Time for a Puel in thread.

[LCFC hub]

Stop the rotation, and build a settled side! #lcfc 

https://t.co/xq1PR8ManL

[Clever Fox]

On 08/09/2018 at 08:33, 80's fox said:

Stop the rotation, and build a settled side! #lcfc 

https://t.co/xq1PR8ManL

A couple of excellent articles which pretty much lays it out as to where we are right now.

So what does Puel need to do to take us further. The thing he needs most is time.

The squad is better and doing ok while the new players are finding their feet in the premiership.

I still think we need a bit more steel in midfield, But it can be difficult finding a player with the silky skills coupled with the steel needed to be dominant in a midfield role. There's a young one out there we just need to find him before anyone else.

We also need Vardy to adjust his game to fit our slower build up play while a new striker is a must if only to take the pressure off Barry and Nacho. Nacho may turn out to be that striker but he needs time we don't have presently with having only one goal prolific goal scorer.

There's still 4 or 5 players that needs to be removed from the squad before we can bring in more players. All part of FFL and good governance.

All of this time to evolve. The time Puel needs to develop the team and achieve the settled side mentioned in the articles.

Then and only then will we hit the highs we've become accustomed too. Time when we will have a young settled and experienced side capable of challenging regularly for trophys.

[fuchsntf]

On 10/09/2018 at 09:45, Clever Fox said:

A couple of excellent articles which pretty much lays it out as to where we are right now.

So what does Puel need to do to take us further. The thing he needs most is time.

The squad is better and doing ok while the new players are finding their feet in the premiership.

I still think we need a bit more steel in midfield, But it can be difficult finding a player with the silky skills coupled with the steel needed to be dominant in a midfield role. There's a young one out there we just need to find him before anyone else.

We also need Vardy to adjust his game to fit our slower build up play while a new striker is a must if only to take the pressure off Barry and Nacho. Nacho may turn out to be that striker but he needs time we don't have presently with having only one goal prolific goal scorer.

There's still 4 or 5 players that needs to be removed from the squad before we can bring in more players. All part of FFL and good governance.

All of this time to evolve. The time Puel needs to develop the team and achieve the settled side mentioned in the articles.

Then and only then will we hit the highs we've become accustomed too. Time when we will have a young settled and experienced side capable of challenging regularly for trophys.

Sort of delayed...but nice to see a shot of Puel as Chilwell  came on as a sub...

[Keiriel]

I think we're on the right track. Our younger stars have signed new contracts, which shows us they believe in the project, and with Puel's system, we get a few more years out of Vardy; no more punting the ball 60 yards for him to chase until he inevitably breaks down.

[weller54]

20 minutes ago, Keiriel said:

I think we're on the right track. Our younger stars have signed new contracts, which shows us they believe in the project, and with Puel's system, we get a few more years out of Vardy; no more punting the ball 60 yards for him to chase until he inevitably breaks down.

 

[abdul_fox]

Article on Puel's  work at ogc nice back in 2016, got them 4th place twice in four seasons at the club.

OGC Nice – the alternative football success story

When the 2015/16 Ligue 1 campaign began, there was one particular club that did not harbour any major hopes of success.

Situated on the sunny Côte D’Azur in the south of France, the OGC Nice board had little to offer fans in the way of on-pitch aspirations. Instead, the club renewed its commitment to the long-term project that President Jean Pierre Rivère and manager Claude Puel have so stringently forced through: heavy investment into youth football and club infrastructure.

In that vein therefore, Nice announced a plan to build an improved training and youth centre, whilst President Rivère continued to look discreetly for investors.

Prior to the season’s start, a recent form guide told the Les Aiglons faithful all that they needed to know. The club finished an unremarkable 11th in 2014/15, a campaign where they showed glimpses of coherent, attack-minded football but were far too often let down by a shaky defence and a suspect young goalkeeper in the form of Mouez Hassen.

In the summer transfer window, Nice made moves for what appeared to be, at face value, a mixture of a series of French football fringe players and a host of unknowns from Portugal.

