Puel 'Facing the sack' - reports

[Dahnsouff]

1 minute ago, chapero82 said:

Nothing more to really say though? The last 100+ pages would answer that question for you.. so your head must be in the sand  

Out of curiousity - what was your expectation for this season?

[Bazly]

If you looked at yesterday's starting lineup then it was always likely to be a goal struggle. Albrighton was the most dangerous man on the pitch in the starting 11. There are so many players who are just not good enough to play at EPL level which is clearly evident when they get beaten quite comfortably by a league 2 side. Why James even gets near to the dressing room is a mystery almost beyond any kind of understanding. Why we spent £25mn on Natcho man is a mystery that must have Citeh sniggering, he is no half Mahrez. Then Ghezzal, another £12mn that's gone wasted. It seem we maybe get one decent player for every 4 signed, the other three being complete dog shite, which when we are now spending big money compared to what we are used to spending shows how much we don't know how to spend big money.

 

The club has big issues that go beyond just Puel, his selections just highlight how we are just one or two players from heading back to the Championship.

[chapero82]

4 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Out of curiousity - what was your expectation for this season?

My expectation was to perform better than last season buts it’s still the same boring football from last year, with the same mistakes e.g Man City in the cup! I would have taken 9-12th if we played with passion and actually went for it in the cups unfortunately we only turn up against the big teams! 

 

 

[RonnieTodger]

He doesn't help himself does he? Fleetwood nearly turned us over, but in fairness to Puel, the team last night was stronger than the one that went to Fleetwood. Then he played a similar team to last night and we won 5-1 at Peterborough. The players have let him down massively and there's a good 5 or 6 that were involved last night that I never want to see play for us again. In all the Pre-Match threads, we were posting similar line-ups (some even weaker) to the one we saw last night. That team should be good enough to beat Newport and I don't think too many were pissed off when they saw it initially. His major error was not including our best players on the bench.

 

Vardy, Chilwell and Maguire not involved, Ricardo not used. We only had Maddison to bail us out last night, and that's inexcusable.

 

On balance, I wouldn't sack him now. Puel isn't the first, and he certainly won't be the last manager to change most of his team in a cup game. As much as I hate rotation when we don't have a game for another 6 days, what do we achieve by sacking him before the end of the season? There's nothing to rescue, we're not in any danger.

 

More importantly, we need to bring in players.

[Dahnsouff]

5 minutes ago, chapero82 said:

My expectation was to perform better than last season buts it’s still the same boring football from last year, with the same mistakes e.g Man City in the cup! I would have taken 9-12th if we played with passion and actually went for it in the cups unfortunately we only turn up against the big teams! 

 

 

Fair enough. Bit different than mine!

I expected to a) stay up, b) progress the squad (difficult and painful), and then ideally progress the tactics

So far ok, admittedlty the passion is less than it was, but this was expected too me

Different stroke, different folks I guess but still 

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

Just watching the run through of the 2001-02season on Sky a  reminder that things can be a lot worse than they are! Akinbyi having a mare against Liverpool ??

[ROB-THE-BLUE]

2 minutes ago, Mark 'expert' Lawrenson said:

Just watching the run through of the 2001-02season on Sky a  reminder that things can be a lot worse than they are! Akinbyi having a mare against Liverpool ??

Scored more goals than Iheanacho though, worked a lot harder too. 

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

Its all a bit dull now.  Just need to push for the best league position we can and enjoy hopefully finishing 7th

 

I think everyone is sick of seeing our midfield make little to no passes forward and its general lack of creativity at home, and also our lack of striking options - this is just a fact for the rest of the season, unless we buy in Jan

 

If we go into next season playing the same way I will join all outers on Arsenal Fan TV and bring my own Puel Out banner, hopefully with some great anti-French bantz on it

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

Just now, ROB-THE-BLUE said:

Scored more goals than Iheanacho though, worked a lot harder too. 

Not disputing that! I was on the Liverpool game whilst typing  the only reason I mentioned Akinbiyi

[Tuna]

It wouldn't surprise me if as a football club we've already made a decision on Claude and are waiting until the end of the season to replace him where their preferred candidate is available.

 

I think our business in this window may be interesting; we need reinforcements, we need more quality and players that fit his philosophy. Claude is doing a rebuilding and clear-out job and although we seem to be getting rid of a few, there are no rumours of anyone coming in which obviously means nothing but it wouldn't surprise me if we went through the transfer window without signing anyone. If we are intending to replace the manager, why allow him to make any new signings that any new manager may not want? 

 

I'm not saying this is what I would do, but I would not be surprised if this is the situation. We'll see.

[coolhandfox]

50 minutes ago, Dames said:

Agree with this. The way he does this comes across as arrogance and you can see why it would grate on some people.

