As others have said I don’t think the talent in the squad is the issue, it’s completely on how we are being set up and told to play. Martin so far has been exactly as all the “negative” fans at other teams had described. It appears he thinks that because of the talent in the squad he can just play his way without really adjusting/thinking/coaching and it will be alright. This probably will work against lesser teams in this league but when we play the better sides, like we have in the last 2 games, we will most likely get battered. It’s just complete ****ing arrogance that we can play that way and not get smashed because we are the bestest. Look at their fourth goal (and other chances they created), we had the ball about 5 yards outside their penalty area. Sulemana plays a sloppy ball and they intercept and then they are basically clean through on our goal, from ****ing midway inside their half! Under 6 teams would get rinsed by their coach for doing that so there is no way that professional players do that of their own thinking, they are being told to just pile forward at every opportunity. It’s just crazily naive and arrogant from the coaching staff
Just need to go back to keeping it really simple as so many have said. The full backs can play high if we have a double pivot. At the moment, we don’t even have a single pivot so the gaps are truly frightening. If Charles starts anywhere other than in midfield against Ipswich, they’ll take us to pieces
I don't mind Martin setting up this way. What I mind is the players he is picking. Downes and smallbone do not protect our midfield. Starting the game with a good dm in a 3 man defence and a right back at dm did not help us. Would happily start next game with frazer,edozie, che. Maybe swap Armstrong for alcaraz.
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Who else could he have picked in the defence/DM roles yesterday? We have injuries so his hand was forced to a degree. The comical signing of Holgate means we are ****ed for depth at that position and basically are rolling with 3 centre backs and dropping our only DM to centre back to cover when suspensions/injuries occur
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I agree completely. I really wanted a more experienced manager than Martin. Someone that knew the league. Since he came in he won me over by being a nice bloke - but that doesn’t win matches. But the last two games have been completely unacceptable. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a saints team so bad defensively and that is a quite incredible achievement. You cannot concede an average of 2.67 goals per game and achieve a good season. Madness
I thought I would wait before I posted after last night's result to have a bit of time to reflect. We had a very big squad from last season and we had to move on a lot of players which took a long time to achieve. A lot of those players were not good enough or for the ones that were the so called bigger clubs pissed about thinking because we were Relegated we should just roll over and sell them for peanuts. With those issues taking ages it took a while to get new signings in and a few of those were after the season had already started. Holgate for example has been slated for his first appearance and fans saying he should never play for Saints again. Whilst I agree he was shocking he had only been here a matter of days in a different league different surroundings different players different manager and possibly different tactics and no pre season with us in which to learn our style play well to write him off after one game is nuts. He may well turn out to not be good enough but at least give him a chance to settle in and try to prove himself. In central defence we have lost Stephens and Bednarek through injury. I do however think playing Charles in defence is a mistake. You could argue that Manning and Downes have played under Martin at Swansea so they should know how we play and what they should be doing but to be fair so had all the players around them. It is still early in the season and I would rather thing go wrong now than later on in the season and I am positive that things will improve but at the moment I think a bit of patience in required to give the players time to gel. .
I also think that letting Tella leave is costing us dearly. He was very good on the ball & also tracked back. Edozie was OK going forward last night but doesn’t offer anything defensively. We still don’t have any leaders or grit in the team which was another worry as the window closed. Tuesday is absolutely massive now. If we concede another hatful then I think we may have to press the panic button.
I kind of agree re Holgate following yesterday. As much as I want to rip our CBs I think a large part is down to the instructions they are being asked to follow, they are simply being exposed and we are basically playing with two at the back and no covering midfielder. He should have started Holgate and had Charles sat in front of him and THB at DM.
