Gloucester Saint

Agree with your post @Forester but as @badgerx16 says, the reason Tonda keeps repeating the same mistakes in formation, personnel and goalkeeper is because he’s got a gun to his head from Ankerson almost certainly. It’s also why there’s such horrific turnover in Sporting Directors - Spors is clearly casting his net in the Bundesliga. The DoFs are supposed to be reporting directly to Dragan after Kraft was dismissed but I bet Solak delegates it to Rasmus and that’s exactly how Ankerson manipulated it at SR Board level I strongly suspect.

There’s more doubling down than the WDC at the Ally Pally. I’ve never seen in business people so desperate not to admit mistakes - formation, team selection, Stewart and Bazunu stand out - let alone put them right. Has to be Ankerson driving it and no coincidence as soon as Still sacked and Eckert interim that Gavin dislodged McCarthy.

Yep, there are plenty of helpful idiots that will go along with it - eg Alfie House - and sections of the fanbase, although those sections are shrinking by the week.

He certainly shouldn’t be on penalties - another example of poor leadership and direction on and off the pitch.

Agree with many aspects of the OP, but the failure is down to large, unbalanced squads built for player trading and gambling, not for successful teams. Add in rigid corporate tactics and SR yet to appoint an experienced manager not grateful for appointment and tugging their forelock and easy to see the issues. Doug Ellis interfered at Villa in the 1980s, taking them from European Champions to D2 within 5 years (including a 5-0 battering at the Dell in the snow - Saints didn’t play especially well even). He finally appointed a successful and no-nonsense manager in Graham Taylor. Taylor straight away banned Ellis from team meetings and the dressing room area in very blunt terms (Martin Keown’s book) and things turned around after an indifferent start. That’s the only way SR can turn this around - experienced manager, his tactics and line-ups, he selects the players he wants and Spors secures them. Ankerson banned from the club and Solak attends matches and that’s it.

Agree on the heart and fight, but Blackburn were worse than Oxford and we capitulated up there as well. The fact remains that they were in the bottom three having just sacked their manager, and the style of football chosen by Ankerson and complied with by Tonda was totally inappropriate and played into Oxford’s hands. Dreadful to watch to boot.

Context Nick - that Leeds side was a great team for a decade - it’s like the England cricket team getting hammered by Warne, McGrath, Ponting and the rest. Everton was worse as they were past the Holy Trinity title winning legends by then but still a huge difference to being outplayed and outthought by Oxford United on 5% of our budget in a 3-sided stadium. I turned over at HT because it was obvious we would get done on the counter and the football was more turgid than anything Branfoot served up, all at the request of Rasmus Ankerson.

All recruited by SR. Think back to when Koeman was bringing in the likes of Pelle, Tadic and Mane. Not saying Saints hadn’t ever looked at or scouted them but clearly players the manager specifically wanted. We’ve had very poor managers under SR but they’ve also had bad hands dealt to them with the level of interference and crap players randomly dumped on them via the Ankerson family transfer tavern.

Delighted for the England fans who travelled, friend of mine was sending video clips of the run chase. The Aussie supporters were sporting at the end saying ‘good win England’. The pitch curator, as they call them there, is getting some hammer though for their sporting centrepiece ending in just two days.

SR/Rasmus won’t allow it.

I broadly agree with this post. Tonda is just another face on Rasmus’s operation and approach, if he goes it’s more of the same. The only way the patient can improve or even have signs of hope is a takeover and SR’s departure. Being outplayed by Oxford United in a 3-sided stadium on 5% of Saints’s budget is in no way an overreaction from any of us, it’s frustration from many at such poor underperformance when the decks were supposed to be cleared with Kraft et al leaving. Tonda should play his own system and team, but it’s clear there’s interference from SR board level. Spors has also alluded to it in previous interviews and is clearly angling for a move.

Funny that. Remember, if not it’s not broken, break it, then break it some more….

What he learned from watching Phil Giles I suppose?

https://www.rasmusankersen.com Coaching on how to build high-performance organisations….hmmmm 😂

Russell Martin had a worse squad 😂😂😂 Che Adams, Jan Bednarek, average in the PL but miles better than we have now. KWP better still. Fraser was 2 years younger. The loan players - David Brookes was quality.