Chaplin and Hirst both played for our fishy chums down the M27. Older Saints fans will remember Hirst`s dad in a Saints shirt, I think. Wes Burns played for Aberdeen for a while - I even saw him score in a European tie. If Saints lose, RM`s jacket is hanging on the shoogly peg.
I think that Russ has to be pragmatic in this one and mix up the play at the start of the match at least. We simply can't go on throwing the match away before the team has even settled. We passed the ball from the kick off right back to Gav and then attempted to pass through the Leicester press, that is not playing the percentages and it's easy to get caught cold that early in the game and is so unnecessary and heaps the pressure on the team. It's very possible to score from the kick off if you are positive and pass forward, just ask Shane Long! It is now obvious to everyone that Shea has to play at DM to protect the back four and I would like to see either Smallbone or Charly instead of AA as an AM and try not to be too clever with the FBs positions either. Letting in as many goals as we have is alarming but we are still just one point outside the play-offs and we should look to keep things tight in the first part of the match tomorrow and certainly have more than one back from any corners we take.
Martin will stick to his guns and live or die his way IMO. At the moment he has a squad who don't like what they are being asked to do, they are nervous, making mistakes and panicking when they give the ball away. I think Baz is good with it and the front line seem to be alright when we get into the final third but the mids and backline are all over the place mentally. He needs to give them covering options and not leave them so frigging exposed when they lose the ball. Its like asking roofers to work without scaffold or harnesses at the moment. Of course they're not comfortable. I expect us to lose this one and see more mistakes and calamaties but hopefully not by 3-4 goals again.
Bazunu KWP THB Bednarek Manning Charles Smallbone Alcaraz Edozie Adams Armstrong Please. With the fullbacks staying as fullbacks.
We are in a huge conundrum if we do ship 3 or 4 again. SR clearly want to back him but I don’t see how any manager can survive for long conceding 4 goals a game with such a strong squad
See, this is where my confidence we can turn it around comes from. That is a really good team at this level.
But teams need to be coached. And the last two games have shown a stubbornness that scares some of us. If that team plays and we still get tonked then RM will be on last chance saloon.
Yes I accept that. I said on Saturday Martin needs to adapt and be flexible. TBH I'm absolutely fine with a possession based game. It's him trying to be the Championship Guardiola he needs to cut out.
Me too. Possession works. But defending like idiots doesn’t. We should not have conceded 3 goals from our own corners. We should not look like any attack down the wing will give up a goal.
I probably was being a bit too positive yesterday. But all the negativity just wears thin for me. 2 bad games does not mean a bad season. For me, there are still more reasons to think we will turn things around than not. If Martin plays a flat back 4 with Charles sitting in front of them we will see immediate improvement. If we stop treating all our corners like we're 1-0 down in the 90th minute we will see improvement. It's so glaringly obvious surely Martin can now see it. I still maintain we have the players to beat most of the teams in this league if simply go back to basics. Anyway, Tuesday will be very revealing one way or the other.
Also RM doesn’t help himself. He always says he won’t change things, just get better at them. Well our corners and use if fullbacks needs to change not improve. Hopefully he does that.
Very little doubt about this bit. I do think a few did get carried away after we narrowly beat a few of the weaker sides in the league and after playing a few decent sides (Norwich, Sunderland & Leicester) they have had a reality check. Although with that said, despite the scorelines suggesting otherwise, I don't think we are a million miles away. Martin doesn't need to overhaul this possession based system, which is good because he would never do that (and its why we hired him!). But he does need to adapt it and make a few changes. Hopefully he isn't so stubborn or narrow minded to accept this. If he does focus on tightening us up at the back and stop taking so many risks, then I think we will be right up there as one of the stronger sides in the league.
I think the fact that it is such simple changes is what concerns me. The DM thing was a clear issue v Norwich over a month ago, why are we still persisting without one? It's painfully obvious stuff. I know we talk a lot about how managers etc know more than us and I generally agree with that, but if we play without a DM tomorrow I think I'd happily say that I know more about how important a DM is to an attack-minded possession side than he does. He never sorted the defence at Swansea or Franchise FC so I don't share the confidence that he'll sort it here.
Yeah I agree with most of this. We beat Sheffield Weds, Plymouth and QPR pretty unconvincingly score line wise at least, and then shipped a **** ton of goals against anyone who had a bit of a go at us. The style as is feels ridiculously open and unless we keep the ball the entire game or score 5 I just don’t see it being a success. I mentioned yesterday that I can see why Martin got praise for his style when managing expected mid table teams and trying to play an attractive style, but teams generally will set up differently when playing one of the league favourites and he more cautious when we have the ball, making it harder for the space to develop for us to exploit. This leads to us having possession for possessions sake a lot of the time, getting comfortable with the ball so players move further up the pitch and then when he lose it we are immediately ****ed at the back. At the moment I don’t really see how it can change unless Martin completely revamps his style, but I am not a professional coach and maybe there are some tweaks which will work and not mean it changes too much.
Uncomfortable question. If we lose this, then taking into account the relative quality of our squad and opposition, has Martin had a worse start than Nathan Jones?
