Puel 'Facing the sack' - reports

[STUHILL]

3 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Cos that season was a season when the so called big 6, at least alot of them were in transition, and the ethos and team ethic  built pre-Claudio was still intact.

In terms of our aims, its pretty obvious Vichai and then Top are hardly going to say any different.

Does not mean we should HOPE for less? Of course not, thats just dumb, but it does not mean that this is now where we are, merely where we would like and hope to return too.

The rebuild and change of style HAD to happen, anything thinking otherwise is just reminiscing and refusing to accept that things have changed both at the club and at competitors.

Yes we had to change and transition and rebuild and adjust etc etc but I still don't get why that means we can't play a strong line up in a cup competition we have the ability to go very far in, when we don't have a game for a week!? 

 

All I hear are these grand excuses about we are 'in transition', we need to 'reign in our expectations', 'Puel is building something'..... Well sorry, but wtf does that have to do with not starting our best players in a cup game when we don't play again for a week?

 

There are no excuses for Puel's two decisions in both cup games, and he should rightly be heavily criticised for both. 

 

You have to wonder what the players are thinking too. How did Vardy feel watching us go out to Man City in the quarter finals when a week later we are convincingly beating them with him in the side. A semi final with Burton and a golden ticket to the final at Wembley could have been our prize. Let's see who Newport get tonight, but yet again we could be wondering 'what if', especially if we continue our inconsistent form under Puel and finish a respectable but dull 9th or 10th in the league.  

[SuperMike]

Thank heaven for Puel! Such a master tactician - such a motivator - such an all round hero. The Messiah has come to Leicester!

His teams' performance at Newport will sit alongside the Sevilla match in the annals of City's cup history. Long live Claude the Wonderful.

[Dahnsouff]

7 minutes ago, STUHILL said:

Yes we had to change and transition and rebuild and adjust etc etc but I still don't get why that means we can't play a strong line up in a cup competition we have the ability to go very far in, when we don't have a game for a week!? 

 

All I hear are these grand excuses about we are 'in transition', we need to 'reign in our expectations', 'Puel is building something'..... Well sorry, but wtf does that have to do with not starting our best players in a cup game when we don't play again for a week?

 

There are no excuses for Puel's two decisions in both cup games, and he should rightly be heavily criticised for both. 

 

You have to wonder what the players are thinking too. How did Vardy feel watching us go out to Man City in the quarter finals when a week later we are convincingly beating them with him in the side. A semi final with Burton and a golden ticket to the final at Wembley could have been our prize. Let's see who Newport get tonight, but yet again we could be wondering 'what if', especially if we continue our inconsistent form under Puel and finish a respectable but dull 9th or 10th in the league.  

Not saying I agree with the team/squad decisions for the cups. Maybe he wishes he could change the selection in hindisght, but it should have been enough, and you are right, the players must view the cups as a missed opportunity. I am not a Puel apologist, but I do think he is damned is he does, and damned is he doesn`t kinda guy, and he has done afew others things right, so personally will cut him some slack until he plays Loft up top and Vardy at right back...

Edited 7 January 2019 by Dahnsouff

[Babylon]

9 minutes ago, STUHILL said:

Yes we had to change and transition and rebuild and adjust etc etc but I still don't get why that means we can't play a strong line up in a cup competition we have the ability to go very far in, when we don't have a game for a week!? 

 

All I hear are these grand excuses about we are 'in transition', we need to 'reign in our expectations', 'Puel is building something'..... Well sorry, but wtf does that have to do with not starting our best players in a cup game when we don't play again for a week?

 

There are no excuses for Puel's two decisions in both cup games, and he should rightly be heavily criticised for both. 

 

You have to wonder what the players are thinking too. How did Vardy feel watching us go out to Man City in the quarter finals when a week later we are convincingly beating them with him in the side. A semi final with Burton and a golden ticket to the final at Wembley could have been our prize. Let's see who Newport get tonight, but yet again we could be wondering 'what if', especially if we continue our inconsistent form under Puel and finish a respectable but dull 9th or 10th in the league.  

You do realise that if we'd beaten someone it doesn't necessarily mean we get the same team as them in the next round don't you?