In truth, it is this unlikely collection of individuals coupled with a scintillating style of play implemented by Claude Puel that has installed OGC Nice as the most attractive side to watch in French football this season and has caused the club to over-achieve to such an extent that, with just four games remaining, they occupy a European football qualification slot for the next campaign.

While the complete and astounding positive career u-turn that Hatem Ben Arfa has achieved this season will headline any piece written about OGC Nice’s recent successes, such a move takes the real hero criminally out of the limelight. That man is the club’s manager, Claude Puel.

This season, Puel has once again proved why he is one of the best managers in French football, deploying a stunning high-pressing and lightening-quick counter-attacking game in defence and a technical and rapid possession based game in attack, making ball-playing OGC Nice the most aesthetically pleasing on the eye side in the French top flight.

Wavering between the 3-5-2 and 4-1-2-1-2 formations, OGC Nice’s success this season lies principally with a newfound ability to perform with greater passing and touch accuracy than their opponents across all sectors of the pitch, a reality that simply did not exist in seasons gone by.

This trait is exemplified by the heartbeat of this Nice side, in the central midfield area. The understanding shared by the troika of the Iniesta-like French youth international Vincent Koziello, club captain and defensive midfield general Nampalys Mendy and the incredibly versatile, forward-thinking and hardworking Jean-Michel Seri has allowed Les Aiglons to dominate the midfield during matches in a way nobody imagined before the season began.

After all, while Mendy was undoubtedly the club’s best player last term, Koziello had only played a handful of senior games before the season began and nobody knew what to expect from new arrival Jean Michel Seri (previously of Paços de Ferreira).

The midfield is not the only area in which Nice have dramatically improved this season. Through the loan signing of Valère Germain from bitter local rivals AS Monaco, Nice have found themselves their first reliable goalscorer since Dario Cvitanich in 2013. Germain’s excellent run-making abilities have provided Hatem Ben Arfa (whose excellence and ability to create something out of nothing is well documented) with a perfect partner in attacking crime. Alassane Pléa has shown more glimpses of his undoubted talent, but has struggled with injury over the course of this campaign.

Staying true to his philosophy of finding and developing youth talent and introducing them to the professional game, it is in attack that Claude Puel has been able to express this part of his football ideology to a great extent, with Alexandre Mendy, Paulin Puel, Franck Honorat, Said Benrahma and Antony Ranieri all showing enough promise during a string of cameo appearances that leads us to believe we will see them feature prominently in Ligue 1 in the years to come.

But perhaps the most dramatic improvements have come at the back for OGC Nice this term. The second most unsung hero at the club has to be Yoan Cardinale or “Cardi”, the excellent young goalkeeper who initially came into the starting XI in place of the previous first choice goalkeeper Mouez Hassen because the latter was suspended. But the uncharacteristically shaped, loud and proud understudy seized his opportunity and has never looked back. An assured presence in goal can be a crucial psychological boost for the rest a team and Cardi has certainly had that effect on his team-mates.

Maxime Le Marchand’s arrival from Le Havre and Paul Baysse’s initial loan move from St Étienne (which has since been made permanent) have provided Les Aiglons with a pair of cooler heads than some of the disasters before them (Mathieu Bodmer, Kevin Gomis and Romain Genevois to name a few). While both Baysse and Le Marchand are prone to the odd mistake with the ball at their feet, their excellent positional awareness has been the key to a more structured, less chaotic Nice back four.

In the full back positions, Ricardo Pereira’s two year loan arrival from FC Porto is another masterstroke from the OGC Nice recruitment team. The Portuguese is nippy, plucky and exceptionally gifted technically with either foot. At times he has struggled with the physicality of some of his opponents, but he has in the main successfully combatted this with an unrelenting work-rate.

His partner, Jérémy Pied has undergone a remarkable transformation this season from a right-winger into a right-back, a development that aptly sums up Puel’s shift in approach in terms of the tactical play of his full-backs. Pied himself is an unassuming individual, but he has developed enough of an engine as the season has gone by to simply outplay his opponents in the final 30 minutes of matches. Both full-backs are the only constant sources of width in Puel’s setup and are therefore crucial to the offensive successes this season.

