Saints fans were left with mixed emotions after Saturday’s 5-0 hammering at the hands of Arsenal at St Mary's.

The joyous scenes of midweek which saw the club reach its first major Wembley cup final in 38 years clearly lessened the blow but, nonetheless, it was painful to endure.

Earlier in the season I discussed the benefits of boss Claude Puel's rotation policy and it worked well for a period, with progression in the EFL Cup, home wins and an away draw in the Europa League and steady results in the Premier League.

But there is a line to be drawn and Saturday proved it.

Ten changes to the line-up against an Arsenal squad with strength in depth both in terms of numbers and quality was too much.

Personally I struggle to see how this “yo-yoing” of highs to lows in the space of a matter of days can be beneficial in the long term.

What is of particular concern is Puel's defiance, insisting post game that “...if I had the moment again to make the selection I would do the same again”.

Yet the outcome is the end of Saints' involvement in another cup competition Saints could rightly expect to push on in — when fielding a stronger team — a round before the last 16.

In addition, it was televised and came a few days after the historic win at Anfield — an ideal opportunity to build momentum and revel in success. What transpired was an embarrassing defeat.

Sadly the club suffered a similar fate in the Europa League following a rotated team selection in Prague which saw them go down 1-0 against a poor side previously thumped 3-0 at home earlier in the season. This opened the door for Hapoel Be'er Sheva and they obliged.

In the EFL Cup semi-final Puel got it right. Despite injuries, the selections were strong and the substitutions were the perfect fit.

Some will argue that, for the club to have some degree of success, we must accept the philosophy and that we will suffer disappointments along the way.

Obviously the potential to win a trophy in a prestigious cup final and a strong finish in the league is an exciting prospect and one every Saints fan will be delighted with without a doubt.

However, I still believe there is room for less manipulation of the squad. Particularly at a stage in the season when we have made a cup final, are in a mid-table position and have home draw in the FA Cup against leading and solid opposition.

There is no reason some of the senior players who played against Liverpool could not have started on Saturday. At the very least, the core of the team should have remained — evident after seeing the centre of the pitch controlled by the visitors.

Is rotation required? Yes, it is in the context of a season with so many games. Should it be limited? Yes, there is no excuse for wholesale changes of full-time athletes at the peak of the fitness with access to the best individuals and facilities in sports science, nutrition and medicine.

Maybe a larger squad with have a major impact on the effect of Puel's rotation — i.e. better quality and strength in depth will mean less heavy defeats and cup knockouts and a mixed bag of league results.

Only time will tell on that front and a manager and backroom team which has pushed the club to the edge of glory in a prominent cup competition have earned that.

Photo: Action Images

zonehead added 12:59 - Jan 30 I understood we would not let Fonte go until a replacement was lined up L Reed , and now I presume as we didn't want a cup run (how else can you explain that lineup) there will be no need to rotate barring injuries will there Claude
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dixiefrog added 13:11 - Jan 30 Leaving aside our ever growing injury list, what if the Boss had played a full strength side against Arsenal and we still lost, then played a weakened and tired squad against Swansea and also lost. The fans would be calling for Puels head and wanting to know why he doesn't prioritise the premiership. Seems to me that Puel made the right call, with a final already in the bag and soo many premiership games still to play, it's best to conserve the few fit players at his disposal and give yourself a fighting chance in the league. The fans might not like it but sometimes you have to sacrifice particular games for the benefit of the overall season.

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SanMarco added 13:36 - Jan 30 Its a funny old world when a 5-0 home defeat in the F.A. Cup is brushed aside as the 'right call' Goodness knows how many we would have lost by if he had made the 'wrong call'. Once it is the 'right call' for a manager to throw a match I do begin to wonder where football is heading. As this rather good article says the 'right call' was to make limited changes. It is an insult to the fans and players to not even try to be competitive. As for injuries, if we get three at Swansea does that mean that those players shouldn't have played there? Keep them in mothballs until Wembley? Half the injury list are fringe players or long-termers. It would of course have been wrong to play key players carrying injuries on Saturday - but playing to lose is not sport in my book....

