Claude Puel calls for a Leicester City reality check

[Foxxed]

45 minutes ago, Legend_in_blue said:

I'm not convinced by this whole "Puel is great at bringing young players through" argument.

 

For me it's a case of he's had to because either any senior pro available in that position he's shunned to one side or alternatively he hasn't brought a replacement in.  If anything the younger players brought in last season such as Ndidi have regressed.  Maddison is also showing signs of underperformance this season.

 

Who exactly in France is he responsible for bringing through?  All I read is Hazard this, Hazard that, and no one else.

Read

 

 

[the messenger]

Very depressing thread.

Soppy lot have all bought Puel’s reality check.

All of you good luck watching dreadful football for the next few seasons, I will not watch another game while Puel is in charge.

[yks]

11 hours ago, Legend_in_blue said:

Who exactly in France is he responsible for bringing through?  All I read is Hazard this, Hazard that, and no one else.

Have you heard about that weird thing of "educating yourself" ?
All the data are available to answer your own question.

I've did it a few months ago and we are talking about 20 superstars/top European clubs starters and dozens and dozens of players established in the 4 top leagues in the world.

 

[Stadt]

5 hours ago, the messenger said:

Very depressing thread.

Soppy lot have all bought Puel’s reality check.

All of you good luck watching dreadful football for the next few seasons, I will not watch another game while Puel is in charge.

See ya 

[MC Prussian]

Boy did that newspaper article help the gaffer, couldn't have had it published at a worse moment in time.

 

Reality check? Claude, you just lost against a lowly Welsh team in the FA Cup and another Welsh team in the league not so long ago, I'd say you have better things to do and other, more important issues to focus on than to give extended interviews.

So you admit there's negativity around the team - maybe you'd like to indulge ourselves as to why that could be? Do you think you play a part in that negativitee, too?

Claude, you don't praise yourself or the team for a 7th place position halfway through the season, it's irrelevant - it's where we stand in May when it counts.

You seriously believe other managers at other clubs aren't subject to scrutiny when things aren't going well? You think you're the only one being critized? Are you wearing a José Mourinho mask here by any chance?

You call for "consistencee" - I don't see any. Our only consistency is our inconsistency. And that's both disappointing and sad at the same time.

You'll be hard-pressed to find many a LCFC supporter demanding instant success or finishing in the Top Six on a regular basis, that's not what it's about.

All we'd like to see is a more positive approach to matches, more passes going forward, not this sideways or backwards crap we're exposed to on a regular basis.

Claude, you may be a great manager and a great man in person - right now, all I see is you sucking the little energy that we've left from the league-winning season out of this club.

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

6 minutes ago, MC Prussian said:

Boy did that newspaper article help the gaffer, couldn't have had it published at a worse moment in time.

 

Reality check? Claude, you just lost against a lowly Welsh team in the FA Cup and another Welsh team in the league not so long ago, I'd say you have better things to do and other, more important issues to focus on than to give extended interviews.

So you admit there's negativity around the team - maybe you'd like to indulge ourselves as to why that could be? Do you think you play a part in that negativitee, too?

Claude, you don't praise yourself or the team for a 7th place position halfway through the season, it's irrelevant - it's where we stand in May when it counts.

You seriously believe other managers at other clubs aren't subject to scrutiny when things aren't going well? You think you're the only one being critized? Are you wearing a José Mourinho mask here by any chance?

You call for "consistencee" - I don't see any. Our only consistency is our inconsistency. And that's both disappointing and sad at the same time.

You'll be hard-pressed to find many a LCFC supporter demanding instant success or finishing in the Top Six on a regular basis, that's not what it's about.

All we'd like to see is a more positive approach to matches, more passes going forward, not this sideways or backwards crap we're exposed to on a regular basis.

Claude, you may be a great manager and a great man in person - right now, all I see is you sucking the little energy that we've left from the league-winning season out of this club.

If we were consistent then he wouldnt need to call for it would he? Ya plumbag

[MC Prussian]

6 minutes ago, AlloverthefloorYesNdidi said:

If we were consistent then he wouldnt need to call for it would he? Ya plumbag

What does that say about his fifteen months in charge then? Claude in stating the obvious shocker.

 

Thanks for the plums, I like fruit.

[yks]

19 minutes ago, MC Prussian said:

You seriously believe other managers at other clubs aren't subject to scrutiny when things aren't going well?

They are.
He is when things are going well.

Edited 14 January 2019 by yks

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

Just now, MC Prussian said:

What does that say about his fifteen months in charge then? Claude in stating the obvious shocker.

 

Thanks for the plums, I like fruit.

