A disastrous end to a calendar year that has been as good as any in the past three decades or so and now has a sour taste in the mouth.

I have been an admirer of Claude Puel and I still think that in the long term he can still be a very good manager for this football club, however I cannot defend his team selection against West Brom and the multiple changes that again happened.

Of course of the six changes from the Spurs game, one was definitely enforced with Redmond suspended and a second may have been with Soares not on the bench and therefore we have to assume injured.

But the other four were in the main unnecessary, the real problem being the changes at the back.

Over the past couple of seasons we have built our success on being strong at the back and not conceding a lot of goals, that in turn leads to good strong build up play going forwards and creating chances, but we are mucking our back four about so much the team has no pattern from game to game, we have lost our rythym and lost our momentum.

That has led to inconsistency both in our play and in our results.

Yesterday we effectively had a second choice back four out and as I say that didnt just cost us goals but meant that we struggled to build attacks enabling West Brom to sit back catch us on the break and deal with what we had to throw at them easily.

As I said in the preview we are at a crucial stage of the season and Claude Puel needed to put his best side out against West Brom, get three points in the bag and then worry about the next game.

At this moment he is trying to be too clever and resting players who don't need to be rested.

He has to take each game as it comes and not keep trying to think of the game after each time.

If we had done that yesterday then I think we might have got something out of the game instead of looking like a disorganised rabble.

Last season was about momentum, that coming fro a settled side that knew was it was doing and had the subtle tinkering needed from game to game, now we just make change for change sake.

It should be pointed out that earlier in the season we needed to switch things around with so many European games, but we got the balance wrong in that and now we are getting it wrong in the league.

Puel has lost a sizeable majority of the fans and that has made it even harder for his team when they step on the pitch, the crowd was on certain players backs before a ball had been kicked, the ironic cheering of Fraser Forster being an example of this, just what that does to help the team I don't know.

The good news though is we are still in 9th place and well positioned to kick on in the new year, the question is though whether the manager is flexible enough to realise the error of his ways and get things right.

Part of that is that he is still learning about his squad and the Premier League, after yesterday he will be even more aware of its limitations and that in turn may make him think that he has not yet got the squad to truly be able to rotate as much as he likes.

One thing we need to remember is where we are and what we have acchieved this year, if someone told any supporter at the start of the season that we would end the yer in 9th place and be in the League Cup semi final they would have been happy with that.

Yes there have been disappointments, but we have to forget those and look to the future, it is always about what we do next, not what we have just done and that is the same for the manager as well as the fans.

Photo: Action Images

mattthelegend added 08:53 - Jan 1 What is going on??? This is a game we should have won easily!!!! Do not understand the constant squad rotation on paper WBA was an easier fixture than Everton away so why not play your strongest squad, no Bertrand, Soares or Fonte to secure the 3 points. Team appears to lack fitness, rhythm and urgency. Am completely frustrated with the whole season, even my kids don't get Saints anymore and say they are boring!!!

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Lazz added 08:58 - Jan 1 I'm hurting right now, I can't even eat my breakfast
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aceofthebase added 09:21 - Jan 1 The back four played were just as good as your favourites and in the first half they and the rest of the team played exciting not boring football. The problem was when they equalised they played like a loss was inevitable. The substitutions by Puel could hardly have been more positive and it took a wonder goal to beat us. c'mon Saints fans stop this whining. It's not going to get you anywhere

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TygerUppercut added 09:45 - Jan 1 ONE shot on target all match & little else created says it all The solution is simple - the board either back puel & allow him to bring in players of his choice to fit his system ( whatever that is ) or they sack him if they believe he already has the players at his disposal. I fear they will do neither and we will muddle on for the rest of the season with this turgid boring toothless brand of football taking us on an inevitable slide down the league

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mgprobert added 09:53 - Jan 1 Good review again. As we get knocked out of the competitions one by one the rotation thing will not be an issue; we can concentrate on the run in and consolidate a 10th place position while we plan for a Summer of further squad turnover. But to paraphrase Nigel its not as bad as it it seems when we've just lost and were not as good as we think when we've just won....we stagger on

