In a week when Clause Puel's team selections have come under fire, the announcement that Jordy Clasie has won Saints goal of the month for April has taken on a very ironic significance.

April was a month where Saints struggled to score goals, in 3 of the 4 games played at St Mary's 3 of them saw Saints fail to score and in the six games played we only managed six in total.

So there wasn't much to choose from and the winner was perhaps the most significant because it hauled back opponents West Brom and it was the one goal of the Month that actually mattered in terms of altering the scoreline.

But in a weekend where Claude Puel's team selection was under fire, it was ironic that Clasie should be the recipient of the award for goal of the month.

The West Brom game saw Clasie restored to the starting line up for the first time in two months as he had found himself marginalised by the Saints manager and during that period he managed only 3 minutes of action, that being at the end of a 4-3 win at Watford.

He rewarded Puel with a performance that arguably was a man of the match display and capped it with the only goal of the game to send Saints home with all three points.

His reward was to be dropped for the next game against Manchester City and after sitting out that and the following game against Chelsea on the bench without getting on the pitch, he found himself not even in the list of substitutes for the visit of Hull on Saturday.

This is perhaps symptomatic as to why Saints have been so inconsistent this season and why the rumours of player discontent are rife, at any level players like to play games and they need to know that a team is picked on merit, Puel's sides this season have varied so much and Clasie along with Shane Long and a couple of others must wonder what they need to do to get a place, they see hard work and a good performance getting them no reward whatsoever in terms of being selected for games and that must be demoralising.

Any good team thrives on competition for places and when that competition is not there and players don't know what the manager will do next it does not breed team spirit and leaves the squad baffled as to what the manager wants from them.

So Jordy Clasie winning the goal of the month award sees a feeling of irony not lost on a large portion of the Saints support and perhaps more significantly it will not be lost on the likes of Les Reed and Ralph Krueger who know the values in football and building a competitive spirit in a squad.

Claude Puel should be being applauded this season for getting Saints into the top ten and an appearance at Wembley, but ultimately he may find himself remembered only for a series of strange selections and a rotational system that stopped us getting any consistency and performing to the levels that this squad should have been capable of.

Jordy Clasie will perhaps be feeling this more than most today !

Photo: Action Images

NeilF added 20:00 - May 2 It does not seem real. What more can a player do? Where is the logic in it? Lost for words!!!
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saintsnutcase added 20:04 - May 2 Why is this a surprise? Puel always drops anyone who scored in the previous match. It's called rotation.
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bstokesaint added 02:55 - May 3 What I don't understand is that Mourinho is well renowned for preferring small squads and won domestic and European honours with Chelski. He's been chopping and changing at Man U a bit recently, but I'm sure if he was able to pick his own players, he'd stick to a core team with a handful of quality replacements. For me personally the thing that really bugs me right now, and all season is I don't even have a clue on what our best XI is. I've never said that before. So I do sympathise with Clasie, amongst others. I've not seen anything this season to suggest rotation works for us.

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SaintBrock added 09:26 - May 3 Jorde has had a rotten time under Puel and if I were him I'd badger off to a club that wanted and respected me. Everton comes to mind and surely a bid is being prepared? Wasn't the lad captain of Feyenoord after all? Even accepting Puel's hopelessness at judging players, Jorde's continuing exclusion amounts to something far more sinister than poor performance.
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petedoors1 added 09:49 - May 3 The answer is easy CLASIE IN PUEL OUT.
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Jesus_02 added 13:03 - May 3 Has Peul done enough? That’s the question. We often hear that “Claude Puel should be being applauded this season for getting Saints into the top ten and an appearance at Wembley” and in terms of our history, where we have come from and where we could possibly have ended up I am sure that most fans (myself included) are grateful for where we currently sit. However, much has also been made about the large investment that Kat has actually made despite sales. Are the hierarchy happy.

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aceofthebase added 21:37 - May 3 Clasie has struggled at SFC. His first season was a huge disappointment, he was constantly knocked off the ball and rarely won a header. He could not get involved in the play and when selected it was like playing with ten men, he should have been sold or sent of to a championship side to toughen up. RK chose not to play him in most games and CP has followed exactly the same path. So Clasie scores a goal, a rarity for any Saints player and now he is the 'must play' player in some eyes. Well I still think he is a weak link in midfield, tho' he has improved enough to compete with our other weak midfield players.

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