In a formation that operates fundamentally without advanced conventional wide players, it is often in this area of the pitch defensively where a side would be weak. But Nice have circumvented this problem in part due to the tremendous work-rate from their full-backs as well as captain Nampalys Mendy’s ability to slot in as the central, third centre-back when Nice are hit on the counter-attack.

OGC Nice started the season with the 14th largest budget in Ligue 1, and, after a win last night against Reims, with three matches remaining in this campaign, they have earned the right to dream about nabbing a Champions League place.

So, while Leicester will receive a lot of air time and print space in the coming weeks as they most probably win the Premier League title, spare a thought for OGC Nice as the alternative football success story in 2015/16.

While it is difficult to say that their overall, final league position will trump the likely-title-winning achievements of Claudio Ranieri’s men, Nice’s success has been achieved with just as modest a budget as Leicester’s relative to the differing financial situations of both leagues.

However, in contrast to Leicester City, Nice play expansive, attractive, overpowering football and have refused to compromise their style of play in the face of the differing tactical approaches of their Ligue 1 opposition. They have also achieved their success with the youngest team in the division in terms of average age and with more players on youth contracts making appearances this season than any other Ligue 1 outfit.

That is not to diminish Leicester City’s staggering success story, but instead to highlight and elevate an exceptionally raw and phenomenally unique football revolution that has occurred in the Mediterranean over the course of this campaign.

 

http://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2016/ogc-nice-the-alternative-football-success-story/

Edited 13 September 2018 by abdul_fox

[Foxxed]

25 minutes ago, abdul_fox said:

Article on Puel's  work at ogc nice back in 2016, got them 4th place twice in four seasons at the club.

OGC Nice – the alternative football success story

When the 2015/16 Ligue 1 campaign began, there was one particular club that did not harbour any major hopes of success.

Situated on the sunny Côte D’Azur in the south of France, the OGC Nice board had little to offer fans in the way of on-pitch aspirations. Instead, the club renewed its commitment to the long-term project that President Jean Pierre Rivère and manager Claude Puel have so stringently forced through: heavy investment into youth football and club infrastructure.

In that vein therefore, Nice announced a plan to build an improved training and youth centre, whilst President Rivère continued to look discreetly for investors.

Prior to the season’s start, a recent form guide told the Les Aiglons faithful all that they needed to know. The club finished an unremarkable 11th in 2014/15, a campaign where they showed glimpses of coherent, attack-minded football but were far too often let down by a shaky defence and a suspect young goalkeeper in the form of Mouez Hassen.

In the summer transfer window, Nice made moves for what appeared to be, at face value, a mixture of a series of French football fringe players and a host of unknowns from Portugal.

In truth, it is this unlikely collection of individuals coupled with a scintillating style of play implemented by Claude Puel that has installed OGC Nice as the most attractive side to watch in French football this season and has caused the club to over-achieve to such an extent that, with just four games remaining, they occupy a European football qualification slot for the next campaign.

While the complete and astounding positive career u-turn that Hatem Ben Arfa has achieved this season will headline any piece written about OGC Nice’s recent successes, such a move takes the real hero criminally out of the limelight. That man is the club’s manager, Claude Puel.

This season, Puel has once again proved why he is one of the best managers in French football, deploying a stunning high-pressing and lightening-quick counter-attacking game in defence and a technical and rapid possession based game in attack, making ball-playing OGC Nice the most aesthetically pleasing on the eye side in the French top flight.

Wavering between the 3-5-2 and 4-1-2-1-2 formations, OGC Nice’s success this season lies principally with a newfound ability to perform with greater passing and touch accuracy than their opponents across all sectors of the pitch, a reality that simply did not exist in seasons gone by.

This trait is exemplified by the heartbeat of this Nice side, in the central midfield area. The understanding shared by the troika of the Iniesta-like French youth international Vincent Koziello, club captain and defensive midfield general Nampalys Mendy and the incredibly versatile, forward-thinking and hardworking Jean-Michel Seri has allowed Les Aiglons to dominate the midfield during matches in a way nobody imagined before the season began.

After all, while Mendy was undoubtedly the club’s best player last term, Koziello had only played a handful of senior games before the season began and nobody knew what to expect from new arrival Jean Michel Seri (previously of Paços de Ferreira).

