Passion, desire, fight and pride. These four things are what we, as supporters of Southampton Football Club, want to see from our players and manager.
We’ve seen that in the last seven years. We’ve had some low points but on the whole we have stuck to these morals and we have reaped the rewards of hard work, innovation and a distinct identity.
This season, we have lost our identity.
Something has very clearly gone wrong here at Southampton. We’re just over halfway through the season and it’s clear to see that there are some underlying issues; whether that be coming from those at the very peak of the hierarchy at the club, or those simply trying to pull us out of this rut on the pitch. There are issues.
For me, it doesn’t just boil down to the manager. Claude Puel has underwhelmed, for sure, but it’s a collective effort. The board failed to invest and replace accordingly. The manager has not adjusted well enough to the Premier League and its demands. The players have not stepped up to the plate enough. The fans have not been good enough. You can literally feel the tension at St Mary’s when you walk up the stairs… we have to be careful otherwise our home ground, which was once regarded as a fortress, could don a toxic atmosphere.
The main irritation shared amongst supporters this season has been on the pitch. Sure, it’s irritating that the board haven’t invested perhaps as much as they should have done in bolstering the squad, but the showings have been abysmal.
Games at home to Watford, Sunderland and West Brom. Games away at Crystal Palace, Everton, Hull and ten-man Stoke. To me, there are 18 clear points there that we should have picked up. Guess what? We picked up three. Oh, and we scored four. Four goals against those teams there. How bad is that?
We should have signed a striker in the summer, of course. The current forwards at Puel’s disposal are hardly inspiring and Charlie Austin’s injury has made things all the more unbearable. Mind you, where exactly would Puel be situated if Austin hadn’t scored our goals in the first half of the season? I can assure you we’d be far lower in the table and our fans would have turned against him far sooner and with far more vigour. We owe a lot this season to Austin.
It bugs me that we have no goal scorer for at least three months. Jay Rodriguez has been improving as of late but isn’t really going to provide the goods as often as needed, Shane Long bagged himself a goal on Saturday but is more of a creative forward and then you’re left with Nathan Redmond. Hmm.
However… I’ve not yet seen a player this season that hasn’t looked disgruntled when playing. The squad just don’t look as cohesive nor as passionate as before. There are often little arguments between players, there are often moments of miscommunication and there are ALWAYS moments of individual stupidity in matches.
Now, no squad is perfect. However, for us to be halfway through a season and discussing this unrest in the squad – because whether you believe Puel has lost the dressing room or not, it’s clear to see – does say a lot.
The rotation policy has been heavily publicised and debated amongst the Southampton faithful this season and this was largely due to the Europa League campaign. It was always going to be a little bit more difficult with six games more and a match every three or four days.
However, reality check – we aren’t in the Europa League anymore. That isn’t because of the rotation, that’s because we ran out of ideas in the first-half; that’s happened time and time again this season. From here onwards, we don’t need to rotate.
We’ve just played three games in six days; that’s gruelling and rotation was 100% necessary. However, it just has to stop now. It’s got to a stage where it’s too much. You can’t make five or six changes to your side every single match and expect to find any level of consistency whatsoever. No combinations can form, no partnerships can develop and no player can really flourish.
If you were a player, what would be the point in playing your heart out and really shining in a match, knowing fully well that you’ll just be dropped for the next game because of a needless policy?
It’s just been epitomised by the situation of young Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. The Danish midfielder has undoubted quality and bags of potential but, for me, he’s not really been able to fulfill it due to excessive amounts of chopping and changing.
For sure, he’s not really shown what he’s capable of yet despite a bright start. However, he’s been a primary victim of the OTT rotation from Puel. He’s starting every other game and when he does, he’s partnered with completely different midfielders. One minute he’s next to Romeu and Prowse, the next it’s Romeu and Davis, then the next it’s Romeu and Clasie.
How can you form strong enough partnerships or understandings when the only time you can genuinely play as a unit and learn each others’ games is through training?
Hojbjerg was quite shocking against West Brom on Saturday afternoon and he was taken off at around the hour mark. Now, he responded to this in simply furious fashion. He was bemused and he marched straight down the tunnel. I expect this wasn’t because he was taken off, but more because he’s not exactly being given a fair shot and he’s being massively restricted.
The poignant thing there was also that Jose Fonte and Ryan Bertrand, two established and well-respected first-team members who were also on the bench for the game, seemed to show sympathy for Hojbjerg when he came off. You can’t help but feel as though there’s a divide and a disillusion between the players’ views and Puel’s philosophies.
Also, Hojbjerg wasn’t even in the squad for the Everton game. Fishy.
Now, I can’t go all out and criticise Puel and bad-mouth him because firstly as I’ve alluded to, it’s a collective effort and it’s not just him that has under-performed. Secondly, I’ve backed him since he walked through the door at Staplewood to take charge of this team.
I’ve defended him, defended his methods, defended his playing style and tried to pick out the positives, but it is getting to the stage where I’m slightly concerned. He looks lost. Out of ideas, lacking a Plan B and looking just a little bit out of sorts in the Premier League.
Puel has followed the ethos of the club and its predominant reputation, yet he has failed to appease and abide by its basic demand of exciting football. Young players are getting their chance and they are flourishing, but it’s being overshadowed by the woeful style of play.
It’s worth pointing out that the club’s social media is effectively forcing the youth players and their status at the club onto us. Have you noticed the amount of attention that has been paid to them this season? For sure, it’s been great to see, but we don’t need a reminder every five minutes that Sam McQueen is an academy graduate.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/BOryfnGBYPH/?taken-by=southamptonfc
It just feels like they’re trying to cover up the events on the pitch with positivity off of it and emphasis on what has made Southampton such a special club in previous years. However, there’s a fine line between pride in development and propaganda and unnecessary pressure.
