Master Puel

[Collymore]

Quite a few of us have banged on about our defensive frailties and have criticised Claude for various reasons.

 

We must surely give massive credit to Puel and his recruitment team for signing 2 absolutely quality players under the radar.  Players for postions that we were crying out for too.

 

Puel is still an enigma for me - Boring and so uninspirational at times but then so animated on the touchline sharing all the frustration we share. He folds his arms and has a face like thunder even when we are 2-0 up and playing well. 

 

I get the feeling for the first time we have a guy at the helm that is on a new level of understanding of football and we could be on the verge of a revolution.

 

 

 

 

[sylofox]

I'm not anti Puel but he gets no credit from me for getting a right back. We've been screaming for one since we won the league.

 

All this says to me is how poor our recruitment has been.

 

Slag Puel off but he's sorting our squad out. 

[Fightforever]

we could be on the verge of a revolution but our problems once puel came in wasn't necessarily the defence it was the fact that we haven't got a number 10 so far we've only been moderately/heavily linked to championship number 10s so I wouldn't call him a master just yet. Although credit where credit is due getting pereira was a miracle. 

Edited 6 June 2018 by Fightforever

[urban.spaceman]

I was still firmly Puel IN until the Palace and West Ham games, as I was willing to suffer poor performances under circumstances such as injury, suspension, poor squad depth and bad luck, in order to just get to the end of the season and give him the chance to rebuild his own squad. Those two performances made me join the Puel Out crowd, until Arsenal and Spurs swung me back around again. 

 

Upgrades in RB and CB are long, LONG overdue, and it looks like we've got a couple of excellent bargains in those positions. We're never going to replace Mahrez, but it looks like we're targeting some really exciting young (and English!) talent for attack too.

 

Not qualifying for Europa in 7th could be a blessing too (I've been saying this for a while) - qualifying in 7th meant going through the qualifying stages starting on July 1st. There's no way we'd be ready by then and having a minimum of 40 games without the added Europa pressure & travel should hopefully go in our favour next season.

 

In short, I'm excited.

 

Cheers. 

[knitro]

Puel strikes me as quite intelligent and circumspect - doesn't always get conveyed because of his mediocre English, but I don't doubt that he lives, breathes, and dreams about the sport. If you remember back to the interview scuttlebutt, he blew them away with the depth of knowledge he had on our club, and I think he has probably forgotten more about it than most here know. 

 

I love the types of players we're being linked with - Evans aside (too good a deal to pass up) they're all young, hungry and technical. Will they all pan out? Who knows, but he's got a vision that at personal risk is far reaching - a manager worried about the axe would be drudging up bang average 27 year olds from mid-table and demoted squads because they have 'premier league experience'. It's a safe, staid approach which will not take this club forward.  His willingness to go young shows confidence and that he plans to be here for awhile. I like this approach alot and I think it's how this team will reach that next level of consistent top 6 challenging.  

[MC Prussian]

6 hours ago, urban.spaceman said:

I was still firmly Puel IN until the Palace and West Ham games, as I was willing to suffer poor performances under circumstances such as injury, suspension, poor squad depth and bad luck, in order to just get to the end of the season and give him the chance to rebuild his own squad. Those two performances made me join the Puel Out crowd, until Arsenal and Spurs swung me back around again. 

 

Upgrades in RB and CB are long, LONG overdue, and it looks like we've got a couple of excellent bargains in those positions. We're never going to replace Mahrez, but it looks like we're targeting some really exciting young (and English!) talent for attack too.

 

Not qualifying for Europa in 7th could be a blessing too (I've been saying this for a while) - qualifying in 7th meant going through the qualifying stages starting on July 1st. There's no way we'd be ready by then and having a minimum of 40 games without the added Europa pressure & travel should hopefully go in our favour next season.

 

In short, I'm excited.

 

Cheers. 

Get yer facts straight.

If we had qualified for the Europa League qualification stages, the mission would've started in the last week of July, not earlier.

And the chances of drawing a "lesser" team in the last two qualification stages would've been rather high.

 

I'm not having that fear-mongering from a portion of our fans.

Edited 7 June 2018 by MC Prussian

[Xen]

8 hours ago, sylofox said:

I'm not anti Puel but he gets no credit from me for getting a right back. We've been screaming for one since we won the league.

 

All this says to me is how poor our recruitment has been.

 

Slag Puel off but he's sorting our squad out. 

 

Er... make your mind up?

