Southampton vs Hull Match Thread - 29/4/17 K.O. 15:00

Southampton Football Club
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As much as I would like him to be a success because he seems like a genuinely nice guy, we’ve got to get rid of Puel this summer. Without repeating what others have said already, we’ve been incredibly lacklustre this year. Yes, there have been some good performances to look back on and we finally reached a cup final which was no mean feat considering the run of games we had to go through, but we’re finishing the season in a far worse position than where we started it.

I can’t think of any game this season where the players have come out after half time with real fire in their bellies, I can’t think of any game where we’ve played great attacking football all game whilst looking solid at the back and I can’t look into next season with positivity after watching a team which has gone backwards from such a promising position.

I’m not somebody who tends to overreact with things like these, but I haven’t seen anything this season that gives me hope for next year. If anything, i’m worried that a mediochre season will lead to more player exits than an outstanding one because we have several players in this team who are good enough to play at a bigger club than us who may consider their options this summer a bit more carefully now.

I’d be moving mountains to get Marco Silva in personally - it’s always a risk to bring in coaches from outside the PL under such a pressurised situation as a relegation battle, but he’s set Hull up really well in every game and he’s brought some fantastic performances out of some pretty average players (Niasse and Clucas stand out for me). I loved watching us under Pochettino because you always knew going into the stadium that you’d see the lads fight for everything, but under Puel we’ve become so lackadaisicial, dull and inconsistent that you get the sense we’re slipping.

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All game today, the passing was shit, the first touch was shit, no vision, no communication. Just fucking piss poor all around. Some will want to blame the manager and for what its worth, I wouldn’t have played Boufal, Tadic and Redmond together and certainly wouldn’t have dropped JWP… But the team was shit. Yoshida had a stinker (first one for a while), Cedric was , again, fucking average. Don’t get me started on Tadic. The only cunt making any effort this year is that prick’s agent. Fucking useless. All the talk and no walk. Fuck him off in the summer and get someone slightly average in . CUNT.

Take a deep breath though.

Yes we were absolutely fucking shit today. And maybe Puel isn’t the fucking dull cunt to take us forward. But we are not far off being a fucking good side. We are looking at how to get in the top six not scrabbling around for 36 points.

Next season I won’t be looking at the fixtures as I used to as a Saints fan, thinking ‘where the fuck are we going to pick up 30 points?’ I’ll be going into the season thinking ‘how can we attack these rich cunts?’ ‘How can we finish top 6?’ That’s a massive difference to relying on the once in a lifetime brilliance of MLT to keep you up.

Upwards and onwards Sotonians x

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Yoshida!? He was alright I thought! Kept Niasse relatively quiet and managed to make some good first-time clearances with both feet.

Did have the ball played inside him once in the first half but was able to recover and send Niasse wide and away from goal.

Thought Stephens and Yoshida in general were the only two who could really hold their heads high after that performance.

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Just a couple of final thoughts that do point the big gun at Claude’s head I’m afraid.

In the first half, there was a moment where we actually managed to get a 3-on-3, with Boufal, Redmond and Gabbi all running at (I think) Maguire, Elmohammady and Rannochia.

Redmond ran wide into space, Boufal saw him, cut inside and ran towards him (not having to beat a man to do so) and then… just decided to pass the ball the rest of the way (the net effect being that the ball found its way to Redmond far slower than if he had just passed it early).

To some extent you’d naturally blame Boufal; but at the same time, Redmond didn’t make any sort of a run off the ball when Boufal cut inside to open up space, so you’d have to assume Redmond quite clearly didn’t think he’d get the ball passed to him if he didn’t stand, more-or-less static, in as much space as possible (my old manager when I used to play in the Tandridge league as a 16-year-old would bollock me time and again for doing precisely this - saying it was school playground-level).

There was another situation where Boufal was running down the wing one-on-one against Robertson with Cedric on the overlap. He waited for Cedric to catch up and overlap him, but changed his mind and used Cedric’s run as a decoy in order to cut inside and cross left-footed.

Ok. That’s fine (or so we thought).

Trouble was, he then decided against crossing the ball as well (sort of understandably as there was no-one in the middle apart from Gabbiadini who clearly didn’t know where he was supposed to be running or where the cross would be aimed at), so once again, Boufal cut back outside in order to lay it off to Cedric… only trouble being that by this time, Cedric’s run had taken him offside.

