Puel

[Babylon]

9 hours ago, Donut said:

Evolution in style for the better.

 

Not to take anything away from the title win but being dominated in games and continually trying to pinch results is unsustainable if we want to be a serious club.

That's the thing, did anyone actually enjoy much the last quarter of a season in terms of how we were playing? We were often scraping through games by the skin of our teeth, relying on taking the odd great chance and having the oppo miss theirs. 

[CosbehFox]

4 minutes ago, Babylon said:

Against weaker teams we're going to have more of the ball naturally now. You look at the Huddersfield game, they had almost no intention of trying to attack us in numbers, sat deep, passed the ball around the back when they had it and would happily have walked away with a 0-0, we were never going to be able to counter them if they didn't want to attack. It's exactly that type of game that we need to learn to deal with. It was only thanks to Mahrez genius that they had to show a modicum of ambition, which we exploited ruthlessly.

 

Us being better on the ball is a step to dealing with those teams in a more efficient manner. I'd rather us have 70% of the ball and the onus be on us doing something with it. Than us having to rely on giving them 70% of the ball and hoping they can't do anything with it.

The notable thing about Huddersfield was that we played up the pitch. Therefore if Huddersfield won the 2nd ball or their striker won the header, they were so far away from goal it was worthless. 

 

Just to add I didn't bother going Chelsea as I was sick to death of watching us put everyone behind the ball and try to counter attack when we get a part of our 27% possession. Thankfully I was proven wrong. 

[Ric Flair]

11 minutes ago, Babylon said:

That's the thing, did anyone actually enjoy much the last quarter of a season in terms of how we were playing? We were often scraping through games by the skin of our teeth, relying on taking the odd great chance and having the oppo miss theirs. 

Hated it. Could never understand why we couldn't try and mix the two styles of play which finally Puel is trying to do. 

[urban.spaceman]

1 hour ago, Babylon said:

That's the thing, did anyone actually enjoy much the last quarter of a season in terms of how we were playing? We were often scraping through games by the skin of our teeth, relying on taking the odd great chance and having the oppo miss theirs. 

It was very difficult to watch partly because it was a risky way to play, even though we knew we were good enough to play that way. The pressure and importance of every match was the most unbearable aspect of that time though. That's why the the relief and celebrations were so immense.

 

Kinda miss it!

[Babylon]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

Hated it. Could never understand why we couldn't try and mix the two styles of play which finally Puel is trying to do. 

The trick is not going too far, we did so well under Ranieri because we have the mix of gung ho attitude that kept us up, mixed with a bit more of his Italian defensive style. But the more things went on the more and more we went towards the defensive and I think that was his undoing. We were so negative and boring at the end.

 

At the moment we seem to have a nice mix again, keeping it and refining it for the better is the the hard part. Puel's attitude on Saturday says to me he might get it right, saying you're going to attack and actually doing are two different things. We've heard the "we'll give it a go' stuff before and say with 11 men behind the ball for 90 minutes.

[Babylon]

1 minute ago, urban.spaceman said:

It was very difficult to watch partly because it was a risky way to play, even though we knew we were good enough to play that way. The pressure and importance of every match was the most unbearable aspect of that time though. That's why the the relief and celebrations were so immense.

 

Kinda miss it!

Yeah I miss the pressure in a weird way, horrible at the time but when it's not there you definitely miss it. It's like crack.... bad for you, but a bit moreish.

[fuchsntf]

3 hours ago, Foxhateram said:

Hahaha I've been ripped apart here 

 

I would like to clarify that I am not dismissing the evolution (?) We're glong through. In fact I think it will gain us success. I just want us to ensure that we continue with a balance of the old with the new. I don't want to see long spells of tippy tappy football that just keeps possession rather than creating chances. For a majority of the Chelsea game, we got it right.

 

But against wesker teams, playing it around at the back will just see them park the bus and we will struggle to find space for Vardy and Mahrez. That's where we have to allow the opposition more possession in order to hit them quickly while the space is still available. 

 

I know we haven't played well for 2 years. I get that, but as stated previously, we seemed to ditch what we did in 15/16 immediately the following season. Tried to be possession based, sat back more, stopped pressing high up the ptich, fluffed it up, lost our way and became a hoofball team. From which we bumbled around not really knowing how to play. 

 

Puel seems switched on, he seems like he has a plan. And I look forward to seeing how this all turns out. I just don't want to lose that exciting counter attacking football. It's just too tasty to lose. 