 

We'd just played 4 games in a 9 day period, it's not so much about resting people for what's coming but resting people because of what's just past.

[coolhandfox]

5 hours 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.

You were saying.........

[STUHILL]

4 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Not saying I agree with the team/squad decisions for the cups. Maybe he wishes he could change the selection in hindisght, but it should have been enough, and you are right, the players must view the cups as a missed opportunity. I am not a Puel apologist, but I do think he is damned is he does, and damned is he doesn`t kinda guy, and he has done afew others things right, so personally will cut him some slack until he plays Loft up top and Vardy at right back...

...with some fans absolutely! Lots of ridiculous bashing of him, even after our impressive Christmas period where he really did get the tactics and selections spot on! (bar dropping Choudary for Cardiff though!) 

 

I do think it was a no brainer to play a strong team last night and for the carabao quarters though and he certainly wouldn't have been damned if he had done that, as it would have showed the fans that he had genuine ambitions to win a cup this year and I think every one of us would have respected and supported that. 

 

It's similar to some of his team selections and changes during a game, they just make no logical sense. There was absolutely no reason to not have Vardy on the bench last night or start James and bring King on. Baffling!!

 

He still gets credit from me for his league form though and deserves to get to the Summer, but decisions like last night and in the carabao certainly won't help him come the end of the season if we do slip down the table. 

[Stadt]

He's not a great manager but realistically in the time period he's had who could have done better? We're 7th in the league, cleared out some deadwood, built a younger squad and we're on the verge of massive, costly infrastructure changes.

 

I'm fed up of our feeble cup record and Puel can shoulder most of the blame for that but int the grand scheme of things he's been important for us becoming more intelligent as a club. The biggest issue we have is creating chances which again I think is largely down to Puel but considering how much we've improved defensively isn't as much of a concern as it could be. We have a middling squad and a middling manager, we're gonna finish 7th-10th, which makes the cup exits doubly frustrating but we're performing about as we should be given our shambolic recruitment over the past 3 years.

[STUHILL]

7 minutes ago, Babylon said:

You do realise that if we'd beaten someone it doesn't necessarily mean we get the same team as them in the next round don't you?

 

We'd just played 4 games in a 9 day period, it's not so much about resting people for what's coming but resting people because of what's just past.

I do yes but it is always interesting to see a potential route whether it had come to fruition or not. 

 

We've had a 5 day rest period. Not much I know after a busy Christmas schedule, yet Maddison and Gray didn't start against Everton and you just know Vardy would have been wanting to come off the bench to bag some goals if he could. We now have a week until our next game and it is part of Puel's job to manage the player's with their training, so they can cope with these busy periods. 

 

But anyway, it is quite clear. I would prefer to have gone full tilt at both these cup competitions in the effort to win some silverware which is in our ability with this team, but Puel (maybe you as well, although you protest not..) would prefer we use these games to rest players so we can hold onto 7th, which we may or may not be able to do anyway! 

 

Maybe I am just a dreamer like you say, but it doesn't feel that far from reality when we beat teams like Chelsea and Man City only a couple of weeks ago and the pundits although you mock, are thinking the exact same thing from the outside!  

[That_Dude]

19 hours ago, inckley fox said:

I don't understand the debate over team selection. The decision to start with Okazaki and James was questionable, and not to have Vardy on the bench equally so (Puel's post-match RL interview was slightly revealing in this respect), but the issue wasn't that side's capacity to beat a League Two side.

 

It's also too easy to say 'Puel can't be blamed for having a lousy squad'. There were five of our PL winners out there, 55m+ worth of signings (and, if you include Maddison, 45m+ of players signed by Puel) and 7 internationals. It was a perfectly credible line-up, way superior in terms of quality, and should have served as proof that our squad has a lot going for it. Which, I maintain, it has. If we can afford to loan out 45-50m in signings, leave Barnes at Brom, Benkovic at Celtic, off-load players of the pedigree of Silva and Iborra, then I'd say our options are better than many other PL clubs'. And that side should have won.

