Assist king Dusan is real Saint for Puel
CLAUDE PUEL ordered Dusan Tadic not to ease up after a truce between the pair helped Southampton close in on West Brom.
Jordy Clasie lived up to his name with a fabulous winning goal as the Saints moved within four points of the Baggies.
Tadic claimed another assist during an impressive display after peace broke out between him and the boss.
Puel slapped down the Serb last month after Tadic complained about being substituted too often but the forward delivered here with his seventh assist of the season.
In his three years in the Premier League, only Cesc Fabregas, Mesut Ozil and Christian Eriksen have more assists than Tadic.
“All the teams know the quality of Dusan,” said Puel. “Dusan, like any great player, has to keep this good form regularly.
“In the first half of the season it was more difficult for him. It is important with his quality and character to keep this level of performances.
“He did well for his international team with a very good performance and now he tries to make the same thing with us.
Qualities
“Dusan can do a very good second part of the season.
“His first part was difficult, it was slow but he came back with spirit and his qualities for the team.
“He makes the play simple and gives a good assist.”
Clasie marked his first start in more than than two months with a fabulous strike from the edge of the penalty area to settle a low-key game.
Victory keeps his side in the hunt to be the ‘best of the rest’, with West Brom having won just once in their last six games.
“Hopefully this will give us a lot of confidence for the end of the season,” said Clasie, 25.
“We have seven or eight games left now and they are four points in front of us.
“Now we can look forward and hopefully we can catch them.”
West Brom were second best for much of the game but they pushed hard for an equaliser in the final 20 minutes with England goalkeeper Fraser Forster twice coming to Saints’ rescue.
He pulled off a superb save in stoppage time to deny Craig Dawson, then came up with another smart shot to keep out a scuffed effort from Jonny Evans.
Baggies striker Salomon Rondon extended his goal drought to 17 club games. But boss Tony Pulis said: “The great thing has been the supporters.
“Fans come in for criticism at times for losing faith quickly and going against people, but they have been really good with Salomon.
“There has been a problem back home (in Venezuela) that is getting better for him.
“He just needs a goal. He needs one to go in off the back of his head.” 6; Dawson 6, WEST BROM (4-1-4-1): Foster 6, Nyom 6; McAuley 5 (Brunt 53, 6), Evans 5 (RobsonKanu LIVERMORE 6; Chadli 5, Fletcher 5 (McClean 63, 66, 6), Morrison 5, Phillips M Wilson, 6); Rondon 5. Subs: Myhill, Yacob, Premier League, Field. UP NEXT: Liverpool (h), Sunday. 7; SOUTHAMPTON (4-2-3-1): Forster 6, Bertrand 6; Soares 7, Stephens 6, Yoshida Ward-Prowse 6 Clasie 7 (Reed 84), Hojbjerg 6; 7 (Sims 71, (McQueen 71, 6), TADIC 8, Redmond Caceres, 6); Long 7. Subs: Hassen, Rodriguez, (h), Premier Pied. UP NEXT: Manchester City League, Saturday. Referee: Chris Kavanagh 7. striker scored a YOUR TURN: Which England last won last-minute penalty when Southampton at Albion, 1-0 in August 2013?