Despite a season of complete inconsistency and the fact we have taken only two points from the last four games, Saints could move into 8th if they beat Arsenal this evening.

There are many Saints fans who can't wait for the season to end,the dichotomy is that to the casual observer we look like a club about to have another great season, one that has seen us reach the League Cup Final, a Europa League campaign and on the verge of another top ten finish.

But you would find few Saints fans who would be in complete agreement with that, it has been one of swings from one week to the next, one that has not seen more than two Premier League wins in a row and one of strange team selections and substitutions, the word is inconsistency.

If we had found even a little consistency then we would now sit comfortably in 8th and would be staring down the necks of Everton in 7th.

But that has not been the case all season and we have to look at sides like Bournemouth and Burnley playing out of their skins and breathing down our own necks where we put in lacklustre performances but still have a squad able to pull out wins here and there, despite never being able to find any sort of form, at least not on a regular basis.

The teams directly above us West Brom and Everton have found that sort of form at times, as have the teams below us, we never have and there has to be a reason for that.

It would be easy to blame the rotation policy of earlier in the season, but the results have been no better since the New Year when that was effectivily abandoned.

Rotation policies can work if they are implemented properly and I'm afraid to say that ours wasn't, the changes made often made no sense, in form players were dropped and out of form players stayed in and it all added up to disjointed performances.

That of course came down to the manager who seemed to wan't to make his mark immediately rather than look at what he had to hand and slowly make his presence felt, that meant a change in playing style that we did not have the personnel to adapt to at least not immediately and a squad that wanted consistency (That word again) in the manager's selections and found none.

Harsh on Claude Puel, yes perhaps, but it is the manager that has to carry the can and although there have been many factors that have not helped the Frenchman, it has to be said he hasn't helped himself in many of the things he has done.

The playing style that Puel wanted to introduce did not suit the type of strikers that he had at his disposal and therefore perhaps the best thing to have done was ease his playing style gradually into the squad, instead it was forced on them from day one and it meant that players like Nathan Redmond were forced to play out of position and bear the brunt of the fans anger.

In January Puel did get the striker he needed and started to get the results, but he was again let down by Les Reed and his back room team who failed to land a replacement for Jose Fonte, this was made worse when Virgil Van Dijk got injured leaving Puel with two central defenders who would both be ok as back up but neither as number one choice, if you disagree ask yourself would you be happy if this was the case at the start of next season, the answer would be no and i doub't Puel would be either.

The case of Martin Caceres is a strange one, despite having a defence that leaks goals, Caceres has not had even a minute of playing time and that is baffling.

So now we have a playing style that as shown at Liverpool has to abandon all attacking options, it relies on protecting the centre of our defence and going on the break, but when it does it cannot commit players forward otherwise it exposes the defence as Manchester City and Chelsea did to aplomb.

So Claude Puel is not helping himself with not trying Caceres, but apart from that he does not have much option other than try to keep it tight at the expense of attacking, if he tries to attack as he did at Chelsea and at home to City, he finds his defence ripped apart as they do not have the speed or nous to stop counter attacks at speed and if he counters that himself by keeping a solid midfield trio sitting deep, he finds his strikers isolated as they were at Liverpool.

All of this combined finds a manager who appears unsure of what to do for the best, a team who are short of confidence because they are unsure of what the manager is going to do next and this all adds up to inconsistency.

The frustrating thing is that we are the 7th best team in the division, possibly the 6th, the difference between us and Everton is a striker that can score 15 goals or more, even if we had one in double figures then we would be comfortably above West Brom now.

So what does the future hold for Claude Puel at Southampton, at times he has shown that he is the man for the job, but every time that has stated to happen, things have conspired against him, injuries, suspensions and issues off the field ie Jose Fonte.

Perhaps Claude Puel is just an unlucky manager, but I think the issue has been his failure to adapt to certain situations, too often he has made the wrong team selections, resulting in dropping points we really should have kept.

Too often he does not seem able to change style or formation, again frustratingly when he has done and got results he quickly changes back again.

That goes for his team selections, Jordy Clasie would be a recent example after being in the cold for two months he returned and scored at West Brom was arguably man of the match and then his reward has been to not get another minute on the pitch and now not even in the squad.

