Puel’s arrogance (or blindness).

[siraaj_lcfc]

Just now, pmcla26 said:

I just don’t see how after this season he’s going to take us above mid table when we play such boring football, all the teams doing well at the moment play quick attacking football and we just move it side to side with no quality 

We need to mix it up a little. The counter attack worked well against Watford. We do need possession as well, if we played like we did at Man Utd ( which i think was our best game all season), but with a clinical edge, we'll do brilliantly. 

[Max Wall]

Just now, That_Dude said:

lul.

Into a false sense of security?

[Babylon]

3 minutes ago, Ricey said:

Well, the owners have often spoken about European qualification and 6th/7th is feasible. I would deem that success. I deem 9th as underachieving if we are still some way off 6th/7th, especially when you look at some of the other teams that have and will finish around those places.

Their tone changed entirely in the summer though did it not, to one of consolidation, stability and rebuilding the squad. Even if they didn't change their tone, anything more than that on a regular basis is a pipe dream, because we simply do not invest enough to make it a regular thing. The only team above us who don't outspend us is Bournemouth.

 

I can understand complaints about out style and entertainment, but I really think people are going to be annoyed no matter who we have as manager if they are expecting 6th/7th all the time.

[Babylon]

2 minutes ago, pmcla26 said:

I just don’t see how after this season he’s going to take us above mid table when we play such boring football, all the teams doing well at the moment play quick attacking football and we just move it side to side with no quality 

Nobody will take us above midtable other than the odd freak of a season. We're an average team with an average squad, spending vastly less than all of the teams you want us to be.

[siraaj_lcfc]

1 minute ago, Babylon said:

Their tone changed entirely in the summer though did it not, to one of consolidation, stability and rebuilding the squad. Even if they didn't change their tone, anything more than that on a regular basis is a pipe dream, because we simply do not invest enough to make it a regular thing. The only team above us who don't outspend us is Bournemouth.

 

I can understand complaints about out style and entertainment, but I really think people are going to be annoyed no matter who we have as manager if they are expecting 6th/7th all the time.

I mean Bournmouth can't afford to spend. 

[Babylon]

3 minutes ago, siraaj_lcfc said:

I mean Bournmouth can't afford to spend. 

Eh?

[siraaj_lcfc]

Just now, Babylon said:

Eh?

You said Bournemouth aren't overspending. .B'mouth can't afford to spend. Fact. Poor Bvstards.

[OhYesNdidi]

16 minutes ago, Ricey said:

Well, the owners have often spoken about European qualification and 6th/7th is feasible. I would deem that success. I deem 9th as underachieving if we are still some way off 6th/7th, especially when you look at some of the other teams that have and will finish around those places.

Net spend of about £25m last summer. Pretty sure Bournemouth, Everton, wolves all out spent more whilst we lost our best player also. If we want to finish 6th or 7th consistently we need to be spending £120/£150m most summers. 

[siraaj_lcfc]

1 minute ago, OhYesNdidi said:

Net spend of about £25m last summer. Pretty sure Bournemouth, Everton, wolves all out spent us whilst we lost our best player also. 

Apart from Rico and Lerma, can't remember who they bought

[OhYesNdidi]

Just now, siraaj_lcfc said:

Apart from Rico and Lerma, can't remember who they bought

Lerma was about £25m, they signed Brooks for £12~£15m 

[siraaj_lcfc]

Just now, OhYesNdidi said:

Lerma was about £25m, they signed Brooks for £12~£15m 

Still Hardly anything compared to how much other PL clubs spent this year. Clubs like W.Ham, Fulham all went overboard.

[OhYesNdidi]

Just now, siraaj_lcfc said:

Still Hardly anything compared to how much other PL clubs spent this year. Clubs like W.Ham, Fulham all went overboard.