The midfield is not the only area in which Nice have dramatically improved this season. Through the loan signing of Valère Germain from bitter local rivals AS Monaco, Nice have found themselves their first reliable goalscorer since Dario Cvitanich in 2013. Germain’s excellent run-making abilities have provided Hatem Ben Arfa (whose excellence and ability to create something out of nothing is well documented) with a perfect partner in attacking crime. Alassane Pléa has shown more glimpses of his undoubted talent, but has struggled with injury over the course of this campaign.

Staying true to his philosophy of finding and developing youth talent and introducing them to the professional game, it is in attack that Claude Puel has been able to express this part of his football ideology to a great extent, with Alexandre Mendy, Paulin Puel, Franck Honorat, Said Benrahma and Antony Ranieri all showing enough promise during a string of cameo appearances that leads us to believe we will see them feature prominently in Ligue 1 in the years to come.

But perhaps the most dramatic improvements have come at the back for OGC Nice this term. The second most unsung hero at the club has to be Yoan Cardinale or “Cardi”, the excellent young goalkeeper who initially came into the starting XI in place of the previous first choice goalkeeper Mouez Hassen because the latter was suspended. But the uncharacteristically shaped, loud and proud understudy seized his opportunity and has never looked back. An assured presence in goal can be a crucial psychological boost for the rest a team and Cardi has certainly had that effect on his team-mates.

Maxime Le Marchand’s arrival from Le Havre and Paul Baysse’s initial loan move from St Étienne (which has since been made permanent) have provided Les Aiglons with a pair of cooler heads than some of the disasters before them (Mathieu Bodmer, Kevin Gomis and Romain Genevois to name a few). While both Baysse and Le Marchand are prone to the odd mistake with the ball at their feet, their excellent positional awareness has been the key to a more structured, less chaotic Nice back four.

In the full back positions, Ricardo Pereira’s two year loan arrival from FC Porto is another masterstroke from the OGC Nice recruitment team. The Portuguese is nippy, plucky and exceptionally gifted technically with either foot. At times he has struggled with the physicality of some of his opponents, but he has in the main successfully combatted this with an unrelenting work-rate.

His partner, Jérémy Pied has undergone a remarkable transformation this season from a right-winger into a right-back, a development that aptly sums up Puel’s shift in approach in terms of the tactical play of his full-backs. Pied himself is an unassuming individual, but he has developed enough of an engine as the season has gone by to simply outplay his opponents in the final 30 minutes of matches. Both full-backs are the only constant sources of width in Puel’s setup and are therefore crucial to the offensive successes this season.

In a formation that operates fundamentally without advanced conventional wide players, it is often in this area of the pitch defensively where a side would be weak. But Nice have circumvented this problem in part due to the tremendous work-rate from their full-backs as well as captain Nampalys Mendy’s ability to slot in as the central, third centre-back when Nice are hit on the counter-attack.

OGC Nice started the season with the 14th largest budget in Ligue 1, and, after a win last night against Reims, with three matches remaining in this campaign, they have earned the right to dream about nabbing a Champions League place.

So, while Leicester will receive a lot of air time and print space in the coming weeks as they most probably win the Premier League title, spare a thought for OGC Nice as the alternative football success story in 2015/16.

While it is difficult to say that their overall, final league position will trump the likely-title-winning achievements of Claudio Ranieri’s men, Nice’s success has been achieved with just as modest a budget as Leicester’s relative to the differing financial situations of both leagues.

However, in contrast to Leicester City, Nice play expansive, attractive, overpowering football and have refused to compromise their style of play in the face of the differing tactical approaches of their Ligue 1 opposition. They have also achieved their success with the youngest team in the division in terms of average age and with more players on youth contracts making appearances this season than any other Ligue 1 outfit.

That is not to diminish Leicester City’s staggering success story, but instead to highlight and elevate an exceptionally raw and phenomenally unique football revolution that has occurred in the Mediterranean over the course of this campaign.

