Yeah, I know - I just had actual sunshine on my mind there.
1 Like
And Paolo Rossi
3 Likes
Fuck me, I remember watching that at the time. Rossi was just brilliant throughout that World Cup, but the goal by Socrates in that game is a thing of real beauty.
1 Like
I guess this means Baz is no longer going to attend games.
1 Like
Originally posted by @Goatboy
Still can’t believe Mike Read didn’t ban that - encouraging people to do that to Eileen…
You don’t need to attend games to know we’re playing awfully slow turgid football that is woeful to watch and boring also.
Some other people manage to know a great deal of football whether they attend or not.
True playing the game gives an insight.
Have a read of this.
I think it is an excellent defence of Claude and provides an explanation for why we haven’t perhaps seen as much progress.
I’m sure others might see it differently.
Originally posted by @Optimus-trousers
Sourced from Daily Echo article
Reed backs Puel for Saints success
Show/hide article…
We had a similar situation at half term last year and we did exactly the same thing.
Normally at this time of the year I would sit down the various heads of all departments to see what we have done so far, how we can learn from it and what we can do to improve for the last six months of the season and finish on a high. It’s really no different.
We have finally had a bit of time to sit down and do that with Claude, the first team staff and everybody around the first team like I have with the academy manager and everybody else.
We are confident that we have learned a lot from the quick turnaround between games.
If you look at the top half of the calendar it’s three games every week. It’s incredible. As we get through January things start to even out again.
Claude really hasn’t had an opportunity to do much in terms of coaching, rather recover from matches and prepare for the next one.
The ability to have the players out on the pitch longer and do functional training sessions and the ability to work on different systems of play and so on have been very limited.
He has taken every opportunity he can but the sheer turnaround of games, and also the travelling in the Europa League and the week is gone before you know it.
Les Reed on why Claude Puel is right man for the long term future of the club…
We have seen this week managers being sacked, and often in extraordinary circumstances, and maybe because of things they can’t control.
We picked Claude for a reason, and the main reason being his experience, because he has had a lot of experience in European football and that is where we hope to be heading on a regular basis.
He has been successful at the top of the league where he has coached and has taken teams from the bottom to the top, and young players from the academy to world class, with (Thierry) Henry a classic example, because he’s a teacher. He improves players.
If you want to go down that route you have to give someone time. Teaching takes time.
He feels excited about the potential of not just our academy players, and look at what he’s done for Sam McQueen, Josh Sims, and Prowsey (James Ward-Prowse) has become a better player this season.
He can do that for Jordy Clasie, that’s why we bought Pierre Hojbjerg. He wasn’t the finished product but one for the future.
We had to choose a coach that shared that philosophy and had the passion to teach and make players better.
In order to do that, any teacher will tell you, you need time.
What’s important for us is to support him in such a way he gets that time and opportunity to make those players better.
Of course, we are very demanding because we want to do that and be the ‘best of the rest’ as people keep calling it.
We still want to be the top of the league we are in if you take out the mega clubs.
Les Reed on whether Saints have hit a glass ceiling in terms of their league progress…
That’s what we have to achieve. We might aspire to be above that, but what we have to achieve is to be at the top of that group on a consistent basis.
That why when a season like last season comes along, we might be able to take advantage of it.
I don’t like naming other clubs but Leicester won the league and are now in a relegation battle. We don’t want to do that. We want to be consistent in everything we do, and build a club long term that can always be ready to go through the door if it opens, but on a regular basis and not just a one off basis if everything falls into place for us.
That’s what we want to have, is that consistency in those sort of positions in the league, at the same time to continue to aspire to do better than that if the opportunity arises based on our resources and circumstances.
Fans will always look at the players that have gone through and gone on. You often see ‘what if they had kept all those players?’ If we’d had kept Lovren we wouldn’t have had Alderweireld. If we’d have kept Alderweireld we wouldn’t have had van Dijk. The notion they might be playing together in one Southampton team? Man City could maybe pull all those players together.
Go to the original article…
…cajolingly introduced by Optimus trousers…beta v1.9 - now with EXTRA pictures!
9 Likes
The trouble is we have fans who would be happy to win the league and get relegated the following season.
7 Likes
Sad to say, I think that’s totally true. We have fans who’ll read that whole thing (or at least skim it to find the bits they really don’t like), and they’ll most likely light on this:
Quote from Les Reed
We still want to be the top of the league we are in if you take out the mega clubs.
