Saints At Everton The Verdict Tuesday, 3rd Jan 2017 08:54 I am fast getting sick of the manager failing to learn from his mistakes as once again we put out a weak back four and paid the price.
Before Xmas we were one of the most tight defences in the Premier League, now three games later we are one of the slackest with nine goals shipped in only three games and there is one reason for that.
Our success over the past few seasons has been built from the back, if you don't concede goals then it makes it a lot easier to control games, create chances and ultimately beat teams, when you keep changing your back four it creates indecision, hesitation and chaos.
This was the case at Everton where once again Claude Puel failed to put out the best players at his disposal, sat on the bench he had arguably the best left back in the Premier League, this was the second game running and you have to ask the question why.
It was always going to be a weakened defence with Virgil Van Dijk suspended, so you need to make sure you are up to speed in other areas and we weren't.
Why was Steven Davis on the bench as well ?
For a long period of the game we looked comfortable but ultimately we lost because we did not heed the warning signs, when Everton left Sam McQueen for dead to cross the ball for the first goal, this was about the fourth time it had happened in the previous five minutes, Everton had found a weak spot and exploited it, it was no coincidence that the third goal also came from that position after Jose Fonte was caught in possession.
The fact is that some of our youngsters can be slotted in when we have a relatively strong side out, but you can't play two inexperienced players at full back and get away with it, of course Puel could not odds the fact that Soares would have to go off injured, but to replace him with a central defender out of position with no Premier League experience was folly, Stephens and McQueen could not get into lower division sides when they were on loan last season, so they were not suddenly going to be Premier League quality full backs overnight.
We had a lot of bad luck in this game, Puel does not seem to be a lucky manager, but you have to make your own luck and once again the manager tried to be too clever for his own good.
The constant changing has taken away our momentum, our confidence and our swagger, does this sound familiar ? it should do I said exactly the same things after the last two games, if I can spot it then why can't the manager?
Having said all this, the season is long from over and we are not in a bad position, however we need to get back to basics, put out the best side for a run of games and get our game back together.
At the moment we are a rabble on the pitch, there is no leadership on the pitch and there seems to be little off it at present.
Claude Puel can succeed at this football club, but only if he learns from his mistakes, he is still finding his feet in England after all and plenty of other managers fail in the Premier League who have years of experience, however those that succeed learn from their mistakes rather than repeat them and repeating them is what Puel is doing at present.
We need to as a club, as players, as a manager and as supporters rally round and keep the faith, not panic and play through this, however there is only one man who can ultimately do things a little differently and stop the rot, in the next few weeks we will find out if he is the man for the job.
Photo: Action Images
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BoondockSaint added 14:50 - Jan 3
Still not sure about Puel as he doesn't have any talent to work with (except VVD). However, it does seem when all the highly rated managers turned us down, he was a cheap choice who would just stand on the sidelines as our low budget team ran around for 90 mins. So I doubt they will be getting rid of him. There is no fire or ambition in the front office and that has contaminated the team. | ![](/images/avatars/7868.gif) | |
saintsnutcase added 14:55 - Jan 3
Ok Nick, with VVD suspended and Bertrand, Soares and Pied injured, who exactly did Puel leave out of his "strongest" back 4? Your criticism doesn't make any sense this time -- he played the strongest back 4 available to him. | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) | |
lotus added 16:55 - Jan 3
honestly,i am suprised that puel is still in office.after 100 days of grace,he has not come with a plan to buy strikers and defenders and stop rotating the squad.i was suprised from the start about his Appointment so my stomach feeling was correct.i am very hopefull that if he remains i will be wrong at the end | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) | |
saintmark1976 added 17:41 - Jan 3
Pleasing to see that despite the last three miserable defeats the majority of posters are not calling for the managers head on a pole. It is surely not coincidental that our recent poor form coincides with the ever closer outcome of the alledged negotiations with the interested party from China. Human natures reaction to a vacuum is that of doing enough to get by in such circumstances and to wait and see what happens.In other words why put in any extra effort for a boss who may not be your boss very soon. | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) | |
SaintBrock added 19:28 - Jan 3
Truth is lotus, if Cortese had been running the shop Puel would have been long gone. Does Les have the bottle to sack anybody? I doubt it, recent previous managers cleared off as soon as they smelt the rotting corpse in the back room. If he sacks Puel he is admitting his own failure so it makes it highly unlikely we'll see the back of him anytime soon. | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) | |
ExiledSupporter added 22:01 - Jan 3
So many valid points made above, yet again, and even Nick has suddenly realised that his blind faith has perhaps been misplaced for too long. I especially agree with Saint Down Under about the formation confusion which I think is a big part of the current problem. Both Pochetinno and Koeman were recruited on the basis that the club was committed to a style of play (including, but not solely, defending from the front and pressing hard) and this was manifestly achieved by a much more solid defence than we had perhaps ever possessed; most recently this was was accomplished by screening the defence from opposition midfield runners by posting Schneiderlein and Wanyama in front of the defence to repel attacks and to set up counterattacks. The club even went so far as to state that the 1-4-2-3-1 system was the chosen route to success and that it would be deployed by both the PL squad and the Under 21s to ensure consistent development of upwardly mobile young players who were not required to recalibrate their compass when promoted to the first team. But neither of these managers really favoured playing all that many young players, indeed Koeman supposedly was unimpressed with the reserve talent at his disposal! So when both Poch and Ron became somewhat less enamoured about our club (due to the ejection of Cortese in the first instance and the serial sale of our best players two summers in a row, in the second instance - evidence to the two incumbent managers and many of the supporters that we were a club whose ambitions were really about optimising the profits of the owners) and wandered off for a good deal more money than we were willing to pay, the owners changed tack, with rather predictable consequences. By this time they had sold Since then they have sold an astonishing total of 10 players who would certainly