derry

The way to take pressure off defending corners is elementary. Leave at least two quick players on the halfway line. At least one more half way that really thins out the attackers. At 2-2 Cooper isn't going to leave those players unmarked, it would probably mean four or five less players in our box. If players are on the edge of the box don't Leave them unmarked. RM learned nothing from the Ipswich debacle. Smallbone is hopeless, didn't press, mark or tackle just strolled backwards and forwards. A waste of a substitution, what's more took off one of our best players for him. We lost KWP on the left, bring on Taylor. I thought he should have started Onuachu with Archer and Dibling.

Clutching at straws. That won't stop Leicester hitting balls through for their runners. We needed a pressing front three to shut that off.

We got promoted through the playoffs because we dropped the suicidal passing at the back, moved the ball quicker and were more direct. Let in fewer goals and scored more including the Leeds game at the end of the season.

Playing target man Onuachu with Archer and Dibling in a front three. Sugawara, THB, Bednarek, Taylor. back four.

I wouldn't be surprised if Dragan Solak isn't running out of patience with the whole scheme. How much has he spent reinforcing this team plus retaining Onuachu and Sulemana? This is a much stronger squad than last season yet is no nearer to a settled starting team.

If Russell Martin thinks he's discovered the holy grail in football tactics he's a bigger fool than I thought he was. What I don't get is his comments about his own tactics stating he's not going to change then reveals that we have been studying and preparing for the opposition all week. Those two statements just don't make any sense together. Quite how a team can prepare to meet the opposition it's studying in detail then play the same way every week is contradictory. No wonder he's forever moaning that they prepared meticulously but the preparation was ignored. The art of football management is firstly picking a team where the players complement and blend whilst covering for deficiencies. He's never done that. His team selection tomorrow will demonstrate if he's learned anything at all about Leicester attacking on the break.

Then stick an emoji with it. It didn't come over that way.

That is a really cheap arrogant remark and detracts from any point you are trying to make. It has no place in the ongoing discussion.

Slow complicated recycling possession as we play it has little chance of an end product except repeated catastrophic mistakes in and around our own penalty area and the main reason I'm against it. The possession football played by Manchester City and Arsenal which is high intensity attacking in possession is proper football. The players at Arsenal and Manchester City have been put together at great expense to play that way. We just have a cheap imitation that is delivering defeat after defeat and is both prdictable and unwatchable. Passing the ball is part of football, passing short around our own penalty area is crass stupidity and will ensure that only two other teams will be relegated as we are unable to avoid gifting goals. We don't have the players to play that way successfully so unless we play a higher tempo, a strong press and be more direct we are done.

That frees up Potter. I'm not sure he'll get one of the top jobs. After Chelsea there must be questions about his ability to manage a top six club although Chelsea were a basket case.

It won't be Thomas Tuchel. Just agreed a contract to be the new England manager, News conference tomorrow. According to Sky Sports

Martin isn't getting the best out of the players, on the contrary he is inhibiting their natural ability with his pass out 'no matter what' from the back. The playoffs were like chalk and cheese from the bulk of the season. We won through because of the change not from the 'process' which kept us out of the automatic promotion race despite the lapses on the part of the top three. The change wasn't planned, circumstances dictated it. Anybody who thinks we can turn it around playing this way is living in cloud cuckoo land. There has to be a change and that can be in two ways, Martin changing it or the club changing the manager. It has to be a manager that doesn't have a cast in stone system but a clever football manager that can construct a framework that gets the best out of the players. It must also be a manager that believes in high tempo pressing and quick breaks as a team. I don't believe that Martin can change or is even willing. The longer we wait the worse it will get. Give Leicester, Everton and Wolves wins then we are done.

Until we ditch this slow, negative, mistake ridden micro passing playing out from the back it's impossible to judge how these players can perform under a pragmatic manager who plays to our strengths. Rather than a straitjacket that is slowly destroying any chance of a turnaround.

It's not that Martin has failed because he managed to get us promoted in spite of his process essentially being picked apart by the better and pressing counter attacking teams. He failed to really threaten the automatic promotion places. He did eventually win the play offs. With McCarthy in goal he was forced into a bit of pragmatism, reduce passing around at the back, move the ball out quicker play more on the break. Surprise, surprise it worked, Leeds away, clean sheet at WBA, clear win at home then Leeds again at the final, promotion achieved. Back in the Premier, McCarthy in goal, repeat the pragmatism, no fear! that was an unfortunate blip in the process. We will show the Premier League what they haven't realised, the ultimate weapon in the results business, ultra short possession will sweep all before it. Utter delusion, having failed with it in the Championship it's the answer in the Premier League. The fact Burnley tried it and were promptly relegated again ignored. We were far better results wise with the pragmatic approach than the rediculous fatal error ultra short slow passing out from the back. If we are to stand any chance in this division we have to change. Martin has to do it and admit his process is a dead duck if he hasn't been given that choice already he should have been. If he isn't prepared he should be sent on gardening leave along with his personal staff. He isn't going to turn this around. The more matches he manages the less chance we have of turning this around.