Those clubs aswell, completely forgot about Fulham and West Ham 

[Max Wall]

3 minutes ago, Babylon said:

Their tone changed entirely in the summer though did it not, to one of consolidation, stability and rebuilding the squad. Even if they didn't change their tone, anything more than that on a regular basis is a pipe dream, because we simply do not invest enough to make it a regular thing. The only team above us who don't outspend us is Bournemouth.

 

I can understand complaints about out style and entertainment, but I really think people are going to be annoyed no matter who we have as manager if they are expecting 6th/7th all the time.

There are a few problems with anyone being dissatisfied unless we're 6th/7th all the time. Not least that you usually get at least one team per season over-performing (for whatever reason).  It was us in 2015/16, Burnley last season, Bournemouth this season (so far). 

 

Given that usually happens and add the two Mancs, Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal, 7th (not unreasonably) is the highest spot any pretenders are aiming for at the start of most seasons anyway. It figures therefore, that if you are only happy with 7th place or above, you expect the squad/team to perform to the absolute maximum every season. That, is impossible to sustain.

[Babylon]

Just now, siraaj_lcfc said:

B'mouth can't afford to spend. Fact. Poor Bvstards.

Their net spend is £1m less than us over the last two seasons!

[siraaj_lcfc]

I mean we went a bit nuts as well. We were in top 4. Says quite a lot about our intentions.

[siraaj_lcfc]

W8, Didn't Fulham bring in like 12 loan players or something random like that?

[siraaj_lcfc]

1 minute ago, Babylon said:

Their net spend is £1m less than us over the last two seasons!

Mhmm. Touche. Lets stop talking bout B'mouth.

[Max Wall]

2 minutes ago, pmcla26 said:

Two ends of the spectrum there, West Ham seem to have got it right, Fulham really struggling, shows the impact money can have positive and negative

They're struggling as much as us really, aren't they ?(if people consider 9th struggling, that is) Ok, Anderson seems to be finding his feet but they're not pulling up any trees.

[siraaj_lcfc]

Just now, pmcla26 said:

Is that our net spend tho? If it is fair enough but we had to replace our best player leaving and thats without the budget for the season anyway

We replaced Mahrez with Ghezzal for £10m and spend kinda wildly in other positions. It's gonna be another hectic January and Summer Windows.

[siraaj_lcfc]

1 minute ago, pmcla26 said:

Think they bought 5 players on deadline day or something ?

Absolutely losing their minds. And to think that Shahid Khan wants to buy Wembley. Bruh

[That_Dude]

40 minutes ago, pmcla26 said:

I wouldn’t have mind us losing to spurs at the weekend if we had at least offered some goal threat but there was nothing there, I’m not expecting us to finish about these sides but we never will anyway playing the way we do at the moment 

I swear, I can't fathom what's going through your heads. We lost a key player, most of our new players are settling in and we're still are in top ten despite injuries and suspensions, only failing to score in two games. Yet you want us challenging teams which are head and shoulders above us and play some "nice attacking football" whilst having most of the team composed by bang average players? How deluded are you lot?

 

The hell is that all other teams play nice attacking football? Have you seen Newcastle, Fulham, Cardiff, Burnley, Southampton, Huddersfield, and the like? Have you seen the rags shit show at every single game despite having about half a billion on the pitch and on the bench?

 

Of course everything ain't rosy and there's lot to be improved but what we do get by sacking the manager every season? Don't you understand that the results won't come over night?

 

Get real.

[siraaj_lcfc]

Why do I get the feeling I'm about to get 5 long ass replies? 

Got to get to lesson in 10 minutes as well. Damn

[siraaj_lcfc]

Just now, pmcla26 said:

Have you seen West Ham, Everton, Bournemouth and Watford as well? Pretty sure I can ask for my team to have a go and create chances, ffs we were able to do that in the 14/15 season when we bottom of the league. I’m fed up under Puel watching us roll over against the bigger sides, it never used to be like that since we’ve been back in the prem. I don’t think I ever said we should be beating spurs, but if we had scored another goal and lost 3-1 I’d rather that than a boring 2-0 

Watford are absolute dog shvt rn. Despite a good solid start to the season. Anyway I have to go lesson now. Bye

[Max Wall]

3 minutes ago, siraaj_lcfc said:

Watford are absolute dog shvt rn. Despite a good solid start to the season. Anyway I have to go lesson now. Bye

I love good, reasoned debate. 