 

http://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2016/ogc-nice-the-alternative-football-success-story/

Jesus Christ. A couple of things really hit home about that article. Top's ambitions for the youth academy and Puel's emphasis on youth development make them the perfect fit for each other. And no wonder Mendy is finding form and fitting in perfectly: he's playing the same tactics as Nice, playing with one of the same players and under the same manager. And the same goes for Richardo. It also explains Puel had such ridiculous faith in Chilwell last season and why his first singing was Richardo. Puel's going nowhere. He is perfectly aligned with Top's ambitions. And Puel's knows what he's doing. He's done it before, he's done it well and he's starting to do it again.

[StriderHiryu]

1 hour ago, abdul_fox said:

Article on Puel's  work at ogc nice back in 2016, got them 4th place twice in four seasons at the club.

OGC Nice – the alternative football success story

http://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2016/ogc-nice-the-alternative-football-success-story/

Wow great post, thank you for sharing! It is very spooky indeed to see how much that lines up with what we have here... not just some of the same players but also the way the team is currently playing. Very interesting to see he rotated betwen 3-5-2 and 4-2-3-1 because many of us think he might dip into that formation later in the year. More impressive is that he's literally replicating the use of young players just like at Nice, we actually already had the youngest average age of any side in the league this season already.

 

Puel might not win any trophies with Leicester, but he's building the future for sure. This seems like a transition year but I've been happy with what I've seen so far and this article gives us a glimpse of what we could hope to see.

[Ric Flair]

10 hours ago, Foxxed said:

Jesus Christ. A couple of things really hit home about that article. Top's ambitions for the youth academy and Puel's emphasis on youth development make them the perfect fit for each other. And no wonder Mendy is finding form and fitting in perfectly: he's playing the same tactics as Nice, playing with one of the same players and under the same manager. And the same goes for Richardo. It also explains Puel had such ridiculous faith in Chilwell last season and why his first singing was Richardo. Puel's going nowhere. He is perfectly aligned with Top's ambitions. And Puel's knows what he's doing. He's done it before, he's done it well and he's starting to do it again.

And yet they make absolutely no change to the academy's staff whom continue to hold us back, I wonder why that is?

[Foxxed]

3 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

And yet they make absolutely no change to the academy's staff whom continue to hold us back, I wonder why that is?

If you're talking about Begalehole maybe Top keeps him on because he's performing well. Begalehole gets a lot of stick on here. And some of it does sound damning if true: phillipak claimed he didn't want Josh Knight before Shakey intervened. But then again he produced Schlupp who was sold for 12 million, produced a new England left back, produced Barnes already a top Championship player looking destined for the Premier League and Hamza could be a name easily added to that list, not to mention Liam Moore who may be on his way back to the Premier League. I know this is off topic but maybe he's still here because he's fairly good or good enough. 

 

It doesn't stop the fact Top saw what Nice achieved with their academy, saw the manager who played a big part in that, a very big part if that article is factual, and decided to employ him and build the same thing here, along with a youth coach who has some pretty good graduates.

[Ric Flair]

9 minutes ago, Foxxed said:

If you're talking about Begalehole maybe Top keeps him on because he's performing well. Begalehole gets a lot of stick on here. And some of it does sound damning if true: phillipak claimed he didn't want Josh Knight before Shakey intervened. But then again he produced Schlupp who was sold for 12 million, produced a new England left back, produced Barnes already a top Championship player looking destined for the Premier League and Hamza could be a name easily added to that list, not to mention Liam Moore who may be on his way back to the Premier League. I know this is off topic but maybe he's still here because he's fairly good or good enough. 

 

It doesn't stop the fact Top saw what Nice achieved with their academy, saw the manager who played a big part in that, a very big part if that article is factual, and decided to employ him and build the same thing here, along with a youth coach who has some pretty good graduates.

Beaglehole has done a decent job over the years but what we're talking about here is a vision of turning us in to one of the best academies in the country and for that to happen with very little restructure to those at the top is baffling. Money is being pumped in at all angles, the best training ground in the country, a stadium expansion, millions and millions in young players, we've tasted success already and now we are regrouping and looking to build a lasting legacy. Is loyalty to those who have been here for the whole journey from league one going to help that or hinder it? It would be frankly incredible for us to have the very best directors and coaches in the academy already, what are the chances of that? Rudkin knows his stuff at that level and forged a decent reputation before moving on to his current role, I sense he still has the power in the academy and his trust in Beaglehole is obvious.