They’ll then demand to know why we’re not seeking to be one of the mega clubs, where’s our ambition, etc. etc. ad nauseam.
Excellent article and a whole heap of sense from Les Reed - thanks for posting that up, Bletch.
9 Likes
The third paragraph from the end will be jumped on and used to say we have no ambition but to exist just above the relegation zone and flog of the Crown Jewels every time they are unearthed.
that’s a good interview and helps reassure a little. There are still some questions though. I understand that it takes time for his teaching to work, but why does his process of teaching lead to dull football? The players have changed the way they’re playing compared to last year. Is that because he’s not teaching them properly, they don’t understand, are incapable of learning or that this is the way he has taught them play? I know Reed says there hasn’t been time to do proper training, but where have they got the idea that this is the way to play… this dull form of football we’re now witnessing?
2 Likes
It’s a good point, Fatso, I am reassured a little from his reputation before he joined us.
I believe that he was sold to us as a coach that plays a dynamic and attacking brand of football.
This suggests that once he gets time to coach, things will improve.
It’s always possible that this wasn’t the case and we were being grin-fucked.
I’m also mindful that before we started to look slow and turgid, there were many games where we did look positive and moved the ball quickly.
Our midfielders and strikers have also squandered loads of chances that would have seen us take more points and build confidence.
Even if Les is right, it’s also possible that the squad has made its mind up about Claude and that now the honeymoon period is over he’ll struggle to get the players back on side.
Plus, none of that addresses the rumours surrounding Black.
That’s a valid point.
I would like to think that Reed has looked at the style of play that Claude favours and it will fit with the Southampton Way when he has established himself.
What Les may not have said is that Claude has been firefighting since Jose returned and the games have stacked up - perhaps that’s why we have looked so dull?
Either way he needs time, especially as we are in a fairly comfy position.
A decline now to build something worthwhile next season is a luxury we have because we have points in the bag.
We are not Chelsea, but look at them with a two season plan.
2 Likes
I don’t think players have changed the way they are playing from last year or previous years. We have always had games where the players have been devoid of ideas and the build up has been slow. Maybe more so this season but then we don’t have the exciting players (read Mane) that gee up the other players.
3 Likes
Reed out.
1 Like
To be fair, that is what I expected Les to say.
To play devil’s advocate for a moment - if you know that you will have very little time to impose new ideas…why not just stick to the old ones that were working and that the players were accustomed to - 4-2-3-1? (I sound like a broken record I know!)
Then implement new ideas gradually and as and when you get more time on the training ground. At the end of the day, 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 (that we are implenting now) are pretty much the same formation. One is more conservative and the other more geared around pressing high up the pitch (4 people pressing as a unit as opposed to 3. This is highlighted by how deep Steven Davis has been sitting of late).
The forced use of the diamond early on in the season (and pre-season) arguably cost us some points in some very winnable games (Watford and Sunderland at home I’m thinking). I know life doesnt always work this way but you get my point.
If you look at Chelsea… Conte tried to bring about his 3-4-3 / 3-5-2 straight from the off. It didn’t work. They were shite at the start of the season so he reverted to what they knew and then brought about the change after a couple of months.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand what Les is saying and I believe that the slower brand of football has been due to the sheer amount of fixtures and aimed at preventing burnout. The only irritation from my point of view is that this is coupled with frequent mass rotation of players. If the intention is always to rotate anyway, then maybe demand a higher tempo from those players bearing in mind you will likely rest them in the next game anyway. Why did we press Spurs for 20 minutes, look awesome, and then just retreat in to our own 18 yard box?
Thinking about it, it is frustrating that we have lost our identity a little in terms of our playing style. We were renowned for the high tempo pressing game that MP instated. Now it is Spurs and Liverpool associated with that way of playing and we are just…meh.
If he is right then we have nothing to worry about. Unless as Bletch has stated, the players have made up their mind that they don’t like the management set up or their ideas/philosophy.
A cheeky little win tomorrow will do everybody concerned no harm at all.
4 Likes
Excellent post, Simon says, capturing many of my outstanding questions and concerns too.
Also, Reed says that teaching takes time, but what about Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds? She turned those kids lives around sharish.
Just goes to show, if you have a god teacher, it takes no time at all.
(Where do I go to pick up my ‘Most knowledgeable Posts About Football’ award?)
2 Likes