A bit too early to praise him but he has made an impressive start at Southampton. Eighth in the league and one point behind Manchester United while playing some good football. Very impressed with the way Southampton run their football operations. Players leave, managers leave and they keep chugging along. It will be interesting to see if they can develop their operations to compete at the top end of the table.
Article in Guardian:
When Manchester City take the field on Sunday they will be watched by an extremely demanding manager who is demonstrating this season why he has a reputation for cultivating an attractive style of play, improving young players and making contentious decisions. Claude Puel is no Pep Guardiola but Southampton are finding the Frenchman has a way of working that takes some getting used to. And it could bring fresh success.
Ronald Koeman, like Mauricio Pochettino before him, seemed to think he had squeezed as much juice as any manager could get out of Southampton, a club that continually sells its best players. Southampton have a knack for renewing and advancing, and their appointment of Puel in the summer looks typically shrewd.
For seven consecutive years the club has improved its league position, culminating, it seemed, with Koeman guiding them to sixth in the Premier League last season before hightailing to the suddenly flush Everton.
There are signs that Puel could deliver more progress even if climbing higher than sixth in the league may be beyond him given the strides made by other clubs. There are cups to consider, and a style that is already exciting Southampton fans.
Southampton go to Manchester City on the back of some of the slickest performances they have produced since returning to the top flight in 2012. They include Thursday’s defeat at Internazionale, whom Puel’s side outplayed for most of the match before conceding their first goal from open play in eight games. An uncharacteristic defensive lapse coupled with repeatedly shoddy finishing meant it was certainly not a perfect display but otherwise it was as encouraging as most of Southampton’s have been this season.
The most obvious difference between the Southampton of Puel and Koeman is this season’s model is more dominant, more daring and less predictable. That means reduced emphasis on counterattacking and crosses, though these are of course not forsaken.
It is not easy to teach a team to keep the ball more without slipping into readable patterns. The key, beyond instilling a tigerish hunger to seize back the ball when it is lost, is to foster understanding and confidence so that players move in tune with each other. The man on the ball must always have several options and the courage to choose the most adventurous one. Puel has bred this quickly, making it clear to his new charges in his first match, at home to Watford, that he would not tolerate them easing their way into the possession game with cosy sideways play. “At half-time he was noisy,” Oriol Romeu said last week when recalling that match. “He just wanted us to be braver and to take responsibility. We were all a bit shy.”
Romeu is worth mentioning because he plays a pivotal role under Puel and is a good example of the manager’s ability to hot-wire potential. The Spaniard was a fringe player last season but has started all but one of Southampton’s Premier League and European games this season despite Puel’s heavy rotation. He protects the defence by snuffing out opposing attacks wherever they may be (he has made more interceptions than any other player in the league this season) and helps coordinate forward movements.
“When you are in the right place you can recover a lot of balls,” Romeu says. “When we’re playing out from the back, making the angles between defence and midfielders, I need to provide the link-up.”
Romeu has been especially dynamic but most of Southampton’s players have become used to making and exploiting similar angles, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg often being the most savvy passer. Rather than play in formulaic lines Southampton advance as a nimble swarm.
Puel’s team play with freedom within a flexible 4-3-3 template and, in that sense, they are similar to the side he left in May, Nice, whom he guided from the depths of Ligue 1 to European qualification. Perhaps the biggest achievement in his last campaign at Nice was coaxing consistent brilliance from Hatem Ben Arfa, who, for the first time in his stop-start career, found a unit in which it was easy for him to understand when to serve the collective simply and when to unfurl his individual trickery. Without playing precisely the same role as Ben Arfa, Dusan Tadic and Nathan Redmond have shown signs of becoming similarly consistent this season.
Redmond may or may not thank his manager for saying in public he has the ability to emulate Thierry Henry, whom Puel helped to develop at Monaco, but the 22-year-old is already playing better than he did at Norwich and, indeed, if he plays on Sunday he may show that he is a lot closer to the level of Raheem Sterling than previously supposed, whether he spends most of his time out wide or in the centre, where Puel says he can become most dangerous.