That he's playing young players and inconsistency is going to occur maybe?

 

And the Mourinho comparison you made is unfair. Puel has never thrown his players to the lions in press conferences like Jose does

[yks]

1 minute ago, AlloverthefloorYesNdidi said:

And the Mourinho comparison you made is unfair. Puel has never thrown his players to the lions in press conferences like Jose does

Maybe he should at some point.

Like saying something like "Those ****ers can't score more than a goal with 23 shots in a game, you have no idea how it is difficult to maintain the club at this position with so inept attacking players".

[MC Prussian]

5 hours ago, yks said:

They are.
He is when things are going well.

Define "going well" after losing against Cardiff in the league, Newport County in the FA Cup (and against a ten-man Southampton FC, after the interview).

Again, you don't win a medal for being 7th after 21 matches.

 

Let me remind you that we won five out of our last 21 matches last season. Five. A win every four matches. That is relegation form.

We enjoyed our best spell under Puel last season in between late November and mid-December (four wins, one draw).

So far, our best spell this season has been in between late October and early December (two wins, four draws).

Excuse me for not being overly enthusiastic at present.

 

Up next:

 

Wolves (a)

Liverpool (a)

Manchester United (h)

Tottenham Hotspur (a)

 

Honni soit qui mal y pense.

 

Edited 14 January 2019 by MC Prussian

[Dan LCFC]

17 hours ago, shailen said:

This is my issue.

 

I think us fans know that 6th place is ambitious but for the manager to come out and say that is showing a lack of ambition and drive.

 

Look what we did 3 years ago. That wasn't realistic and although it was ridiculously hard we did it in the end.

 

The message that Puel is basically saying is that this is as good as it gets. Well, if that is the case why did you play a weakened team in both cup competitions?

 

It's like telling a young footballer at 16 - you're not good enough to go any further. Morale would drop instantly.

This is my problem as well. It's like we're doing what the media seem to want us (and anyone outside the top six for that matter) to do, stay in our lane and are happy to oblige.

 

It's a negative attitude.

[yks]

47 minutes ago, MC Prussian said:

Define "going well" after losing against Cardiff in the league, Newport County in the FA Cup (and against a ten-man Southampton FC, after the interview).

Again, you don't win a medal for being 7th after 21 matches.

 

Let me remind you that we won five out of our last 21 matches last season. Five. A win every four matches. That is relegation form.

We enjoyed our best spell under Puel last season in between late November and mid-December (four wins, one draw).

So far, our best spell this season has been in between late October and early December (two wins, four losses).

Excuse me for not being overly enthusiastic at present.

 

Up next:

 

Wolves (a)

Liverpool (a)

Manchester United (h)

Tottenham Hotspur (a)

 

Honni soit qui mal y pense.

 

Going well is losing against Cardiff, Newport County and Southampton when we also beat Chelsea, Man City and Everton.
Going well is being 8th in the Premier League after finishing 9th last season (with a start that lead us to be 14th...)


Why you all miserable Puel out crowd always select the numbers you choose (and even often lie about them) to make things look bad and never consider the whole picture, which is :

We are about where we are supposed to be. Midtable in the Premier League a season where the main focus is to develop young players.
Stop whinging and crying and raging for one minute for **** sake.

And above all : let the professsionals work with serenity and don't push for decisions that could compromise the future of the club, if you really are fans.

Edited 14 January 2019 by yks

[john ridley]

33 minutes ago, yks said:

Going well is losing against Cardiff, Newport County and Southampton when we also beat Chelsea, Man City and Everton.
Going well is being 8th in the Premier League after finishing 9th last season (with a start that lead us to be 14th...)


Why you all miserable Puel out crowd always select the numbers you choose (and even often lie about them) to make things look bad and never consider the whole picture, which is :

We are about where we are supposed to be. Midtable in the Premier League a season where the main focus is to develop young players.
Stop whinging and crying and raging for one minute for **** sake.

And above all : let the professsionals work with serenity and don't push for decisions that could compromise the future of the club, if you really are fans.

Let's see where we are after the next 4 matches ,things might not look too bright then.

[somebum]

3 hours ago, yks said:

Going well is losing against Cardiff, Newport County and Southampton when we also beat Chelsea, Man City and Everton.
Going well is being 8th in the Premier League after finishing 9th last season (with a start that lead us to be 14th...)


Why you all miserable Puel out crowd always select the numbers you choose (and even often lie about them) to make things look bad and never consider the whole picture, which is :

We are about where we are supposed to be. Midtable in the Premier League a season where the main focus is to develop young players.
Stop whinging and crying and raging for one minute for **** sake.

