With the controversial departure of Ronald Koeman to Everton over the summer, last season’s sixth-placed Premier League club appointed Claude Puel as the Dutchman’s successor.
This left many Southampton fans scratching their heads and asking just who exactly is the Frenchman? Outside90’s Adam Pawiak casts an eye over Puel’s history, his dressing room demeanour and tactical philosophy, ahead of his first taste of the Premier League against Watford at St. Mary’s on the opening weekend.
History
The 54-year old Southampton manager rose to fame in the 1980’s as a one-club man for AS Monaco in a 488-game career, spanning 17-years. After winning two French Ligue 1 titles and a French Cup, he transitioned to the coaching staff, becoming first team manager in 1999 – where he took Monaco to the summit of French football in his first full season in charge.
In 2002 Puel moved to Lille, where he qualified for the Champions League twice in his six-year reign, including an infamous 2007 quarter-final defeat to Manchester United that saw Ryan Giggs score from a quickly taken free-kick – which almost sparked a walk-off from the French side.
The following year Puel was appointed to French powerhouse Lyon, where he took the club to the UCL semi-finals for the first time in 2010. After a largely unsuccessful time at Les Gones, Puel was sacked and joined Nice in 2012. In his first season with the southern French outfit, he steered them to the dizzying heights of fourth place and did so again last season, earning qualification to the Europa League group stage.
Southampton saw Puel as an ideal fit for the club’s philosophy and the Frenchman signed on for three seasons at the St Mary’s helm.
Tactics
One aspect that made Puel such an attractive proposition to the South Coast club is the way he sets his team up tactically. He aims to control every game, both home and away, with possession-based attacking football. His favoured system is a 4-4-2 formation with a diamond midfield and wing-backs, which provide the width in the winger-less system. This will very much suit the likes of Ryan Bertrand and Euro 2016 winner Cedric Soares, who both excelled in the position when Koeman elected to play in this setup on occasion last campaign. With this pair getting forward, new signing Pierre-Emile Højbjerg will slide in between Virgil van Dijk and captain Jose Fonte from the base of the midfield to create a three-man backline that guards against counter-attacks. The highly rated 21-year-old Danish international, who signed from Bayern Munich over the summer, will be central to the French manager’s philosophy and the fortunes of his team.
Although Puel has his blueprints which have served him well, he is not afraid of the idea of change. He has spoken of his intention to play Dusan Tadic centrally as the No.10 this season, and has hinted that former Norwich winger Nathan Redmond could be deployed as a second striker, running off Charlie Austin or Shane Long.
Management Style
Puel is known to be calm and composed in the media, however, has been reported to speak his mind behind closed dressing room doors. Although never playing or managing outside France, he is regarded as a good man manager who learned a thing or two from none other than Arsene Wenger, who he played under during his final years on the pitch. A testament to his skills is the way he reinvigorated the talented, but once-troubled Hatem Ben Arfa at Nice.
The former Newcastle and Hull attacker hails Puel as a ‘father figure’, which is an apt description for a manager who values and nurtures young squad players and academy players alike. There is no doubt that this was also a major selling point for the Saints, who place great importance on their football nursery as part of ‘the Southampton Way’, which has produced recent famous graduates such as Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana, James Ward-Prowse, Gareth Bale, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott. Such an appointment will be good news for the likes of Harrison Reed, Lloyd Isgrove, Sam Gallagher and Jake Hesketh – who may all be brought in from the cold, since being frozen out under Koeman’s management.
Other attributes the Frenchman possesses which suit the Saints is the ability to get his team punching above its weight, as seen during his time at Lille and Nice. Second, is the he can do so while working within financial constraints. Both of which certainly appear to fall in line with ‘The Southampton Way’.
Although more glamorous names were in the mix for the position, such as former Sevilla boss Unai Emery and former Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini, it is rumoured that both could not come to an agreement to work in with the club’s philosophy in regards to finances and opportunities for young players. Although many fans will be disappointed to miss out on two big names, Southampton have got a manager who appears on paper, to be the perfect fit. Will it turn out that way? We will find out shortly.
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