Puel has a habit of getting players to excel in unfamiliar positions. In his first managerial role, at Monaco, he convinced Marcelo Gallardo, a central midfielder, to operate from the left and the Argentine ended the season as the Ligue 1 player of the year as they won the league. His first signing at Southampton was Jérémy Pied, a journeyman midfielder whom Puel converted successfully into a raiding right-back at Nice, just as he had done at Lille with Mathieu Debuchy.
When injury deprived Southampton of Ryan Bertrand and Matt Targett last week, Puel gave a first Premier League appearance from the bench to Sam McQueen, a midfielder who performed so well at left-back that he was entrusted with his first senior start at the San Siro on Thursday.
McQueen’s appearance, like Jake Hesketh’s goalscoring outing in the EFL Cup in September, highlighted another reason why Puel was hired. The man whose Monaco team were the youngest to win Ligue 1 is expected to rekindle the link between Southampton’s first team and their celebrated academy, which Koeman let go a little cold. Even during a three-season stint at Lyon that ended with no honours and a lot of recriminations, Puel helped develop some classy youngsters.
It is impressive that Puel has been able to make a mark already despite being deprived of two of his principal signings. Pied suffered a season-ending injury in his first match and Sofiane Boufal, the winger signed for £16m from Lille, was not able to make his debut until the second half of the game in Italy. That match, despite a generally positive performance, showed the area in which Southampton still need to improve a lot: their finishing remains gallingly slapdash.
Even Charlie Austin, by far the club’s most reliable marksman, has been guilty of spurning chances despite scoring seven goals in his last seven games. That, at least, gives an indication of how many chances Southampton have been creating.
Some Southampton fans were frustrated Austin did not start at San Siro but Puel was unapologetic. He was Monaco’s fitness coach before becoming their manager and insists that players need to be as close as possible to peak fitness to play with the zeal he demands. So he has tended to change at least half his team from game to game as Southampton combine European duty with domestic chores. So far they have done that well, maintaining their thrilling new identity despite the high turnover of players. Guardiola’s team will have their work cut out on Sunday.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/oct/22/sounthampton-claude-puel-manchester-city
Article in Guardian:
When Manchester City take the field on Sunday they will be watched by an extremely demanding manager who is demonstrating this season why he has a reputation for cultivating an attractive style of play, improving young players and making contentious decisions. Claude Puel is no Pep Guardiola but Southampton are finding the Frenchman has a way of working that takes some getting used to. And it could bring fresh success.
Ronald Koeman, like Mauricio Pochettino before him, seemed to think he had squeezed as much juice as any manager could get out of Southampton, a club that continually sells its best players. Southampton have a knack for renewing and advancing, and their appointment of Puel in the summer looks typically shrewd.
For seven consecutive years the club has improved its league position, culminating, it seemed, with Koeman guiding them to sixth in the Premier League last season before hightailing to the suddenly flush Everton.
There are signs that Puel could deliver more progress even if climbing higher than sixth in the league may be beyond him given the strides made by other clubs. There are cups to consider, and a style that is already exciting Southampton fans.
Southampton go to Manchester City on the back of some of the slickest performances they have produced since returning to the top flight in 2012. They include Thursday’s defeat at Internazionale, whom Puel’s side outplayed for most of the match before conceding their first goal from open play in eight games. An uncharacteristic defensive lapse coupled with repeatedly shoddy finishing meant it was certainly not a perfect display but otherwise it was as encouraging as most of Southampton’s have been this season.
The most obvious difference between the Southampton of Puel and Koeman is this season’s model is more dominant, more daring and less predictable. That means reduced emphasis on counterattacking and crosses, though these are of course not forsaken.
It is not easy to teach a team to keep the ball more without slipping into readable patterns. The key, beyond instilling a tigerish hunger to seize back the ball when it is lost, is to foster understanding and confidence so that players move in tune with each other. The man on the ball must always have several options and the courage to choose the most adventurous one. Puel has bred this quickly, making it clear to his new charges in his first match, at home to Watford, that he would not tolerate them easing their way into the possession game with cosy sideways play. “At half-time he was noisy,” Oriol Romeu said last week when recalling that match. “He just wanted us to be braver and to take responsibility. We were all a bit shy.”
