Why is the media so surprised by your good run

[Donut]

I think its worth noting at the time of Puel's appointment there was a little media criticism we had gone for him and not an english manager.

 

So in the eyes of those who thouggt he wasnt as worthy as Dyche for the job, he is overachieving.

 

The reality is his cv shows he is far more equipped to do this job than dyche and if the media could be bothered to look deeper as to WHY the southampton team might have struggled, rsther than just going on numbers without context, theyd realise its not some nobody having a purple patch.

[TeaMen Tom]

Granted I'm somewhat new to the dance here but I haven't really seen anyone suggest that maybe the squad was just too thin last season to handle the CL and the EPL. More than anything this seems to me to be what happened.  They focused on the CL and had a very successful run - but asking for that and a top half finish in the league was probably beyond the overall talent level. 

 

It seemed like a lot of the breakdowns in league matches the first half anyway were the result of lack of focus and fatigue.  But other than maybe Slimani, which other 'bench' players offered anything?  Granted maybe some blame should go to Claudio for that since Gray & Chilwell were on the roster but after the starters and those 3 there wasn't much Premier league talent available to give minutes to.