 

Doesn't matter what his predecessors did (or didn't) do, he's come in and identified an issue which has seemingly been overlooked, and set out to rectify that. And by using his contacts, he's got us what could possibly be the best realistic option we could ask for.

 

I'll admit that he perhaps doesn't deserve as much credit for the Evans deal, as our interest has been there since before Puel, but to not give him credit for getting Pereira is a bit harsh to say the least.

[StriderHiryu]

The first 5 league games of the 18/19 season are going to be crucial for him. Time is a great healer and the inept home performances from earlier in the year are a semi-distant memory, but if we show up and play the same brand of football the boo-boys will be out in full force. Last year's Shakespeare situation could well be seen again with an early management change.

 

At the same time, with a full pre-season behind us we could come out of the gates flying and with a new found swagger and style. I harken back to the early Ranieri days when our first games were Sunderland 4-2 (going 3 up after 20 minutes) and a cracking away win at West Ham. We are thought the Pearson sacking was harsh but we quickly on board the Ranieri express! I'd love it if Puel can turn it round and get us playing good football that gets us results as I believe we are capable of it. I think Everton, Leicester and West Ham should on paper be battling it out for 7th place if you compare finances / managers /squads  and in my opinion we have the best squad of the three, though losing Riyad Mahrez does change that equation.

 

It's noticeable that our major acquisitions are players who are technically competent on the ball. Last season was the first in a long time that we've tried to be a team that builds play from the back, with Maguire being the primary reason for that. Now we will have  back 4 that can all play with the ball and two full backs that raid forward effectively. Perhaps it will lead to a better attacking approach, though I feel our major problem last year was playing the ball too slowly and not that we couldn't pass it. (Though of course the two issues are linked to one another). Puel's Nice team that he left for Southampton did very well. A compact team that played some nice stuff but were also tight at the back and had some X-factor in Ben Arfa. It's not beyond the realm of possibility to see our team play a similar way.

 

This pre-season is going to be really interesting for me as I think we will learn a lot. Under Shakespeare we had a pretty terrible one and I felt it was sadly indicative of things to come, which transpired to be true. The team didn't really know what to do when on the ball! Results don't matter so much, but it will be interesting to see how we try to play when we have all of our players available. For example we could replace Riyad by playing a 3-5-2 and using Chilwell and Ricardo as wing-backs.

 

Interesting times.

Edited 7 June 2018 by StriderHiryu

[peterborofox]

Haven't been a fan of Puel. 

 

But am happy with transfer dealings and links so far which is giving me a good feel about new season.

 

Just hope we don't have this boring football again or he'll soon be out

[Babylon]

At the end of the day, many slagging him off also said the team needed some big changes. If you said both, then you must appreciate he was attempting to do things with one hand tied behind his back. If we get 15 games into the season with the squad looking fixed and him getting the sort of player he wants, then there are few excuses left. As it is, I think there are enough reasons to give him the benefit of the doubt until then.

 

I was reading an article the other day that was about someone attempting to implement a more passing style on a team. The writer said that it's hard to  teach a team to pass the ball and keep possession if they aren't used to it, without them falling into predictable patterns of play to start with, as it's part of the learning process. That really struck a cord and I think that's exactly what we've been seeing this season (I hope).

 

We shall see.

Edited 7 June 2018 by Babylon

[Ric Flair]

20 minutes ago, Babylon said:

At the end of the day, many slagging him off also said the team needed some big changes. If you said both, then you must appreciate he was attempting to do things with one hand tied behind his back. If we get 15 games into the season with the squad looking fixed and him getting the sort of player he wants, then there are few excuses left. As it is, I think there are enough reasons to give him the benefit of the doubt until then.

 

I was reading an article the other day that was about someone attempting to implement a more passing style on a team. The writer said that it's hard to starting teaching a team to pass the ball and keep possession if they aren't used to it, without them falling into predictable patterns of play to start with, as it's part of the learning process. That really struck a cord and I think that's exactly what we've been seeing this season (I hope).

 

We shall see.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Now we aren't having to put up with the alarming displays that we saw from February through to early May and we can judge our future based solely on recruitment this summer it looks fairly positive. I think Puel could be a relative success here but only if the players he currently has and brings in buy in to what he's trying to do. 

 

Last season wasn't the time to really force too many changes on that mob of players but he tried and it had mixed results, its hard to ignore the disgusting results and performances against certain teams but as he appears to be staying then let's see what he can do. He's a visionary manager and not a short term fixer, he's prepared to risk his future for what he believes in and we are a club that needs freshening up in style and approach.