 

Players obviously take a big share of the blame for that, but it's impossible to avoid the fact that we struggle to beat sides of any level - home or away, with any combination of players - when the onus is on us having to find a way to break them down. I appreciate there were missed chances, that our strikers could have bagged 1 or 2 more - and yet we're arguing over whether Leicester did or didn't deserve to scrape a second or third goal against Newport. The bar has to be higher than that. And it's not as if we've been an attacking force in the league either. No matter who we play up front - Gray, Vardy, Okazaki, Iheanacho, Slimani before that - they struggle. Some games we miss chances, others we hardly make any, but either way we struggle for goals.

 

Puel's time in English football suggests a manager whose answers to these problems don't always translate well to our domestic game, and I hope he looks seriously now at some of his fundamental ideas about breaking down more defensive-minded, workmanlike sides. If we don't have the personnel to build effectively and patiently from the back then, after this long in charge, it's time for a rethink.

 

None of that means we should resort to route one, or fire him. We're in a difficult time, chairman-less, in transition, and yet we're 7th in the table after finishing 9th last year (from 14th when Puel took over). Maybe in a few weeks time the picture will be different, but for now we need to avoid rashness - and, crucially, learn from this.

 

And great stuff by Newport. Yes, our players and staff let us down today, but they would have been a nightmare for a lot of good sides.

 

Great, balanced post, epecially after the amount of crap, hysterical comments posted by the usual supects who conveniently disappear when we win, I had to crawl through and one of the few reasons why I keep coming here. 

 

I agree with the fact that the team aligned was more than enough to beat a league 2 side. You can't miss this amount of chances with about 5-6 absolute sitters among them and get away with it. Newport had one good opportunity and put it away. We manage to come back with a screamer from one of the most maligned players on the pitch although he wasn't the worst and then Albrighton, played out of position, had a brain fart, giving them the winning goal.

 

Puel has made two mistakes though.

 

I didn't mind him starting James as Mendy and Ndidi really needed a rest and as we know now Iborra was already sold to Villareal and Silva's also on his way out. But he should have brought either Ndidi or Mendy, just in case. Not Andy King who didn't kick a ball for us since almost a year and is most known now to be Mr Safe. You'd bring on to hold on a lead, not when you're chasing. That's calling for trouble and backfired badly.  However if we learned anything yesterday is how crucial our starting CDM are, as the back four was put under considerable pressure from the beginning and clearly struggled in the first 20 minutes, and how his 4-5-1 massively improved our defense.

 

His second mistake (in hindsight) was to let Ricardo on the bench and playing Albrighton out of position, betting on Gray's pace and ability on the ball. I don't agree with the idea that we lacked pace in the first half, we created more than enough to be out of sight. Yet we didn't and his gamble failed. Albrighton, who has been one of our best players, bar his awful miss in the first half, is prone to make stupid mistakes when played out of position and Gray never failing to destroy any expectation, offered little to nothing. Ricardo would've wrecked havoc against Newport in my opinion.

 

Our problem lies first and foremost in the midfield. As long as we don't get a CM able to pass forward, we will struggle no matter who we have upfront, unless we buy a top quality striker, which I frankly don't see happening in January given the ridiculous prices at this period of the year. 

 

As other said, we have too much dross in this squad. Puel gave them an opportunity to show what they can do and they failed him and us spectacularly. The shit-show they gave us should teach some humility to anyone thinking that we have a great squad.

 

"Should be challenging the Top 6"

 

Lmao

[STUHILL]

7 minutes ago, Stadt said:

He's not a great manager but realistically in the time period he's had who could have done better? We're 7th in the league, cleared out some deadwood, built a younger squad and we're on the verge of massive, costly infrastructure changes.

 

I'm fed up of our feeble cup record and Puel can shoulder most of the blame for that but int the grand scheme of things he's been important for us becoming more intelligent as a club. The biggest issue we have is creating chances which again I think is largely down to Puel but considering how much we've improved defensively isn't as much of a concern as it could be. We have a middling squad and a middling manager, we're gonna finish 7th-10th, which makes the cup exits doubly frustrating but we're performing about as we should be given our shambolic recruitment over the past 3 years.

Great post. He should get credit where it is due with the things you mention but should also not be hidden from criticism when it is also due. Too many people on here sit on either end of the extremes, and those attacking the 'Puel Out' brigade (rightly so mostly...) are just as bad with their constant excuses for the man, when he makes baffling decisions that he really doesn't have to make! 