And above all : let the professsionals work with serenity and don't push for decisions that could compromise the future of the club, if you really are fans.

I see a lot of emotion and insults but nothing worth actually considering about your post. Nice try though.

[Babylon]

8 hours ago, Dan LCFC said:

This is my problem as well. It's like we're doing what the media seem to want us (and anyone outside the top six for that matter) to do, stay in our lane and are happy to oblige.

 

It's a negative attitude.

Ranieri wanted just one more point that the season before, was that negative? If he sat there and said the target is 6th, people would all slate him and say he failed his own target when we invariably don't finish 6th.

 

The reality is anyone with a brain knows anything higher than 7th either relies on one of the teams above imploding, or another team having a one off not going to be repeated brilliant freak season.

[Babylon]

7 hours ago, john ridley said:

Let's see where we are after the next 4 matches ,things might not look too bright then.

Or we just wait until the end of the season and see where we finished, rather than picking and choosing sets of games to prve one point or another.

[MC Prussian]

8 hours ago, yks said:

Going well is losing against Cardiff, Newport County and Southampton when we also beat Chelsea, Man City and Everton.
Going well is being 8th in the Premier League after finishing 9th last season (with a start that lead us to be 14th...)

Why you all miserable Puel out crowd always select the numbers you choose (and even often lie about them) to make things look bad and never consider the whole picture, which is :

We are about where we are supposed to be. Midtable in the Premier League a season where the main focus is to develop young players.
Stop whinging and crying and raging for one minute for **** sake.

And above all : let the professsionals work with serenity and don't push for decisions that could compromise the future of the club, if you really are fans.

Losing against Cardiff, Newport and Southampton (with ten men) isn't "doing well", if at all, it highlights what a funny and strange mess we are at the moment.

These kind of extremes make ones blood boil - one moment, Puel's a genius (for beating two of the best teams in the country, one of them the current league champions), then he sets out and drops a clanger with home losses against Cardiff and Southampton, plus the cringeworthy "effort" at Newport.

 

The two results against Chelsea and Manchester City are Puel's only saving grace at the moment.

Even the Everton away match was tough to swallow and an absolutely horrible game to watch - luckily enough, Everton were even worse or more complacent than us.

 

It may be just me, but at present, I fear for history repeating itself. There's signs on the wall that we're about to re-live exactly the same happenings as last season, when we managed to win just five times out of the remaining 21 matches. So it's only fair to ask oneself: "What have we learnt from that period and what has the manager taken from it?".

 

Also, it would be nice if you could elaborate a bit what you mean when you say that the fans critical of Puel (which isn't a bad thing per se; personally, I'm skeptical towards happy clappers) "lie about numbers".

 

As for being selective, you're doing exactly the same.

 

We are currently midtable, which in Premier League terms means there's a lot of room looking down and not so much further up. 7th is probably and realistically the absolute best we can hope for.

But that's what we also thought we could achieve last season and look how it ended. We were one loss away from finishing 12th.

 

And yes, being able to compete in the Premier League on a regular basis is a wonderful thing, anything but relegation a success. But at some stage, you need to look forward and build towards the future. And midtable can mean a lot, anywhere between 7th and 17th even. I wish Puel were a bit more open and communicative about his plans - I think part of it still boils down to his rather poor grasp of English. And that dreadful type of football with backwards and sideways passing has got to stop, at least mix it up with attacking intent and play forward, instead of dropping back to putting an emphasis on caution.

[Dan LCFC]

25 minutes ago, Babylon said:

Ranieri wanted just one more point that the season before, was that negative? If he sat there and said the target is 6th, people would all slate him and say he failed his own target when we invariably don't finish 6th.

 

The reality is anyone with a brain knows anything higher than 7th either relies on one of the teams above imploding, or another team having a one off not going to be repeated brilliant freak season.

I don't have a problem with us targeting 7th at all as it will take years of clever recruitment and management to challenge the top six, I have a problem with this down-talking us and making out that Wolves & West Ham aren't clubs we can compete with. I personally see expectations as being quite dynamic - so for example if we came 8th behind a good Everton side I'd say fair enough because we were at least victim to strong opposition but this year? Wolves & West Ham aren't beyond competition for us, and neither are Everton as it happens.

 

I don't dispute a lot of the things Puel said in the interview but I just don't think it paints a very good picture either, to actually come out and say that, our best players are going to be less inclined to stick around reading things like that.

