S-Clarke

He tried to score a goal.

We don't close down like we used to, we seem to be quite happy for teams to have the ball in front of us, as long as we keep our 'shape'. We're very passive in terms of our closing down and pressing of space, that's something which has irked me all season. It's clearly an instruction they're following, as the risk would be you commit too high and get pulled out of shape, but I guess it's what you prioritise.....keeping a defensive shape, or taking a team on.

Probably quite likely he'd miss and hit De Gea in Manchester apparently, it's the young kid Pereria playing in goal tonight - De Gea didn't travel. I'd say this is a good opportunity to test him, get some shots in, put him under pressure etc, but I won't hold my breath.

It's all very hush hush isn't it. No idea what his injury was. Broken foot? Achilles? ankle ligaments? It was something kinda bad anyway, as his leg was immobilized for weeks.

That result kills me. We did setup to avoid being countered on, didn't exert ourselves too much. He would have been more than content with a 0-0 I'm sure. I don't know why we played so tepid, they were a truly atrocious football team. Let's not kid ourselves, they were L1 level, which was shown up when they were humped in the knockout round. If we'd have gone and taken the game to them, we'd have won it comfortably. Predictably cautious and protecting what we had rather than going for what we didn't. Dumb arse move. Worst result of the season for me.

First manager gone.....Walter Mazzarri at Watford. (well, he leaves after the final game)

Misguided comment by him, he should draft out what he's going to say before he says it! I don't think he meant it as it came across, but never mind.

It will only take a good summer from one of the teams in and around the 40pts mark to close that gap next year, what with the extra games Everton will have....it may not be as straight forward for them. I think we're the side with the least to do to make up the gap, I think we have a lot more quality than the teams around us. You just have to question if we're getting the best from it... But then equally, a bad summer...and you could be going the opposite way.

Yeah, got that after I posted it...!! But yeah, Financial fair play is ********!

Come on, that's not it. It doesn't make it easier to relate to him, for sure....but there's a lot more to it than that.

Good post, agree with your views. If you take the table in isolation and we finish 8th, good stuff.....but there's a lot more that has to be considered. I don't think he's done an horrendous job by any means, I just don't really know for sure what his long-term plan is. I don't think anyone does. I've never known a manager to have such a non-reaction from a fan base after a season, everyone I've spoken to is just a bit meh about him. Given that so many fans feel that way, I don't believe it's beyond the realms of possibility for several players to feel the same way. I was confused at the start of the season as to his intentions and plans. We had this diamond formation - which was slightly over played on here, as it wasn't as rigid as a 'diamond', but we did become - seemingly overnight - a very crab like team, not very progressive. What made us so enjoyable to watch over the last couple of seasons was our progressive style and the way we got into teams faces, both under Koeman and Poch. The first thing Claude seems to want to achieve is nullify the oppo, contain them and then look to open the game. I will be blunt here and say that I don't think that style will get us much luck in the premier league, we also don't have the players for it. Our players are geared up for fast paced, in your face, progressive pressing. This stand off and wait approach probably annoys them as much as it does us. So whilst the season to an outsider would look good, the crux of it is that as fans, it doesn't feel like we're going anywhere. We're being sucked into this void of nothingness, and the worry I have - and most others I've spoken to - is if we tread along this path, then we could quite easily start to slide down and completely lose our presence as one of the better teams in this league. Going by the comments from Kruger (although I try not to take too much of what he says as gospel) the club kind of feel the same, maybe they don't see where we can go long-term with this way of playing either.

I don't get FPP. There's nothing fair about it in our sense. All this is going to do is create a bigger and bigger gap between the top 6 and the rest - much like we've seen this season. There's nothing fair about it.

This quote is the big one... Krueger on #SaintsFC boss Puel: "The bigger picture football-wise will become transparent as we move into next week and the week beyond"

I pick out this quote in particular - “The trading in the last three summers were often out of necessity,” We were told quite often that we didn't need to sell to buy, but seemingly we did. So what's changed?

We didn't need to sell last year, or the year before - so they told us. So that's news to me.

Same. I missed the Palace home game, so the last home goal I saw was Gabbiadini's debut goal against West Ham (which also ended in a defeat). Last home win I saw was Leicester. what a miserable season it's been at home.

Straight into the Champions League group stages.

We had similar results last year. Drawing at home to Villa, losing to Palace, drawing to Sunderland, losing at home to Stoke, away to Norwich, away to Bournemouth etc, drawing to Newcastle. The huge difference this year - for most of the sides - is that the top teams have raised their games, coinciding with us not taking them on. That's why the gap is so big, we're all much of a muchness. Everton have been decent, not amazing, and look how far ahead they are. That's why I still think we're not miles away, it won't take huge surgery to pull us away from the Stokes/West Hams etc. I don't believe we need to reinvent the wheel.

Do these loan back deals ever happen anymore? There's always so much fee paid, the buying club want them now. I guess for PL clubs buying from the lower leagues a loan back somtimes makes sense as it's usually not insane money (But again, that will probably change), but someone will not pay £50m and then let us keep him for another year anyway.

Just looking at them, we've bought so much crap over the years. That Wayne Thomas transfer summed our club up back then, he was 500k value max...yet we splurge 1.5m on him. He wasn't even that good. Burnley then went and bought Clarke Carlisle for a couple of 100k iirc and ended up doing miles better than us.

If West Brom lose tonight (away to Man City, so probable), we go 8th without even playing. Seems as if West Brom have been 8th for decades.

Virgil was our top signing for a while, before Osvaldo it was Wanyama. Saganowski was only like 700k i think.

Is it just me, or did Puel sound very defensive?

Unless you are a personal acquaintance of Ronald, and had a personal chat with him last season, then I wouldn't think you knew.

They had no fit players at the start of the season, I remember that. Even more remarkable what Phelan did in the circumstances to get them off to the start they had. They were no way anchored to the bottom, 19th, couple of points from safety is the position from which Silva took over. Let's not make out he almost did some sort of great escape job, because he didn't.