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Saints 1 West Ham 3 - Post Match


Mr X

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We've gone from one of the best defensive units in the PL to one of the worst. Reed needs to be accountable for not replacing Fonte and Puel needs to be accountable for how the defence are now so powder puff and concede at the drop of a hat. Thank Heavens for Romeu, because without him we'd be in serious trouble. It's going to be a bumpy ride from now until May and the cup final, whilst being a great day out, is going to be a distraction for the Team. All i can say is we'd better bloody win the thing!

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Why dont support them then instead of whinging. Did you leave early ?

 

A 50 year old through thick and 'thin' Saints ' supporter' !!

 

Nope left after final whistle.

I do support but also question on a forum where I see stupid decisions being made.

Why do you think what I say here has any reflection at SMS I do support but do question stupid errors

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Agreed, utterly ridiculous. Feel sorry for Jack Stephens, he looks like he knows he's out of his depth.

 

I thought he was better than Yoshida today who had his usual liability moment, a back up player at best. Incredible that we didn't sign another CB - Reed culpable but Puel doesn't help his cause with the brand of boring football this season. On another note, how many goals has Forster conceded from outside the area FFS?

 

Funny to think I have seen Saints play in the San Siro this season and we've got to a Wembley final but the overall feeling is one of underachievement. Changes needed.

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We have played a lot worse than that this season, and will play a lot worse in future games.

 

I think people are massively underrating the importance of quality players. Most of the good things we did came from Gabbiadini, Boufal, Romeu and Bertrand.

Edited by mrfahaji
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We are morphing into Villa/Newcastle

 

Agreed.

 

I'm normally positive and supportive of the decisions and approach we take, but we really have go backwards fast.

 

Hopefully this season is transitional.... a case of one step back to take two forwards. But I fear it's not.

 

The comments from Koeman about ambition and direction spring to mind.

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I believe it was on one of the pundit pages during last couple of days of the transfer window (Possibly Danny Mills) stating he had heard that Jay Rod was unhappy and looking at the exit. Also inferred something similar about another unidentified player - could just be the rumour mill but other things like this have come to pass?

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I think we will scrape survival this season but the real worry will be next season, especially if we stick with Puel and an even more depleted squad.

 

Les thought he was so cute and cool each summer with the rabbit out of a hat trick. Well guess what? This year they all got myxomatosis.

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Possession + Bad defence + ineffective strikers is a really bad combination. My tip for Puel is to adopt to our current crop of players. Let the team fall deeper and use the strength of our counter attackers (Long, Redmond, Gabbiadini). We have already seen(Liverpool) that this fits Stephens better when he can defend with play in front of him.

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We have played a lot worse than that this season, and will play a lot worse in future games.

 

I think people are massively underrating the importance of quality players. Most of the good things we did came from Gabbiadini, Boufal, Romeu and Bertrand.

I don't think people are. It's the tactics that are the reason we have been so poor.

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I keep seeing people moaning that we should go back to the diamond, but i'm sure people were slating the diamond at the start of the season? I must admit to being a little bit concerned now, and hope we just set up to soak up like we did against Liverpool both times and hit teams on the counter, just stop losing and conceding now please.

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Agreed, utterly ridiculous. Feel sorry for Jack Stephens, he looks like he knows he's out of his depth.

 

We've pretty much managed to prove that Koeman was right with respect to the kids. OK, Sims looks like he could play a part and McQueen has done alright when he's played but that's it. And Koeman has successfully introduced several of the Everton youngsters into the first eleven and also bought the likes of Lookman. He's seemingly not a bad judge after all despite what some posters and the club would want you to believe.

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Don't post much on here, and usually I'm a 'glass half full' guy but today was the last straw.

This season has been an absolute shambles and it started in the summer. Manuel Pellegrini wanted to come here as manager. Think about that for a minute -Manuel Pellegrini, a premier league winning manager who also did a terrific job at clubs in similar stature to us in Spain wanted to be Southampton manager! But no, Les Reed in all his arrogance decided not to appoint him as he is 'not a tracksuit manager'. Sorry?? I thought it was the coaches who coach the players and the managers job is to decide style of play, tactics, does the press and has a big input in signings??? He also doesn't strike me as the sort of bloke who would be demanding players left right and centre.