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ItchenNorth added 10:08 - Jan 1 Positive first half in general. West Brom were there for the taking, but the second half was terrible ! How many times did we give the ball away ! Ill probably get slated for this but I don't care because I'm adamant about this: no team performs well or is inspired to put in a (better) performance when the support is so negative in the stands. What is happening at present at St Marys is dragging the team down. So if you want a relegation flight, keep going. I have been frustrated by Puel's rotation and some performances, no more than yesterday, but I believe that given time Puel will be a decent manager for us (and not jump ship to a bigger club at the first opportunity). He needs the backing of the board and we need to see HIS team, so that means at least two more transfer windows. The next few games are going to be tough, so rotation is on the cards again with three cup games coming. But for me; we'll get nowhere without support inside St Marys. Support the players during the games (irrespective of the performance or score situation). Leave any frustration until the final whistle.

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AmericanSaint added 10:09 - Jan 1 Good review Nick. This squad rotation needs to stop now. it cost us 3 points. Also, as they say the most dangerous time for a team is the 2 minutes after you score. You saw it with us. We score a good goal and then shut off for 2 minutes as if we expected WB to just roll over. Martina was horrible yesterday. I still do not understand why our forwards do not run the channels to create space. The one time JRod did it, it allowed Long to ghost in the far post and Tadic just missed a great over the top ball. BUT 1 time in a whole game is ridiculous. When a team parks the bus, you need to create the space through the wings and channels and its like we do not know this concept. Also, while I know he is learning the league, Boufal needs to stop trying to dribble through 3 players. He can beat a lot of people one on one but he get caught every time when they double or triple him up. IMO, Puel needs to take off the chains of possession ball and let us attack with faster passing and build up. We are passing back way too much and need to change the field faster to enable our wingback fullbacks the opportunity to create more chances. Everton will show us if Puel has learned anything or if we are going to be in a yo-yo season.

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SaintBrock added 10:21 - Jan 1 Really glad to have missed these last two games. Like many colleagues on here, not sure how much more of this rubbish I can take. It will be a hard call to take my seat for the Leicester game. Puel has had his chances, in fact many more chances than most new PL managers get if they don't improve on what went before. The complete lack of communication form the club board makes it nigh on impossible to sense how they are viewing things right now but they cannot be happy with what is happening. Optimistically they are interviewing candidates to take over from M Puel and an announcement will be made in the next couple of weeks. It's an even's bet that a heavy defeat by Koeman's rabble will bring the curtain down on him. We need to get a new man in in time for him to bring in one or two players of his own before the end of January.

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pintsizedsaint added 10:22 - Jan 1 Squad rotation is a red herring I think. In fact, I thought VVD looked tired and resulted in his two cautions. Puel clearly thought he could rest Bertrand and Soares etc as West Brom would largely defend and that was the case. Nothing wrong in Yoshida and Martina. Tactically it was too defensively minded - Puel wary of the counter attack methinks. We played ok in the first half and too often got some good balls in the box but nobody there to score as we sat too deep. Ideally we should have pressed high for first half. For me the real weak link is currently Forster. Thought he should have done a lot more with their first goal - although it's arguable he (and Yoshida) should not have been in that position due to poor closing down by the midfield in the build up. Forster seems to lack a bit of confidence at the moment - and he's not being rotated!! It was a good goal from Robson Kanu but VVD was a bit sluggish and we again failed to get closer to the ball before the slide rule pass from Phillips. After that - classic West Brom: park everybody behind the ball and go on the counter. Puel went for broke with the subs but we are struggling to create many chances and that's never helped by the opposition parking the bus. Two positives : Boufal continues the improve and impress. I suspect he has a few more gears in him. And Long has finally got off the mark. It's disappointing but I think better times are ahead. Lost a bit of confidence at the moment and have not had the rub of the green. Everton will be tough but by no means impossible - Koeman's blues are also misfiring of late too

