Dman

He's still going.. although since being caught out for being Always, he now is responding to every post with a like...

i think I'd rather that then the dross Rassmus keeps picking. But on a serious note, there is enough data in football now for AI to select a team based on another teams strengths and weakness' and predict patterns of play almost instantly. Obviously you could never have a algorithm being an actual manager, but you could have it making all of the decisions with a few coaching staff and a motivational speaker as a front for it. I'm giving it 5-10 years before its tried.

with the rise of AI - I wonder how long it'll be before a club appoint a computer as manager....

I think he was highlighting what Martin will do (i.e the opposite of what makes sense)

He's been dealt a rough hand - how many times has he been paired with another proper CM? I don't think once he's played along side Charles, has he? Smallbone, Alcaraz, A Armstrong offer no stability in midfield at all.

This but Fraser and Edozie instead of Sully (better as an impact sub imo) and AA (just shite)

Agreed. Charles and Downes in midfield instantly makes us stronger.

This makes me laugh, none of his sides have been brilliant - He's a mid table manager, that's not brilliant.

any update from what this clown has said from the press conference this morning? Or is it just the same old bollox? Hopefully Downes is back for this one. Downes and Charles in CM should at least give us a platform of stability to build on.

In all seriousness and I don't know if this is me overreacting, I don't actually think we could have done any worse than we have this season to date. I'm fairly sure you could pick someone out of the crowd with a relative sense of sensibility and understanding of football (slim pickings at St Marys it has to be said) and we'd be on the same amount of points as we currently are, based on the fact we simply have better players than everyone else. Maybe naive but I firmly believe If you stripped back all of the complicated tactics, played a simple 433 or 4231 with your best players on the pitch, we'd still have beaten Sheff Weds, QPR and Plymouth.

Because relying on the algorithm (algorithm being a hipster word for spreadsheet), is fundamentally flawed - as shown by the appointments of Jones - Because he had decent stats for defending balls into the box, which was highlighted as an issue (this was confirmed at the time of his appointment or sacking. I can't remember which) And the appointment of Martin - Because he had good stats for possession. I'm not a Wilcox apologiser, I think proof will be in the pudding and I will judge him after a year. I like what he's done in the window to date, but I fully believe that Martin was appointed off the back of 'stats' rather than because Wilcox wanted him - Wilcox man was Enzo, i've no doubt about that. Once Enzo rejected us, we obviously needed to look at alternative targets. Wilcox isn't solely void of responsibility, much like you've said, he probably could have highlighted his flaws and opted against it - you'd hope anyway. FWIW - I think its Wilcox decision that we've gone down the possession based approach transitioning away from the red bull style.

This is the issue for me. It makes us way to obvious to read and easy to press and counter against. That's excluding the main thing that KWP, one of our best players, is a very very good attacking full back, but absolutely cannot play in the middle of the park - not technical enough. Move back to a more traditional back 4, with Charles in a holding role allowing full backs to push on, we'll improve over night. Also - Work on your fucking passing patterns.

Good shout

Because we've been really poor for the first 7 games and absolutely nothing suggests Russel Martin is capable to making a team promotion worthy.

I'm not sure but thinking about it, Martins demeanour has changed since Piroe went to Leeds.. I wonder if he was promised him and we didn't get him - or he wanted him and was told no. There has been a few odd comments from him since the close of the window. Definitely not all rosey I suspect.

I'm not so sure Martin is Wilcox man, if i'm honest. I suspect Wilcox has set the direction of the club (i.e possession based), but Wilcox man was Enzo. He rejected us, so I think we went back to Rassmus trendy algorithm. Obviously Martin would score high if we were looking at possession stats. I'm fairly sure I saw somewhere that Martin was high up the list when we appointed Jones... before Wilcox was here. I will judge him on results, but I think Wilcox done a decent job in the transfer market, if i'm honest.

Expecting this one to ramp up a bit in the next few weeks, especially when Leeds give us a pasting. So, not like the club will listen, who'd you have on your list? Its clear we want to play a possession based approach, so pointless wasting a post saying someone like Big Sam, Ralph etc. and clearly Potter isn't coming, so keep it realistic please... For me, the one I wanted all summer was Vieira but he's now managing in France so we've missed that boat. SR clearly like a risk, so on that Basis - Carrick or Henry please.

Its an interesting point... I can't believe that any of those clubs who've conceded sub 40 goals had 9 of those conceded in 2 games, so theoretically, we could conceded more than 40 and it not be that much of a determine. On the assumption we over achieved for the rest of the season in front of goal - isn't going to happen. But I agree, we've fucked up any chance of automatic promotion already and it was clear as day we wouldn't go up under Mr 10th Martin when we first appointed him.

Especially when Piroe was there ready and waiting.

I really (not really) hate to say it... but I told you so! I can't believe how obviously bad this appointment was going to be for us and we still done it anyway.

Yep - any team would struggle to replace Archer and Akpom at this level. I know they've not had the best of starts, but I'd still take Carrick over Martin - given the chance at this stage. At least there is a bit of unknown around Carrick, we all know Martin is bang average.

Watching Leicester Friday and last night, I cannot believe the gulf in teams, despite player for player being relatively similar in terms of quality. They're coached well, pass with a purpose and have a clear plan of how to score / win games. They didn't even have to break sweat against us, but a well drilled, sensible system with smart plans made them look levels above. I can only wonder how different things would be here if we weren't rejected by Wilcox man, Enzo and didn't have to make do with Rassmus' man, Martin. What a wasted opportunity appointing by martin

No worse is not saying better...

I think you've got your head massively in the sand on this one. I don't rate Che at all, but he's not the problem here.

The worse thing is, Martin is probably the worse of the lot. We'd be in no worse position now if we'd kept Selles.