…so, back inside he cuts, and by now, all of the Hull defenders and midfield have packed their own box to the point that they’re totally impervious to a cross from deep… another indecisive pause…

On seeing this happen down in front of us in the Itchen North, one of our group at the game shouted out “…Well its definitely one of the two!”, prompting a few chuckles with more-or-less everyone who heard, and knew exactly what he meant.

I think in the end Boufal did decide that late was better than never and chucked in an indifferent left-footed cross from deep, which, from what I can remember, floated over everyone out of play - but you get the idea. The attacking cohesion is miles off - and its not early in the season, it’ll be bloody May after this weekend.

Its a cliche - but seriously, what are they working on on the training pitch in midweek?

Compare this to Koeman’s first season; Tadic’s layoffs to Clyne on the overlap were flawless, and really early on in the season too. That’s not down to the ability of Tadic to play a well-weighted pass or Clyne to (guess what?) run. Its not rocket science, it really is just teamwork and practice on the training pitch.

Similarly, there’s no way Koeman would allow Mane to get away with what Boufal was doing, whether he was entirely to blame for it or not.

There were tonnes of matches where the microphones would pick up shouts of '“SHADIO! SHADIO!” from the dugout. Is Puel going to be the flea in Boufal’s ear that he’ll clearly need if he’s going to ever be as effective as he is talented and skillful? I very much doubt it.

Anyway. G’nite.

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Another Silva fan. He seems a good fit. He is a winner and Im sure he has been linked to us before

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I was cheered up by the Match of the Day version of reality when they showed me a game where we hardly had the ball, were under the cosh for the majority of the game and looked bloody fortunate to scrape a point against a Hull City side who were all out attack for 90 mins.

:astonished:

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Some sober reflections on yesterday and the season in general. Firstly on the game itself, think we really lacked a leader on the pitch, many a time this season we’ve seen Virgil grab a game by the scruff of the neck and try to make a difference. No player on the pitch yesterday showed the ability to do that, who was the captain yesterday, Davis? Not one of our players seemed to have that ‘presence’ on the pitch that said ‘leader’.

Our lack of attacking quality frustrated me a lot yesterday, mostly because I know what our players are capable of. Numerous occasions this season we’ve played some excellent football, cutting through defences with quick incisive passing (sadly for the majority with no end product due to poor fininshing, especially in the first half of the season) and we certainly have the ability to counter attack effectively (think Liverpool semi-final).

So I guess the thing that frustrates me is not seeing this potential materialise on a regular basis, the team that played and fought well at Chelsea only a few days ago wen’t missing yesterday. I don’t know the reason for this. Some will likely blame Puel, but I don’t know his dressing room style or his coaching methods on the training ground. Maybe some of the players have switched off with essentially nothing to play for. Maybe it was just Hull’s relentless attitude in the first half that didn’t allow us to play. Maybe all these factors and more.

So where do we go from here? I certainly don’t think Puel deserves to be sacked. For a first time Prem manager to all but secure a top 10 finish and get us to a major cup final then get sacked would be fucking harsh in the extreme. Do I think he will progress us as a club? Hmmm, not sure on that one, if there’s one thing that frustrates me more than anything is the lack of intensity and slowness in the majority of our build up play, and | think this is a contributing factor in why we have gotten very little from the top clubs this season (and indeed the park the bus types who frequent St Marys these days). The knock on effect of this is that it can kill the atmosphere dead, I’ve seen too many counter attacking opportunities stop at the half way line and end up back at Forster’s feet, infuriating given what our front players are capable of.

As for next season, again the transfer window is looming upon us, if Virgil and Gabbi stay then there is lots to look forwards to I feel. As GB said in another post, our top league scorer has 6 goals and we are 9th in the league (Llorente 12, Sigurdson 8 at Swansea; Negredo 8 at Boro; Defoe 14 at Sunderland), if Gabbi could be a 15-20 per season striker then think how much of a difference that could make to our league position. On Puel, if he leaves will I shed a tear? Probably not. But I would also like to see some consistency with personnel at the club for once, and I think he’s earned another season, just because I don’t like his slow possesion based play doesn’t mean I want him booted out.

So that’s my tuppence worth. Still 5 games to go, still able to overhaul WBA for 8th. COYR.

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excellent post @gavstar

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Good post Gavstar. Bit more measured and sensible than some of the others in light of yesterday’s performance.