If You can dream - and not make your dreams Your master

If you Think - and not make thoughts your aim

If you can meet with triumph and dissaster

And treat those imposters the same;

 

Your's is the Earth and everything that's in it

And - which is more - You'll be a man , my son..

 

No probs, I Just  cancelled your planned therapy....

 

 

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

It’s great to see us stringing passes together, keeping the ball but still creating chances, I’ve always felt the percentage possession stat a waste of time, it’s what you do with any possession you have is what’s important, we seem to be getting the balance right under Puel.

[Max Wall]

Without the benefit of hindsight, I was not unhappy with his appointment and posted at the time that his career as a player and manager in France had been impressive, His only 'blip' (according to some) was Southampton where his incredible failure of leading a tiny club to 7th and a cup final seems to have been overplayed by many.

 

So far, you have to be impressed with what he's done. It's easy to forget how dire things were under CS towards the end and Claude has come in, stabilised us and is slowly introducing his own vision and playing ideas. I, for one, don't give a toss if he gives nothing away in interviews, it's time for some quiet building and the last thing we needed was an overly verbal Klopp/Conte style manager on the sidelines.

We're not a massive club and there will be good results mixed with bad. I sincerely hope he is given time and patience by the majority.

[Ric Flair]

How long can Puel's reputation of throwing academy players in to the first team last without actually doing it? This isn't a dig at him not doing so as we are 8th and in touching distance still of Europe but given our U23's are flying this season he's given one current academy player an appearance for around 8 minutes so far. I was expecting the likes of Hughes and Thomas to have perhaps had a few sub appearances too. Barnes has just come back and will be interesting to see how he uses him.

[Gerard]

12 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

How long can Puel's reputation of throwing academy players in to the first team last without actually doing it? This isn't a dig at him not doing so as we are 8th and in touching distance still of Europe but given our U23's are flying this season he's given one current academy player an appearance for around 8 minutes so far. I was expecting the likes of Hughes and Thomas to have perhaps had a few sub appearances too. Barnes has just come back and will be interesting to see how he uses him.

 

Who do you suggest he throws in?

 

Who are the stand out players in our U23's? Possibly Barnes, Thomas, Choudhury and Hughes I would guess without ever watching them play. Barnes and Choudhury have had some first team minutes and Thomas has made the bench. 

 

They need to be in on merit though and we have some real quality they have to get through. For someone like Choudhury to get game time he still has to get past King, Iborra, James, Silva and Ndidi.

[Stadt]

I’d like to see younger players get minutes too but Hughes isn’t going to get in ahead of Dragovic, Maguire and Morgan. Realistically he’s challenging Benny for minutes and he hardly plays as it is.

[Babylon]

21 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

How long can Puel's reputation of throwing academy players in to the first team last without actually doing it?

He chucked Gray and Chillwell in pretty early on, it was only when he didn't really perform and MA got back to his usual self that he dropped back out.

 

I'm sure he's more than happy to give young players a chance if they show potential to be good enough. But, like all the other managers they need to be good enough in the first place. I don't get people chomping at the bit to chuck average kids in the team. Barnes and Choudrey look so out of their depth it was laughable in their two appearances.

 

No point pointing to the Under 23s this season, we had exactly the same about three years ago. We have one of the oldest under 23 teams around, our players are often bigger, more experienced and stronger than those they are playing, who are quite often 18 and under. Nothing came of most of those lads because they couldn't bully your average league player, as will happen with most of these lads.

[Vlad the Fox]

Passion

[FoxFossil]

4 hours ago, Babylon said:

That's the thing, did anyone actually enjoy much the last quarter of a season in terms of how we were playing? We were often scraping through games by the skin of our teeth, relying on taking the odd great chance and having the oppo miss theirs. 

Nightmare, heart attack stuff. Now I just sit back and drink champagne.

[Koke]

I remember last season Southampton came to our place  (under Puel ironically) and just passed us to death. We were reigning champions and we were hanging on for a 0-0 against Southampton, with 34% possession. At home. We went away to Boro and put 11 men behind the ball. Boro were abysmal. Why on earth would we not take initiative and pin them in their own half instead of playing for a 0-0? 

 

I got so bored of watching us relinquish 70% possession to the opposition and sit deep, and when we got the ball we had 1 plan. We became so one dimensional it was painful.

[Donut]

18 minutes ago, Vlad the Fox said:

Passion

Studious passion

 

Jurgen Klopp fist pumps throw ins, demeans interviewers and looks like he woke up in a biffa bin on the sideline.

