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

LordDZLucan added 09:12 - Jan 3 Bertrand on the bench. Hmmm. I hope I’m wrong but that smacks of Bertrand leaving in this transfer window to allow Targett and McQueen to develop. Now I’m not against bringing the youngsters through, far from it. Man Utd. obviously had great success doing it back in the 1990s; but for Aston Villa it was a contributory factor to their relegation last season. You have to have top class seasoned pros around the youngsters to make it work e.g. Fonte, van Dijk, even Bertrand. God help us if we let any of the more seasoned campaigners leave. To my mind we are one or two short. The current situation is not Puel’s fault; he needs our support. Lack of investment in the team over the last two seasons is the root cause.

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Jesus_02 added 09:12 - Jan 3 Pretty accurate TBH. The two things that concern me about Claude is his inability to learn and his inability to change plans. I have the strong feeling that all three teams where selected before the first ball was kicked. Obviously rotation is necessary when you have 3 games in 5 and a half days but some of the decisions have been simply mad
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SaintBrock added 09:17 - Jan 3 Crikey Nick, you are becoming a reactionary. Everyone cracks in the end. Welcome to the dark side!
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LordDZLucan added 09:20 - Jan 3 SaintBrock - Dan wrote the article, not Nick. He's not quite joined us yet!
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IanRC added 09:23 - Jan 3 Absolutely clueless, needs to get his head sorted quickly or be moved on. I am not one who calls for the manager's head on a short term run of form but there are too many negative signs at the moment. 0 points out of 9 and abject defeats to the two managers we would most like to trounce is simply not acceptable. Doubt we will be relegated and constant improvement is not possible indefinitely but we are in danger of sliding backwards quickly. I fear for our prospects against Liverpool a team we have supplied with the ammunition to beat us.

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SaintBrock added 09:30 - Jan 3 Various reports suggest that Ryan Bertrand was ill and could not play others that he was injured. I'll accept either rather than conspiracy theories. He is so full on in his play that maybe his body cannot take the battering it gets every week. He does have a track record of injuries keeping him on the sidelines for weeks at a time. In my view he is our best and most reliable player even including the Flying Dutchman with a finishing power to match. Let's hope he is back in action soon.

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SonicBoom added 09:33 - Jan 3 We should not get rid of Puel. That's too extreme but he seems to repeat the same mistakes over and over. Constantly changing the team simply does not work. It did not produce results in Europe and it didn't work over Christmas. The whole idea of rotation is to keep a team fresh and able to compete and win matches. Our rotation has upset the team and we have lost most matches. I would also imagine that the players get fed up. Claude needs to rethink fast. Stubbornly sticking to what doesn't work could be his downfall otherwise.

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highfield49 added 09:33 - Jan 3 All that said let's not forget the problem at the other end of the pitch, when we get there. We should arguably have gone ahead in this match and even managed to get a grip of it before Everton scored. Any defence comes under pressure when the team isn't a goal scoring threat to the opposition and the forwards fail to hold onto possession when given the ball. The squad needs urgent investment this month and the owner has to at least give the manager support by saying funds are available. Puel shouldn't be left isolated to fight this battle alone. Has the club been sold and someone didn't think the supporters needed to know?

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OldRed added 09:37 - Jan 3 Puel is supposed to be an experienced manager. He's not going to learn these basic things now, because it's the way he works. It's time for him to replaced before it becomes a hopeless cause.
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LordDZLucan added 09:42 - Jan 3 If Bertrand was ill he shouldn't have even been on the bench. The fact that he was speaks volumes to me. He is on his way. I believe that Puel is just doing what he is told. Koeman didn’t do what he was told which is why ultimately he left. The root cause of the problems we’re facing is therefore higher up and that is where we need to direct our fire.
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SaintBrock added 09:42 - Jan 3 Well, for what it is worth I have written to the club expressing concern over what is happening on the field and off it, the deafening silence of the board on the OS, the loss of openness and transparency and so on. No doubt if a reply is forthcoming it will be of the usual patronising kind, "of course your concerns have been passed to the board..." and other such guff but if enough people keep chipping away at the temple doors maybe one day they will open. One suspects highfield49 may be right and the former occupants of SMS have scarpered along with the family silver.