[daddylonglegs]

14 hours ago, abdul_fox said:

Article on Puel's  work at ogc nice back in 2016, got them 4th place twice in four seasons at the club.

OGC Nice – the alternative football success story

When the 2015/16 Ligue 1 campaign began, there was one particular club that did not harbour any major hopes of success.

Situated on the sunny Côte D’Azur in the south of France, the OGC Nice board had little to offer fans in the way of on-pitch aspirations. Instead, the club renewed its commitment to the long-term project that President Jean Pierre Rivère and manager Claude Puel have so stringently forced through: heavy investment into youth football and club infrastructure.

In that vein therefore, Nice announced a plan to build an improved training and youth centre, whilst President Rivère continued to look discreetly for investors.

Prior to the season’s start, a recent form guide told the Les Aiglons faithful all that they needed to know. The club finished an unremarkable 11th in 2014/15, a campaign where they showed glimpses of coherent, attack-minded football but were far too often let down by a shaky defence and a suspect young goalkeeper in the form of Mouez Hassen.

In the summer transfer window, Nice made moves for what appeared to be, at face value, a mixture of a series of French football fringe players and a host of unknowns from Portugal.

In truth, it is this unlikely collection of individuals coupled with a scintillating style of play implemented by Claude Puel that has installed OGC Nice as the most attractive side to watch in French football this season and has caused the club to over-achieve to such an extent that, with just four games remaining, they occupy a European football qualification slot for the next campaign.

While the complete and astounding positive career u-turn that Hatem Ben Arfa has achieved this season will headline any piece written about OGC Nice’s recent successes, such a move takes the real hero criminally out of the limelight. That man is the club’s manager, Claude Puel.

This season, Puel has once again proved why he is one of the best managers in French football, deploying a stunning high-pressing and lightening-quick counter-attacking game in defence and a technical and rapid possession based game in attack, making ball-playing OGC Nice the most aesthetically pleasing on the eye side in the French top flight.

Wavering between the 3-5-2 and 4-1-2-1-2 formations, OGC Nice’s success this season lies principally with a newfound ability to perform with greater passing and touch accuracy than their opponents across all sectors of the pitch, a reality that simply did not exist in seasons gone by.

This trait is exemplified by the heartbeat of this Nice side, in the central midfield area. The understanding shared by the troika of the Iniesta-like French youth international Vincent Koziello, club captain and defensive midfield general Nampalys Mendy and the incredibly versatile, forward-thinking and hardworking Jean-Michel Seri has allowed Les Aiglons to dominate the midfield during matches in a way nobody imagined before the season began.

After all, while Mendy was undoubtedly the club’s best player last term, Koziello had only played a handful of senior games before the season began and nobody knew what to expect from new arrival Jean Michel Seri (previously of Paços de Ferreira).

The midfield is not the only area in which Nice have dramatically improved this season. Through the loan signing of Valère Germain from bitter local rivals AS Monaco, Nice have found themselves their first reliable goalscorer since Dario Cvitanich in 2013. Germain’s excellent run-making abilities have provided Hatem Ben Arfa (whose excellence and ability to create something out of nothing is well documented) with a perfect partner in attacking crime. Alassane Pléa has shown more glimpses of his undoubted talent, but has struggled with injury over the course of this campaign.

Staying true to his philosophy of finding and developing youth talent and introducing them to the professional game, it is in attack that Claude Puel has been able to express this part of his football ideology to a great extent, with Alexandre Mendy, Paulin Puel, Franck Honorat, Said Benrahma and Antony Ranieri all showing enough promise during a string of cameo appearances that leads us to believe we will see them feature prominently in Ligue 1 in the years to come.

