Confirmed: Will Still sacked

Sack now?

  • Yes

    Votes: 84 79.2%
  • No

    Votes: 22 20.8%

  • Total voters
    106
Not sure we could necessarily put that on Still, as it would have been heavily influenced by what the medical team (and Ross) said. I think, at least.

Hmmm, not sure really.

He gets medical advice which will influence him sure, but it's still his decision ultimately and anybody could see that giving a player who's barely kicked a ball in 3 years 3 starts in a week is a huge risk.

He definitely shouldn't take Stewart's word for it imo, should be stronger than that.
 
Hmmm, not sure really.

He gets medical advice which will influence him sure, but it's still his decision ultimately and anybody could see that giving a player who's barely kicked a ball in 3 years 3 starts in a week is a huge risk.

He definitely shouldn't take Stewart's word for it imo, should be stronger than that.

Yeah you may be right. Moot now anyway. Hopefully more a three week strain than a three month tear. Please.
 
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If the player looked fit and had trained well, had a thumbs up from the medical team that all was ok and had a player response of "I'm fit to play" you can't blame WS for wanting his best attacking options on the pitch.

Hopefully it's not too bad but anything that needs a scan is going to be some short time to manage even if there is not damage. So it's lucky there's a break but I reckon we won't seem him until November now as the medical team will be careful again.
 
Recruitment teams fault (again) imo. Stewart should only have ever been a bonus striker this season. We needed to buy a starter striker who fits the way we want to play. If we had, we wouldn’t have felt the need to overplay Stewart. Mental to start him 3 times in a week imo. He’s barely started 3 games in 3 years before that. Even consecutive weekend starts is a big step up for him and the max he should do for a good while to build up his body.

But yeah, given the recruitment have once again ****ed up the striker recruitment. It’s ultimately on Still to make the call, and he ultimately made the wrong call.
 
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I get taking it carefully with Stewart but right now he is the player our team ticks around and we have two weeks off after the game. You either trust that a year of physio and barely playing have worked or you don’t. Also, this happened after 20 minutes. Could just as easily have subbed him on after an hour and had the same result.
 
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Looking at last seasons goals count (appreciate that goals / game need to factor but I'm looking at totals for simplicity) I'm sure that SR were trying to bring goals into the team and to widen the player pool who could contribute to them.

Downs - 11 goals (2 Bundesliga)
Azaz - 17 goals (championship)
Fellows - 4 goals (championship)
Scienza - 6 goals (Bundesliga / Europa Conference)
Jander - 3 goals (2 Bundesliga)

Plus we probably expected Armstrong and Archer to be good at this level (i.e get 20+ between them) and we had the unknown about Stewart so I'm sure the club were expecting a tally from that of at least 70+ goals across the season (yes including a realisation that some of those players are stepping up a league)

Leeds scored 95 last season as champions.

Our current goal rate is getting 56 which is below the expected from above so we're definitely not firing properly at the moment but it's off the mark to say that SR just didn't do anything to boost our firepower up front at all as they clearly tried to get more goals into the team. If they did the right things or not will only be crystal clear come the next window and the end of the season.

I'm in the camp that wants to give WS the time to overhaul last seasons dross, clear the poor mental state and get us back to winning but I can also be disappointed as a fan with a poor performance but one poorer performance in a trend of improving performances isn't a case for dismissal of the coaching staff.

It of course can, and should, be a fans debate on the performances and decisions but we all need to accept that we are never in full possession of all the facts around events in the week and most importantly another fan's interpretation (which is inherently personal to them) should never be a cause for a slanging match.

(Sorry the last bit came out as a bit of an old man rant but this board is much better when threads don't devolve into entrenched posturing of the "correct" viewpoint)

This is such a sensible post.

I think SR will do something about the forwards in January. Not sure we will retain Archer and maybe we will recall someone from loam.

I think Downs will be farmed out to get more experience although cannot see him improving to the level we require.
 
Recruitment teams fault (again) imo. Stewart should only have ever been a bonus striker this season. We needed to buy a starter striker who fits the way we want to play. If we had, we wouldn’t have felt the need to overplay Stewart. Mental to start him 3 times in a week imo. He’s barely started 3 games in 3 years before that. Even consecutive weekend starts is a big step up for him and the max he should do for a good while to build up his body.