 

I just hope the likes of Vardy, Kasper, Maguire, Ndidi, Silva, Iheanacho, Albrighton etc buy in to what he's trying to do, we need everyone on the same page for it to have a chance of working.

[suffolk fox]

7 hours ago, urban.spaceman said:

I was still firmly Puel IN until the Palace and West Ham games, as I was willing to suffer poor performances under circumstances such as injury, suspension, poor squad depth and bad luck, in order to just get to the end of the season and give him the chance to rebuild his own squad. Those two performances made me join the Puel Out crowd, until Arsenal and Spurs swung me back around again. 

 

Upgrades in RB and CB are long, LONG overdue, and it looks like we've got a couple of excellent bargains in those positions. We're never going to replace Mahrez, but it looks like we're targeting some really exciting young (and English!) talent for attack too.

 

Not qualifying for Europa in 7th could be a blessing too (I've been saying this for a while) - qualifying in 7th meant going through the qualifying stages starting on July 1st. There's no way we'd be ready by then and having a minimum of 40 games without the added Europa pressure & travel should hopefully go in our favour next season.

 

In short, I'm excited.

 

Cheers. 

Hallelujah your third paragraph explains what I all along said about the Europa league.  Hence why I am Putting money on Burnley being relegated next season.  Plus they have a smaller squad depth than us.

[Babylon]

4 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Now we aren't having to put up with the alarming displays that we saw from February through to early May and we can judge our future based solely on recruitment this summer it looks fairly positive. I think Puel could be a relative success here but only if the players he currently has and brings in buy in to what he's trying to do. 

 

Last season wasn't the time to really force too many changes on that mob of players but he tried and it had mixed results, its hard to ignore the disgusting results and performances against certain teams but as he appears to be staying then let's see what he can do. He's a visionary manager and not a short term fixer, he's prepared to risk his future for what he believes in and we are a club that needs freshening up in style and approach.

 

I just hope the likes of Vardy, Kasper, Maguire, Ndidi, Silva, Iheanacho, Albrighton etc buy in to what he's trying to do, we need everyone on the same page for it to have a chance of working.

Personally speaking, it was only really a run of 5 games that had me concerned (below) and some of those were probably on the back of some injuries. There were other poor results, but they were mixed in with some decent wins and draws.

 

Like you say, depends on the team buying into it... sometimes that just takes a few wins and for the players to see that what he's asking for actually works.

[MC Prussian]

7 minutes ago, suffolk fox said:

Hallelujah your third paragraph explains what I all along said about the Europa league.  Hence why I am Putting money on Burnley being relegated next season.  Plus they have a smaller squad depth than us.

They may have a smaller squad depth now, but where we are looking at offloading more players than signing new ones due to age or correcting previous mistakes in the transfer market, Burnley are likely to sign a few more players before their Europa League adventure. They have to. So it'll even itself out in the end.

[ZeGuy]

11 hours ago, sylofox said:

I'm not anti Puel but he gets no credit from me for getting a right back. We've been screaming for one since we won the league.

 

All this says to me is how poor our recruitment has been.

 

Slag Puel off but he's sorting our squad out. 

Can' follow you on this one. Pereira, who's one of his former players in Nice, said that Puel certainly played a role in his coming. He's known for making shrewd signings and living up to his reputation until now. 

 

As for the "boring, uninspiring" myth (not directed at you), that's something I'll never understand.

 

Unless one was in the dressing room or in training sessions, there is just no way to know he really behaves behind the scenes.

 

Unless one is daft enough to base their opinion on the press conferences and other PR crap.

Edited 7 June 2018 by ZeGuy

[HighPeakFox]

48 minutes ago, suffolk fox said:

Hallelujah your third paragraph explains what I all along said about the Europa league.  Hence why I am Putting money on Burnley being relegated next season.  Plus they have a smaller squad depth than us.

You're not alone, I assure you. Just be prepared to be called a moron for looking longer term, some of our fans really do only judge everything by the here and now. 

[Ric Flair]

1 hour ago, Babylon said:

Personally speaking, it was only really a run of 5 games that had me concerned (below) and some of those were probably on the back of some injuries. There were other poor results, but they were mixed in with some decent wins and draws.

 

Like you say, depends on the team buying into it... sometimes that just takes a few wins and for the players to see that what he's asking for actually works.