I can’t foresee a situation where VVD is still with us next season. If we can keep Bertrand, Romeu and Gabbi and have a fit Charlie Austin plus a couple of decent additions I’d be delighted.

Of those mentioned I’d be most surprised if Bertrand is here next season. - both Liverpool and Man Utd are crying out for a decent left back.

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Gav is right.

Puel was chucked in the deep end, he didn’t win many points for artistic impression as he plummeted down in unison with Tom Daley, but he survived.

Now he needs a summer to mould HIS squad and prove he can take us further.

To manage a top ten finish with a useless team of _‘inbred cunts’ _and key injuries is alright - not great when you look at missed opportunities like yesterday, but okay.

As for Tadic demanding not to be substituted, no player has missed as many chances and cost us as many points as he has this season.

He needs to shut the fuck up and do his talking on the pitch.

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The problem i have with Tadic demanding not to be substituted, is that since he had that strop and went whining to the media about it, Puel has clearly acceded to his demand. He hasn’t been substituted once since he made the demand, even though his performances certainly merited it. Puel is clearly scared of the repercussions of substituting him. There can be no other explanation. Tadic has been woeful in the last few games, yet stays on whilst other players who are having much better games are taken off. Yesterday Gabbiadini subbed with 30 minutes to go, we get a penalty and who steps up to take it? Tadic, who is a crap penalty taker but obviously feels entitled. Remember at the start of the season when Charlie Austin had to nearly give him a slap to stop him. Yesterdays penalty attempt was woeful, telegraphed, no power in the shot, making it relatively easy for the goalkeeper. The only surprise really is that he didn’t blast it 10 yards over the crossbar, which is his usual MO when presented with an open goal. But the really worrying thing is that Puel appears to be powerless, too weak to ‘manage’ Tadic as he should be managed. Tadic is making a monkey out of him. Time for Puel to either assert himself or go.

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Tadic is up there with Fabrice Fenandes as far as frustrating players go. Talent is clear, but the application of said talent it just too inconsistent. He owes us a consistent run of form.

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Codswallop

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Lack of content duly noted…

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The bits in bold are laughable. You obviously don’t like Tadic (fair enough - he’s inconsistent and made ill advised comments in the press - I happen to think he’s a bit of a twat too - still a decent player though) but what you are suggesting is, quite frankly, ridiculous.

What repercussions might Puel be so scared of that he must play Tadic regardless of form? Serbian mafia?

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Interesting to see Koeman, despite playing at home, has opted to man mark Hazard with Gueye.

I say this in relation to previous comments on this and the Chelsea match thread regarding tactics and respecting opposition danger men.

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Could it be as simple as, Puel giving Tadic the rope to hang himself. Guarantee him 90 minutes for 4 or 5 games(perfect time for it) to let him prove himself, or otherwise.

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By far the most entertaining thing about that game was the Hull fan that tried and failed to gee his crowd up.

I would not have felt good about that game even if Tadic had put the pen away.

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Hey Ronald, how’s that whole man-marking tactical masterplan going you smug twat??

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Purposely avoided posting on this thread yesterday, I was so gutted about our performance and couldn’t find much positive to say. I’m better now and Gavs post earlier pretty much echo’s my thoughts on things.

Some observations post game:

1 … If VVD goes this summer (which seems inevitable), Harry McGuire would be a great replacement. He looks a very good player with loads of potential … he was a real leader for Hull yesterday.

2 … What exactly does Eric Black do other than speak french ?? Whenever you see shots of the coaching staff during a game, Puel will be talking to him and he just sits there silently, with a demeanour that makes Fraser Forster seem quite vibrant. Can’t remember seeing him up at the touchline geeing his players on which surely is a big part of his job. I can only imagine what he’s like in the dressing room at HT. Makes you wonder if he’s the reason the team look lethargic at times. Get rid, I say and bring in a hands on Sammy Lee type to assist Puel and connect with the players.

3 … Why doesn’t Jorde Classie get used more ? He came in for the one game the other week, scored the winner and hasn’t got a look in since. I understand we’ve got a glut of midfielders but should imagine he’d be a bit pissed off. You’re always hearing players have to be patient and take their chances when they come. I’d say he did that. It’s not as if our midfield have been great lately. He’s improved a lot this season, he puts a shift in and his distribution is excellent … oh and he scores for fun :lou_wink_2:

4 … I think Tadic and Saints partnership has run it’s course. He’s dead rubber for us lately and a move and a fresh chapter, would do him the world of good.

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