But yeah, given the recruitment have once again ****ed up the striker recruitment. It’s ultimately on Still to make the call, and he ultimately made the wrong call.

And this was only the first triple-league header of the season. He couldn't even get through that. Across the entire season, there are a heck of a lot of triple headers in this league.

It's not unlucky that it's backfired.

(Yes we've had some weeks where there was a league cup game in the middle, but that's different.)
 
On current showing would agree with this too.

Would like to see Downs go out on loan & try to build some confidence. Maybe Dutch or Belgian league? If he doesn’t do well there, then got to be sold in summer for me, he honestly looks like one of the worst signings for a long time atm.

Archer is frustrating, he clearly has bags of skill & potential, but just not clicking for him. If he can’t show enough by Jan then maybe it’s time he’s moved on?

Ross is a sad story really, if he could stay fit I honestly think he’d be good enough to make the step up to Prem, as Delap did last season. He’s clearly too fragile to be our starting striker though.

That leaves a big, fat absolutely no one to replace them in that central position & until we get 2 proven goalscorers with a bit of physicality we’re gonna really struggle to get into that top 6.

Want to see us go all out to get at least 1 proven scorer at this level in Jan & sign another in the summer too!

This is such a sensible post.

I think SR will do something about the forwards in January. Not sure we will retain Archer and maybe we will recall someone from loam.

I think Downs will be farmed out to get more experience although cannot see him improving to the level we require.
 
I don't think nine games is long enough yet to give Still - but we're probably not too far away from what would be considered fair. There are a further six games between this international break and the next one (split into two triple-headers), so that would seem more reasonable. 15 games is a decent amount.

Two defeats from nine games would extrapolate to approximately 10 defeats across the league season. Over the previous eight seasons, only three teams have been automatically promoted with 10 or more losses (Leicester, Sheff Utd, Fulham) but only one side has finished 4th or lower (Villa). So basically, if you lose 10 matches, then you should be looking at finishing 3rd.

But two wins from nine would equally extrapolate to approximately 10 wins across the league season. Only three sides have avoided relegation over those eight seasons with with as little as 10 wins, with 13 sides being relegated with at least 10 wins (some of whom had as many as 14 or 15 wins).

Our defeats column is top three form. Our wins column is bottom three form. The need to turn draws into wins is imperative; as I and others have said, if we want to challenge at the top end, then a draw is two points lost, not one point gained (unless against a direct top end rival).
 
We don’t need 3rd. We need top 6 - if being promoted immediately is necessary. I don’t actually see us not making top 6 but I do think a consolidation year would be very good for the team. Young talented players are no substitute for young talented players in a settled team.

We are literally a win off 7th place. The team in 7th lost to Derby County. That makes them crap by the metrics of too many people here. It is very early in the season and if only our fans could get behind the team and let it grow then we could enjoy the season.

Hard fact is money doesn’t buy titles. You don’t change things overnight. Analysing a time frame for Still to get sacked is absolutely the wrong attitude. By this point under Martin we had lost 4 times and had a -5 gd. And he had a vastly better squad.
 
Recruitment teams fault (again) imo. Stewart should only have ever been a bonus striker this season. We needed to buy a starter striker who fits the way we want to play. If we had, we wouldn’t have felt the need to overplay Stewart. Mental to start him 3 times in a week imo. He’s barely started 3 games in 3 years before that. Even consecutive weekend starts is a big step up for him and the max he should do for a good while to build up his body.

But yeah, given the recruitment have once again ****ed up the striker recruitment. It’s ultimately on Still to make the call, and he ultimately made the wrong call.
Totally agree. Think I said this in the summer but Stewart should only ever have been considered as the 4th of four strikers. The fact he's ended up being the first cab off the rank and the one that looks best with our other starters tells you they got it horribly wrong with Downs and the failure to bring in any other forward (either instead of or in addition to DD)
 
Not personally yet, no. That one wasn’t on the manager. Under any normal circumstance we win that, and as a unit we looked better.

thought some of his decisions today were questionable, but agree we easily did enough to win that game with the set up he chose.

Could argue I suppose that we only had a couple of spells where we were really dominant and making chances, and if we’d been like that for more of the game we would’ve created more chances and possibly won. Very typical Saints home performance against a side who come for a point