[ARM1968]

15 minutes ago, FoxFossil said:

Nightmare, heart attack stuff. Now I just sit back and drink champagne.

Dangerous though. I nearly choked on a prawn and had to send my caviar back. Wasn’t expensive enough. 

[Vlad the Fox]

4 minutes ago, Donut said:

Studious passion

 

Jurgen Klopp fist pumps throw ins, demeans interviewers and looks like he woke up in a biffa bin on the sideline.

you make Klopp sound like a ranting drunk.  

[Fox92]

18 minutes ago, Koke said:

I remember last season Southampton came to our place  (under Puel ironically) and just passed us to death. We were reigning champions and we were hanging on for a 0-0 against Southampton, with 34% possession. At home. We went away to Boro and put 11 men behind the ball. Boro were abysmal. Why on earth would we not take initiative and pin them in their own half instead of playing for a 0-0? 

 

I got so bored of watching us relinquish 70% possession to the opposition and sit deep, and when we got the ball we had 1 plan. We became so one dimensional it was painful.

Southampton were way better than us that day and I recall Austin hitting the post. In fact, they battered us both games really but actually converted chances at St Mary's.

 

Football isn't complicated. As long as we've got the ball the opposition can't score. I'd soon rather watch us knock it around and slow the game than just kick it long hoping Vardy will get onto it. I love watching us now - we looked so comfortable and confident on the ball on Saturday at Chelsea.

Edited 15 January 2018 by Fox92

[ARM1968]

Klopp is a top bloke. The Kop like top. Wouldn’t want to see either in a crop top or face the drop. 

[Fox92]

30 minutes ago, Vlad the Fox said:

Passion

I remember watching the second leg of the league cup semi final last season on tv and Puel running out the dugout and down the touchline a bit at Anfield as Long scored.

Edited 15 January 2018 by Fox92

[Bluetintedspecs]

3 hours ago, Babylon said:

Yeah I miss the pressure in a weird way, horrible at the time but when it's not there you definitely miss it. It's like crack.... bad for you, but a bit moreish.

I 

[CosbehFox]

There's a huge irony to Southampton fans moaning about Puel's lack of passion. Their current manager sounded like he'd just missed a bus after one of the worst footballing decisions in umpteen years had been given against him and his team on Saturday. 

[Ric Flair]

2 hours ago, Gerard said:

 

Who do you suggest he throws in?

 

Who are the stand out players in our U23's? Possibly Barnes, Thomas, Choudhury and Hughes I would guess without ever watching them play. Barnes and Choudhury have had some first team minutes and Thomas has made the bench. 

 

They need to be in on merit though and we have some real quality they have to get through. For someone like Choudhury to get game time he still has to get past King, Iborra, James, Silva and Ndidi.

I'm not suggesting he throws any of them in right now, except perhaps look at Sam Hughes as cover for Maguire and Dragovic. I was merely surprised to see so few involved given his reputation. It's possible they aren't anywhere near ready, we are currently the one of the top 6-8 teams in the league comfortably and plucking kids out the academy to instantly be at that level is difficult.

 

 

2 hours ago, Babylon said:

He chucked Gray and Chillwell in pretty early on, it was only when he didn't really perform and MA got back to his usual self that he dropped back out.

 

I'm sure he's more than happy to give young players a chance if they show potential to be good enough. But, like all the other managers they need to be good enough in the first place. I don't get people chomping at the bit to chuck average kids in the team. Barnes and Choudrey look so out of their depth it was laughable in their two appearances.

 

No point pointing to the Under 23s this season, we had exactly the same about three years ago. We have one of the oldest under 23 teams around, our players are often bigger, more experienced and stronger than those they are playing, who are quite often 18 and under. Nothing came of most of those lads because they couldn't bully your average league player, as will happen with most of these lads.

I'd go along with that, but the difference from their struggles last season seems to be huge and the two obvious reasons are Hughes and Thomas. I don't see Thomas getting much of a sniff with the abundance of talent we have in the attacking midfield areas but I'm surprised Hughes didn't feature vs Fleetwood as we're down to the bare bones defensively and he's been very good when I've seen him and not just at scoring goals. Barnes will get a few chances I think and he has to take them, he was abysmal in the FA Cup and although all of them were, you don't get many chances to break in to a top flight team. Puel does seem to rate him though and rightly so given everything he's done in the last year.