This performance was unacceptable, but we only have ourselves to blame.

I have been very supportive of Claude Puel and I remain so, however the blame for this defeat has to be placed very firmly at his door.

I said in the build up to the game that we needed to put out our full strength side or at least something approaching it, but the manager made seven changes and they were not for the better.

The fans in Prague were very angry and to be blunt felt let down by the manager, I was certainly one of them !

The issue was that the back four was makeshift and to be blunt not good enough, Sparta caught us cold early doors and we never recovered, if you have a system that relies on getting full backs forward then you have to have players that can play that system well, to be blunt (again) Martina is not good enough going forward, he had a lot of the ball and plenty of opportunity to use it but did not put one telling ball into the box that asked questions of the Sparta defence.

The stats showed that we had 71% possession, more shots etc etc, but we rarely looked like scoring, some would say we lacked forwards, that wasn't the issue, the issue was we didn't get the ball to the forwards and create opening for them, we could have had Messi, Drogba or anyone that you care to name up front, they would not have scored as they would not have got the ball.

So 2,000 Saints supporters went to Prague and were let down by this team selection, as I said at the beginning I am firmly behind Claude Puel, but he has to take the blame for this one, yes he was let down by his players, but if he had picked at least the base of the side he put out against Liverpool then we would have been tight and organised instead of a team that lacked direction which is understandable given the number of changes.

Luckily this defeat is not terminal, but it is damaging, our fate is completely in our own hands, we keep a clean sheet against Happoel Be'er Sheva we go through simple.

I don't like to say "I told you so" but I did and I was proved right, managers making selection errors is not new, every manager does so, this is not a crime, but if we don't learn from our mistakes then that is a crime, we did not learn from the defeat at Milan and repeated it again in Prague, enough is enough.

Photo: Action Images

Fordy added 10:23 - Nov 25 Totally agree, but I am not sure how much he has had his hands tied. Soares and Bertrand are only just back from injury, and I'm not sure how fit Fonte was. There's probably a reason why Davis and Austin never play twice in a week. But disappointing that there seemed little drive or energy in the team. Unfortunate that Hojberg got injured as that took one of the subs away and meant Davis couldn't come on as at least he might have moved the ball quicker. We were slow and ponderous and hopefully we will be better at the weekend.

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perazi added 10:58 - Nov 25 I place less blame on Puel and more with Les Reed and the Board for providing the Club with a distinctly average squad beyond the best 11 or 12. Nick, you've gone to great lengths to argue that we wouldn't miss the likes of Mane, Wanyama, Pelle etc because we have Redmond, Long, Rodriguez, Ward-Prowse, Clasie et al. The fact is these are mediocre players who the remaining class players like VVD, Romeu, Hojbjerg, Boufal etc cannot carry in important games.

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SanMarco added 11:00 - Nov 25 Surely the lesson from this is that 'strength in depth' has NOT been achieved. Sparta had their second team out but we didn't. Every one of the 14 used apart from perhaps Yoshi are players who could easily feature in the EPL first team. The follow on lesson from that is that we have too many players that aren't good enough. The failure to adequately replace departing talent is finally hitting home and in an "Emperor's New Clothes" way a lot of people are taking a while to cotton on. There weren't half a dozen 'first-team' giants missing from our attacking options last night. The JRod gamble has failed, the Austin gamble has failed, Redmond isn't good enough, nor is JWP or Clasie. Romeu is being asked to be Morgan and Victor AT THE SAME TIME and Boufal is not looking like the answer to any questions I can think of asking. We are in a mess and all I hear about January is we re intending to "cash in" on our best player. We look like relegation candidates at the moment and I hope those that run the club appreciate that.

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dirk_doone added 11:04 - Nov 25 I think you'll find, Nick, that Saints fans are going to tell you they told you so. The squad has been weakened by too many sales of our best players even though you told us it was stronger than ever this season and that we had more than enough good goal scorers. You've also been agitating for the sale of Fonte, who you try to blame for every defeat in your match reports, so you should be happy he wasn't playing last night, although it does leave you without a scapegoat.

