland retreating after the fantastic 2nd goal. Great goal from the whole team. Hope some lessons have been learned and we can look up from here.

i would love to keep the 4-2-3-1 with Boufal as the #10, tadic left, Redmond right

Thank god Bearsy is back to add some humor on here!

Would imagine you saw many games over the last couple of years? Mix of short and long balls, getting the ball forward quickly, sound in defence and ruthless when a few goals up. A few bum games but quick to adapt & tactically very flexible. IMO

More mismanagement by Reed. He has earned some credits for his strategy over an excellent few years, but this year seems as though he has been hitting the crack pipe.

Completely changed the style of a successful winning team. Uneccessary & massive gamble, has failed spectacularly. So stubborn & tactically inflexible. Time to go.

Needs a new deal and quick!

I think at his best we are his level. He has had a really bad season to be fair, he also has no competition - the club made this clear from day 1 & that is dangerous imo. Our current options are embarrassing. McCarthy Palace 3rd choice, Hassen 3rd choice at nice, Harry Lewis average at U23 level & Stuart Taylor has played a wopping 5 games since 2013!

Think they have to try Bertrand as LCB & get McQueen as LB. See if it works. Ryan did a fine job in a 3-5-2

One of the things that the club promised when Cortese was sacked was full transparency. That has just not been the case. Both Ralph & Les have been a PR disaster & deserve to cop the flak for this imo. Seems they are afraid to offer a fan's forum to Adam Blackmore, probably because he asks better questions than most journos. TBF Les has done a great job in building the football club over recent years and deserves a lot of credit, expectation has increased as a result of success & there is nothing wrong with that. I don’t think the fans are stupid & expect champions league anytime soon but it’s is getting harder to be competitive & IMO we have made some bad choices over recent months. Even in the good times there have been some royal **** up's & disruption along the way. Latest being no quality Fonte replacement- just suicidal. Recruitment has been crucial and very good over the years but the last couple of years too many duffers or players not adequetley replaced, perhaps Ross Wilson is an issue? We have a severe lack of quality in midfield 3 that rarely breaks forward, samey short blokes who can't shoot (Romeu excepted & Davis the pick) Recruitment of managers has been very, very good but I have to say Puel has not been my cup of tea since day one. Did great in EFL cup & I love that he has given the kids a chance but other than that not much else to say in terms of positives. Puel & Reed made a HUGE gamble and completely changed the way a SUCCESSFUL team was playing. 1st it was the diamond with both strikers playing so far apart from each other and tracking back for every ball down the flanks. They looked lost especially poor Austin. Koeman was super flexible and although we had bad games and runs, he would at least try different shapes and tactics to try and get results until we turned it around. Current 4-3-3 (usually 4-5-1) every week is so frustrating, predictable and dull. He never refuses to play 2 strikers off each other and has not played a full game 4-2-3-1 which has probably been our most successful shape over the past 4 years. I hope he can turn it around but the team is so negative and rigid with no runners getting forward. Our strikers look so isolated, frustrated and rarely get a run in the team. Rant over.

Should have kept Fonte until we had a replacement signed and sealed. ****ing amateur.

Looks like the Russians have hacked MLG

Clearly this has been a tough negotiation and credit to the club if they get this one over the line. Don't know a ton about him other than what is out in the public domain, but seems Saints really want him given the drawn out negotiations and large fee for us. He is clearly very talented technically with excellent potential to improve and could become a key player for us.

Massive result. get in!

The OP is a wum as the article does not say anything of the sort. Move on

See what you mean. However Yoshida has always been 3rd choice for a reason, he is having a good season but not convinced he is at the standard of Fonte at his best. Stephens has done nothing yet at senior level to suggest he is short, medium or long term answer IMO. He clearly has some potential and I hope he develops.

Despite their improvement, Yoshida and Stephens are not the answer long term.

Surely they wouldn't let him go unless a younger quality replacement is ready to sign. Les said as much, but again tend to take his comments with a pinch of salt these days. If they do not bring someone of that profile in, I would have to say for the 1st time ever under Liebherr ownership, that the writing is on the wall.

assuming we are the usual static 4-3-3 tonight?

a bit unlucky not to claim a point. However usual negative tactics all game and isolated striker mean no goals again. Not once has this negative coach played 2 up top when struggling for goals. How about letting the strikers play off each other? So stubborn, Puel out.

VVD with a header will win us the cup!