SWLondon Saint

Well you've kind of made my point for me - with Martin at the helm we have absolutely no chance of ever making it back into the PL and being a stable PL team again. So why not get rid and see if we can find someone who can get more out of slightly lesser players than a manager who needs probably a champions league team to even stay in the PL?

Well, we signed Taylor with tons of PL experience on a free and he's seemingly been exiled to the land of ABK. Tall Paul definitely looks like he has some quality and he got his first start 11 games in after barely being in the squad most of the season. Fernandes is clearly a PL standard player. Downes is certainly at least a fringe PL player as is THB. You really think if we get promoted next year we'll sign 4-6 players better than that lot?

On that note, what the hell is going on with Taylor? He seems to be in the same place ABK is in which is bloody weird considering he was just signed over the summer presumably with Martin's full knowledge? Just feels like as much as he has his favourites, he has his players he doesn't like and won't give a chance to either.

I think his confidence is shot. He's a young and fairly inexperienced defender who may or may not be good enough at this level but right now he's a mess. Some of that is on him for not better mentally prepared, but there's no question that Martin is at least as guilty. He is clearly second guessing himself and Martin bollocks and drops him for his mistakes when Cap'n Jack can play any number of hospital passes and lose the ball in his 'libero' role and he's the first name on the teamsheet. Anyway, he'll be stuck here for a few years as no-one will want him after this season so we should all hope he comes good! 😑

True, and I've forgotten who it was who got away with a way worse handball at SMS a few seasons ago for that exact reason. And on the dropping off, what the hell is going on with our defending with 2 lines of 5? Archer should not be back there chasing their midfield, he has to provide an outlet, the ball just keeps coming back otherwise. Why isn't RM screaming at them and pushing them up the pitch?

Normally I am not keen on Fraser at full back, but I was literally saying 'I'm not sure it was a good idea bringing Suga on' when that handball happened. It's really hard to get up to speed when conditions are that bad and while it was still a calamitous mistake, strong winds, raining - it was waiting to happen. Why we didn't throw lots of awkward bouncing crosses into their box? Well, that's a question for the manager...

Well that could be the idea but... The cost of relegation in terms of TV revenue is around £50 million in the first year with parachute payments so that wipes out all the money you made. Doesn't make sense at all. Much more sensible to be a stable mid table Prem club and do the same player trading thing. ie Brighton here, or the RB clubs in Europe.

Mm, I dunno. We do have one of the weakest squads obviously, but I think if you gave Martin any of the squads in the bottom half and he insisted on playing the way we have, I reckon he'd still have them rock bottom. Literally no-one is playing like we do, even Man City.

Well, at least we know where Rasmus has been spending the booze and prossies cash, I mean, entertainment budget then....

Fixed that for you.

Las Palmas got this guy to come in at the October international break when they were rock bottom and hadn't won in 8 months. Out of the relegation zone now. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/nov/11/las-palmas-diego-martinez-la-liga

Yep. We're completely predictable, must be a dream for other teams - everything in front of them, nothing in behind, slow build up that doesn't stretch the defence.

I honestly think part of the reason the players' heads drop when we concede is that no-one feels we have a chance to get back into it because the way they've been told to play creates so few chances. If we knew we could create chances and were regularly having lots of shots then the players would be much more up for a comeback. But you never see Martin pushing the team forward on the sidelines. We stick on a giant upfront but the message is still play it short. So if he can't be bothered why should the players?

The next run of games is brutal so we could quite easily lose the next 6 or 7 in a row before West Ham at home on Boxing day at which point if we're still on 4 points surely the crowd will be furious. The only slightly credible 'plan' might be to let Martin take the flak for losing all these games we'd probably have lost anyway and then get someone in for next season when we're already down after Christmas.

Well, normally I'd agree, but considering we're already bottom of the league having managed the grand total of 0 shots on target and xG of 0.6 against the 2nd bottom team in the league, we literally can't get much worse....😅

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/story/_/id/37367411/rickie-lambert-praises-former-boss-mauricio-pochettino I know this is from after they'd both legged it, but who in the current squad could we say Martin has 'improved massively'? Tactically it feels like he's made everyone doubt what their instincts are telling them to do for their position.

I mean she literally couldn't do much worse, but pretty sure she's getting a serious amount of cash from the US soccerball setup...

Pretty sure they can have an assistant with the Pro badge while they get theirs rushed through

Plus I'm not sure slagging everyone off for not supporting the manager and then mocking the likely result if we do support and keep this manager is quite the mic drop it was meant to be...

This forums lack of an accepted sarcasm font is definitely causing some confusion 😏

Definite no, he'd be a disaster. His 2 main assistant coaches left over the summer and it's been a mess ever since. Don't think he gets the success of the last few years without his assistants.

Had much the same from a Brentford supporting friend earlier in the season. He was just bemused by how crap and slow our play was, basically said they've never felt less threatened by a team since they've been in the PL.

Wasn't watching today, out of interest was there a single decent cross in to tall Paul after he came on?

The crazy thing is, this is a brilliant season to have been promoted as so many other teams are so bad we're not out of sight despite the appalling start we've had. Even more reason to change managers ASAP.

You can think that, but if you look at the xG, Everton created significantly better chances than we did and therefore 'deserved' the win more. It's fine to just to be happy with a lucky win.