Yeah, I was irked by the home results and general performances prior to that but I can accept those given many reasons. 1) The Mahrez debacle, 2) the calibre of opposition meant they sat back and we struggled to break them down due to the system we were trying to play with certain unsuitable players and 3) we were a typical mid table team who were safe and finding it difficult to remain motivated. That last point can be heavily argued as we still had 7th to play for but there wasn't the feel good factor around the place and we always felt disjointed last season.

 

I don't think Puel is destined to fail, I'm willing to give him another chance as long as he's got the backing of the majority at our club. I'd like him to be stronger and braver in where he's taking us, even if that is unpopular with some. The only way to making a successful transition is by having a strong leader and my fear is he knows what he wants for us to be a success but can he implement it?

[StriderHiryu]

This should (hopefully) link to a playlist of highlights of all of OGC Nice's games in the 15/16 Ligue 1 season. You'll notice they have future LCFC players in Mendy and Ricardo lining up for them, with Ricardo at left back a number of times. Ricardo actually looks very good in a number of these clips even as a left back!

 

It's only highlights, but you can see how this team played during that season and maybe an idea of what Puel would want his ideal LCFC team to play like. So *maybe* if we get players in that he's targeted and he can gel them together in pre-season we could play this style of football.

[Dan LCFC]

I remain unconvinced by him but think he's said the right things and early action in the transfer window shows he's backing that up. I can't blindly back him and I won't criticise people who don't as they've got fair reasons not to, but I'll err on the side of backing him and see how it goes.

[urban.spaceman]

3 hours ago, MC Prussian said:

Get yer facts straight.

If we had qualified for the Europa League qualification stages, the mission would've started in the last week of July, not earlier.

And the chances of drawing a "lesser" team in the last two qualification stages would've been rather high.

 

I'm not having that fear-mongering from a portion of our fans.

 

OK, but the point still stands that we would have a season of a minimum of 42 matches, plus another 6 if we qualified for group stages, and the extra travel and shifting of games to accommodate that. Don't get me wrong, I want us to play in Europe regularly, but at the minute we don't have the squad depth to do that and there's no point in qualifying when you're not ready.

[UniFox21]

2 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

OK, but the point still stands that we would have a season of a minimum of 42 matches, plus another 6 if we qualified for group stages, and the extra travel and shifting of games to accommodate that. Don't get me wrong, I want us to play in Europe regularly, but at the minute we don't have the squad depth to do that and there's no point in qualifying when you're not ready.

This is on top of the 10 players of ours who'll be in Russia for the world cup, they'd be fatigued and behind in terms of pre-season and as we saw last year with a few injuries and suspensions we started to struggle

[MPH]

I think we are backing him and that’s important. There’s no stability in changing  your manager every season and we are cleverly backing him with quality young players ( - a cheap Evans) that will have a sell on value even if things do go belly up.

 

 

what is there not to be positive about?

 

 

 

hoping everyone can get behind him this season!!!

[MC Prussian]

3 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

OK, but the point still stands that we would have a season of a minimum of 42 matches, plus another 6 if we qualified for group stages, and the extra travel and shifting of games to accommodate that. Don't get me wrong, I want us to play in Europe regularly, but at the minute we don't have the squad depth to do that and there's no point in qualifying when you're not ready.

We would've had pretty much a whole summer transfer window to prepare for it leading up to July 26th. Not every Europa League-worthy player features at the World Cup.

[MC Prussian]

14 minutes ago, UniFox21 said:

This is on top of the 10 players of ours who'll be in Russia for the world cup, they'd be fatigued and behind in terms of pre-season and as we saw last year with a few injuries and suspensions we started to struggle

Not all ten players will feature for their respective teams constantly, and not all of them will make it to the final.

 

Most players would've had a chance of getting some holidays in between and returning for training already.

 

With this following squad at our disposal, there's no chance of beating a "lesser" team in the second qualifying round? Seriously?

 

Jakupovic/2nd goalkeeper

 

Simpson

Evans

Morgan

Chilwell/Fuchs

 

Mahrez/Diabaté

Iborra/Mendy

King/Amartey

Albrighton/Gray

 

Slimani

Ulloa

 

That's before dabbling with the inclusion of two or three new arrivals.

 

You must rate these players really lowly then.

Edited 7 June 2018 by MC Prussian

[ealingfox]

Don't know why teams don't just refuse to take their place in the Europa League seeing how horrible it is