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Consigliere added 13:44 - Jan 30 SanMarco and I have already debated this on another thread and I'm still with Dixiefrog, but I will go this far down the road with him - I would certainly have thought twice about paying sixty quid for me and my family to come to this game when we could have watched it for free on BT Sport had I known the team line-up beforehand!
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arthurfane added 14:39 - Jan 30 How long can the club keep silent over Van Dijk? Come out and tell us how long he'll be missing!!!
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SanMarco added 14:45 - Jan 30 Thanks Consigliere. I am afraid, for some reason, this made me very angry. Perhaps I am an old romantic about the FA Cup - imagine if Lawrie Mac had sent the reserves out at Fratton in the 1984 Fourth Round. Also the 79 Wembley appearance in the League Cup was bookended by two FA Cup quarter finals against Arsenal and no one from either side would have dreamt of, or even heard of, 'rotation'. The league was also 42 games and so there was no shortage of football - but it was all competitive and the players are fitter NOW than they were then. Anyway, I look forward to discussing a comfortable Saints victory tomorrow evening - they will be fresh as daisies after the nice rest they have had and the icing on the cake will be to hear that the extra league place will be WORTH more than a fifth round tie anyway.

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NeilF added 14:54 - Jan 30 Having been played live in BT and having seen many families with young kids decked in their Saints kit (maybe making their first visit or a special treat) notwithstanding having megastore bags, I feel it was a bit of a PR disaster. From losing the early goals there was no real atmosphere. I just feel the Saints approach to this was wrong. Who really want to watch a third team and lose 5-0 having made such effort and expense for what they thought would be a fair game in the prestigious FA Cup? I agree that had many fans known that it would be this approach they may not have come. I also have to give it to the Arsenal fans who cheered their team along albeit not their complete first team. Another point is Puel saying he wanted to use younger players? But and they really young? Isgrove is 24.

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SonicBoom added 15:03 - Jan 30 Can we just get a bit more real about "Puel pushing us to the edge of glory " in the EFL cup. We played three games against leading to the semi final . In all three we fielded a weakened side against others playing a weakened side. We were happy to run the risk of getting knocked out of that too. We only appeared to take it seriously at the semi final stage which I do give credit, we did very well to win.

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SaintJez added 18:06 - Jan 30 DixieFrog - I'm astonished at that view. I've never seen Saints obviously throw a football match before and I hope I never do so again. Utterly shameful from us and an embarrassment in a match shown right across the globe. Swansea v Saints on Tuesday will be watched by just the few thousand that care. If you look at this season, we obviously won't make 6th place. We're unlikely to go down. If we have to forfeit matches just to get the players we have to the end of the season then we really shouldn't be selling our captain!! I'm gutted that in a week that I've rarely felt prouder of my club, the week ends when I'm embarrassed about it

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dixiefrog added 19:54 - Jan 30 Saintjez - with respect I think you need to remove those rose tinted glasses and get in the real world, you say that you've never seen a match thrown, you have and it was Saints against Arsenal. Don't get me wrong, the players who crossed that white line gave everything they had, they chased and harried for every ball, however the plain truth is the Club and the Boss didn't want to progress in the competition. Their line of thought was that we're out of Europe, we're in a Wembley final, we have key players injured and we're mid-table in the league, if we lose any more senior players to injury in the FAC then we run the risk of relegation. So let's ensure we stay in the premiership (where the REALLY big money is, field a much weakened team in the FAC and put all of our efforts into trying to secure 40+ points. I don't like it, you don't like it and every fan with red and white running through their veins doesn't like it, but this is the reality of where we are as a club today, it's a business and we'd better get used to it.

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RogerToye added 19:58 - Jan 30 oh it could have been Sutton !!
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SaintJez added 20:29 - Jan 30 I do get it.. but it's wrong. 30,000 saints fans turned up for that game. It was a showcase event for our club. If we are really living in fear of relegation then the club needs to get it's act together and start looking up. Most falls begin by looking down... For morale and the atmosphere at SMS next Saturday, there's a lot riding on the Swansea game now. Big night for Puel when he really didn't need to be under that pressure considering what happened in midweek The only silver lining is we've given ourselves 2 full weeks off to train and prepare ahead of the league cup final. Man U will only get 1. I'm not sure which is better to be honest as you could lose some match sharpness in 2 weeks but we'll certainly have no excuse for not being fresh.

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