have been first team players had they stayed with the club beyond the summer transfer windows in which they were sold (plus letting Alderweireld slip through our fingers in farcical circumstances which have been customarily glossed over by the club). Ok we have certainly imported some very good talent as replacements eg Tadic, VVD especially, Romeu and Bertrand of those still with us and Forster (less convincingly). Nor do I discount the prospects of Boufal who exhibits considerable potential, Redmond who I think is very unfairly treated by the usual moronic minority sections of the crowd and Hojbjerg who seems to be a little less impressive each time I see him...rather worryingly. Yes, I also think Yoshida has improved considerably this season and should be given credit for this advance and Soares has turned into a pretty decent full back after a rather unconvincing start and Clasie who has overcome a series injuries to make more of a mark on games than last season. But the point is that as everyone (perhaps even Nick knows) while the breadth of the squad has increased the quality has become more uneven. I don't blame Puel for all of this and am not one of those who is at this stage clamouring for his replacement. In recruiting him the owners (never mind about Reed, he is required to achieve the best results given the strategy that the owners set. Which is to disinvest in the team by never spending in any one season more than we get in from sales of players and actually to spend considerably less wherever possible while returning to sourcing our own home grown talent. The majority of the megafunds from TV goes straight to the bottom line of the parent company and the dividends enjoyed by the shareholders. The strategy appears to be to 1) keep turning players over every season and re-investing some of the profits, 2) pursue a cheaper ( but I concede worthwhile) policy of promoting young players in the hope of finding another Bale, Walcott, Chambers, Shaw etc who can be flogged off at considerable profits and 3) do the best with the players that you are given, so long as you stay in the PL to retain access to next years Sky cash...oh, and keep the fans more or less onside in the meantime. None of this is Puel's fault The decisions to recruit the injury prone Austin, persevere with a long term convalescent JRod and expect more conversions by Long from chances created, while each individually defensible have all proven to be seriously flawed when put together (though I am very pleased that JRod does seem to have recently got it together a little more consistently in the last couple of weeks. But it is blindingly obvious that with the departure of Pelle (who was never an outstanding player but did possess some considerable qualities that we no longer have available) and Mane we have failed to sustain the quality of player in the key positions and the continuous rotation policy is madness. Much is at stake in this transfer window, despite it being notoriously difficult to get value for money, both in terms of possible sales (tho' I think this is likely to be restricted to Fonte going to ManU) and purchases. Any further worsening of the standard of the squad will be the equivalent of an admission of the greed and short termism of the owners.of the owners The fundamental problem stems from abandoning the on-the pitch strategy and formation and buying/selling players consistent with this strategy ie ones who fit the playing style which has now changed, because that is not Puel's preferred system. We should also give some considerable credit to Puel for some extended passages of play when we have looked a class above the opposition, but rarely converted this dominance into goals and wins because we cannot sustain it while we miss chance after chance and our opponents seem more equipped to be ruthless with their converted opportunities. The fault primarily lies with the owners/board who have abandoned the strategy established in previous seasons and while we desperately need to augment our strike force and create a bit more anxiety in the opposition's penalty area we need urgently to go back to two defensive midfielders in front of the defence and to abandon this diamond strategy which doesn't work with the players we have today | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) | |
vanmans added 22:09 - Jan 3
Hull have sacked their manager why haven,t we? | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) | |
SanMarco added 22:59 - Jan 3
The next 28 days will tell us a lot about the club's strategy. If the owners don't spend it shows they are not particularly interested in whether we come 8th or 16th, as long as we stay up. The big VVD (and perhaps Bertrand and Romeu) bonanza will come in the summer and well, who knows after that. I am still hoping that the club was simply complacent in the summer and will quietly accept they got it wrong and bring a couple of players in. It has to be said we could sink into the fringes of the relegation battle if we keep losing to distinctly average opposition + of course being comfortably beaten by the big boys. As for 'Puel Out' the drum beats will get louder if things continue badly through January... | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) | |
VancouverSaint added 03:32 - Jan 4
We all agree that something needs to change to get results. The manager, chairman, owner are not idiots, they know that too. The big question is what are they prepared to do. Buy in January? Get rid of the manager? Status Quo? Stop the rotation tactic? Not an easy solution to the current lack of form. Too early to sack the manager in my mind, we are in a dip of form but we are not spiralling yet. Mid season change of manager very seldom works. Let's all stay calm for a few weeks to see what management is going to do, but we cannot do nothing. More poor results will certainly speed up whatever decision finally happens. | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) | |
SaintBrock added 15:19 - Jan 4
This is the 'reply' received from the club... "Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your feedback. We do understand the frustration felt by our loyal fans at times of speculation and uncertainty. Your passionate and long standing support is appreciated by us all, and it is never our intention to cause such concern. Your E Mail has been forwarded to colleagues" Speaks for itself really | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) | |
darthvader added 17:08 - Jan 4
We're crap , we need new players and a new manager if we lose at Norwich . Back to basics | ![](/images/avatars/8588.gif) | |
bstokesaint added 19:34 - Jan 4
With the greatest respect Brock I'm not sure what you were expecting? I'm just impressed that they acknowledged it. | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) | |
SaintBrock added 10:21 - Jan 5
I was expecting nothing of course. You know what they say, never ask a question unless you already know the answer. The only point of writing in is to register a protest, if enough people do it they maybe will take some notice. The only other way is to stay away which is exactly what my son & I did over Christmas. | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) | |
bstokesaint added 12:41 - Jan 5
Fair enough. Personally I'm hoping the window will show some intent, but I'm sure the club will get the message from social media that the fanbase are not happy with the current performance of the team. Let's see how they react.. | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) | |
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