Dman

A hipsters dream.

Brings a tear to my eye watching that - what a team we had back then which makes it even more sad to see the way its gone really.

I said the same at the time. In games gone by he was parrying them straight into the middle of the goal. I'm not a huge fan of Baz, but he's been far from our worst player this season - solid enough at this level imo.

Do we ever win these sort of games? Think it'll be a score draw, which at the start of the week, I'd have taken 4 points from these 2 games.

Best performance of the season for me, especially that first half. We passed with intent, long and short and were clinical. Front 3 were brilliant. Second half I think we managed the game well - Whilst nervous, Leeds never really looked like having a sniff. FWIW, I thought Leeds were very poor.

well done - gold medal for you

What these stats don't show is that 1 (maybe 2??) of these for AA were penalties and another was off the back of his head.

The same bloke who's appointed Darren Furguson about 5,000 times, I'd take what he says with a pinch of salt.

Just my few thoughts and comments. Removing most of the fluff and shite he comes out with every week.

If he means Adam Armstrong, he needs to get in the fucking bin. Worst decision the club has made since replacing VvD with Hodet

Lighthouse trying to hide it away in the lounge 🤦‍♂️

I think you've got the wrong person bro, not sure i've ever said that... The fee we got for Mane at the time was reasonable - Looks low now, but that's because prices went made very shortly after. Also - what on earth has that got to do with the price of chips anyway? we weren't a relegated side in desperate need for a rebuild when we sold Mane, like were this window. Very odd response, not quite the W you thought it was.

@Smirking_SaintDo you remember when you called me clueless, a skate etc. because I said Leicester done the right thing by getting players in (and a settled squad) early in the window and we should have done the same... yeah, turns out the club agree with me... Disaster class of a thread for you and mental manji 😂 https://x.com/TheSaintCentre/status/1707421084679606606?s=20

He could probably do with some time 'out of the game', watching training sessions, learning a different way to play. He basically went straight from playing to MK, then to Swansea, then to us. He's never had a chance to learn and adapt really. Much Like how Eddie howe took some time out and has come back a better manager. I think there could be a manager in Martin at some point in the future - He seems to have the ear of the players (which is one of the biggest challenges) and when it works, it works really well. He's just tactically too one dimensional and naive at the minute. Maybe he could do with someone with a touch more experience in the dugout with him, but I think he's too arrogant to listen to anyone who he doesn't trust. Any appointment is a risk, especially when goign for someone young as a project - Enzo would have been a risk but there was a degree of unknown, Martin has never proven himself despite many chances. I said at the start of the season, Leeds and Leicester had appointed better managers than us, it was obviously laughed off, but it was clearly true. Farke was a really sensible appointment by Leeds - nice style, proven at this level. Should have been on our list ahead of Martin.

expectations have somewhat changed. We weren't expecting to be in a fight to stay in the league in the summer..

yep - IIRC there was talk of waving white hankies at the Everton game 😂😂 I'll be honest, I was pissed off at the time. How wrong was I.

IMO its simple - we get him on the pitch (as far up the pitch as possible) and give him a free role in behind the striker. We play and tell Charles and Downes to sit behind him and do his dirty work and when they get the ball, look for him. Fraser and AA on the wings (AA LW, Fraser RW) are relatively hard workers, so they can chip in and do their bit as well. 4231 with the ball, 442 without it.

In fairness, when was he appointed? Certainly wouldn't have had many games to watch to form a decent judgement on someone this window - proof will be in the pudding in the coming windows, I'd imagine. I'd rather we went for players we know, than throwing cash at someone we've watched in pre-season or 1 / 2 games.

What grates me the most is the way Martin talks as if his system is tried, tested and successful elsewhere, when it absolutely isn't. If he'd been a real success with MK and had over achieved with Swansea, I'd trust the process, but hes been bang average everywhere he's been.

In answer to the thread title.. I actually think its six of one, half a dozen of the other. I think the biggest issue is that we failed to capitalise on a 'golden period', by arrogance, negligence and lack of ambition by the board room. I don't think anyone is naive enough to expect the club to get it right every time - but Ralph aside, we've got it wrong every time. The strategy from the top has been completely wrong - we've tried to be smart and run everything on a budget and its come back to bite us on the arse. As a fan base, in the main, we've had to endure some real shit over the past 4/5 (maybe even longer) years. The reality is, we over achieved and were spoilt in years under Adkins, Poch, Koeman, Puel (to a degree) and in parts of Ralph's time. In reality, we're a bottom half PL club who more often than not will lose more than we win. Because of the above, things have became ridiculously toxic - The fans don't trust the players and board, the players probably hate playing in front of the fans, and I think the fans themselves are probably split. Booing, groaning and general negative atmosphere clearly doesn't help and creates anxiety in the squad. In that sense, they're (the fans) kinda to blame. A lot of our fan base are a bunch of complete morons who are "get it forward" merchants and cannot see the bigger picture. That being said, I don't fully blame them - At the very least you expect 100% effort and commitment and I'm not sure we've seen that for at least the past 2 years. Player power has been allowed to ruin the club due to weak / absent management (Sacking Puel because of this was a dangerous precedent in hindsight). Much like Puel, they gave up under Ralph - probably because he wouldn't put up with their half arsed efforts. So, in short, I think the fans have to take a proportion of the blame - We hounded Puel out - as do the players, but the main blame needs to live with the past 2-3 sets of board members. Lack of any clear strategy (high press of Ralph, to Defensive long ball of Jones, to Possession of Martin), Stupid recruitment and failure to fill obvious voids in the squad. At this point, it really feels like we need a nonsense old school type to come in and basically say to the players - Go out there, do the basics, fight, give your all and when you're successful stick 2 fingers up to those idiots who've boo'd you etc.

If we had a degree of sensibility about us (which we don't), we'd bring in a coach or free agent or anyone who can speak Spanish and help Alcaraz settle. He literally could be the difference between us going up or not, we need to do whatever we can to get the best out of him - and that includes giving him a free role to roam.

Could be our biggest spanking of the season yet. Look like the best team in the leauge at the minute. Piroe to show why he's absolutely nothing like Adam Armstrong. Same team as today I guess - not sure it really matters at this point. 0-4 and St Marys to turn really, really toxic.

When I saw the line up (smallbone aside) I really wanted to be positive about today, but I'm really struggling to find any. At least we've seemingly fucked off that inverted full back bollox and KWP looked a better player as a result. The goal we scored was nice, that's what Adams is great at - that's litterally about it. I've absolutely no idea what game Martin was watching if he thinks we were the better team. Asides maybe 10 mins in each half, they were all over us and it could have easily been 4/5 again if they were more clinical. Same old shit, way too slow in possession, passes with no purpose, limited movement from the midfield. We're getting worse game by game - I could trust the process if I could see what the process is. Leeds will give us an absolute spanking and St Marys will turn really really toxic.

Mowbray is a really good shout. In the summer it might have been a touch underwhelming (but then again so was martin), but now expectations have somewhat reduced, he's been there and done it and as shown a few weeks back, tactically is miles ahead of Martin. He gets his sides playing decent football as well - It'd be a big yes for me. We need someone who's been there and done it to turn this ship around, not another gamble on a young up and coming manager who cannot handle these situations.

I can't help but feel our strongest formation is 4231 Charles and Downs in a double pivot, Charley in the traditional no 10. Manning and KWP playing as genuine wingbacks. gives us a stable base, with attacking flare and quality up top. No reason why we couldn't dominate the ball with that as well.