Come on, we were considerably better than a bang average Championship team - we finished miles ahead of 5th place. We were a very good side with an average manager. I agree with everything else though.
So SR sack the manager at their French club who is 8th in the league, 4 points of the play offs. Couldn’t make this **** up.
Im convinced they’ve decided to stick with him , and I think if we’re doing well in the championship, he will be here longer than that .
Yeah that’s valid. He did do well to turn the club around from where we were. I don’t want to diminish his achievements there. But I just feel like a genuinely good manager could have had us fighting for the top 2. We threw away so many points, even last season.
I agree, I don't think they are going to sack him. It's utter madness, We are not relegated yet, so let's get someone else in and put up a fight to stay up. I don't want him to manage us in the Championship, should we get promoted again, we will be back in the same crap as we are now.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/59...freedailyemail&campaign=711528&userId=5478073 Damning reading. Paste the URL into https://12ft.io if you have issues with the paywall.
Fair enough, but to play devils advocate here, those are all individual errors. There are examples of goalkeepers passing to people under pressure, wide players getting pressed, mids passing to opponents. I sincerely doubt that McCarthy blames Martin for the goal he facilitated for Liverpool and if he does, hes wrong. Same for Downes, same for Ramsdale, Same for Sugawara. Its interesting that City are second for problems of their own making. Given their changes recently it suggests that its a player issue rather than a system issue. I'm honestly more concerned with our inability to use the ball rather than our ability to lose it. Its the 10minutes of passing it sideways and backwards that does my head in more than the playing out. I'm with the writer of the article - the system isn't wrong it just isn't 100% right at the moment. It needs adjustments rather than throwing out. Show me a good manager with a good track record to take over and I'm onboard but pointless sacking him for another unknown.
Are we at risk of sanctions from the PL? Deliberately pursuing a policy that gets a team relegated might be construed as match fixing, league fixing, lunacy. Just wondering?
Ah, the Athletic piping up with another negative article about us again. Don't hear from them unless they've got something damning or critical to write (no matter how true it may be)
Apologies if this has been asked before, but is it possible that there is some relegation clause with Martin, in that should we be relegated, his pay off (should we sack him) is reduced/ negated? I know on paper it seems unlikely that he would agree to this, but it could be something we imposed as part of his contract extension? It just seems odd that we are sticking with him, given his 1 win from 12 games.
Thanks for posting this. It's definitely something you see in games. The issue for me is always movement and decision making. When you see Manchester City do this, the movement is exceptional. Ours isn't. On the occasions when the players are energetic enough to do it, it works, but most of the time we are just too static. Equally, other teams know what we are going to do and unless we mix things up a bit, any team is going to get found out. City is always the benchmark here, and you don't find them exclusively playing out, there is a mixture there with some quick transitions alongside slower build up. By enabling the opposition to plan in intricate detail to play against us, the pressure is always on and players have to be exceptional. Flynn Downes is being asked to be Andrea Pirlo, but that's unfair. In terms of the individual mistakes, we just don't track players well enough and haven't for years. There are some out of position mistakes, but these are often compounded by further mistakes. I'm very rarely in favour of firing a coach as they will develop over time. I am on this occasion as I'm just not seeing the observation skills and clear coaching of behaviours. I never particularly liked Ralph's 'automations', but you could see the process. I know he was spent in terms of energy, but I really didn't want to see Ralph go as I always saw a great coach in him and haven't seen that in anyone since. I know how highly rated Selles was (especially in Spain) and there is definitely a talented coach in there, but maybe a poisoned chalice for him that he just couldn't deal with. Anyway, for maybe the first time, I'm in the 'fire the coach' camp.
I’ve said before that I think Martin would be getting plaudits if he had a better squad. So I guess it depends on your view. Is a good manager someone who adapts to the situation and changes his style based on the ability/talents of the squad. Or is it someone who has a set of principles they stick to and, when they work, are successful and (to some) appealing to watch, resulting in dominating games. I remember an interview with Pulis when Stoke got promoted he spoke with Alex Ferguson. Ferguson said to him you have no chance of staying up with your squad playing football, the best hope you have is to make the Britannia a fortress and ****ing horrible to play in. If any opposition manager praises you for your style of play after a game then you’ve ****ed right up So they let the grass grow long, they brought in Delaps long throws and they made the pitch as narrow and as short as was allowed and they made it horrible for much more talented teams to play there. Wenger even got a rule changed because of Stoke and the maximum length the grass can be is shorter now. We roll out the red carpet and try and outplay far more talented sides than us, top managers are fluffing Martins ego before and after games and look where it’s getting us. Stoke are obviously an extreme example but I think the general point is valid. You have to adapt when you aren’t as talented, and we aren’t
Good post, I think that we should absolutely playing the percentages better than we are right now and doing everything that's best to get results in this league when it's been proved that we simply don't have the players to play Russball in its' purest form. I think in some ways we have performed better than many expected us to and have been competitive in most games but the results are ultimately what the measure should be and the table doesn't lie. Russell must be more pragmatic or leave unless SR have already written off the season but i'd imagine that they'd take notice of an increasingly toxic atmosphere from the fans.
As has been said countless times, you need top quality players to make the system work with very few errors. I have said before that the players should be sat down in a classroom and taught the basics of trigonometry because many of them don’t seem to understand how to create an angle for a pass. I regularly see players move into positions where they are putting an opponent between themselves and the player with the ball. They effectively mark themselves out of the game, allowing the player on the ball to be further pressed leaving smaller angles for safe passing. Alternatively an opponent puts himself between the ball and a player and the player doesn’t make enough effort to open up a safe pass opportunity. And even when there are multiple options for a pass we regularly choose the worst option. Before the game Sunday, Slot said that he had shown his players how we play out of trouble and beat the press, but he also said that he showed them how, if they kept on pressing, we would at some point give them a goal opportunity. He was right.
“The way to avoid these issues is simply for the goalkeeper to either hold onto the ball a little longer before release, to allow his team-mates to reorganise, or opt to go long.” It’s so eye-wateringly simple.