But anyway Les went for Puel - basically a yes man. He has no experience of managing outside of France, but will be grateful to Les for the opportunity to manage in the premier league he will go along with anything Les says.

Our league campaign has been shocking, drab, negative. It could have been so much more. The less said about the Europa league the better!

People may defend Les and Claude and point to the league cup campaign but what did we do realistically - beat a couple of premier league reserve teams. Yes, the two Liverpool games were great but even then it turned out to be a lot closer than it should have been!

The defence situation is just a farce - nothing more can be said about that. Fully expect Gabiaddini to go the way of PEH - start out really promising but to have the creativity coached out of him by Puel and Black.

What should happen now? If Puel had any dignity he should resign first thing in the morning. Ultimately no top manager will come in now, so hand it to Nigel Adkins u til the end of the season. Hopefully this should get all the fans on side, scrape enough points to stay up and maybe with a stroke of luck win the cup?! Then in the summer go all out for a top manager - Manicini, Pellegrini or even Silva. He has certainly understood how this league works , and he's only been here a month, none of this it takes time for a manager to get his ideas across that our players have been saying.

Sorry for being overly negative - I just thought that this season had the makings of being a special one. OK, it may still be if we win the cup, but not getting my hopes up.

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Puel is not the issue. Some of you lot need to get your heads round the fact that we won't be sacking him any time soon.

 

Puel is 100% the issue. The players are better than we are seeing now, which is why despite a poor formation we still have periods where we look good. The system is shockingly poor.

We lost VVD..do we change to a 4-2-3-1 set up with two DM players protecting the back four? Do we go three at the back? No we do the same things that have brought us 4 wins in the previous 15 league games but without VVD there is only going to be one outcome.

A manager with some tactical idea, who can play players in roles that suit them will resolve the issue.

 

Puel just has to go.

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I think we will scrape survival this season but the real worry will be next season, especially if we stick with Puel and an even more depleted squad.

 

Les thought he was so cute and cool each summer with the rabbit out of a hat trick. Well guess what? This year they all got myxomatosis.

 

I am more worried about this season. 17th I would take right now. Over the summer we need to have a clear out and invest in some top class players. Still, I am not convinced there is the will to spend money that we have. I don't know why, but it seems like a lack of commitment which surely means the club is for sale.

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Puel is 100% the issue. The players are better than we are seeing now, which is why despite a poor formation we still have periods where we look good. The system is shockingly poor.

We lost VVD..do we change to a 4-2-3-1 set up with two DM players protecting the back four? Do we go three at the back? No we do the same things that have brought us 4 wins in the previous 15 league games but without VVD there is only going to be one outcome.

A manager with some tactical idea, who can play players in roles that suit them will resolve the issue.

 

Puel just has to go.

He absolutely is the issue you are correct. He is so rigid in his formation and sticking to his mantra. We've now lost the solid partnership of Fonte and virgil who has already saved our bacon on a number of occasions this year and if we don't pull this around then we will soon be stuck in a losing habit that we can't get out of (if we haven't already.) we simply have to act before this gets more serious.

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I believe it was on one of the pundit pages during last couple of days of the transfer window (Possibly Danny Mills) stating he had heard that Jay Rod was unhappy and looking at the exit. Also inferred something similar about another unidentified player - could just be the rumour mill but other things like this have come to pass?

 

Ian Dennis (of the BBC) also stated on deadline day that JRod needed to get away from the club, and I was totally perplexed by the comment at the time, given that he's been our preferred striker for a month or so now, so perhaps a few BBC journalists have heard something. Who knows.

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Puel is 100% the issue. The players are better than we are seeing now, which is why despite a poor formation we still have periods where we look good. The system is shockingly poor.

We lost VVD..do we change to a 4-2-3-1 set up with two DM players protecting the back four? Do we go three at the back? No we do the same things that have brought us 4 wins in the previous 15 league games but without VVD there is only going to be one outcome.

A manager with some tactical idea, who can play players in roles that suit them will resolve the issue.

 

Puel just has to go.

 

Totally agree while Puel has been short changed by the board his total lack of adaptability is a massive concern, how he doesn't realise that Stephens and yosgida need some extra protection I have no idea. We have good players he just chooses to play the same formation and the same style regardless of the fact it isn't working!