[kingfox]

3 hours ago, oadby.fox said:

So would you lose faith in Puel if there isn't any significant improvement come January 2020?

 

I think that most fans agree that the squad could be improved but for me there are still big question marks over the man who's in charge of them, and if he is really a long term solution that meets with our long term aims. Getting the right squad is important and we do need changes, but how will we know when we have the 'right squad', or a squad good enough to criticise Puel and not just the lack of talent? As long as results and performances continue to be lacklustre then there will always be an argument about the squad not being talented enough to play "Puel's style", or good enough to consistently beat the worst teams in the league. I guess that question comes back to how much time is needed for a manager to shape the kind of squad he wants. I'd also be worried about seeing more Diabate/Ghezzal type signings in the future. 

 

As fans we have to try and disambigiuate the faults of the manager from the faults of the players and of the club in general. Puel has had two windows and in this time he has brought in (or overseen the transfers of) Diabate, Maddison, Soyuncu, Benkovic, Ricardo, Ghezzal, Ward and Evans. I think that's about enough to say that he has already had significant involvement with the selection of the current squad. He has also been here for over a year but has yet to find any cogent system for our players to fit into.

 

But for me it's really the bizarre team selections that grind my gears and the tepid attitude that is slowly being embedded into the club's mentality. Having said all this, I really hope he turns it around and can put something of a decent run together at some point this season, it will be unlikely to be until next year though at the very least and so be prepared for more doom and gloom in the weeks to come!

The problem with the squad is that we're stuck in the middle of a transition stage, it's pretty evident that we could do with 2-3 more in attacking areas, when the summer transfer window comes around though we're probably looking at 10+ players leaving. Simpson, Fuchs and Okazaki will all probably leave, Iborra and Silva perhaps too, maybe one or two others of our usual matchday squad.

 

When it comes to us being lacklustre in terms of results and style of play, as I've said many times over the past few days are things actually that bad? Cast your mind back to the end of last season, in many games we were creating fvck all and we were having no shots on target. This season we've scored in the majority of our league games, we're actually creating chances and we're actually having shots on target, end of last season was much worse than it is now.

 

Right now this team isn't good enough to challenge top six, when fans talk of the prospect of that they are deluded. We are on par with the likes of Bournemouth, Everton, West Ham and Watford, nothing more. Like us though they are also teams who lack consistency and have lacklustre results here and there. Everton drew with Newcastle at home on Wednesday for example, Bournemouth got pasted 4-0 away to Burnley a few months ago. 

 

These se types of results are bound to happen but we are ninth in the league, we've scored 21 goals, of the teams around us only Bournemouth and West Ham have scored more.

 

Going back to the squad and his signings, like any other manager that's come before him there's been good and bad. He has made numerous positive signings though in terms of young talented players.

 

He's been forced into quite a few changes recently which doesn't help matters, I think it's been pretty clear that his preferred formation is 4-2-3-1 but he's been forced to experiment here and there due to many injuries.

 

We are inconsistent but so are the likes of Bournemouth, Everton, West Ham and Watford, inconsistency for us and those teams is the norm nowadays and it will probably be the norm for the rest of the season. We have lost six games so far, four of which came to Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs, in three of those games we actually put in a good performance. We have also lost to Bournemouth and Everton, the latter we shot ourselves in the foot with a red card.

 

We aren't as bad as some fans make out, like the teams around us we are nothing more than an inconsistent mid table team right now, we'll get good, we'll also get bad. When we start losing a handful of games to the relegation fodder teams then that's when I'll start questioning Puel.