Things were looking incredibly bleak on the south coast when Ronald Koeman bizarrely switched sixth placed Southampton for mid-table, sleeping giants Everton.

The Dutchman brought plenty of happiness to the Southampton faithful. Records were broken, achievements were made and, most of all, development was at its most potent under his leadership.

I suppose you could say that the cause for concern amongst the fans was understandable, if not infuriating.

Then again, though, money talks and key figures will come and go from the club for years to come but that isn’t a bad thing. In all honesty, I wouldn’t want my football club paying a manager £6 million per year who, despite achieving excellent success at the helm, hindered and devalued plenty of components within the infamous Southampton Way.

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The grievance and rather laughable sorrow that came soon after Koeman’s departure dragged on, leading to more and more frustration amongst the Southampton supporters.

There were calls for statements from the board, Les Reed to be sacked, Katharina Liebherr to stop asset stripping and – my personal favourite – comparisons between Reed and Rupert Lowe. I do appreciate the concept and the saying of “each to their own”, but come on…

Various big names were chucked around and were said to have been in pole position to take charge. Unai Emery, now at PSG, was a name mentioned whilst other top managers such as Rudi Garcia, formerly of Roma, and Manuel Pellegrini, formerly of Manchester City, were both sounded out.

However, none of these claims came with any substance and Saints did, in the end, come to a decision on the man to take the club forward and to further its incredible, sustainable development.

On the 30th June, just a day before the start of the summer transfer window, Southampton confirmed the appointment of French manager Claude Puel.

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There was somewhat a mixed response to his arrival at St Mary’s. Many had seen the name and turned their noses up at the club’s decision to make him the manager, whereas some had analyses further and realised what he had to offer.

I’ll be the first to admit that when you see Southampton linked with the likes of Manuel Pellegrni, you do get an underwhelming feeling when it’s someone of a lesser prestige or calibre in world football.

However, when you do take a look into what Puel is really all about, the underwhelming feeling soon disappears, understanding sets in and then the excitement certainly comes along.

Off the back of an incredible season with OGC Nice in Ligue 1 – who he took up to fourth place in an excellent campaign – the decision to join Saints was a massive one for all parties involved.

However, when you watch a Puel team play, you can understand just why he is held in such high regard by those in his homeland and, seemingly, by the Southampton board.

Whilst at Nice, his tactics were exciting and revolutionary, to say the very least.

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Not many managers in world football are willing to dare to be different and Puel most certainly trusted his instincts with Nice and it paid off for him; a bold, free-flowing, attractive brand of football that predominantly focusses on collectively winning matches set Ligue 1 alight and made Nice a force to be reckoned with; an easy on the eye force for the neutral, also.

Patience on the ball and intensity off it really is the name of the game for Puel. You simply have to attack as a team and defend as a team when managed by the clever Frenchman.

Puel, in his final season with Nice, found success largely through bolstering the midfield and utilising the wide options in a more unorthodox manner.

It’s very unusual to see a manager start with four centrally based midfielders and no wingers, yet still maintain a certain degree of width and attacking firepower down the flanks that presents danger to the opposition; it’s all very complex and well worked on.

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Puel used a diamond in the middle and that really was the key to Nice’s success. It’s all too easy to simply call it a narrow midfield diamond in a 4-1-2-1-2 formation. I’m not saying that the initial assumption of the formation is false but there is so much more fluidity and flexibility within Puel’s attractive, enthralling teams.

Saints have had a wealth of talent in the midfield for a long time, now. We have six first-team midfielders and plenty of exciting youth in the pipeline; this is perfect for how Puel likes to cram the middle and exploit teams by using the midfield to open up teams, whilst having the assurance of cutting them out at the other end of the pitch.

However, the pinnacle of Puel’s style of play comes through the attacking midfield. There has to be one player that is the main man and one player that can turn a game on its head within a matter of moments. During his final season at Nice, that man was Hatem Ben Arfa.

Southampton, having just lost star player Sadio Mane, really do need to bring in a creative number ten. If we are to effectively match Puel’s tactics and put the diamond to good use, there has to be a game-changer that is the link between the middle and the strikers.

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Of course, the creativity and show-stopping asset within Puel’s game is key, however, there is a lot of work that goes unnoticed in the fluid, positionally-interchanging style that he implements into his squads.

At Nice, full-backs were very much in the thick of the action at both ends of the pitch. Puel ensured that his full-backs were predominantly attacking and supportive offensively but sound going back and defending, also.

This could not suit Cedric Soares and Ryan Bertrand any more. Both players have tremendous attacking ability whilst possessing a more than reasonable defensive know-how to cope with how Puel wants to play and get them into the thick of the action; we’re lucky to have such excellent full-back options that are already suited to how the Frenchman is looking to play.

However, since Puel’s preferred set-up has been clocked by Saints fans, concerns and questions have been raised as to why Nathan Redmond was brought into the club, prior to Puel’s appointment, given his natural position being a right-winger; an area that doesn’t really have a position within the diamond formation.

But, this is exactly as I alluded to earlier; there are plenty of different methods as to how the diamond can be used and laid out.

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Of course, you can have the back four, another four in the middle and two up top and it’d probably be good with the correct players and it’s certainly worked for Puel before.

However, the late, great Johan Cruyff did, indeed, have different ideas regarding the diamond formation. Are out-and-out strikers all that necessary in teams? Seemingly not.

By making the attacking midfielder the key man – as Puel so often does – ensuring that he is capable of scoring goals, providing creativity and working the opposition defence, the freedom of the forwards really can be a dangerous outlet.

As outlined in the below video, you can play with wide men and just an attacking midfielder; as though he is a false striker. The Cruyff Diamond involves two forwards; a right forward and a left forward. This was noticeable, within Puel’s first 45 minutes in charge of Saints, in the friendly victory against DC United.

YouTube: Cruyff explains his diamond formation

Dusan Tadic, Charlie Austin and Nathan Redmond all started in the attacking trio but, in all honesty, you couldn’t see exactly where they were playing.

There were moments when Tadic was in the hole, Redmond drifted across the pitch and Austin came over to the wide position; another perfect example of Puel’s positional, fluid interchanging that allows a freedom amongst the attackers that enable the exploitation of defenders due to the movement.

Austin came deeper often in the opening 45 minutes, supplying a presence in the middle despite not being known for a creative, technical approach to the game. Then, explaining The Cruyff Diamond, Tadic drifted just ahead on the left hand side into the left forward position and Redmond did the same on the other side.

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Of course, this did not remain rigid throughout the half and, as I will reiterate, it was only a half of football against a poor opposition, in fairness. But, the signs are there of how Puel wants to play and what we can expect from a fluent Southampton team next season.

Maybe the signing of Redmond wasn’t so confusing as in regards to Puel’s likely style, after all.

So, to conclude, I’d say there’s a hell of a lot to look forward to this season under our new boss; it’s going to be an interesting one for Saints but, as always, I’m sure it’ll be more than enjoyable once again.

We March On.