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DPeps added 09:44 - Jan 3 Some elements contributing towards the current s***-storm: Squad rotation - nothing wrong with rotation per se, and important if we want to develop our young players. However, I'm not sure that Puel knows enough about our squad and our opposition to decide when and who to rotate. Fixture pile-up - ridiculous to play 3 games in 6 days! lack of confidence has struck at the worst time. However, squad rotation is designed for times like this... Lack of quality - in defence of Puel, he has inherited a weakened squad compared with previous seasons. All but the most myopically pro-board fans believe now that we had a poor transfer window in the summer, and our failure to bring in goals has compromised Puel. That doesn't explain us shipping goals though! Usually try to end on a positive but can't. Not really looking forward to a trip to Norwich now

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LordDZLucan added 10:00 - Jan 3 I know I’m having a bit of a rant today but one more thing I’d like to comment on. Our major signing over the last 2 summer transfer windows, and supposedly our club record signing, is Boufal. We signed him injured knowing he would miss the first 3 months of the season, would then take time to get used to the pace of play in the Premier League and would then disappear for up to 6 weeks to play in the African Nations Cup. Who thought that was a sensible thing to do?

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corkcitysaint added 10:05 - Jan 3 What frustrates me is the players / club saying how we need to "re-act" after the last defeat and prepare well for our next game etc etc. What a load of tosh! Another abysmal performance. So much for keeping the side "fresh" with the squad rotation! I can understand 1 or 2 changes given the period yes, but the rotation policy clearly isn't working if we lose so many in a row. I agree we need a consistent team at the moment to get out of this rut. What kept us strong was our defence and now that's crumbling. There is no creativity whatsoever currently. When a player receives the ball, the first instinct is to see who is beside or behind him to pass it to. There is no probing run or defence splitting pass, no one getting to the by-line for cut backs. I feel sometimes we want to walk the ball into the net. I see CP says he is happy with the squad and is unlikely to purchase in this window then may God help us! I now fear the Norwich game.

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SaintPaulVW added 10:09 - Jan 3 Agree on the defence. Not too sure why Bertrand didn't play, if this was a rotation move, with VVD out it was crazy. Going forward, I'm getting very fed up with all this safe ineffectual tippy tappy passing to players with their back to goal. Everton carved us up by passing into space and running onto it. We spend 10 minutes tapping the ball forward, tapping it back. The opposition must love it just sit back and watch. Our dead balls are an absolute joke. Side looks low on confidence and JRod, Long and Redmond seem far off their best form and stuttering to get back. That last chance JRod couldn't even get the shit on target. Not too sure that any new recruits are seriously envisaged for January. Even if they are going to have to hit the ground running to have any effect. I like Puel but he needs a bit of luck and to play his trump cards consistently. He was smart early season to change his style to accommodate Austin, so I have hope in him. Not panic stations for me yet, but I'm getting concerned. I think it is just Papertalk but anyone being sold in January is going to bring down a shower of something.

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SaintPaulVW added 10:11 - Jan 3 'Shot' not sh*t sorry!!!!
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SaintDownUnder added 10:17 - Jan 3 I agree with most of the views here but have a couple of other observations: 1. You can rotate players to keep them fresh if the players play in a consistent formation and to ingrained & understood tactics and style. The issue here is that Puel is rotating players and tinkering with a Diamond 442 and recently a 433, put bluntly we are all over the shop at the moment- Puels fault completely. Give the players a way of playing, coach them in that style and rotate as much as you like so long as everybody coming in knows their role. This isn't rocket science, but I worry that Puel doesn't know his best team and formation, that's scary. 2. We lack goals and it's killing our confidence. Ask yourself this how many points have we won from a losing position this season? The reality is that as soon as we go behind we look like mentally vulnerable as we lack any confidence that we can score. Clearly my first point is a major contributor to this, however so is selling mane and Pella and not adequately replacing. Puel- go back to whatever you philosophy is and stick with it, presumably that's the diamond 4-4-2. Play your best side week in week out and coach thise coming in to slot into the role of the guy he's replacing.