 

Silva and Iborra are still on our books and are being paid a huge sum to sit around and do nothing - they should have been given minutes yesterday way more so than Matty James who needs to spend the rest of the season in the u23s building fitness. There was no way Matty James was ready for yesterday and Puel showed absolute contempt for our supporters and our opposition for selecting him. Its a bizarre indefensible selection especially knowing you are going to use 1 of 3 subs at one point to take him off as he won't last and who does he bring on? Andy King who hasn't had a kick for a year.. Its poor, poor management especially when chasing the game.

 

As for the rest - Okazaki should not be starting at all for us any more. Its clear as day he's passed it, he's been a great servant in our most successful period ever but he's not up to scratch. Fuchs has his head in New York already, he's still chasing back now for the cross for the first goal. Albrighton was the player most in need of a rest due to his all action style, you could see he was blowing but he was used from the start instead of Gray, this resulted in an extremely tired and silly mistake that cost us the game.

 

Ghezzal - Nice goal but his first touch is dreadful, he's slow and doesn't do much of anything. Didnt impress against league two opposition (struggled until he scored) and has been hooked early several times this season. How many more chances is he going to squander?

 

The rest of them were pretty much bang average but you could tell they were not up for it. How many more times are we going to say that this season? So many missed opportunities because the players were not up for it against opposition that isn't the top 6.

 

The formation and style of play also need to get in the bin. Setting up to contain teams that are there for the taking and playing patient football is dire. You can tell the players are instructed to stand off, not dive in and be patient, the result is a low intensity bore fest. We should have been pressuring these all across the park but for the first 50 minutes we stood off them when defending and passed the ball sideways or pot shot straight at the keeper when attacking.

 

Puel needs to wake up and make some changes.

The club is looking to move both Iborra and Silva off the books trying to reduce the wage bill and get a much money for them as possible in this window.

 

They are hardly going to risk them picking up a injury and being stuck with them for another 6 months.

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

1 minute ago, Tuna said:

It wouldn't surprise me if as a football club we've already made a decision on Claude and are waiting until the end of the season to replace him where their preferred candidate is available.

 

I think our business in this window may be interesting; we need reinforcements, we need more quality and players that fit his philosophy. Claude is doing a rebuilding and clear-out job and although we seem to be getting rid of a few, there are no rumours of anyone coming in which obviously means nothing but it wouldn't surprise me if we went through the transfer window without signing anyone. If we are intending to replace the manager, why allow him to make any new signings that any new manager may not want? 

 

I'm not saying this is what I would do, but I would not be surprised if this is the situation. We'll see.

mightyfin mentioned that we will bid on a forward this week

[STUHILL]

Well he has fooked us in both competitions we could have had a genuine chance of winning, so he has just the league position to save his job now. 

 

I think 10th may just be enough to save him if no decent replacement is instantly available, but anything under and he is 100% gone no matter what.

 

He really doesn't help himself. Some baffling decisions have again been his undoing, after what was a great christmas period. 

[STUHILL]

3 minutes ago, AlloverthefloorYesNdidi said:

mightyfin mentioned that we will bid on a forward this week

He also mentioned we were close to a big name signing in the summer and Macia '...left weeks ago' (to west ham last summer) ...

 

I wouldn't trust the "ITK's" that much 

[Grebfromgrebland]

3 minutes ago, STUHILL said:

Well he has fooked us in both competitions we could have had a genuine chance of winning, so he has just the league position to save his job now. 

 

I think 10th may just be enough to save him if no decent replacement is instantly available, but anything under and he is 100% gone no matter what.

 

He really doesn't help himself. Some baffling decisions have again been his undoing, after what was a great christmas period. 

Yes because it's his fault our players decided to take crap penalties and Albrighton decided to handball when there was no real danger.

[orangecity23]

11 hours ago, sacreblueits442 said:

... silly question! 

 Why can't we press them! Play at a higher tempo with a higher line. Playing three in midfield does not mean we have to play defensive midfielders. Iborra nor Silva works in this situation , dropping Maddison in with Ndidi and Mendy and squeezing the playing area means he will still be close enough to link with the front and wingers. 

 No one is asking to counter teams that are sitting back, but constantly playing 4-2-3-1, makes us fragmented. The formation has its merits and there must be teams that have success with it. We at present do not suit this formation and I just wish he would take it on board and ditch it for the rest of the season. 

Good points - I would agree that the missing factor we do not really do is probably higher pressing up the pitch, if you compare our play with (URGGGGHH) Tottenham, they are a lot more aggressive when it comes to pressing the opposition in their own half, and, loathe them as much as I do, they are a good example of a team that plays a possession style (often a 4-2-3-1) effectively against weaker teams. With Maguire, Chillwell and Ricardo in the defence, we do have (most of) a back line similar in style to the one the 'orrible Spuds play. Arguably, we are missing a more dynamic central midfielder - Spurs have Dembele, who is good at bursting forwards from the deep lying DM position, while none of our DMs are much inclined to go dribbling forwards to link play.

