How can we get a message to Claude?

[Stan]

Maybe Southampton have something to answer for?

 

Don't forget he was within minutes of winning the League Cup last year, but that was not enough to save his job. 

[Foxxed]

Carrier pigeon. Cheer leaders. Tifo. Perhaps just let the man use his own judgement?

 

[Dan]

2 minutes ago, Stan said:

Maybe Southampton have something to answer for?

 

Don't forget he was within minutes of winning the League Cup last year, but that was not enough to save his job. 

I thought this too.

[HighPeakFox]

I empathise with the sentiment behind this thread, but it does rather scream the notion that we somehow think that what we say makes a difference in the larger scheme of things. 

 

Sadly, and understandably, I don't think it's the case. The manager manages the resources the best he can. I don't believe he's picking a losing team, he's doing his best to use what he currently has at his disposal. I suspect Puel would be insulted were the fans to suggest that he's, effectively, giving up the Cups. 

[foxfanazer]

Are we the last football forum in the country to understand squad rotation?

[Captain...]

10 minutes ago, Dan LCFC said:

You know what is ironic? We rested players against Man City and Fleetwood to 'keep them fresh'. What did we get? An extra half hour and penalties against Man City, and an extra game, potentially 120 minutes and penalties against Fleetwood.

 

I'm convinced we got it the wrong way round. Get the game comfortably sorted out and then bring on the squad fillers to get them their game time. They've proven themselves, by and large to be unreliable. 

You could almost forgive it if we had beaten Watford and held on against Liverpool, but keeping the players fresh resulted in 3 winless games.

[HighPeakFox]

8 minutes ago, Captain... said:

keeping the players fresh resulted in 3 winless games.

Correlation is not causation. 

[Captain...]

7 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

I empathise with the sentiment behind this thread, but it does rather scream the notion that we somehow think that what we say makes a difference in the larger scheme of things. 

 

Sadly, and understandably, I don't think it's the case. The manager manages the resources the best he can. I don't believe he's picking a losing team, he's doing his best to use what he currently has at his disposal. I suspect Puel would be insulted were the fans to suggest that he's, effectively, giving up the Cups. 

Well it bloody should, and that's kinda the point, it's not just a message to Claude, but to the owners, the players, the board. We've accepted us not take cup competitions seriously for too long now.

[Guest MattP]

I'm amazed no other manager has tried the Pep Guardiola way, there was no reserve side out over Christmas for him, he played a full team or thereabouts in all four league matches and the FA Cup match against Burnley and didn't make his players train while they were doing it to keep them as fresh as possible - he moaned about it of course but who doesn't.

 

The guy has his team miles clear at the top, still in all the cups and no one wants to at least try and copy his methods.

Edited 9 January 2018 by MattP

[Guest MattP]

15 minutes ago, Dan LCFC said:

You know what is ironic? We rested players against Man City and Fleetwood to 'keep them fresh'. What did we get? An extra half hour and penalties against Man City, and an extra game, potentially 120 minutes and penalties against Fleetwood.

 

I'm convinced we got it the wrong way round. Get the game comfortably sorted out and then bring on the squad fillers to get them their game time. They've proven themselves, by and large to be unreliable. 

Not to mention then 1 point in 9 from the "fresh" players

[Dan]

6 minutes ago, MattP said:

I'm amazed no other manager has tried the Pep Guardiola way, there was no reserve side out over Christmas for him, he played a full team or thereabouts in all four league matches and the FA Cup match against Burnley and didn't make his players train while they were doing it to keep them as fresh as possible - he moaned about it of course but who doesn't.

 

The guy has his team miles clear at the top, still in all the cups and no one wants to at least try and copy his methods.

 

 

 

Man City will win the treble. I'll be very surprised if they don't.

[Captain...]

8 minutes ago, foxfanazer said:

Are we the last football forum in the country to understand squad rotation?

We are a football club that doesn't really understand how to do it. We do have a tendency to alienate players like Benalouane, Ulloa, Musa, Nacho, then expect them to take their chance in the cup competitions, but when they do, they get rewarded by being left out of the match day squad again.

 

If we had proper squad rotation we would have played Dragovic, Amartey, Benalouane in the league rather than Playing Morgan and Simpson until they broke.

 

Puel is starting to get there and hopeful with Silva getting to match fitness we will have rotation in midfield, Silva, Ndidi, Iborra, rotation upfront with Gray, Shinji, Mahrez, Albrighton and Chilwell all getting their chance behind Vardy. But apart from LB our back 5 and lone striker is not rotated and 3 of them are now injured.

 

[SpacedX]

15 minutes ago, Dan LCFC said:

They've completely butchered the FA Cup latter rounds too. Gloss totally taken off the final. Isn't it ridiculous that the FA Cup winners play at Wembley three times in three months.

Completely agree - another reason that the gloss of the final has been tarnished and the big day isn't a big day anymore. All about revenue and paying for the National Stadium - I believe I'm right in saying that 25% of the total gate receipts of the semi-finals used to go directly to the FA - I'd venture it's even higher now, which wouldn't be the case if the venue was a neutral club stadium. 