Potter at Bournemouth for Sky.

I wonder if Martin was given the option of changing his approach. If the above has legs I can only think he stuck to his guns. We'll have to wait and see.

Personally I don't get this. Ralph wrote the playbook. When he went we threw the playbook out and went for direct long ball Jones from Luton as that went wrong we dug the playbook out of the waste bin and promoted Ruben Selles, that didn't work either. In the summer in came possession obsessive Martin. SR spent a not so small fortune on players for Jones, Selles didn't use Onuachu. Martin didn't fancy them so this season in came fourteen more players but apart from Downes and Manning none were playing as passing specialists. Manning wasn't that good either. Martin won promotion despite his system not being good enough for top two and finished fourth. Because Bazunu was injured it proved with McCarthy he couldn't play his obsessive passing so McCarthy went more direct and the team tempo was quicker helping us to win through the play offs. Martin's passing game isn't working in the Premier League. SR have hardly shown consistency and totally lacked common sense with their selections. The three systems were as different as chalk and cheese and one could say extreme examples of each.

Most of all flexibility to get the best out of the players, We don't need another one trick pony but somebody to get the best out of the squad.

Very few teams play the obsessive ultrashort passing out from the back. It is slow and deprives the team of any tempo as we try to work the ball into our opponents half intermittently passing back and starting again. It invites opponents to press without much risk and leads to errors and conceding goals. Our forwards are denied space to break unless we win the ball and pass forward immediately for example as the Arsenal goal. Man City with their £50m+ players are an exception. Arsenal had two thirds possession but moved the ball forwards and attacked our final third incessantly. Again with expensively purchased players. Notts Forest and Bournemouth with mostly budget buys showed us the other side of the coin eschewing possession football for fast breaks and hard pressing and both are well up the league. The club's players all can play at a decent level with some better than others but are all at sea with our obsessive possession game. What they need is to be blended into a team where they can play naturally without the straitjacket that Martin has imposed on them. Players play their best when they have a style and framework that comes natural to them. We have a manager where the process is paramount and destroying us instead of having a framework to suit the players we have. We are getting the opposite of good management. Our team product is less than the sum of the parts rather than more than the sum of the parts which good managers achieve. Unless he drops this obsession with his one trick pony and adopts a higher tempo more direct style with less room for catastrophic defence we will have no chance of pulling out of this nosedive we're in. SR should give him the choice of changing or get rid of him as soon as possible. Personally I'm sceptical whether he can change and that it would work anyway. We'll see what he does against Leicester, more of the same and I think he's done.

😄Thanks for that. I'd still go for 6'-8" Onuachu as a focal point up front with Archer and Dibling playing wide and coming in on the 45 to support Onuachu when play is on the other flank. Maybe Downes and Aribo and Fernandes just in front.

Leicester use Vestergaard as a sort of quarter back Play the ball to him in space lying deep then passing forwards. I would like to see him pinned. Stick Onuachu up on him and pin him. Play Dibling and Archer either side and get the ball out wide quickly from defence. Pinning Vestergaard could disrupt Leicester. If we did it successfully and win the midfield we could stop Leicester hitting us on the break.

Shades of Martin last night with Carsley. Smartarse coaches are the graveyard of football. The astute manager has a basic concept how to play based on the players available and never picks a framework to try and accommodate players as Carsley did last night. The defence was hopeless, two full backs who didn't defend, Rice doing what Rice does and five midfielders with no idea how to adapt all playing their own game. Shades of years wasted trying to put Gerrard and Lampard in the same team when totally incompatible. Bellingham and Foden were a clusterfuck, Palmer was lost and wasted, Saka was the only one who held his position. Gordon looked like a fish out of water. The probability of Carsley getting the England job fell through the floor last night, or it should have done. God only knows what he was trying to do. We need a proper manager not a blown up coach that thinks the wheel needs reinventing so do England. Carsley had three centre forwards Kane (not fit), Watkins and Solanke. Pick the best balanced team and if that means leaving out any of Palmer, Bellingham and Foden so be it, Pick proper full backs not upside down wingers. Greece showed us the way with a basic balanced team who really showed us up playing basic football.. Martin has to do the same.

Danny Rohl ?

That is nonsense, we tried playing out but lost the ball to Arsenal, Fernandes won the ball back with a tackle just inside our half and hit a thirty yard ball to Archer on the left wing who cut inside and shot into the far corner. There was no multiple pass play out, a proper break away goal, one tackle, one pass and a shot. Playing it out is wrecking our season.

The thing that annoys me is his obsession with slow possession in our own final third. At this level we are turning ourselves into cannon fodder for the other teams who play at a much higher tempo. If he dropped that we would improve instantly, play more direct from the back therefore the tempo would be higher and the forwards would have more chance to attack on the break. More importantly we wouldn't be giving the ball away in our own last third and conceding goals that way in every match. For me it's change the manager or the way we are playing and if necessary both.