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saintmark1976 added 10:22 - Jan 1 W B A are no longer a team that we should expect to beat easily and they have obviously improved since last season as is witnessed by their league position even before yesterday. Had we played our "first team"(whoever they are and does the manager even know) we may still have lost. My concern is not restricted to individual results but more as to the general malaise which appears to be running through the club at the moment. Where is the communication and leadership from the board toward the fans? Why is there never any reassurance from the owner, chairman or director of football? It is obvious that fans are not content and the manager needs the support of the board but all we ever get is a deafening silence. It's a new year and now would be an ideal opportunity for the owner and very well paid employees to "step up to the plate" and basically do what they are paid for and communicate. I am afraid that if they do not then perhaps there is only one conclusion to be drawn which may well be that none of them, right the way down from the owner to the manager expect to remain in position in the short let alone the long term. In any event may I wish all fellow posters, whether I have agreed with them or not a happy and prosperous new year.

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NewburySaint added 10:46 - Jan 1 Nick, I don't think he will learn because he strikes me as too stubborn an individual to change his ways-I think the PL is proving too much for a man that has only spent his entire career in Ligue 1. There were 3 things yesterday that emphasised why he cannot be our Manager next season, if he gets that far. Firstly, and particularly in the 1st half, I counted on at least 3 occasions some brilliant crosses flash across the Brom 6 yard box without us having a single player in the box other than Long. I don't blame Long for these being wasted because on at least 2 0f those occasions Long had run to the near post to create masses of space in the Brom box but we had nobody coming on to them. That is just down to incredibly poor coaching, in fact you don't even need to coach that you just tell/instruct your players to be there but this plainly isn't something that our players are told to do, and has been the way for most of our season hence our poor goals for return and our perceived negative, boring football. Secondly, West Brom's equaliser was directly down to Puel's rotation policy because the back four we had out yesterday were clearly disorganised the whole game because they don't play together a lot, and were woefully out of place for Phillips' goal. Thirdly, we have now lost our best player against Everton & Lukaku directly down to Puel taking off a right back and then playing without 1 for the rest of the game which meant Van Dijk was overburdened having to play in 2 positions hence why the only thing he could do was bring down Rondon unless he wanted him to have a free shot on goal and, let's face it, that probably would've ended up in our onion bag how easily Forster is being beaten at the moment. Apologies to all those who cannot bear to hear our club criticised but I am saying as I have seen it and in my opinion this is my least enjoyable season since our relegation from the Championship, & I have been a season ticket holder since the 80's so have a lot of experience behind me!

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no7saint added 11:05 - Jan 1 Agree with many of the sentiments here, sections of our support are sounding like a baying mob every time a pass goes astray. This makes the players nervy and deters them from taking the kind of risks you sometimes need to win games, instead their instinct is to play safe which is easy to defend against. Also the ironic jeering of Forster is senseless, despite what he’d say publicly this would get under his skin and distract him from what he’s supposed to be doing. Whoever thinks will have a positive effect on his performance is deluded. On a more critical note we played into West Brom’s hands yesterday. I actually liked our starting line up, I thought it was positive with attacking intent. However when we break we take too long to get balls into the box, and give highly-organised defences like West Brom’s time to get in position. Both Boufal and Tadic like to beat defenders but they often do this two or three times before getting a cross in by which time the opposition has regrouped. Obviously this depends on Jay and Shane being in the box for the early ball but they both have the pace to do this. Finally – anyone see Hojbjerg’s response to being subbed yesterday? He stormed straight down the tunnel and booted something in a strop. Natural frustration or hinting at a bit of unrest in the camp?

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LordDZLucan added 11:14 - Jan 1 WBA are the same team playing the same boring football that we beat 3-0 almost a year ago. What has changed in the meantime is us. We have over relied on the brilliant VVD up until now to get results. But yesterday his reading of the game, which is usually his strength, was way off and he was made to look ordinary by a Championship striker. Either he's tired or he's on his way.