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I can't really lay this on Puel. Take a mid table squad, take out its leading scorer (Austin), and two stud CB's (VVD and Fonte), and what do you expect will happen. If anything the fault should be on Reed for lack of depth in the squad.

 

Yes but did Puel have the strength of character to force Reed's arm ? If, as i suspect, he does not then Reed pulls the wool over everyone's eyes and hopes we have enough to stay up with a healthy bank balance.

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That ****ing cup final is all that's keeping Puel in a job. The club needs to get rid, NOW!

 

Puel will get his cup final.If he wins he will see out the season .

If he loses to Sunderland he will have to win the cup final .

 

The only man who will not pay the price is Les Reed. In any other business where you fail to replace a key part of the team would have you in serious trouble.

Maybe we could drop the we march on ****e , the crap my way song and concentrate on the basics .

Can't wait for the inevitable article in the Echo saying we can bounce back.

 

Just as a point the shots form Davis were pathetic , Shane Longs was miles off target and Redmond has his normal balloon over the bar. Funny thing they were burying shots in the warm up

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Cup games aside, after we lost 3-0 to Everton I said we had 5 important league games coming up that were all winnable, if we got a good return out of those (at least 10-12 points) I'd have been happy with puel and would have put the early season inconsistency down to the amount of games.

 

However having beaten only Leicester and lost to Swansea, West Brom and West Ham with Sunderland looking a difficult game after their result and our poor form, it's fallen well short of my expectations.

 

I'd give him the next two games, two defeats and he has to go IMHO.

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I don't post often, but that performance, lacked any heart or desire. The team play in the style of the manager, that is no drive or leadership from anywhere. When things go against in a game, there is no game management from the sidelines, it seems the players are left to sort it out, and unfortunately we now have no leaders on the pitch organizing anything.

 

This manager has to go by either resigning or being released from his duties.

 

We seem to be making the same mistakes each game, and that suggests that there is a lack of quality coaching on the sidelines, in particular the goalkeepers seem to be going backwards under Dave Watson.

 

Puel said we couldnt play a high press game now, due to the amount of games we played, which is fair enough, but we only have league games and one cup game, left, today we should have forced West Ham further towards their own box, and squeezing the play, so Carroll only had the grass behind to play in, instead we retreated to the 18 yard box which played into his hands.

 

We are sleepwalking towards relegation, and it seems at the ground so many people are just accepting it...we need to be clear on our feelings, and call for change.

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As little of our game is usually shown on MotD can anyone tell me if the other 6 shots on goal (from BBC stats) were actual chances of a goal ? Like Liverpool at the moment we seem to have all the possession , more shots etc but less actual goals !

 

I'd say it was 50/50. Prowse had a speculative half volley saved in the first half (i.e. not a clear chance), and a well struck first time effort at the end of said half. But he had a v.decent headed opportunity in the second. Davis had a drive from distance (i.e. not a clear chance...unless you're shooting at Fraser), but he also had a decent opportunity in the box which he rolled into Rudolph's lap :p

 

Gabbiadini had two good chances off target either side of half time, one of which was sitter-esque (except it wasn't, you'll see what I mean on MOTD later).

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Jrod's attitude today was as bad as I've seen from a Saints player in recent years. Not moving for the ball, not talking to team mates except to moan, terrible first touch. No idea whether the rumours he wants to leave are true, but he played like a teenager that hasn't got his own way. Terrible way to repay the support he has received from our club.

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We had 1.3 Expected goals, WHU had 0.5. The problem today was not the defending our creating chances. It was finishing and a bit of bad luck (their second). We've played some awful matches where we didn't create enough(Burnley) but this was actually quite decent. Over the course of a season these things even out, if we're lucky it will even out in the Cup final.

 

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Jrod's attitude today was as bad as I've seen from a Saints player in recent years. Not moving for the ball, not talking to team mates except to moan, terrible first touch. No idea whether the rumours he wants to leave are true, but he played like a teenager that hasn't got his own way. Terrible way to repay the support he has received from our club.

 

JRod was like a Sunday League player today. Deserved to be hooked at half time.

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