Galway saint

I think that’s the problem really. We have a very limited strike force and it’s difficult to understand why our recruitment in this area has been so consistently poor over the past few seasons, since Ings left. I just can’t see us scoring enough unfortunately and so if we do get rid of RM, I’m not sure there will be top coaches queuing up to take the job knowing what they have to work with.

RM has his failings as a coach but I can’t imagine he asked the recruitment team to assemble the Sheffield United strike force for him this season to spearhead our campaign. Seems another really odd recruitment decision to add to the lengthening list

I feel quite pessimistic really and we are only 4 games into the season. We don’t look organised at the back but up front we are incredibly limited and today we fielded the Sheff United strike force from last season. Our recruitment in the final third has been abysmal now for two or three years and we cannot improve things until January. I think it will be all over bar the shouting then anyway so I don’t think any further material investment will be made. I can’t see changing the manager will make much difference. Maybe a decent coach can get us organised at the back but trying to get a tune out of AA, Archer and BBD in the Premier League is not happening. We simply cannot score enough goals to stay up. They says it’s the hope that kills you but I don’t feel any hope at present. Cant remember another season like it really but we look really out of our depth and during the second half today it looked like the team thought much the same.

This has been pretty depressing stuff since the penalty Ignoring the league cup, we have so far scored two goals in six games, if you include the two spanish games. We look toothless up front ( haven’t had a shot since the penalty) and likely to concede at least one or two every match, so it’s looking pretty bleak. Not sure there is much more Martin can do as the side was set up as most people wanted but a number of the players just aren’t good enough

we look dreadful defensively

predictable stuff bossed the half really and 1-0 down

these things happen - don’t beat yourself up about it

seems ridiculous to say a guy is available for selection in a PL game where he hasn’t played any meaningful football for two years.

he’s in good company then as quite a lot of the team who have started the season aren’t if we were to sell him with his new contract in place he would fetch say £15million and that’s generally where we shopping at present so seems a sensible move to me

It’s not ‘irrelevant’ in that if you don’t have any possession you cannot win the game ( barring own goals) and equally if you have all the possession you can’t lose the game (again barring own goals) but clearly we are demonstrating that possession of itself it doesn’t win football matches

Seems counterintuitive that 68% possession can produce one goal scored, five goals conceded and no points from three games and that’s against two of the weaker sides shows you need the ball less than a third of the game time to beat saints - nuts !

but his full style resulted in us conceding 67 goals in the championship with largely the same defence and prior to that he had a poor defensive record at other clubs, so his style leaks goals and when you have a largely championship attack, it’s not a good outlook.

thing is though if he’s got a massive ego ( don’t know if he has) he won’t want to be a laughing stock and from the comments over the weekend by commentators and pundits ( basically anyone with half an ounce of footballing acumen), his tactical approach is not far off being shown to be a joke in this league and with this squad to the point where we are almost writing off the season after 3 games if he continues in this fashion. So I think he will change his approach if only because if he doesn’t he will look ridiculous

including the two friendlies against the spanish sides we have scored 2 goals in five games to my mind the attack is as big an issue as the mistakes at the back and perhaps it’s an even bigger issue. we have signed championship players up front and our biggest hope is an 18 year old kid. martin’s sides will always concede goals but once they stop scoring goals then they are doomed. at the moment we look poor in both penalty areas

This has been said before but the paradox in his approach is he’s happy for the team to take risks and be ‘brave’ in and around our own box but when it comes to the final third we don’t get it in the opposition box nearly enough. I guess that’s because we then lose possession and possession is paramount for RM. It was all fine last season to a point but this season we can’t rely on having better players than the opposition as most of the time our players will be worse. Difficult to see a way out of this really and we may go down anyway with this squad regardless of who is in charge ( particularly with the attack) but he needs to rethink his philosophy in my view if he wants to be a premier league coach

thought the co-commentator ( birtles?) summed it up perfectly after we conceded the second goal

Feels a bit bleak at the moment to be honest and it’s only 3 games into the season! When we concede it feels inevitable and I was just waiting for it today. We just don’t have the players to execute the manager’s philosophy. Playing 5 at the back hasn’t stopped us conceding and we are just so easy to play against. Brentford won’t have an easier three points and teams must be running their hands knowing we are up next as they know all they have to do is press us and wait for the fuck ups. We conceded 67 goals last season which was a lot but we had the players to score enough goals to beat most teams. That’s no longer the case and I can’t see us scoring a lot with the attack we have at the moment as it’s very average. It’s doesn’t help when the manager doesn’t pick the best players and it’s stating the obvious but if we carry on in this fashion it will be all over by Xmas. I don’t think it’s even a case of the new players bedding unless we start to play the percentages and get the ball forward quicker. Even then we still dont have a proper no 9. and you feel Che would walk into this team as a focal point. Things didn’t start well last season and we had the run of shit games starting at sunderland and RM figured it out, but this feels different as then we had better players than most other teams. Now we have weaker players compared to other teams in the league and are hampered by a manager who seems naive and dogmatic and could quickly look out of his depth. We haven’t even played a really good side yet (Newcastle are no great shakes) and this could get very ugly quickly.

can we score a goal in those 10 games ? only three games in but this looks bleak brentford won’t have an easier game all season

why is stephens playing in midfield

rugby

clearly there need to be a few more defeats before there are changes defence looks ok but everything in front of it looks ordinary in premiership terms

Ramsdale the obvious standout signing and solid elsewhere but still feel we have a very average attack and are missing a quality no 9

archer didn’t really set the world on fire the blades we need a proper no 9 who can hold the ball up and finish and that’s been the case for a couple of years now think the team looks ok in most departments but we still have a championship looking attack

great signing

I think people are just saying mix it up a bit and in circumstances where we have very limited attacking options it would be worth trying plan b, even if that involves booting it up to the lanky beanpole as you describe him. he plays edozie who has no end product so why not give TP a chance pending better options hopefully becoming available