Claude Puel had to rotate for this game, no one argued with that, but why did he get his line up so badly wrong ?

With 3 games in 7 days there was never any argument that Claude Puel had to make changes for this game, indeed injury was forcing his hand in many respects, but if you are going to make changes then you have to keep a strong core of the team.

I said in the preview just that, but it is a view that Puel does not seem to subscribe to.

The problem was in the defence, if you are going to put out a changed back four with a 19 year old keeper with only two games against Championship opposition under his belt then at last leave a little bit of experience in it.

It was a recipe for disaster from the very start a right back who although has a bit of experience has no positional nous, a 23 year old centre back who a month ago had not looked like making a first team breakthrough and only has 2 Premier League appearances as sub to his name alongside a player who has not played a competitive game for two years and throw in a left back who had never played there till the start of this season and it was obvious what was going to happen what was Puel thinking of !

Two of those five players had never started a Premier League game, McQueen has only started 4 and Gardos 5 the last two years ago, did Puel not think that he needed a little bit of leadership and experience there to steady the ship.

In defence of Puel he was caught between a rock and a hard place as they say, injuries and the departure of Fonte have left us very exposed in key positions, we have no real cover for Fraser Forster and with the fact that we are down what are essentially our 3rd and 4th choice central defenders we have little cover if one of those should get injured.

What does Puel do, he has to try and make sure the injury crisis does not get worse, if he had played Forster and the keeper got injured then he would have been ripped to shreds.

But that does not excuse the defensive line up he put out, it served no purpose and it was counter productive, all it did was destroy the confidence of those youngsters, Stephens will go into Tuesday's game with Swansea mentally scarred by this game as will Harry Lewis.

If the manager wanted to find out for sure that several of our youngsters are not good enough for the level we need them to be, then this was a successful day for him.

It was men against boys although our so called boys are not that young, Stephens is 23, McQueen will be 22 next week, Harrison Reed is 22 and Lloyd Isgrove 24, all of them contemporaries of Alex Oxlade Chamberlain at St Mary's.

To be blunt if they haven't forced their way into a regular first team place by this sort of age, then the chances are they are never going to do so, Oxlade Chamberlain has played 118 Premier League games whereas our 4 have started 10 between them.

As I say there are excuses for Puel on this one with things so stretched and the transfer window about to shut, but he got it wrong.

Ironically we probably played worse at Liverpool, the euphoria of that game glossed over the fact that defensively we had too many lapses in concentration at the back which luckily enough weren't punished, but Arsenal were a lot more clinical and we paid the price.

Claude Puel should be taking notice of this and the club should be looking to make one preferably two central defensive signings before the window shuts.

So I think we just have to write this game off, yes Puel blundered and got the selection wrong, but I think a lot of this was forced on him by circumstance and the need to ensure that the injury crisis does not get worse especially in those areas we have no more cover for.

I can understand the fans frustrations, although to be fair with the cheap prices and the fact that it was an open secret that we would be playing a changed side, no one can really complain that they went on false pretences.

This was a sorry end to a great week, but ultimately we have to judge the manager and the season on where we are at the end of it, not on one off disasters.

Photo: Action Images

SaintPaulVW added 18:15 - Jan 29 Think he wanted out of a cup. May not be the best choice and rubbish for the fans in the stadium. Concentrate on the league and the cup final. No loss of momentum if it's a completely changed side. Puel is a percentage manager. Judge him at the end of the season, coming out the EL and the FA cup will barely register if we win the league cup and have a good finish again in the league.

