AS Saint-Etienne : Is Puel still the man for the job with the Greens? | ASSE News

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I have more and more doubts

“It’s been 16 months that Puel is on the bench of ASSE, with the status of general manager and a salary never reached for a coach of the Greens. The presidents have given him the keys to the truck and the figures are there to assess his work: with him, ASSE has taken less than 1 point per game on average and it has only 19 points in 21 matches this season. The correction imposed by OL on Sunday highlights the extent of the disaster: ASSE no longer responds. It has no tactical or technical consistency in all areas of the game. Even in terms of aggression, it was not there against Lyon. Puel’s choices? His 4-4-2 diamond with 4 defensive midfielders quickly proved disastrous, the team being unable to hold the ball, produce play, and even defend properly. There was no block, with a completely disoriented Neyou in an unprecedented No. 10 role while Aouchiche and Boudebouz were on the bench. Questions are raining down on the management of the group. Which springs will Puel be able to use in the coming weeks? Isn’t he short of arguments, of solutions? No, I would like, but there, after this 5-0, I do not see how we can still consider Puel as the man for the job. It seems difficult to me to find a team even worse off than ASSE. But the unease is too deep in this club to make him bear full responsibility. “

Laurent HESS

For the project yes, but for the maintenance …

“I understand the wave of protest concerning the manager of the Greens. Even more after the derby humiliation. I do not know if Claude Puel is the coach that ASSE needs to carry out a knife retention operation (since the 2020-21 season will be one of forceps maintenance …). I am not sure either that it has the workforce as it stands, if only at the level of the strength of character of the players who compose it. What I am sure, however, is that the project chosen to give space to local talents is vital for the club … and that he is the only one who can lead it.

As much as I do not doubt the benefits “short-term” to put a coach who takes less risk to scrape points against Nice, Nantes, Dijon or Nîmes. As much as I think, this time, given the disastrous economic state of French football, ASSE should not start thinking about the immediate results. In the near future, Saint-Etienne will need to sell and will be very happy to have put Lucas Gourna-Douath, Yvan Neyou, Arnaud Nordin and Yvann Maçon on display.

Even if it is unfortunate to say it, the salvation does not pass by the arrival of a hypothetical patron to replace the Caïazzo – Romeyer tandem, nor by a providential manna from Canal + but indeed by an economic rebalancing which must be brought about by the sale of young players and a general decline in salaries. Sainté must, for a while, forget the athlete and think about his survival. Sports survival by agreeing to “live on” in the second part of the L1 table. Financial survival especially because many clubs risk disappearing with the Mediapro fiasco and the Covid crisis. “

Alexandre CORBOZ