Romeu is worth mentioning because he plays a pivotal role under Puel and is a good example of the manager’s ability to hot-wire potential. The Spaniard was a fringe player last season but has started all but one of Southampton’s Premier League and European games this season despite Puel’s heavy rotation. He protects the defence by snuffing out opposing attacks wherever they may be (he has made more interceptions than any other player in the league this season) and helps coordinate forward movements.
“When you are in the right place you can recover a lot of balls,” Romeu says. “When we’re playing out from the back, making the angles between defence and midfielders, I need to provide the link-up.”
Romeu has been especially dynamic but most of Southampton’s players have become used to making and exploiting similar angles, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg often being the most savvy passer. Rather than play in formulaic lines Southampton advance as a nimble swarm.
Puel’s team play with freedom within a flexible 4-3-3 template and, in that sense, they are similar to the side he left in May, Nice, whom he guided from the depths of Ligue 1 to European qualification. Perhaps the biggest achievement in his last campaign at Nice was coaxing consistent brilliance from Hatem Ben Arfa, who, for the first time in his stop-start career, found a unit in which it was easy for him to understand when to serve the collective simply and when to unfurl his individual trickery. Without playing precisely the same role as Ben Arfa, Dusan Tadic and Nathan Redmond have shown signs of becoming similarly consistent this season.
Redmond may or may not thank his manager for saying in public he has the ability to emulate Thierry Henry, whom Puel helped to develop at Monaco, but the 22-year-old is already playing better than he did at Norwich and, indeed, if he plays on Sunday he may show that he is a lot closer to the level of Raheem Sterling than previously supposed, whether he spends most of his time out wide or in the centre, where Puel says he can become most dangerous.
Puel has a habit of getting players to excel in unfamiliar positions. In his first managerial role, at Monaco, he convinced Marcelo Gallardo, a central midfielder, to operate from the left and the Argentine ended the season as the Ligue 1 player of the year as they won the league. His first signing at Southampton was Jérémy Pied, a journeyman midfielder whom Puel converted successfully into a raiding right-back at Nice, just as he had done at Lille with Mathieu Debuchy.
When injury deprived Southampton of Ryan Bertrand and Matt Targett last week, Puel gave a first Premier League appearance from the bench to Sam McQueen, a midfielder who performed so well at left-back that he was entrusted with his first senior start at the San Siro on Thursday.
McQueen’s appearance, like Jake Hesketh’s goalscoring outing in the EFL Cup in September, highlighted another reason why Puel was hired. The man whose Monaco team were the youngest to win Ligue 1 is expected to rekindle the link between Southampton’s first team and their celebrated academy, which Koeman let go a little cold. Even during a three-season stint at Lyon that ended with no honours and a lot of recriminations, Puel helped develop some classy youngsters.
It is impressive that Puel has been able to make a mark already despite being deprived of two of his principal signings. Pied suffered a season-ending injury in his first match and Sofiane Boufal, the winger signed for £16m from Lille, was not able to make his debut until the second half of the game in Italy. That match, despite a generally positive performance, showed the area in which Southampton still need to improve a lot: their finishing remains gallingly slapdash.
Even Charlie Austin, by far the club’s most reliable marksman, has been guilty of spurning chances despite scoring seven goals in his last seven games. That, at least, gives an indication of how many chances Southampton have been creating.
Some Southampton fans were frustrated Austin did not start at San Siro but Puel was unapologetic. He was Monaco’s fitness coach before becoming their manager and insists that players need to be as close as possible to peak fitness to play with the zeal he demands. So he has tended to change at least half his team from game to game as Southampton combine European duty with domestic chores. So far they have done that well, maintaining their thrilling new identity despite the high turnover of players. Guardiola’s team will have their work cut out on Sunday.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/oct/22/sounthampton-claude-puel-manchester-city