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ExiledSupporter added 18:27 - Jan 29 Agree with most of the comments above and certainly think that despite extenuating circumstances Puel went over the top with the changes. On the other hand several players let him down, for instance I thought Clasie and Reed were made irrelevant by the quality of Arsenal's players. Oxlade-Chamberlain was extremely good, but wasn't challenged effectively and had masses of space to stroke his passes around the pitch to devastating effect. Okay that wouldn't have happened against our first choice squad; but two important point we do not have a midfielder who can shoot straight (unless it's straight at their keeper) and this remains a major contributor to our well document5ed failings this season and , secondly, we do not currently have a player that can take the game by the scruff and organise our attacking momentum. Perhaps Boufal will grow into this, but I have no expectations of him until he has successfully adapted to the requirements of the English game

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the_saint added 18:43 - Jan 29 Think I agree with San Marco on this one and I would think the players want to play as San Marco says it's just part & parcel of the game always has been always will,
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corkcitysaint added 19:11 - Jan 29 I believe this game was always going to be a dud. It was a match too far for us. Puel was always going to put a reserve team out after injuries and the efforts mid-week. I wasn't expecting us to win this one and when I saw our line-up, I knew it. As soon as Arsenal went 1-0 it was game over. We totally stood off Arsenal, never looked hungry, passing poor. Add to that we had no height !! What we really lacked was a leader on the pitch. Nobody was directing or organising with any authority. The back 5, Lewis, Cuco, Gardos, McQ, Stephens all too quiet. You always see VVD (and Fonte) and Bertrand directing the players around them. For me, nobody stood up last night in that role. Far too slack. It was a heavy defeat regardless of the side out and a blow to morale really. Having said that, I would prefer a performance like that in the FA cup (having now reached a final) than it happening against Swansea. Hopefully, we will be back on course mid week. After our recent poor run of form, had we put on a performance as we did yesterday with not having won during the week, I feel 99% of fans would be calling for Puels head on a guillotine today. He now needs to get it right against Swansea.

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LordDZLucan added 20:53 - Jan 29 The FA Cup, as far as Premier League teams are concerned, is now unfortunately a competition for the reserves - at least until the later rounds. Our reserves are not as strong as Arsenal's reserves which is why we got thumped. The club needs to seriously address the following issues: 1. The transfer policy has left our reserves too weak; we need 2/3 top class players now 2. £15 is too much to charge for a reserve team game Also, the FA Cup is in danger of becoming extinct if this carries on.

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law101 added 06:16 - Jan 30 Write it off, this game doesn't need dystecting! Like it or not Puel threw the game, we had no chance of winning with the side he selected! On to the next one, if we beat Swansea then great! Puel has not suddenly become the greatest manager over night....
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law101 added 06:21 - Jan 30 Reed needs to go out on loan! He looks woefully shirt of quality but needs some games at his age to express himself! He runs around passing the ball backwards! Gardos can only play right CB. Having watched him play before he is all right foot and really struggles bringing the ball out as LCB!
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OldRed added 07:30 - Jan 30 I don't recall Puel thanking the fans after the Liverpool game and it seems that he doesn't care for what they think either. He said he's waiting on an assessment for Virgil before deciding on whether to buy on the transfer window. We should have a much better squad than we have right now if we had replaced the players we lost last summer.
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SaintJez added 13:51 - Jan 30 The team selection that was an embarrassment to the club, an absolute p1ss take of the fans who've turned up to watch and done nothing to enhance the careers, prospects or confidence of the kids who took part in it. Absolutely, utterly shambolic. The club should reimburse all those that were unfortunate enough to attend. They won't ofcourse but I would definitely think twice before shelling out for any early stage cup ties in future - regardless of how mouthwatering they should be. The game was screened to a global audience and we made ourselves look a laughing stock. And why? so we can try and solidify our place in mid table mediocrity by getting a result at Swansea. Cosmic.

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BoondockSaint added 14:03 - Jan 30 Slightly off topic: When I tuned in the game, the intro portion of the broadcast, the "pundits" that were on were having this discussion: Pundit 1: "They won't give in to a player's wage demands. If they can get a good price for him, he's gone." Pundit 2: "But what does that say to the fans? 'We're happy to stay at this spot on the table, and don't want to challenge the other teams. ' Is that what the fans are paying for ?" Then I realized they were talking about the Gunners, not the Saints. But they could have been!

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SaintBrock added 14:22 - Jan 30 Words fail me.
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