Some have been saying of late my verdicts have been like a broken record, that is because defensively it has been like watching Groundhog Day.

Saints did not play badly at Chelsea, but they were undone by poor defending, if Claude Puel is happy with his central defensive pairing, as has been suggested in various press conferences, then i am afraid that his standards are far below mine, I am not happy and another four goals shipped in this game added to three on Saturday should be telling Puel something.

But if Puel picked the wrong team was his first mistake, then failing to change it was his second, at 3-1 down shortly after half time the manager sat on his hands for 15 minutes, surely if he was ever going to give Martin Caceres a run out it was now with Chelsea now rampant and pulling us all over the place, but it did not seem to be even in his thoughts.

I do not know whether Caceres is the answer, but I do know that 18 goals in 10 Premier League games is not acceptable and certainly not the answer either, that is 1.8 goals per game, that is a ratio that over 38 games would just about make us the worst defence in the football league.

The big question is why is Puel happy with this and why is he not trying something different, even if Caceres is not the answer and to be blunt the reason he is not playing cannot be football related given our defensive frailties, why has Puel not tried something different Flori Gardos perhaps or even moving Ryan Bertrand into a central role.

Sorry is some do not like me saying it, sorry if they think it is like a broken record, but if we were tight defensively and not continually leaking soft goals then I would not be able to say these things, but 1.8 goals per game is an embarrassment to the manager and even more embarrasing is his apparent acceptance of it and failure to deal with it.

How frustrating must it be for the players out there who ran their socks off for 90 minutes, they had worked hard to get back into the game after we had conceded a goal so early and deserved to go into the break at half time level before we let Chelsea have two free headers to take the lead on the stroke of half time.

If we had gone in level then we stood a chance in the second half, but when Chelsea again had the freedom of our penalty box just after the break and we were 3-1 down there was going to be no way back for Saints.

But amzingly Puel did nothing for 15 minutes as it suddenly looked like Chelsea would swamp us, there were no changes from the bench for a full 15 minutes and when it happened it was Redmond on for Boufal, in itself it was baffling why Redmond hadn't started the game in the first place, Boufal did not play badly but he does not have the work rate of Redmond and that in itself caused us problems.

With 8 minutes left it was Long on for Ward Prowse, was this brave or foolish from Puel, did we stand a chance of getting back into the game ? the balance of the side was now very much upset, 3 minutes later and Gabbiadini was off for Rodriguez and you sensed that the manager didn't know what he was doing and it was no surprise when Costa made it four a few minutes later, most of the travelling Saints support missed Ryan Bertrand's late consolation.

At 3-1 down to the Champions elect and 35 minutes still to go and a defence in disarray most managers would look to shore things up, get back into the game slowly and hope to get possession and find a way back, Puel's idea is to try and outscore the opposition, baffling.

I'm sorry f you have read this before, I'm sorry i have seen it all before if it is any consolation.

I have nothing against any Saints player, I have to personal reason to want any of them dropped apart from my issues with their performance levels and week in week out I see the opposition being gifted easy chances, in some games like Bournemouth, Palace and West Brom the failure of those teams to score from free chances at close range meant we got more points than perhaps we should have got, but Manchester City and Chelsea are a little bit more clinical in front of goal.

If anyone disagrees with me that is fine, football is about opinions, but I will say this, given the quality of central defenders e have had in the past four seasons, if either of these two are first choice next season would anyone actually be happy with this ?

The answer is no, that being the case the excuses I hear about giving them game time etc and bringing them on are not relevant, in fact if Jack Stephens is going to have a shot at a future at Saints then playing him alongside Yoshida is counter productive, as a duo they are not good enough and never will be, at least not to the standard of the pairings we have had in previous years.

Sorry Claude Puel, your team went out and did it's best it matched Chelsea for workrate and battled hard, but it was let down again by shoddy marking and defending at crucial moments, that is not the fault of Yoshida or Stephens they are doing their best, their best is not good enough, again they cannot be lambasted for that they give 100% but the team is being let down by it's manager who is failing to lead it and show that he is tactically aware of his side's failings and indeed strengths.

Photo: Action Images

redwight added 19:37 - Apr 26 TeamCortese, while I agree entirely with your transfer wishlist, to say that Yoshi and Stephens have proved themselves to be a good backup CB pairing is nonsense. Yoshi maybe, but as a pairing no way. If you really believe that, then you are setting your sights very low. Nick is right on this, as he is on Puel who he did not rush to judge when others did. Sadly, it seems they were right on this occasion. As to Caceres, if Puel doesn't think that a seasoned Argentine international who has played for some of the best club sides in the world is not as good as a player who started the season as a 5th choice CB, why in the hell was he signed at all?