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SanMarco added 10:28 - Jan 3 We have got used in recent seasons to having worrying bad runs and then turning it round, sometimes spectacularly. Yesterday was the chance, Everton were there for the taking, as were WBA. In both games we crumbled once we were behind. The article says (and remember the consistent pro-Puel editorial line until now): "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..." - When even your friends are saying such things you are in trouble - and if Puel is in trouble we are because he manages our team. If Bertrand was ill why was he sitting on the bench in the freezing cold? Why hasn't Puel after 29 games found some way to get the best out of his resources? If he thinks the squad doesn't need strengthening then he must have plans in place to use that squad effectively - why no evidence of this? That said - most of that could be the fault of a penny-pinching, semi-detached ownership. If that is true then these last results may be a wake-up call. Romeu was sent to the Echo to deny a relegation battle so hopefully that is a sign of concern. Those 7 pts in 3 games we took (M'Boro, B'mouth etc) have left us (surely) with enough points in the bank but 3-0 Palace 3-0 Everton, 2-1 Hull + WBA at home IS relegation form. I don't know about 'Puel Out' but I do know that decisive leadership is needed....NOW.

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wibbersda added 10:41 - Jan 3 There are some good salient points raised however you are deluding yourself if you think Puel is worth giving more time to. He is not going to change his methodology, He is too stubborn and I mean he is French for heavens sake! There is simply no reason to rotate the squad to the eighth degree. Where is the incentive to get into the first team if you are always going to get a game anyway. Our talented players have now lost any consistency that comes with regular games. How many more time do we have to hear that there are too many games? This doesn't seem to effect the likes of the so called top six. Can we take much more of this painful, woeful negative football? Sorry but Puel OUT for me.

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the_saint added 10:43 - Jan 3 Judging by the players body language I think he is losing the dressing room. Klopp asked all his players if they wanted a rest none of them came forward if puel asked our players he would get the same response players want to play. Just get rid of him and black cos they ain't going to change. Even my sons are getting fed up of going and these youngsters are our future at this rate we would not even fill the old dell let alone expanding at any time. Oh and mr klopp can you keep the score down in the first leg so my trip to anfield is not a wasted journey

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DPeps added 10:46 - Jan 3 SaintPaulVW - your original typo was on the money!
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halftimeorange added 11:07 - Jan 3 Maybe the headlines should use a motoring analogy "Saints running out of Puel". The next home game will be judgement day. Anything other than a win at Norwich followed by avoiding a thrashing by a team held by Sunderland will be met by howls of supporters anguish. A season full of promise is like our side, slowly sinking. Action needed.
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kuningan added 11:54 - Jan 3 *judging by the players body language I think he is losing the dressing room* Agreed ... though I'm wondering if he even 'won' the dressing room in the first place.
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bstokesaint added 12:24 - Jan 3 I always think it's best to have some time to dwell on results before posting, as my feelings yesterday were running high. I personally don't want to see a manager sacking, as it always seems to be a lazy (and expensive) quick-fire solution, that doesn't always pay off. Don't get me wrong I'm seriously having my doubts about our tactics, but I'm still not convinced this is all the manager's fault. It'll be interested to see if the chequebook comes out in the next couple of weeks. I don't think our players have become bad over night, but confidence is really low and a couple of quality signings might be the lift we need. We certainly lack creativity and a bit of steel and we all know the money is in the bank! This time last season we were on the same amount of points from 20 games. Koeman was being called into question and responded with 16 points from the next 6 fixtures! Boom. Easy to say now, but I always expected Ron to turn the corner. I don't have that same confidence in the current regime, even though I really want to. Now, more than ever is the time to get behind the team.

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dirk_doone added 14:35 - Jan 3 Once Reed has sold Fonte and van Dijk, Puel will no longer have the option of putting out a strong defence. Reed had already taken away the option of him fielding a strong attack by selling Mane and Pelle in the summer. There are plenty of good managers out there but I'm not sure what other manager will be prepared to take orders from Reed and watch his best players sold every season.

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