That is inconsistency from the manager and highlights why his squad cannot find any confidence or consistency.

Thankfully the team spirit seems to still be there and that has got us through some games but how much longer can that hold.

The truth is that in virtually every game that we have got points in since January we could easily have lost them due to poor defending and the opposition's inability to convert easy chances including penalties.

So as the title says, it is inconsistency that has cost Saints dearly meaning that this season has been one of brilliant highs as in Inter Milan at home, the two Liverpool semi finals and Wembley, but has also seen too many crushing lows.

It has lacked what Koeman has taken to Everton the ability to find a formula that mans that we can put in 4 game winning streaks every now and then and soar up the table.

Photo: Action Images

LordDZLucan added 09:27 - May 10 At the end of the day our current first choice eleven is probably the weakest that we've had for the last 4 seasons. That is what has cost us.
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SaintNick added 10:16 - May 10 You have a point, but if we get VVW back in and then another quality central defender then I would say that as a squad we are stronger than the last four seasons, it is not your first XI that wins the points that matter it is the depth of the squad, which in turn should create competition for places and a better first XI.
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Jesus_02 added 11:01 - May 10 @LordDZLucan: I find myself disagreeing slightly here. WE have some great/talented players. Tadic, Boufal, and Gabiadini are all technically excellent. I haven't seen many better at saints. Also if you watch them they arent lazy either. We also have Redmond, Bertrand, Cedric and Romeu who are top drawer in thier positions. Fraser Forster was looking at beating Joe Hart to a regular England start at the beginning of the season. Thats before we talk about VVD. My shopping list this summer would be a defender a defensive midfielder and most of all a new manager that is going to make the most of the talented players that we have

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LordDZLucan added 11:11 - May 10 I don't disagree that there is a lot of talent there. I just think we have too many similar players. We're short on strength and pace which we used to have in abundance.
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TimSaint added 11:17 - May 10 Our shots to goals conversion rate explains it perfectly, together with playing the 2nd half of the season with 3rd and 4th choice central defenders !! FACT
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SaintBrock added 14:39 - May 10 Very few PL managers manage to survive for a whole season serving up the sort of poor and inconsistent performances that have characterised our season, so CP should be grateful indeed that he works for Saints and not a less tolerant outfit. As for 'settling in' to the PL, he has had 50-odd games to sort out his best XI and playing style but seems to be no nearer doing so than at the beginning so we must accept that things will not get any better than how they are now. On that basis alone I would not invite him to stay for another season. Some people are putting all their trust in the return of VVD and Austin but we were not doing that well even when they played. We have some very good players other than those two but nearly all of them seem have regressed since Koeman and his team left us. Of course you can point to exceptions like Oriol but that surely his rise is more down to Wanyama clearing off and leaving Oriol the chance to grab and cement his place than any magic wrought by CP. For me, yes, this is a season to forget but if nothing changes and we go on doing the same old things in the same old way next season, then inevitably we are going to end up with the same old results.

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aceofthebase added 15:19 - May 10 It struck me that the game against Liverpool was a typical Koeman game with the opposition camped outside our penalty area and Saints relying on a breakaway goal. the differnce being that Koeman had Pelle and Mane to get him off the hook. At half time Koeman would change the team, because his intiial selections and tactics were invariably wrong. The real difference between the managers is that at the press interviews Koeman would say 'errrrrrrrrrrrr' and Puel say 'ahhhhhhhhhhhh'. Both managers played to get Saints points but as you say Nick in such a derogatory way 'The Frenchman' but would not have called koeman 'The Dutchman'. You have been on Puels back for most of the season apart from way back when you said give him a chance. Puel has his faults but generally it is the squad of players used are not quite upto it, the midfield is the main problem we need a few bigger boys to provide more attacking options and to take the pressure of our defence.

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richsaints added 17:43 - May 10 To be brutally honest the squad has not recovered from the loss of pelle and mane mainly no serious replacements made . Redmond has done better than i expected Boufal is a luxury the squad is not good enough to carry . Tenth with four to go and safe is probably as good as it could be . No club has the media trying to destabilise like we do regardless of transfer window open or not so all things considered we should be happy.

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