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wibbersda added 11:19 - Jan 1 That's it. I've totally lost faith with the direction saints are going. Unimaginative defensive football, which may have been OK before fonts had given up and vvd was unsettled by rumours. Now our defence is all at sea it has exposed Forster for the lumbering ogre he is. Our team has the potential but Puel has ruined them.
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DPeps added 11:39 - Jan 1 WBA are a little better than last season, but mainly the other mid table teams in the PL have got worse, including us. I agree that Puel needs time. I said before the season started that this year would be more of a transition than previously. MP to RK was a continuation of a similar, high intensity game; Puel prefers a different approach. However I'm concerned that he doesn't have the players he needs, and most of the noises coming from the club suggest that we're not going to strengthen much, or at all, in Jan.

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the_saint added 12:21 - Jan 1 Awful awful awful to much tinkering poor tactics players look unfit and don't seem to be on their game arguing with each other towards end of game sorry I have lost total faith in manager and his boring sideways football how many times did we have nobody in box when we had ball out wide looks like a tough 2017 and a slide down the table Now for the pluses Redmonds back for next game.

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Ali_Diarea added 12:45 - Jan 1 I can't believe some fans are calling for the manager's head. We're 9th in the toughest league in the world, into a cup semi-final and only 16 points from safety with 19 games still to play. I'm all in favour of the club progressing but keep it in perspective. The last transfer window was a disaster so it's incredible what we have achieved so far this season.
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Saint88 added 12:50 - Jan 1 The meaning of the word supporter: PERSON WHO ENCOURAGES. Ironically cheering Fraser Forster or being negative to towards the team, is not helping but contributing towards negative outcomes. On the subject of changing managers, where's the proof that doing this so early in a manager's time in charge helps? There is an issue around investment with our 'best team' playing for other clubs, but that's a fact of life. We probably do rotate too much but I think we need to get to the end of this season to establish a platform to push on, hopefully with the board behind investing in the club and players. I wonder whether the talk of new Chinese owners has distracted the board - not too sure whether that's going anywhere, but maybe a distraction? To repeat we need to avoid a negative downward spiral that feeds on itself and both fans, team and manager can help.

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SanMarco added 13:23 - Jan 1 There is a creeping feeling of malaise at the club. We seem to have reached the end of some kind of era and not really know where we are going next. The word 'transition' implies some sort of going from 'a' to 'b'. 'A' was a steady rise up the leagues with (usually) entertaining football and 7th then 6th in the league; does anyone, even Puel, know what 'b' is? Surely Puel needs to either be supported NOW with players who suit whatever his style is or he needs to go - because it aint working. I think even the optimists now accept that last summer's window was a disaster. If we lose to Koeman and then go out of both cups I suspect the 'Puel Out' will become a crescendo. Even if we do need a change I would wait until we are near the magic 40 pts because (unless there is deep unrest in the dressing room) more upheaval is not likely to help. On the matter of 'Puel out': if we take ourselves seriously as a 'big' club we have to ask - would the other big clubs put up with the pitiful levels of entertainment we have (largely) been subjected to this season? I know the statisticians will say we are doing as well as last year but I think deeper analysis (and just sitting there frustrated and bored) will show that none of us expect any sort of major rally with this team under this manager. I hope I am wrong (I often am). I agree over the pointless baracking of our players. Poor old Fraser looks in need of love not ridicule. Happy New Year to all.

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dirk_doone added 13:55 - Jan 1 Rotation has always been the way Puel's managed and he's not going to change now. In his 4 seasons at Nice he used 68 different players in his first team. Happy New Year to all Saints fans and players.
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SaintPaulVW added 15:05 - Jan 1 Getting a bit fed up with the bitching at Martina and now Forster. We're supposed to encourage not bring our players down. Read about any successful football manager and they are given time to learn about their team, develop a style and recruit their own players. Whining about Puel after half a season is just stupid. We're not in a bad place, despite 2 rubbish games, and he needs time to learn . Happy new year and COYR.

