CLAUDE Puel has made life tough for himself.

And, it could be argued, needlessly so.

Thursday’s dismal Europa League defeat at Sparta Prague was the latest in a worrying list of performances.

With top scorer Charlie Austin among those rested, Saints failed to score for the fifth time in 11 games spread over three competitions.

In those 11 games, Puel’s men have scored just eight times - and two of those were penalties and one an own goal.

That means Saints players have only netted five goals from open play in over 16 hours.

Those are the sort of figures which could soon start attracting the words ‘goals crisis’ if there is no real improvement in the coming weeks.

Puel has put himself under pressure with his Europa League team selections.

At Sparta, he left out six of his regular league performers - skipper Jose Fonte, left back Ryan Bertrand, right back Cedric, midfielders Oriol Romeu and Steven Davis and Austin.

Why?

Because the manager wants to keep them fit for tomorrow’s Premier League game.

Why?

Because the Premier League is the most important competition. If you do well, you can qualify for Europe.

Well, Saints ARE in Europe at the moment.

That’s something to get excited about, as they are only one of six Premier League clubs competing in the Champions League/Europa League group stages.

Let’s be honest here, Saints don’t qualify for Europe every season - this is only their ninth campaign stretching back almost half a century.

Yet there was little for the 2,000 Saints fans who travelled to the Czech Republic to get excited about, though.

Saints dominated possession - as they have often done under Puel.

Yet they failed to really trouble the opposition goalkeeper - again, as they have often done in recent weeks.

All the talk coming out of St Mary’s this season has been about taking the Europa League seriously. As they should, given the effort it took to get into it.

Romeu said earlier this week. “We don’t want to put any limit on it. We will give everything.

“We don’t take the Europa League as a small competition.

Those words will appear hollow to the fans who travelled to Sparta - some of whom booed Saints off.

They will appear hollow to the supporters who travelled over 8,000 miles to all three Europa League away ties, and didn’t even have a single goal to cheer.

Austin, Saints’ top scorer, didn’t start any of those three away games in Be’er Sheva, Milan or Prague.

Bizarre.

As a result, Puel has placed himself under pressure ahead of his predecessor’s first return to St Mary’s tomorrow.

Probably the last thing Puel needed was a visit from a man who gave Saints fans so much to smile about.

Given who will be sat in the opposition dug-out tomorrow, Puel could really do with a good performance.

It’s not fair to say he has lost the fans, but he is starting to lose some of them.

Last season, Saints gave as good as they got against the big boys - beating Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and the two Manchester clubs in the league.

That was Ronald Koeman’s Saints.

This season, Saints have failed to score against United, Chelsea and Liverpool - failing to muster a shot on target against the latter.

Against Chelsea and Liverpool, they were easily second best - and that was in front of their own supporters.

The return of the club’s most successful Premier League manager should be a cause for celebration - remembering Koeman’s great signings and great wins.

But with Saints struggling to entertain in recent weeks - Inter Milan at St Mary’s excepted - and certainly struggling to score, that is not the case.

Koeman is not returning to St Mary’s to milk the applause of the fans who once idolised him, though that is highly unlikely given the way in which he walked out of the club.

No, he is returning to win - to try and extend his former employers’ run of four league games without success.

It is up to Puel to stop him, and to attempt to put a smile back on the faces of Saints fans.

They have generally been patient with him so far. But another sterile display against the team led by Saints’ best manager of the last three decades could see some of that patience starting to run thin.