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davidhosey added 11:10 - Nov 25 I was going to give my opinion but SanMarco has said it perfectly.
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corkcitysaint added 11:14 - Nov 25 A very disappointing result and performance. For me, too many players went missing last night. Our midfield was too defensive for my liking with no creativity to come from it.It's just not happening for JRod in front of goal at the moment, Long rang as he always does, Redmond did nothing, as for JWP, i'm so sick and tired of commentators saying what a great delivery etc he has. Why, oh, why does nothing ever come of it?? Snodgrass came on for Hull against us, hit 2 lovely dead balls into our box and they scored from both!! What is also worrying is why do teams seem to score with their first attempt on goal against us ? (barring L'pool) . To concede a goal as we did last night was really poor. From what I saw, it seemed to be Martina's fault. I agree that going forward, he can't cross a ball. He's too slow to play the ball, he doesn't drive forward or get to the by-line and all too often he gets caught offside! As for the team selection, allowing for injuries, and what is now going to be a very important match against Everton, I'm assuming that he was gambling that we'd at least get a draw and come what may, our fate would be in our own hands for the last match. We need to inject some pace into our play and we need certain players to up the standard as at the moment it's woeful!!

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vanmans added 11:19 - Nov 25 What a load of crap. Half of our players out there tonight are not good enough for the 1st division let alone the prem. Players like Martina, Claisse, Boufal, Redmond, Rodrigues, Yoshida and JWP are just not good enough. Squad rotation means replacing good players with equally good players. We don't have enough good players in our squad to do this so this system must be stopped before we are dragged into a relegation fight. I just don't like watching saints this season its all so boring. How could the board sell Pelle and Mane without buying good striking replacements. Without Tadic we don't have anyone to create anything going forward,

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aceofthebase added 11:23 - Nov 25 and just how do you think Cedric would have stopped their goal. Forster rooted to his goal line and totally immobile. Fonte, Yoshida and Martina your usual scapegoats, but rarely the inadequate Clasie. I want to give Redmond a chance but so far he hasn't taken it and Boufal does not seem much better and he loses the ball too often. I thought I was pessimistic but it seems all on here are agreed that we do not have a decent striker and the service to the striker is poor. Reading comments here is rather like reading the Everton comments page where they dislike their own poorly performing players and have their doubts about their manager. Bring 'em on!

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saintsnutcase added 11:34 - Nov 25 I always knew that Forster was heavy on his feet and unable to judge when to come off his line. So the coaches have presumably told him to stay rooted to his 6 yard box. But now he seems slow and ponderous in reacting to shots as well. Is he injured? Anyway, he is becoming a problem.
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AmericanSaint added 11:38 - Nov 25 So many good points have been made here already. Watching the game made me realize several things: 1) Nathan Redman does not know what position he is playing and does not know how to run the channels. So many times last night he clogged the wings instead of creating space. 2) Martina could not cross the ball to save his life. 3) JWP had some good crosses from set pieces but nobody their to finish. 4) There was no energy and desire and that falls on Puel's head. Finally - all the comments about the board selling our players and cant hold onto them etc., is getting very old. This is modern day football and all the players who left wanted to leave. You can't just replace them so easily. Yes we need a more consistent striker, but the fact is to find someone who is not already at a major club is not easy and would cost $40-50 million which Saints wont pay period. I think we need to start playing a more direct way to create better chances for the strikers we have. Maybe in January we can get another one, but which team is going to let an inform striker leave mid season?

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BathSaint added 11:45 - Nov 25 Nick, you keep saying after every goal-less game that lack of an extra striker is not to blame. To say that no-one would have scored up front last night is plain wrong. Jrod had 2 clear cut chances in the first half and completely fluffed them both, something he has consistently done all season (Inter milan away another example). Had either Austin or Pelle been given those two chances you know they would have put at least one away, or failing that forced some tough saves from their keeper. I really want Jrod to recover but every match he starts for us he really holds us back. Granted in the second half we created much less, but waiting until gone 70 mins to throw Austin on when the team had already seemed to give up and slow down was very poor from Puel. Austin is our only credible goal threat (and our only out and out striker) in the entire squad, but he needs to be on at the start when we traditionally get more balls in the opponents box. Clearly he is not able to play 3 time a week so that brings us to the real problem up front - we needed to sign a second out and out striker for the team as Austin cannot play all the time (Austin + Pelle would be the correct balance. When Pelle was our only out and out striker he went through barren patches too as he was also over-relied upon.