 

It will be quite telling to see if Puel is giving funds to spend this window. If so, then I hope he continues what I believe is to be one of his main strengths, recruitment. If not, then I think that could give us an insight into Top's thinking come the summer i.e bigger budget for a new manager perhaps...

[Stadt]

2 minutes ago, STUHILL said:

Great post. He should get credit where it is due with the things you mention but should also not be hidden from criticism when it is also due. Too many people on here sit on either end of the extremes, and those attacking the 'Puel Out' brigade (rightly so mostly...) are just as bad with their constant excuses for the man, when he makes baffling decisions that he really doesn't have to make! 

 

It will be quite telling to see if Puel is giving funds to spend this window. If so, then I hope he continues what I believe is to be one of his main strengths, recruitment. If not, then I think that could give us an insight into Top's thinking come the summer i.e bigger budget for a new manager perhaps...

I agree mostly, some definitely want him out no matter what arbitrary hoops he does or doesn't jump through for them. There's a few but less posters that almost blindly defend him, I used to defend him a lot more than I do now but he just doesn't help himself a lot of the time. I disagree about the January funding and transfers though as it's a difficult window to buy in and I think we're no way near cash rich enough to invest significantly at the minute, probably c. £10m, the Iborra fee.

[STUHILL]

2 minutes ago, Stadt said:

I agree mostly, some definitely want him out no matter what arbitrary hoops he does or doesn't jump through for them. There's a few but less posters that almost blindly defend him, I used to defend him a lot more than I do now but he just doesn't help himself a lot of the time. I disagree about the January funding and transfers though as it's a difficult window to buy in and I think we're no way near cash rich enough to invest significantly at the minute, probably c. £10m, the Iborra fee.

He has perhaps been told that he can spend what he is able to bring in with sales. Iborra is a good start. Think it will be a lot harder to sell others though. 

[st albans fox]

58 minutes ago, Always Next Year said:

So Morgan defends puels team selection, must be after yet another years contract, your times up lad you have been a good servant to the club stop while your on top.

 

Considering Wes would have had a big say in it I’m not surprised ! 

 

Just muddying the waters ..... no evidence whatsoever ........

[Monsell1976]

If Rafa doesn’t sign a contract extension, he’s free in the summer, the owners would be wise to be in his ear now, keep puel until summer, less compensation, because he’s probably one of the only managers we could get to take us to the next level, no point sacking puel for the likes of big Sam, or some of the usual names thrown around 

[Ric Flair]

1 hour ago, Dahnsouff said:

Cos that season was a season when the so called big 6, at least alot of them were in transition, and the ethos and team ethic  built pre-Claudio was still intact.

In terms of our aims, its pretty obvious Vichai and then Top are hardly going to say any different.

Does not mean we should HOPE for less? Of course not, thats just dumb, but it does not mean that this is now where we are, merely where we would like and hope to return too.

The rebuild and change of style HAD to happen, anything thinking otherwise is just reminiscing and refusing to accept that things have changed both at the club and at competitors.

We got 81 points, 10 more than any other team. Transition or no transition we won it without a flinch of buckling under pressure. We ripped up all clichés and past history on underdogs, people have and will write books and make films and documentaries on how and why we did what we did but ultimately we did it when very little other teams or individuals have produced what we did over that sustained period of time. It probably is a one off but the fact we somehow did it broke the norm and it means we as a club have the right to not accept normality and stop at nothing in our pursuit to achieve again. The fact the harder we try to compete and the more money we spend, shows we're getting further not nearer from the top 4 is making the task seem impossible and pointless but this is where we are.

[Guest MattP]

1 minute ago, Monsell1976 said:

If Rafa doesn’t sign a contract extension, he’s free in the summer, the owners would be wise to be in his ear now, keep puel until summer, less compensation, because he’s probably one of the only managers we could get to take us to the next level, no point sacking puel for the likes of big Sam, or some of the usual names thrown around 

Our fans will moan about the football under Rafa as well. He's probably more negative than what we have now.