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AmericanSaint added 20:00 - Apr 26 Wow, are there some negative comments on the board today. While there are some good points made by most on the board, I think some people were watching a different game than I last night. First, we must face the fact that we are staying mid-table, so not much to play for. Next, if you have read the papers, blogs, etc for this week, it seems that the team is looking at giving certain players an opportunity to demonstrate their abilities. I think that is why Boufal started. I think the team has some serious doubts about him and Puel needs to give him the game time to show. Boufal play okay last night. He did better in the first half on helping on defense, but he had to many errant passes for me. I think he needs to watch more game tape to see how he needs to simply his playing. Next, I am a Davis fan, but I think Holjberg should have started. I think he gives you a better passing option from the midfield. Next, JWP did a good job going forward and his set crosses were on target. Even the announcers pointed out that Chelsea were horrible on all the set pieces. I will say JWP needs to learn to look forward with the ball more and his constant back passing is not only annoying, but on several occasions, it put Romeu, Davis and Stephans in a bad spot, with multiple times us losing the ball in midfield. Ok, now to the defense issues. I am with Nick and wonder why Caceras is not given a shot. It must be a money/contract thing. However, I think Stephans has serious potential and this is the time to get him game minutes. We do need at least 1 if not 2 more higher caliber CBs, but if you wants Stephans to be able to fill in next year without any trepidation, then let him play. Again, we are not going any higher in the table, so let him play. Finally, Mr. Foster - 2 of those goals were no where near his fault. However, this year his is rooted to his line and that gives the opposing team more area to cross the ball into. Costa's header should never had been able to get to him as Foster should have been off his line. Coutrois came out earlier in the game to punch a similar cross out of the box. Foster has been poor this season, but not all of it is to blame on him. He did make a great save on Konte's one-one. I dont know the problem, but he needs to change and become a bit riskier and control the 6 yard box better. On Puel - He has been hit or miss on the tactics this season and I am not going to be too harsh on him overall. I think there is a lot of back room board antics going on and not sure how much control he has. He led us to a Cup final and we are 9th, so to all the people who want him axed, I think you are a bit harsh after his 1st season isnt even over. Come talk to me in Decemeber and if things havent changed, then I am willing to listen to the ax campaign. Well that is my two cents. and a win over Hull this weekend and everyone will have forgotten this game.

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the_saint added 21:20 - Apr 26 the cup final has been a smokescreen for a poor season I've been home and away this season including Europe and we've been poor even before the injurys kicked in.
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garethhartwell added 21:37 - Apr 26 I'm sad to say that though I do not like clubs who sack their managers too quickly, I think that Claude Puel has seriously underachieved this year and we need to start looking for a new way forward. Yes, he has been unlucky with Fonte and VVD but the problems started before that - we have underachieved in the Europa League and the Premier League. When you take into account the quality of our training facilities and Academy, the strength of the first team squad he took over and the budgets available for transfers and wages, finishing in the bottom half of the PL as now seems likely is not acceptable. Yes, a day out at Wembley in EFL Final was nice, but there was a lot of luck involved in that and it doesn't make up for the general underachievement this year.

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TeamCortese added 07:15 - Apr 27 redwight I'm not saying the pairing is acceptable as a long-term solution (that's why they're backups) but you cannot denied without their qualities we wouldn't have made it to the EFL final. In particular their performances against Liverpool and West Brom were very, very good. However, I would prefer to have either of them play alongside a first team centre half in future rather than as a pairing. With regards to Puel I think the assessments made are very unfair. Yes he isn't as charismatic as his predecessor in interviews and definitely doesn't do enough shouting on the touchline! But this is his first season in charge and assuming that we maintain our current position then that's a pretty good start considering what he's had to work with. If you think this isn't good enough then I'll remind you that MoPo didn't fare much better in his first season in charge of us and now he's challenging for the titles with Spurs. These things take time. I personally think we are playing more attractive football recently—whether it is as effective as Roko’s or MoPo’s is yet to be seen. But then again does Puel have the players he wants to make the system work? Most probably not. He left Nice with a blueprint and they added the right additions and are now challenging for the Ligue 1 title and finished fourth the previous season he was in charge. I have always said consistently on this forum that the issue with the club’s progression lies centrally with the board. Roko’s departure was unnecessary last summer and we have regressed as a result of it. When you consider the work he’d put in to build us into the top 7 I think it was a bit of a spit in the face by the board to sell all those players. We need a business owner who’s willing to back our manager and not sell our core first team at sight of the first offer. As Clive has been saying on TUI videos this transfer window will make or break the future direction of Southampton FC.

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BaselSaint added 09:52 - Apr 27 Fair comment Nick, would agree with all that and the Caceres situtation should be the subject of a public enquiry! Somethings very wrong and being hidden. The fans pay enough money and they should at least be afforded the common courtesy of an explanation why he is not used when we are so vulnrable at the back. Quite infruriating actually.
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saintpp added 14:02 - Apr 27 NICK How about writing something positive for a change to rally the fans for our last games the last thing we need is groups of fans on the managers case and booing certain players.ALL things considered it hasnt been a bad season and one which was allways gonna be a season of transition even without losing vvd and austin for most of it.
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aceofthebase added 16:31 - Apr 27 I can't understand why the Caceras situation has becoe so inexplicable. If there are hidden reasons why he doesn't get on the pitch then a simple staement would prevent a lot of head scratching. I would rather not moan about our players, or manager or board apart from ......
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