Twitter:
A #PL debut for #SaintsFC Academy graduate @jackstephens_18! https://t.co/zWMwdkWhhr (@SouthamptonFC)
Twitter: Not the result we wanted today, but thanks to all the #SaintsFC fans for your fantastic support at Goodison Park!
https://t.co/8BRuzKPbQf (@SouthamptonFC)
We’re not really marching on at the moment. We’re marching into the opposition half, looking up and seeing nothing ahead of us, then proceeding to move sideways. If not sideways, backwards. Not exactly pretty to watch, is it?
Puel is a dogmatic, stubborn man with a firm belief in his own ideologies. He is much akin to Ronald Koeman in this sense. However, he went against his main philosophy early on in the season for a rather bizarre reason… he ditched the diamond.
Just as we were starting to perfect a system that we had worked on for months, Puel opted to shy away from what was largely perceived at the dominant formation to deploy a 4-3-3. This has taken the zip straight out of our team. It’s leaving us with a far deeper defensive block, less fluidity in the front three and a much slower, laboured ball circulation.
However, with that being said, he does have this reputation for being stubborn. During his long tenure as a manager in Ligue 1, he was known for being dogmatic. So, if we’re expecting him to change these negative, conservative tactics any time soon, it looks like we might just be disappointed.
As you reach just over 1300 words on this article, if you knew any less you’d think we were in a relegation scrap from the way in which I’m speaking of the club’s situation. In fact, we’re nowhere near relegation and it’s highly unlikely that we’ll be in danger at the end of the season.
We’re sitting in tenth place, bang smack in the middle of the Premier League, and in the semi-finals of the EFL Cup. Sounds rosy, right?
Well this is where I’m struggling. Although the positions in either competition aren’t the end of the world by any means, especially in regards to the latter, I’m not really sure how we can kick on and develop the positions from here onwards.
We’ve lost three games on the bounce and you’d be brave to think we’ll progress into the final of the EFL Cup given that a two-legged tie against Liverpool awaits us. As for the Premier League, it’s not going to get easier and with the way we’re playing, it’s hard to see a team that won’t have a good chance of beating us. We’re rolling over to teams and that’s embarrassing above all.
The point has often been made that we were worse off last season. We hadn’t even reached the Europa League group stage, we were around about 12th in the league and we were on a similar points tally. The difference was that there was always a belief that Koeman could turn it around and he could adjust to pull us out of the rut.
He tactically manouvered Saints’ impressive run instantly after a treacherous spell, with a formation change to steady the ship and grind out some results with a more defensive formation. His knowledge and tactical ability allowed us to put inconsistencies behind us.
This isn’t to say that Puel is tactically inept – even if you would think it after recent times – but I don’t get the feeling that he can really adjust himself. Contrasting to the situation that Koeman found himself in last season, Puel needs to start taking more risks and ditch his conservative approach. We need to get ourselves going and creating chances and really taking the game to our opponents.
To do this though, Puel will need to really get a hold of his men, rally the troops and get them believing in themselves again; something that could prove to be difficult in itself if the camp is unsettled.
This brings me on to the genuine possibility – everyone’s favourite word at the moment – that there is a breakdown in communication.
Puel is trying his best to speak English. It’s difficult to watch and difficult to listen to and I expect it’s much the same with him even attempting it, but at least he’s having a go.
The only problem is, a lot of what he says is bullshit. I’m not going to beat around the bush, because it’s true. He talks a load of old rubbish a lot of the time.
Twitter: “It’s already difficult to make good gestures, for example to score with lucidity and clear ideas and it’s always difficult.”
Crikey….(@BenStanners)
We’ve had six or seven interviews this season after matches where he’s spoken about a ‘bad scenario’ or ‘recovery’. I admire his efforts and admire him for doing what Mauricio Pochettino never did with us in giving English a go, but I have one main fear.
How exactly is he communicating with the players? I can only presume it’s through Eric Black.
Puel to Black in French, Black to the players in English. That’s a recipe for disaster given that this bloke has come from a relegated Aston Villa side where he wasn’t particularly liked by the fans and players alike.
We wonder why the players often look lost and fail to really understand each other, yet perhaps it stems from every day on the training ground. Who knows? That’s just a theory, at the end of the day. However, you’d hope that Puel doesn’t bang on about lucidity and possibilities to Virgil van Dijk who just wants to get on and do his job as effectively as he can.
The disconnection between the fans and the manager has been quite easy to see, as well.
With Nigel Adkins, Mauricio Pochettino and Ronald Koeman, there was a clear relationship. There was a mutual appreciation for each other’s efforts and there was always a healthy bond throughout.
Now, I can’t say that our fans have backed Puel and lavished him with chants and praise from the moment he took to the touchline, and maybe that would have made a difference to the bond, but I’m yet to see him even clap the supporters. There’s not really been an acknowledgement.
It’s a highly difficult situation for Southampton. I’m not saying Claude Puel should be sacked six months into his tenure at the club, but I’m not saying that he doesn’t need to seriously get things going quickly, because he does.
We’re in a worrying state and there are clear underlying issues, but it’s unlikely that Puel will be going anywhere anytime soon. We can only hope that we can add purpose to the season with a cup final or preferrably a cup win, because there is no way we’re getting anywhere near the top six this season.
Perhaps Puel needs the January transfer window to add his own reinforcements and perhaps he does need sufficient backing from the board. Are his hands tied? We’ll probably never know.
However, one thing is for certain. If we find ourselves in the bottom half of the Premier League, out of the EFL Cup and without added quality in the January transfer window come the first day of February, concerns will be raised and concerns will be justified.
For the time being, we have to do what we’re here for. Support the team, support the manager but above all, support the club.