[ozleicester]

Expecting the same side to play in the replay TBH.

[Fox92]

It needs to go back to how it was - The semi's should be at a big neutral ground ie Villa Park and the final itself should be a 3pm kick off on a Saturday after the season has finished.

 

 

[The Horse's Mouth]

I do wonder whether making a cup final at Southampton and still getting sacked has affected the way he treats the cup competitions 

[coolhandfox]

Let be honest, the side he selected should have been good enough to win that tie, the result was done to the players not the manager.

 

I have more issue with the Man City league cup fixture, where he should have selected a full strength side.

[Fox92]

Tbf to Puel he is still new and needs to asses all players. He gave them a chance against Manchester City (and recently Fleetwood) but nobody impressed. Having said that, I firmly believe we'd have beaten Manchester City had Vardy started.

 

The team that played at Fleetwood will beat Fleetwood at the KP. It's different conditions.

Edited 9 January 2018 by Fox92

[FoxFossil]

19 minutes ago, foxfanazer said:

Are we the last football forum in the country to understand squad rotation?

Fancy foreign football talk.

[ZeGuy]

Puel is taking this cup seriously. 

 

He didn't throw away the game, I simply don't buy that shit. The players he picked up should have been able to beat a League One team. Yeah, ideally we should have dealt with them there but it didn't work out. So what? We'll kill them at the KP, end off.

 

I sincerely don't understand what people are expecting and should take a look at the broader picture, the guy's not here for a couple of months but for a couple of seasons.

 

He has to assess what this team is worth so he can see with whom he can work, how much dead wood he has to offload and prepare his own wish list. That's exactly the purpose of games like this. And if it means some opportunities are lost on the way in the first season, then so be it.

 

Mourinho and Guardiola had two seasons and shit loads of money to tune up their team. Klopp three (and still didn't find the right balance). Yet people here are getting impatient after three months.

 

Have a little faith ffs.

Edited 9 January 2018 by ZeGuy

[1972 Fox]

8 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

It needs to go back to how it was - The semi's should be at a big neutral ground ie Villa Park and the final itself should be a 3pm kick off on a Saturday after the season has finished.

 

 

Totally agree.

 

And the FA wonder why their Cup has been devalued so much? The glory of the FA Cup was dreaming about getting to the final at Wembley (and hopefully winning it), not getting to to the semi-finals for a trip to Wembley. On principal I would seriously consider boycotting the semi-final myself if we did get there.

 

Furthermore if fvcking Tottenham reach the semi-finals they will play it on their 'home' ground!

 

The whole thing makes my blood boil. 

[Wymsey]

Someone can write on a piece of paper, pass onto one of the substitutes and instruct them to give it to Puel.

[Fox92]

2 minutes ago, Wymeswold fox said:

Someone can write on a piece of paper, pass onto one of the substitutes and instruct them to give it to Puel.

Well I sit in SK2 so if I bring it in can everybody agree to pass it left until it reaches the bench?

[Captain...]

16 minutes ago, ZeGuy said:

Puel is taking this cup seriously. 

 

He didn't throw away the game, I simply don't buy that shit. The players he picked up should have been able to deal with a League One team. Yeah, ideally we should have dealt with them there but it didn't work out. So what? We'll kill them at the KP, end off.

 

I sincerely don't understand what people are expecting and should take a look at the broader picture, the guy's not here for a couple of months but for a couple of seasons.

 

He has to assess what this team is worth so he can see with whom he can work, how much dead wood he has to offload and prepare his own wish list. That's exactly the purpose of games like this. And if it means some opportunities are lost on the way in the first season, then so be it.

 

Mourinho and Guardiola had two seasons and shit loads of money to tune up their team. Klopp three (and still didn't find the right balance). Yet people here are getting impatient after three months.

 

Have a little faith ffs.

This is not a criticism of Puel, but I don't think he understands how much fans want to win the FA Cup, maybe he doesn't know it is a trophy we have never won, maybe he doesn't know we hold the record of most FA Cup final appearances without a win. I'm not saying sack the guy, I'm saying how can we let him know, and the board and the owners, that this is important to us, more important than a mid table finish.

 

I disagree that that assessing the players is the exactly the purpose of these games. The purpose is to qualify for the next round. Even if that was the purpose what exactly do we learn about playing Dragovic in front of Jakupovic with Amartey on one side and Benalouane on the other and a midfield 3 comprising of 2 unfit players in front of him against an up for it team on a crap pitch? What could you learn from playing Barnes in that side, at least give him Iborra to feed him, or Ndidi/Albrighton/Okazaki to be the water carriers. If you want to see if a player is up to it, you have to play them with first team players not in a scratch side experimenting with a new formation. If we need to do that so badly organise a behind closed doors friendly. We could have played that instead of this needless replay.

Edited 9 January 2018 by Captain...

[FoxFossil]

Could try French mime.

Edited 9 January 2018 by FoxFossil