But perhaps the most dramatic improvements have come at the back for OGC Nice this term. The second most unsung hero at the club has to be Yoan Cardinale or “Cardi”, the excellent young goalkeeper who initially came into the starting XI in place of the previous first choice goalkeeper Mouez Hassen because the latter was suspended. But the uncharacteristically shaped, loud and proud understudy seized his opportunity and has never looked back. An assured presence in goal can be a crucial psychological boost for the rest a team and Cardi has certainly had that effect on his team-mates.

Maxime Le Marchand’s arrival from Le Havre and Paul Baysse’s initial loan move from St Étienne (which has since been made permanent) have provided Les Aiglons with a pair of cooler heads than some of the disasters before them (Mathieu Bodmer, Kevin Gomis and Romain Genevois to name a few). While both Baysse and Le Marchand are prone to the odd mistake with the ball at their feet, their excellent positional awareness has been the key to a more structured, less chaotic Nice back four.

In the full back positions, Ricardo Pereira’s two year loan arrival from FC Porto is another masterstroke from the OGC Nice recruitment team. The Portuguese is nippy, plucky and exceptionally gifted technically with either foot. At times he has struggled with the physicality of some of his opponents, but he has in the main successfully combatted this with an unrelenting work-rate.

His partner, Jérémy Pied has undergone a remarkable transformation this season from a right-winger into a right-back, a development that aptly sums up Puel’s shift in approach in terms of the tactical play of his full-backs. Pied himself is an unassuming individual, but he has developed enough of an engine as the season has gone by to simply outplay his opponents in the final 30 minutes of matches. Both full-backs are the only constant sources of width in Puel’s setup and are therefore crucial to the offensive successes this season.

In a formation that operates fundamentally without advanced conventional wide players, it is often in this area of the pitch defensively where a side would be weak. But Nice have circumvented this problem in part due to the tremendous work-rate from their full-backs as well as captain Nampalys Mendy’s ability to slot in as the central, third centre-back when Nice are hit on the counter-attack.

OGC Nice started the season with the 14th largest budget in Ligue 1, and, after a win last night against Reims, with three matches remaining in this campaign, they have earned the right to dream about nabbing a Champions League place.

So, while Leicester will receive a lot of air time and print space in the coming weeks as they most probably win the Premier League title, spare a thought for OGC Nice as the alternative football success story in 2015/16.

While it is difficult to say that their overall, final league position will trump the likely-title-winning achievements of Claudio Ranieri’s men, Nice’s success has been achieved with just as modest a budget as Leicester’s relative to the differing financial situations of both leagues.

However, in contrast to Leicester City, Nice play expansive, attractive, overpowering football and have refused to compromise their style of play in the face of the differing tactical approaches of their Ligue 1 opposition. They have also achieved their success with the youngest team in the division in terms of average age and with more players on youth contracts making appearances this season than any other Ligue 1 outfit.

That is not to diminish Leicester City’s staggering success story, but instead to highlight and elevate an exceptionally raw and phenomenally unique football revolution that has occurred in the Mediterranean over the course of this campaign.

 

http://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2016/ogc-nice-the-alternative-football-success-story/

Yeah but they were only successful because the players ignored his tactics and played their own.
 

[gerrytaggart]

Puel is still in....but just the tip now and its starting to feel uncomfortable. 

[STUHILL]

Really poor today and although our team on paper looked good, it was simply the wrong system to get the best out of them.

 

Ricardo and Chilwell are not strong enough defensively to play in a back 4. They have real qualities going forward however.

 

Maguire is a much better player in a back 3.

 

Vardy is far too isolated and easily dealt with up there on his own. He would also benefit from a striking partner.

 

People can moan about me and others being an advocate for a back 3 with wingbacks and two up top, but surely even they cannot argue that the players we have are much more suited to that formation than the current one. 

 

We have a very talented starting 11, but they are just not being used in the right way at the moment. 

 

Interesting to see how Puel now reacts to this result and performance. He can't simply go with the same again. Huge game for him next week! 

[LestaAl]

Puel in - Puel out

 

...all getting a bit tedious now TBH

 

....unfortunately  if results don’t change we know the end point no matter what he is trying to achieve with HIS squad of players

[STUHILL]

Just now, LestaAl said:

Puel in - Puel out

 

...all getting a bit tedious now TBH

 

....unfortunately  if results don’t change we know the end point no matter what he is trying to achieve with HIS squad of players

All managers are trying to achieve success with their players. Doesn't mean they should all be afforded unlimited time and poor results/performances though,

 

I expect our owners to be patient for now, but we must also take into consideration the awful run we had last season with him in charge too. 

