derry

I've just heard from Sean! He says he's got a great plan for Saturday. As he doesn't have to worry about us scoring his instruction is pass it to a Saints player so they take it back into their own penalty area then press. He reckons they should benefit from at least double the number of usual mistakes.

BBD hasn't fitted in. I think we just aren't using him correctly as his record says he can score goals. Whether he can in the Premier League is still open. Personally I see him as one of a pair of strikers not a winger. If we want a winger then play one. Play a combination of Archer, Armstrong, Onuachu. BBD up front as required.

That was total unadultrated garbage. I've seen quicker walking football. If that is what Martin is presenting as football he's just a con merchant. We scored three goals but nothing from the 78% possession, a corner, A centreback dispossessed for the penalty and a long shot after a winger went up the left wing and passed to Bree. That was a total of two passes. I've had it with Martin. He has no clue what he's doing. Imposing a passing obsession straitjacket that fails in attack and makes us porous at the back. Forward players make runs, get into the penalty area but the ball never comes instead it's being recycled backwards and sideways. The players are better than this nonsense. The organisation is non existent. Positioning defensively is haphazard. Nobody is marked, the edge of the area at corners has been abandoned, Ipswich, Leicester for example, again last night more of the same. This possession obsession experiment is ruining the football club. If we are going to have any chance of a revival he has to go. At our level we need a high tempo. pressing and breaking team not a bunch of strollers rotating the ball with meaningless possession.

Not only that, they were poor managers but great players? They never even worked out how to play together in an England midfield. The manager was wrong, he should have left one of them out, whichever he preferred. They never worked out how to play together, then manage, no thanks. I watched Burnley a lot in their promotion season as I was interested in how Tella was doing. They played an awful lot of quick breaks from the back up to Tella etc to take on the stretched defence. As most of that team were loanees he lost them for the Premier.

Patently Martin doesn't get what football is about. Fans cheer wildly and the players celebrate when their team scores whereas I've never seen fans and players celebrating after twenty passes that threaten nobody and end up with the keeper having never got in the opponents half. Maybe it's him that should be looking at another occupation. Until they give points for passes i'm passing on this garbage.😊

I think you missed the point, it's more examples of what they did but we didn't which lead to all three Leicester goals. If we had we would have probably won with that two goal lead. The same with the Ipswich corner. That's five points aquandered.

That display was entirely predictable, pack the box and stop the opposition. In that respect it went well. We managed 43% possession which was nearly twice as much as I thought we would get even though most of it was close to our goal. The pluses, Fernandes played well. Archer hitting the bar, he did well there. All the players put in a shift. That free kick at the end needed a ball into the box aimed at Onuachu. Armstrong worked hard and was a threat. I don't see any reason why we couldn't put out a decent team to play defend hard and counterattack ditching the own half possession. It won't happen under Martin.

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I watched Leicester v Notts Forest. Martin has been giving it large about his process etc but for me he's just a busted flush making noise. I wanted to see what Forest would do that we failed to do. True to form kept Wood up on the centre backs, so much so he scored from a big punt from the goalkeeper that bouncing caused Faes under pressure to try and head back to the keeper in No man's land and Wood nodded over him for the third goal. Neither side tried intricate passing but varied their passing as the opportunities appeared. Forest unlike us pressed hard and in numbers. Significantly Fatawu started and Forest pressed him tightly except for the odd time and he was unable to get in behind as he did to us last Saturday. Finally at corners Forest had players covering the edge of the penalty area so Winks had to knock the ball into the goal area. The reason we have goals is to decide the match, not a countback of meaningless passing fifty yards away from goal. All the teams in the Premier League except us seem to get this. High tempo, team pressing, varied passing and tight marking all do it in slightly different ways. The multipassing league champions press hard when losing the ball, transition at lightning pace and rapidly rotate the ball to look for openings around the opponents packed penalty area. However they have spent mega millions on the very best to suit Pep. With a bit of luck we'll get a demonstration of the difference that will show up our poundland version for what it is. Looking ahead I'm guessing something like 75% City possession and us penned in for long periods desperately trying to keep them out. If it's us with 75% and pulling City around I surrender. I think Martin is deluded and unable to admit his method is only suited to better players playing in an inferior league but a dead loss with average players in a top league. We have to give that up now before it's too late and change to a high tempo press and break style or get rid of him.

FFS he talked about missing Smallbone. Leicester couldn't believe their luck with the incompetence he showed last week. Stephens to be shoehorned in this week. At least the tough tackling Smallbone is missing for a while. If he plays either of those and fails to bring ABK and Onuachu back into the equation it will really demonstrate how incompetent we are.

I've had too much of this progessive, slowmotion,passive, porous, process crap

That hypothetical £12m estimate was all the costs plus the cost of employing a new team. (quoted in Daily Echo). If the present team was paid off over the term of their contracts until they are re-employed somewhere it's probably nowhere near that.