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halftimeorange added 15:18 - Jan 1 It's true, we do have eleven good or better players but they are never on the pitch together. Despite that, apart from the ever-reliable Davis and Romeu, yesterday saw some poor performances from previously dependable players - Van Dijk, McQueen and Hobjberg in particular and it begs the question "why"? Despite the upbeat comments from players of Facebook or in interviews morale must be low right now and one wonders whether there is unrest in the camp. There was no reason why Fonte could not have played yesterday, nor Cedric but it looks like Claude's policy of trying to keep all the players happy will have the effect of unsettling most of them. These are worrying times and the board will know the mood in the stadium is disappointment bordering on hostile. Our style of play has been boring from day one this season. That's bad enough in itself but worse when you're losing. Two other points - Mike Jones is the worst referee in the Premier League and his inconsistency cost saints yesterday. Second, who on earth is singing that god-awful rendition of My Way - is it the bloke who was always booed for saying the North side car park would be closed after the game. Certainly sounds like him and it is truly awful.

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arthurfane added 16:45 - Jan 1 Understand Puel's rotation policy in moderation, but just cannot fathom why Van Dijk is considered fit enough to play every single game and Betrand/Cedric aren't. Bertrand is absolutely vital to the way Saints play. I like McQueen, but Ryan is lethal going forward and really makes us tick. Forster again disappointing - the first goal was very savable.. I was actually shocked to see him save at his near post yesterday, but I don't think the ironic cheering is going to help matters at all. When McCarthy is back, give his a go I say. Why have we been electric for the first 20 minutes in both of our last two matches, and then gone flat? Are we just not fit enough? Very frustrating end to the year. I guess it does show how far we've come that we're calling for Claude's hear when our league position is fairly good. Onwards and upwards. COYS

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SaintBrock added 19:56 - Jan 1 San Marco, if we are to change managers it must be now to give a new man a fighting chance of salvaging some respectability from this otherwise erratic and disappointing season. We are still 16 points from safety, still struggling for goals whilst our previously solid defensive foundation thought to have been built on rocks seems to be crumbling. Not by any means a happy combination and with increasingly noticeable discord amongst players and undisciplined behaviour creeping into their play something needs to change and change fast. Until now we and I suspect the players have bought into the rhetoric of the Southampton Way as espoused by Reed and others but such belief is evaporating and giving way to cynicism across the fan base so the chances are that the players are drifting that way as well. Once that cohesion gives way to division it will be an horrendously difficult job to put it all back together again. The longer the status quo lingers the worse it will get. I feared that the appointment of Black was ill-judged from what was known and written of his previous roles; a manager can only be as good as the team around him. He has not changed a single face since his arrival which suggests he is happy with all of them so blame for their performances must rest squarely on his own shoulders. Time is a commodity we do not have in abundance now that we are in the new year so the time for wait-and-see fluffiness has passed.

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SanMarco added 22:33 - Jan 1 Yes SaintBrock, on reflection, I think you are right. If we don't get a new man in to influence the transfer window then we might as well wait until the summer. I am moving towards the 'Puel Out' camp. He was an underwhelming appointment and he is serving up some pretty poor stuff. Most people have given him a reasonable run but it is 28 games now and many I speak to don't have the gut feeling that he is the man for the job. As I said in my original post if we lose to RK and go out of both cups in the next couple of weeks then things will become very difficult for him. I, of course, hope that doesn't happen but at the moment I wouldn't bet any money on us having any positive interest left in the season by the end of January. It is often unfair that the manager's head is the one that rolls and Puel was not responsible for the transfer debacle in the summer but something has to change soon. The mood music says no signings in January, if that is really true then there is no point in 'wait-and-see fluffiness' as you put it. A new manager will not do any worse with these players than Puel. We may of course be sacking a man who, in time, would have led us to glory - but I don't think that and I sense most fans agree with me.

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