 

Think early December will be the earliest they will sack him. 

[SuperMike]

'Puel in' ....? 

FFS

Puel in what?

Puel in a mess?

Puel in a quandary?

Puel in the sh*t?

Puel in the dark?

Puel in line for the sack?

 

2 good performances (but both defeats)

3 appalling performances (very fortunate to get wins v wolves and saints).

Rubbish end to last season (glossed over by win v 10 man Arsenal)

Best squad ever (but they have no pattern, no heart, no direction, no 'qualiteee')

 

PLEASE - SOS - Save our Season:

Get in a proper manager QUICK.

[l444ry]

Possession means very little these days. We know that better than anyone, or at least knew it once. We've become the new "rope a dope" side in the Premiership. And us older ones know how that turned out.

[BenTheFox]

8 minutes ago, SuperMike said:

'Puel in' ....? 

FFS

Puel in what?

Puel in a mess?

Puel in a quandary?

Puel in the sh*t?

Puel in the dark?

Puel in line for the sack?

 

2 good performances (but both defeats)

3 appalling performances (very fortunate to get wins v wolves and saints).

Rubbish end to last season (glossed over by win v 10 man Arsenal)

Best squad ever (but they have no pattern, no heart, no direction, no 'qualiteee')

 

PLEASE - SOS - Save our Season:

Get in a proper manager QUICK.

There's a whole other thread dedicated to suggestions of managers other than Puel. The issue is that reasonable suggestions have been few and far between. 

[SuperMike]

Puel in?

Here's the likely scenario:

 

12 games against London clubs = 0 points (we always lose to London clubs)

2 games against Man. City = 0 points

9 away games = 0 points (been sussed)

 

Means we have to win all 10 remaining home games = 30 points

 

Total points = 36,  = Championship football next season.

 

So, Puel in - if you want to see Rotherham and Bolton down the King Power next year.

[RODNEY FERNIO]

Want him to succeed but his record over the last 26 premier league games , over two thirds of a season, reads :

Played 26 , won 7, drawn 6 , lost 13, points 27 … border line relegation form in reality.

Remember in the title winning season we only lost 3 games … this season we've already lost 3 games from the first 5.

Pretty grim reading.

[Col city fan]

4 minutes ago, RODNEY FERNIO said:

Want him to succeed but his record over the last 26 premier league games , over two thirds of a season, reads :

Played 26 , won 7, drawn 6 , lost 13, points 27 … border line relegation form in reality.

Remember in the title winning season we only lost 3 games … this season we've already lost 3 games from the first 5.

Pretty grim reading.

Interesting post

All the bull shite aside, that’s simply a poor record.

The usual suspects will turn it round and make excuses etc but that actually is simply a poor record.

[lgfualol]

Not convinced we are capable of employing anyone better. More likely we bring in a relegation survival specialist, all the young players are dropped and we are back to lumping it for Vardy to chase.

[FrankieADZ]

24 minutes ago, RODNEY FERNIO said:

Want him to succeed but his record over the last 26 premier league games , over two thirds of a season, reads :

Played 26 , won 7, drawn 6 , lost 13, points 27 … border line relegation form in reality.

Remember in the title winning season we only lost 3 games … this season we've already lost 3 games from the first 5.

Pretty grim reading.

I'm by no means a Puel fan, but getting rid won't help imo, and even then the next manager will getting daggers from some of our fans as they won't like him, and so on and so fourth...likr when we did whenr CR was appointed.... 

 

On a whole side note, since we have won the league, some our of fans think we are more than what we really are, clearly need a reality check. 

[lcfc sheff]

Away from home we need to be far more defensively solid that yesterday, Puel will need to show that or he’ll get the chop. But besides the 4 goals conceded, the major disappointment was that we didn’t win the game ourselves, had enough chances but seems going a few goals down didn’t help our confidence.