Difference to me is Russell Martin has a defined style and doesn't stear from it, Selles sadly for him doesn't know what he's doing or hasn't set on his style yet. Changing from week to week, At least we would know he'd play one way, and with our resources should get the best players for this style of play.
Right. And I'm becoming wary of managers who are known for a particular style. Ralph had the press. Jones was direct. Martin is possession. Can't we find a guy who can play more than one style?
Of what I know about Martin (which isn't a huge amount), he comes across as another person who admires Pep too much. It's all well and good when it's Pep himself implementing his style, because he is doing it with Barcelona-quality or Bayern-quality or City-quality players. It's a whole different story with lesser players. Just to give one recent example of ours: Selles trying to copy what Pep has done with Stones this season, but Selles is doing it with AMN against a Forest team who counter attack for fun! By all accounts, both MK Dons and Swansea have been quite pretty on the eye under Martin, and have dominated the possession stats. But his four league finishes are 19th, 13th, 15th, and 10th. I suppose you could say it's going in the right direction. But I'm kind of fed up of managers (not just Saints) who seem to take the idolisation of Pep and/or possession to extreme, at the expense of results.
I also don't look at our players and see possession domination as being their primary attribute. We have a lot of pace in attack, and a fair bit of flair, but not a tonne of precision. And the primary thing that allows a team to dominate possession is a midfield with the full range of passes in their locker, something that was conspicuously lacking this season (and for several seasons, to be honest). There's a high-tempo counter-attacking team in there somewhere, but tiki-taka? Seems a bit dubious.
Selles isn't obsessed with possession, I don't think. He's been focusing on 'the playbook' which is all about triggers and counter actions. Time to put that in the bin, I hope. Coaches with a possession philosophy don't drone on to the extent Selles does about the team's play against the ball, playing 'play stoppers' and movement against the space to the extent that he does. They also don't pick players like Elyounoussi just because they block areas of the pitch off for the other team but contribute naff all in possession. That said, we don't have players that can coherently string passes together at the moment, in any case. It's been like watching children play ball on a hot beach. Schad's right - but now is a timely moment to blow it all up and go in another direction. Not sure I want to see us sit back in the Championship and serve up more of 'the playbook'.
They also have regular individual match winners too, we haven't had one of those since Danny Ings left.
I think Martin looks like he could potentially be a gem. However I don’t think now is the time to gamble on another manager which such little experience. Now is the time to throw money at the biggest name we can possibly attract that has the most experience. We need a whole rebuild by someone that has experience at the highest level - not a young upcoming manager. Just my feeling. Slavan Bilic, Mowbray, Rafa even Rooney is more what we need right now imo. I’d probably even go so far and say I’d consider Dean Smith or big sam when they leave the relegation clubs.. that is how worried I am about the lack of experience at the club.
I'd imagine alot of the recruitment is probably going to be run Wilcox, and the new Joe shields when he ever arrives. So I'm nor roo worried about the recruitment element when it comes to fhe manager as such.
On the pitch we should be looking for a Dean Hammond and Jose Fonte type plus one of those individual match winners that I mentioned before but I think that Tella and Smallbone will help with that should they come back.
True; but even he is coming from youth football to a championship club. No one in the club hierarchy has any real record of success at the top level of the game. It’s a bit concerning that we are continuing to gamble on young inexperience tbh.
I know this sounds like a “my brothers best friends uncles cousin says” but… My mate is Russell Martins foster brother, and he said it’s a done deal. Apparently the offer was too good to turn down. Having said that, he also said he had absolutely no interest in the Swansea job when they came in for him, then he changed his mind about 2 days later… https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/topic/60065-new-manager-thread-v3/?do=findComment&comment=3174633 Take it with a pinch of salt.
