He said 15th this season and Martin getting sacked but at least he predicted Adarma to have a good season...
Presumably all the supporters that have spent the last 9 months ridiculing MR after every setback feel a bit silly now?
I'm sure there'll be a minority silently & patiently waiting to stick the knife in at the first sign of adversity next season just to say "I told you so" Nb. This isnt aimed at anyone on here!
I lost my **** and wanted him gone after losing 3 in a row before the Leeds game at the end of the season. In the two games against Leeds, and the two against West Brom, however, he has proved he not only knows what he is doing, but can change things up on the fly. It’s a while since we had a manager who could do that. So yes, I feel more than a bit silly now!
I don’t think anyone was silly to question whether he was the right man for the job at times. The aim was promotion and it looked like we were going to miss out for a while. He’s done amazing things here turning the club around, but I expected SR to rectify their error and expected RM to get us promoted. He deserves to be backed and given our full support in the PL, but if we’re languishing at the bottom in nov/dec I expect him to be replaced.
I’ve said all along that I thought a different manager who didn’t play “Russball” would’ve done better with this squad. Possibly the fact that we didn’t play this style in the final and we got through is some justification for that. I also don’t think he will last long in the PL if he sticks to the same style as rigidly as he did during the majority of the season, I still believe this. I said I would sack him if we didn’t get promoted, he did and credit to him for that. Now hopefully he can show that the last couple of games where he has been a lot more fluid tactically has taught him when to mix it up a bit. I do think something that hasn’t been mentioned much (that I’ve seen anyway) was that Martin played for Farke as a player so Martin should know how a Farke team works very well and this would’ve given him a big advantage over him on how to play against his teams. This could be why we beat Leeds 3 times this season Anyway not much can do now but hope we have a good window and Martin can adapt to the PL
I described RM as a clown after we lost 4 on the trot and I apologise for this. Its good to be honest so well said. The way RM handled the play offs was stunning and a tactical masterclass.
Speak for yourself. Apart from single handedly answering every criticism we've levelled at him, shown a tactical masterclass against WBA in the home leg of the semi final, done the triple over Leeds, comfortably winning at Wembley, gaining promotion at the first time of asking and doing it with 2 crocked strikers, I don't necessarily think I was wrong
Spot on for me. I love RM as a human and I think he did a great job getting a lot of the players on side, lifting the mood of the club and I enjoy the style of football(though I appreciate others might find it dull) These were the reasons I wasn’t on his back at all back in September/October, but when we’re making the same mistakes in March/April and giving away unnecessary goals by overplaying in dangerous areas then I became very disillusioned my confidence was shot after the loss at Stoke and I fully expected another stubborn manager to be escorted from St Mary’s. I guess we’ll never truly know if Russ would have made the tactical switch if it wasn’t for the loss of personnel almost forcing him to switch it up, but I’m grateful none the less because even if he did fail here, I think he still has a big future as a manager
Coincidental IMO. RM has been said to be very stubborn with the way he wants his teams to play since before he was hired by Wilcox. Baz getting injured and McCarthy coming in (massive and hugely vindicated call by Martin) and him not being so confident with the ball at feet enforced a change in quite how much we played it out from the back. Injuries to Stu and Che also enforced us to change things up a bit and changing to a back 5 in some big games working out and making us more solid out of posession and less susceptible to being caught on the break, and having more options when passing out from the back, seemed to make him realise that that was the way forward in big games against the better sides.
A lot of the pro-Russ Swansea fans used to say that he was restricted by the quality of the squad he had there. It was hard to know what to think of this at the time, but seeing as their best two players from 22/23, Piroe and Manning, have been largely disappointing in top 6 teams, it stands to reason that those Swans fans were absolutely spot on. I still think it took Martin until December and beyond before he knew which players he could trust to play in his system. Players like Charly and Sulemana weren't cut out for it, especially in the Championship against such defensive opposition. But he has absolutely got the best out of players like Adarma, Smallbone, and Fraser, and for me the whole Jack Stephens shoehorning thing has been justified with our playoff performances.