[les-tah]

2 minutes ago, Dan LCFC said:

I don't have a problem with us targeting 7th at all as it will take years of clever recruitment and management to challenge the top six, I have a problem with this down-talking us and making out that Wolves & West Ham aren't clubs we can compete with. I personally see expectations as being quite dynamic - so for example if we came 8th behind a good Everton side I'd say fair enough because we were at least victim to strong opposition but this year? Wolves & West Ham aren't beyond competition for us, and neither are Everton as it happens.

 

I don't dispute a lot of the things Puel said in the interview but I just don't think it paints a very good picture either, to actually come out and say that, our best players are going to be less inclined to stick around reading things like that.

i agree with this. I have been very realistic and been Puel in for now based on us being 7th but this comment has left  a very very bad taste in my mouth. not quite sure what context it was meant in but how the hell can we not compete with Wolves and West Ham. 

Edited 14 January 2019 by les-tah

[Babylon]

1 minute ago, Dan LCFC said:

I don't have a problem with us targeting 7th at all as it will take years of clever recruitment and management to challenge the top six, I have a problem with this down-talking us and making out that Wolves & West Ham aren't clubs we can compete with. I personally see expectations as being quite dynamic - so for example if we came 8th behind a good Everton side I'd say fair enough because we were at least victim to strong opposition but this year? Wolves & West Ham aren't beyond competition for us, and neither are Everton as it happens.

 

I don't dispute a lot of the things Puel said in the interview but I just don't think it paints a very good picture either, to actually come out and say that, our best players are going to be less inclined to stick around reading things like that.

But he's talking about money though is he not? We might have spent money, but we've had to sell to buy since he's been here. Look at the net spend figures, Stoke, Forest, Hudderfield have a bigger net spend. If he's been told there is no budget and that you'd got to sell to buy, then he's within his rights to say it's hard to compete.

 

[Dan LCFC]

1 minute ago, Babylon said:

But he's talking about money though is he not? We might have spent money, but we've had to sell to buy since he's been here. Look at the net spend figures, Stoke, Forest, Hudderfield have a bigger net spend. If he's been told there is no budget and that you'd got to sell to buy, then he's within his rights to say it's hard to compete.

 

What time period is that based over?

[MC Prussian]

9 hours ago, AlloverthefloorYesNdidi said:

That he's playing young players and inconsistency is going to occur maybe?

 

And the Mourinho comparison you made is unfair. Puel has never thrown his players to the lions in press conferences like Jose does

The Mourinho comparison I made because of Puel's publicly stating in last week's piece that

Quote

“I accept this but all the time after a bad result there is pressure, and other teams with more money and more possibilities behind us don’t have noise, speculation or other things. They can work with calm, without a problem.

Which is a total lie.

To me, Puel paints himself as a victim (of circumstance), so goes into passive-aggressive mode. "They" are responsible, not "me".

 

Featuring more younger players is a great thing, but you need to balance it out with more experienced footballers also. Then Puel goes on and drops both Silva and Iborra and still thinks we'll be better off by not signing any more experienced players (in midfield in particular) that can't help the team improve (in terms of possession, creating chances and creativity - Maddison alone can't do it all on his own). And the 4-2-3-1 to me is a dreadful idea, it doesn't work when Vardy is being isolated up front, with little to no service from midfield.

[Guest]

Irrespective of his performance as manager I think he's absolutely spot on with regards to the reality check. It may even be subconscious for some but the title win has massively distorted our perceptions of what our club is and what it should be achieving. It didn't suddenly transform us into a trophy-chasing top 6 team - maybe we had the chance to do that with the extra money and allure of the Champions League, but we didn't take it. We're a mid-table club in almost every way - acknowledging this isn't a failure of ambition, it's the reality.

 

I was thinking about this the other day - what is it exactly, if not the title win, that makes people believe we're entitled to be finishing above the likes of West Ham, Watford and Everton? Our squad isn't markedly better, our stadium and facilities aren't any grander, our financial capabilities don't really dwarf theirs. There seems to be a perception that 7th is rightfully ours and to finish lower is unacceptable - why? Do you think fans of those clubs think the same? 

 

I'm not saying we should accept mediocrity forever and be content with finishing 8th-12th every season for all eternity. I want to see us progress and show ambition to better ourselves, to achieve things more than just treading water, but that ambition needs to be tempered with realism. 

[Babylon]

3 minutes ago, les-tah said:

i agree with this. I have been very realistic and been Puel in for now based on us being 7th but this comment has left  a very very bad taste in my mouth. not quite sure what context it was meant in but how the hell can we not compete with Wolves and West Ham. 

Because West Ham have a £73m more net spend, Everton £57m net spend more, Wolves £55m net spend more than us.