[STUHILL]

2 minutes ago, Monsell1976 said:

If Rafa doesn’t sign a contract extension, he’s free in the summer, the owners would be wise to be in his ear now, keep puel until summer, less compensation, because he’s probably one of the only managers we could get to take us to the next level, no point sacking puel for the likes of big Sam, or some of the usual names thrown around 

Rodgers? I just have a feeling he would be a great fit for us here. Benitez would definitely be a safe pair of hands though. 

[Max Power]

1 minute ago, Monsell1976 said:

If Rafa doesn’t sign a contract extension, he’s free in the summer, the owners would be wise to be in his ear now, keep puel until summer, less compensation, because he’s probably one of the only managers we could get to take us to the next level, no point sacking puel for the likes of big Sam, or some of the usual names thrown around 

Rafa is a rich man's Big Sam. 

 

He's more conservative than Puel, has no time for young players and will sack off the cups as well. Not sure he's the answer to the rabid Puel-outers prayers. 

[Ric Flair]

43 minutes ago, Babylon said:

You do realise that if we'd beaten someone it doesn't necessarily mean we get the same team as them in the next round don't you?

 

We'd just played 4 games in a 9 day period, it's not so much about resting people for what's coming but resting people because of what's just past.

Depends if we're the same ball number as them or not, no idea how the draw works in the Carabao Cup. Its's probably done selecting 4 tins of spaghetti hoops from farm foods on a Wednesday morning at 4am via Skype in Hull.

[AjcW]

2 minutes ago, Monsell1976 said:

If Rafa doesn’t sign a contract extension, he’s free in the summer, the owners would be wise to be in his ear now, keep puel until summer, less compensation, because he’s probably one of the only managers we could get to take us to the next level, no point sacking puel for the likes of big Sam, or some of the usual names thrown around 

I know it's completely unreasonable, and he's a nice bloke.... but I can't stand the thought of the fat bastard in his horrific ill fitting suits looking like he's one roar away from heart failure stomping round our technical area  

[mozartfox]

I am now wondering if Puel is trying to get himself sacked by doing a 'Jose'.  Surely he cannot be enjoying this constant debate about his future going on in the media (and on here).  What's more, Saturday could get really toxic which worries me greatly.

 

In his position, I would certainly be looking for a get out option with as big as pay-out as I could get.   This can only be the only pluasable explanation for yesterday's bizarre car-crash team selection.   

[lifted*fox]

I've said it before, I'll say it again - Rafa is nowhere near the correct fit for this club, for a plethora of easy to see reasons.

 

if you think Rafa is the solution to the 'Puel problem' then your knowledge of football is quite lacking, tbh. 

[Izzy]

3 minutes ago, lifted*fox said:

I've said it before, I'll say it again - Rafa is nowhere near the correct fit for this club, for a plethora of easy to see reasons.

 

if you think Rafa is the solution to the 'Puel problem' then your knowledge of football is quite lacking, tbh. 

Thanks Daz, that means a lot 

[Stadt]

4 minutes ago, mozartfox said:

I am now wondering if Puel is trying to get himself sacked by doing a 'Jose'.  Surely he cannot be enjoying this constant debate about his future going on in the media (and on here).  What's more, Saturday could get really toxic which worries me greatly.

 

In his position, I would certainly be looking for a get out option with as big as pay-out as I could get.   This can only be the only pluasable explanation for yesterday's bizarre car-crash team selection.   

Mourinho completely alienates players though being both a complete **** and constantly criticising them in press conferences. The players at United don't want to play as negatively under him at a club like that. We've got a good defensive record but we're not overtly defensive team - we usually press quite high up and have more of the ball. The main similarity is the attacking coaching, both seem to let the players make their own decisions in the final third which I don't think is suitable nowadays. 

[volpeazzurro]

1 hour ago, Babylon said:

You do realise that if we'd beaten someone it doesn't necessarily mean we get the same team as them in the next round don't you?

 

We'd just played 4 games in a 9 day period, it's not so much about resting people for what's coming but resting people because of what's just past.

Agreed and whilst not our very strongest, it really can't be said that the team selection wasn't strong, it's not as if like some other teams we fielded half a dozen u21s. That team should have been well good enough to beat Newport.