After an underwhelming first season in England despite taking Southampton to the EFL Cup final, Claude Puel’s job on the south coast is deeply under scrutiny with fans and media sources already talking about his replacement.
Since joining Southampton after Ronald Koeman’s move to Everton last summer, Puel hasn’t really won over the fans nor seemingly the players. Whether it is a language barrier stopping Puel from expressing himself fully in interviews and press conferences or other problems, most fans were never fully convinced over the former Nice manager.
Even if the manager of the club for next season isn’t certain, what is certain is that there are a handful of issues that the club need to address after achieving a certain amount of points that saw the team closer to the relegation zone than the European places, despite finishing just one place behind the European spots.
The season was, for the most-part, extremely underwhelming (excluding the club’s first appearance in a major cup final for 14 years) with elimination from the Europa League at the group stage, a low tally of goals scored and one of the worst home records in the entire Premier League.
No matter who the Southampton manager is at the start of the 2017/18 season, these problems must be addressed as the club will want to achieve similar honours achieved in the recent season.
Take a look at some things that must change ahead of next season.