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garethhartwell added 12:05 - Nov 25 Good point AmericanSaint (sorry I pressed the wrong button - meant to say +1 and pressed -1!)
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saintmark1976 added 12:17 - Nov 25 Nick. I think your anger is misdirected on this occasion. The manager can only work with what he inherited. Frankly, and as many of us pointed out before a ball was kicked at the start of the season the squad is simply not good enough to compete satisfactorily at the level being asked of it. Who's fault is this? Surely the blame can only be directed to the club's owner and senior management. After all, they make the big decisions as to who comes and goes in and out of the squad not Mr Pule. If you factor in the instability caused by the owner apparently wanting to sell up or go into some sort of partnership with the Chinese is it any wonder that things are not going well? I would not be at all surprised if some of the players,let alone most of the fans are thinking "what on earth is going on". I truly can not see results getting better until the ownership issue is resolved

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helpineedsomebody added 12:19 - Nov 25 8 years of Mr Lowe / 3 years of swissroll / 6 years of Mr doff & between them none of them know how to play bingo
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bstokesaint added 12:40 - Nov 25 Like you Nick, up until last night I have been trying to remain positive, but that Sparta side are woeful and even if we sneak past the Israelis I can't see us progressing much further if we can't score an away goal. I'm gutted for the away fans. To not see an away goal in our group is pretty much a disgrace. I've always been reluctant to get stuck into a board that have provided such great talents and entertainment over the past 7-8 seasons, but they've made some big errors in the last window and I can't see that situation improving unless we dip into the winter window. The only problem is, like others have stated, what kind of in-form player are we going to get mid season? A very expensive one most likely. We must have the cash because we've been living off player sales for a while now. It's time to spend some of that TV money like other clubs have been doing and bring in a striker and if necessary someone who feed said striker with quality. I still think Redmond can be a decent player, but only if he is played in the right position. Long will only be at his best if he has another striker busting a gut to work with in tandem with him and for me personally Austin is only any good in the box (with decent service), which is a position we rarely see him in. Jay Rod needs to get out on loan and get his confidence back. It’s painful trying to watch him recover his pre-injury form at the top level. It’s not fair on him or the rest of the team. I still think we’re strong enough defensively to maintain a mid-table spot (provided we keep all our players) but the situation upfront is very concerning. I’m not sure how Puel is going to rectify this in the short term.

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LordDZLucan added 12:51 - Nov 25 It doesn't matter what eleven we put out - we can't score. I have been of the view for some time that the problem lies up top and that it would be solved once Shane Long returned from injury. But now that he's back nothing has changed. We still looked toothless last night against very average opposition. We just don't seem to get possession of the ball in areas of the pitch where we can potentially hurt the opposition. That must be down to tactics which in a nutshell I would summarise as 'keep passing the ball until a gap appears and we can take advantage'. The trouble is gaps aren't appearing. It's not the fault of Yoshida, Martina, War-Prowse et al so stop blaming them.

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petesmaterob added 12:52 - Nov 25 We have too many players who are coming back from injury and players such as Boufel who are still adjusting to the Premier league and our playing style. There are also players such as Yoshida, Martina and Classie who are clearly not to the standard we need to move forward. But my biggest concern is our sterile possession across the back four, into midfield and then back to the back four again. As Jermaine Janas said on BT last night the Sparta defence are defending by more or less standing still as we passed the ball across the back line. So easy to defend against and I am sorry to say boring to watch.

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DPeps added 13:01 - Nov 25 Agree with a lot of the above comments. The main issue is not tactics or team selection, it's the lack of quality in midfield and attack. In midfield we've become reliant on Tadic (which is a worry because he isn't reliable) and up front we're reliant on Austin (same problem as Tadic). We looked pedestrian at times last season but we got away with it because we had real quality. The decision to not buy a striker was baffling and most fans could see that we'd have problems scoring as a result. I was in favour of sending Jay Rod out on loan in September, and nothing I've seen has changed my mind. For whatever reason it's not working out for him here so he has to go and try and get his confidence back elsewhere. Boufal might solve the midfield problem but he's not adapted yet or is not fully fit - either way, it smacks of short-sightedness from our board to assume that Boufal would be able to hit the ground running and that Redmond would instantly become prolific!