 

I would point out that against deep defences, Maddison does tend to drop deep anyway - just look at yesterday when he came on, he was hardly hanging around on the last shoulder of defence all the time, he was often dropping deep to link play and start moves anyway, so the difference between 4-2-3-1 with Maddison as a 10 and 4-3-3 with Maddison as a CM could be a bit marginal anyway, depending on how he plays.

 

The high defensive line is something we have tried to implement at various points over the last few seasons, and we've been caught out a lot by it, mainly because of our slow centre backs - we now have pace at full back, but our CBs are still slow and vulnerable to balls played in behind, especially Morgan. It would allow us to put more pressure on when attacking, but until Soyuncu or Benkovic establish themselves as permanent fixtures at the back to provide some extra recovery pace in the middle, then I fear that Puel won't take the chance on it unless we are chasing a game. It's a bit of a high risk, high reward strategy for us - if it enables us to score early more often, we would be able to drop deeper and counter attack later on, and could lead to much better results - alternatively, could lead to us conceding easy goals to balls lobbed behind Morgan and Maguire for pacy forwards to run onto.

[Dames]

9 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

The club is looking to move both Iborra and Silva off the books trying to reduce the wage bill and get a much money for them as possible in this window.

 

They are hardly going to risk them picking up a injury and being stuck with them for another 6 months.

Thats just rumours. As of today they are still on our books and shouldn't be picking up a free wage. They were much better options than Puel went with last night.

[Bob Hazels shorts]

8 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

The club is looking to move both Iborra and Silva off the books trying to reduce the wage bill and get a much money for them as possible in this window.

 

They are hardly going to risk them picking up a injury and being stuck with them for another 6 months.

Ideal shop window opportunity.

 

Doesn't excuse throwing Hamza to the lions and having him along side as two unfit guys with no future at the club

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

4 minutes ago, STUHILL said:

He also mentioned we were close to a big name signing in the summer and Macia '...left weeks ago' (to west ham last summer) ...

 

I wouldn't trust the "ITK's" that much 

I rely on them for hope like a calf suckling eagerly at its mothers teat

[Guest bss9401]

We are shocking in midfield going forward and I am so disappointed that it is not working out for Iborra and Silva. To have any chance of replacements the deals should have been ready to go before this window opened. 

[STUHILL]

7 minutes ago, Grebfromgrebland said:

Yes because it's his fault our players decided to take crap penalties and Albrighton decided to handball when there was no real danger.

To me, that game and result just showed that we would likely have won with a full strength team. Man City were there for the taking that night. Look what we did against them a few days later with our full strength team. An opportunity wasted and for what reason exactly? The team selection by fans and pundits was rightly criticised. Teams like Leicester who will finish between 7th and 12th, should be trying to win the FA cup and Carabao Cup! End of. 

 

...Yes because Albrighton's handball was the ONLY issue with last night's performance and selection against a struggling league 2 team... 

Edited 7 January 2019 by STUHILL

[Bob Hazels shorts]

9 minutes ago, Grebfromgrebland said:

Yes because it's his fault our players decided to take crap penalties and Albrighton decided to handball when there was no real danger.

It is his fault.

 

Shearer practiced penalties every training session therefore scored many.

 

Albrighton was the only player who looked like anything like quality and ran his nuts off. Koko moves him to right back?? Obviously an error by Marc but the guy was shell shocked

Edited 7 January 2019 by Bob Hazels shorts

[Babylon]

4 minutes ago, Dames said:

Thats just rumours. As of today they are still on our books and shouldn't be picking up a free wage. They were much better options than Puel went with last night.

Or perhaps it's fact to the person picking the team and just a rumour to a bloke sat behind a computer.

 

It's this kind of one layered thinking that's so annoying on here. Did you not consider that it's actually true before using it to bash him?

[MC Prussian]

15 minutes ago, AlloverthefloorYesNdidi said:

mightyfin mentioned that we will bid on a forward this week

 

9 minutes ago, STUHILL said:

He also mentioned we were close to a big name signing in the summer and Macia '...left weeks ago' (to west ham last summer) ...

 

I wouldn't trust the "ITK's" that much 

Just to make this clear - no matter how ITK the ITKs are or aren't, they can't foresee a transfer until it has effectively happened.

We may or may not be in talks with a new forward, but he's got to make the decision to sign first. Everything else up until that point is pure speculation and should be taken with a grain of salt.

 

But who am I to try and stop the rumour mill?

[Babylon]

3 minutes ago, STUHILL said:

To me, that game and result just showed that we would likely have won with a full strength team. Man City were there for the taking that night. Look what we did against them a few days later with our full strength team. An opportunity wasted and for what reason exactly? The team selection by fans and pundits was rightly criticised. Teams like Leicester who will finish between 7th and 12th, should be trying to win the FA cup and Carabao Cup! End of. 

 

...Yes because Albrighton's handball was the ONLY issue with last night's performance and selection against a struggling league 2 team... 

Pretty much all teams rested players, this isn't just a Leicester thing. The pundits will slate it as they are sat there attempting to make people interested in watching a load of players not actually good enough for our first team any more.