Martin really messed up on Saturday, his substitutions, Smallbone, Fraser FFS. The marking at the final corner. The lack of organisation allowing nine outfield players on the 6 yd line marking nobody. Anybody that thinks the ace non contact smallbone is an answer has a screw loose. Anybody who thinks Fraser trying to run five yds away from Fatawu is marking is deluded. Defensively he hasn't got a clue. We should have been tight on Fatawu, Winks and the two centre backs to disrupt them, instead we gave them the freedom of the park. Patently he didn't leave any mark on the players after the Ipswich stupidity as they wouldn't have dared not mark the players on the edge of the penalty area. If it had been me, bottles, boots, kit, trays and crates would have been flying off the walls and nobody would ever forget. Martin is deluded if he thinks his pedestrian possession football in our own half is brave, stupid it might be but brave FFS. Watch Man City, lightning transition and most of the football in the final third as different as chalk from cheese.

Onuachu and Archer up on the centrebacks and route one. Everybody else press hard.

Sorted Martinelli v Arsenal. Frightened the life out of him.

I'm thinking maybe Danny Rohl would do the job, Bayern, Germany, Sheff Wed. Was a good fit with Ralph.

Onuachu. Good record as a penalty taker. We had a few score v Everton.

Personally I have a problem with Martin's lack of credibility. Defending a lead he brings on the expert in non contact football, Will Smallbone. A player out of his depth. Fraser to pick up Fatawu, he tracked him when what was needed was somebody tight to get up him so that he didn't have room to turn. Cut off his supply mark Winks and put Onuachu and Sulemana up tight on the centre backs. Eventually he brought on Taylor the one player who should have replaced Sugawara. Has no plan at corners except pack the goal area. Allowed two players to be unmarked on the edge of the penalty area. Never leaves any two forwards who are usually useless defenders to stay upfield and thin out the number of attackers available to the opposition. That together with his obsession with slow motion go nowhere keep ball.

Agreed. It's all a bloody big con. We need a proper football manager not a one trick pony obsessive.

The team is dysfunctional under Martin. It seems that the whole game is based on ball possession however no thought seems to be given to what we do when our opponents have the ball. We all know how Leicester play but we did nothing to stop or disrupt them. When Fatawu came on we knew he was going to run down the line and try to get behind us especially as he had pulled us apart last season. Did we do anything? No we just gifted him the room to receive the ball from midfield and run at us. Fraser trying to run alongside and Manning just behind didn't stop him. Firstly we should have been ruthlessly slamming the door on him. Firstly Taylor at Left Back, that tidied that up. Then what to do about him. The quickest player was Sulemana, no thanks not for that. I would have put on Adam Armstrong just to forget about playing but get up Fatawu really tight and battle it out with him. Leave Manning in front of Taylor just with the job of blocking him off and supporting. Taylor can be the final block if he tries to come inside. It needed us right up him not standing off. For God's sake Smallbone shouldn't even be a substitute. Put Sulemana up next to Onuachu as high up the pitch as possible as an out ball and to obstruct the centre backs playing out. Stick Ugochuckwu tight on Winks again to mark and disrupt with Aribo and Downes together. That was the time to change and get stuck in all over the field and disrupt Leicester. Smallbone in stroll mode doesn't cut it. If we haven't got the ball he won't win it. We needed physicality and to face up and stamp on Leicester. Martin's possession obsession isn't going to be anything but cosmetic and flatters to deceive. The goals didn't come from that it was Manning and KWP getting good crosses in.

I was sitting at a street cafe in Kuala Lumpur when I heard the result emphasising the youngsters brought in, Benali, Shearer, LeTissier, Rod Wallace, Dodd etc. This is the first time I saw this since then. I was operating a Boeing 737-400 on a wet lease to Malaysian Airlines so they could prove their routes before they got their aircraft. I was only there six weeks. The aircraft stayed eighteen months with pilots rotating. I didn't really fancy going back.

For Leicester's third goal we had 9 outfield players in the goal area marking 6 Leicester players. Two Leicester players were unmarked on the edge of the area. A repeat of the Ipswich game except we had 10 players then. The ball was just passed to the free players ond one of them shot the goal. Possibly Ramsdale didn't even see it until late. That defending was hopeless. Our backing off passively in the second half where we are leading is a joke. Smallbone came on and didn't lay a boot on the ball or the opposition just backed off and floated around. Our lack of physical pressing was a disgrace. Onuachu battled well when he came on. Fraser had no idea he had to get close and Manning just didn't bother trying to get to the line and cut the winger off inside Fraser. Only Taylor tried to do that. Martin is obviously incapable of coaching disciplined defence or organise physical pressing. The obsessive passing is an excuse to do neither. He's been well and truly found wanting. The management lacking decisiveness and just sitting on their hands hoping isn't helping. Just stand him down on gardening leave and honour his three year contract.

Don't sack him! Just do everybody a favour send him on gardening leave and pay him and his staff weekly/monthly for the contracted term or until he gives up and moves somewhere else.

I've seen it done and the panic in the opposition. On one occasion it was us panicing. Secondly a good number of forwards have no idea how to mark except stand like a traffic cone. Can't close down, can't tackle. Why would you want them just cluttering up the penalty area marking nobody. A better use would be up the field taking opposition players away.

We embarrassed ourselves because there is no defensive organisation or discipline. It needs a new manager that believes in defence first, high tempo, severe pressing, an in your face attitude and isn't interested in counting meaningless passes.