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bstokesaint added 13:03 - Nov 25 Loads of non-damaging possession, in our own half, and sideways and backwards passing count for nothing, unless you're Barcelona. I've always thought them a little boring to watch compared to someone like Madrid who attack with pace through Bale and Ronaldo, but the huge difference between the way Barca tippy-tappy-pass-to-win and what we try and do is that they play with three world class centre-forwards. We don't even have one near world-class one. It's like we're playing with half a tactic.

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halftimeorange added 13:45 - Nov 25 It is true, Saints are currently boring and predictable and, consequently, the same can be said of comments by fans on this and other Saints websites. For most of the season the general consensus has been that J-Rod should be sent out on loan in order to see whether or not he can recapture the form he showed us before the injury. The observations that JWR, Martina, Clasie and Yoshida are not quite up to the required standard have been made since last season. In fact, I would be hard pushed to provide a reason why Clasie is even in the squad. If Billy Sharp wasn't good enough then Jordy certainly isn't. Claude should not be blamed. We are still in more competitions than at this stage of any previous season. With what he has to work with Claude has worked miracles but, the squad is looking ragged. Even the much-vaunted Van Dijk was off his game last night. No doubt the alarm bells will be ringing at St Mary's as confidence must be evaporating. All is not lost, however. McQueen has showed quite enough to be capable of playing in front of Bertrand or even in midfield. He was arguably our best player yesterday. After next week our necessary commitments will have become clearer and Puel will not be forced into taking so many calculated risks. It's only a week since we scrambled a draw against one of the best sides in Europe (like it or not). We do need more attacking options and I, for one, am sure that our management team will produce another rabbit from the hat during the winter break. last night's loss hurts but it isn't terminal.

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steve73 added 14:26 - Nov 25 There's been so little to celebrate this season but last night was a new low. Utterly depressing performance with not a single redeeming feature. Lots of people defending Puel but starting to have my doubts now. Tactically there's just no incisiveness, players seem uninterested and petulant. Not much fire or inspiration from bench. Redmond's a pale imitation of Mane, should have been signed as an understudy not a direct replacement. It's no fun complaining about everything but maybe we got too used to over achieving; genuinely concerned for rest of season.

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law101 added 14:42 - Nov 25 Our failings are simple. We have taken the flair out of our team and the replacements are not up to standard i.e. Austin, Redmond. We mention, Billy Sharp.... Austin is of that quality. What we are left with is a team who keeps the ball adequately and defends well but can't score goals. They say Austin is a finisher but i would say his conversion rate is 1 in 6 or 7. The big question is, who from our midfield has scored or has the ability to score 6+ goals per season? JWP, Romeu, Højbjerg, Clasie, Davis, JRod, Redmond.... not one can create and score goals consistency, add that to a lack of quality up front and you have a real problem scoring goals!!

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Redrum added 16:32 - Nov 25 We missed Tadic bad the last couple of games. In my opinion we need both Tadic and Boufal behind Austin with two defending/driving forward midfielders.Then have attacking fullbacks for width.Striker in the box,creativity and width.Drop Redmond,Davis and Long.We need drive ,determination and desire not just possesion
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zonehead added 17:59 - Nov 25 It's not the strikers it's chances created that counts and at the moment we are not creating chances so to blame the forwards and the continual moaning about Pelle and Marne is getting us knowhere I hope Tadic is back for the w/e
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bstokesaint added 18:51 - Nov 25 True Zonehead we need to create more, but I'm getting fed up with reading we missed one or two really good chances. When chances aren't being created we need someone with a top conversion rate. The thing with Mane is he played a little deeper, used his pace well and created stuff out of nothing. He didn't necessarily need killer balls, just a midfield that won tackles and gave him the ball. What's more his first touch was often awful, but his pace bailed him out and worse case scenario he'd get a free kick. If he got a decent first touch he'd be almost guaranteed to be in on goal. We don't have that now.

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