derry

So would I, we'd be top of the league. 😁

Nothing has changed until with goal kicks we stop the centre backs passing to the keeper three yards away who then passes it on or vice versa. As for playing less possession against Arsenal, that was because they were outplaying us and we couldn't win or keep the ball. The way we play is Kamikaze. Against Bournemouth we were careless and weren't focussed otherwise a professional approach would have prevented that damaging first goal.

If the team had learned anything they would have told him to shove his possession straitjacket where the sun doesn't shine.

We don't want another smartarse clever clogs with too much ego. What we do need is a clever simplistic manager that believes in getting the best out of the players and puts them in a framework that suits them and most of all isn't obsessed with possession or has a cast in stone system he wants to make the players try and play whether it suits them or not.

That doesn't mean we can't put out a team that dispenses with the high risk ball rotation in our own half and actually plays high tempo and stands a better chance of conceding less and maybe winning a few matches.

I'm not advocating Martin's sacking because of Arsenal. I am advocating sacking him because he is wedded to a way of playing that apart from needless high risk possession in our own half inhibits our chances of winning because it gifts the opposition easy goal scoring chances. The players are in a possession straitjacket and sometimes we don't even get out of our own penalty area. It's not a tweak that is needed it has to change to a high tempo safety first, pressing the life out of the opposition and fast breakaways, the only way the underdog can survive. One of Onuachu's strengths which appears in many of his goals is to angle and time his runs to get across defenders and finish close in in the goal area with either head or feet. We need to put the ball in there for him and the other strikers. that isn't going to happen often enough playing Martin's way. If the club gave him the choice of ditching the play out from the back and going more direct as we did in the play offs that would be a start otherwise it's time to part company. We don't need another financial crisis so relegation needs to be avoided.

If Martin picks Onuachu and he helps lift our performances Martin needs to be sacked for not trying to keep him last year and for not using him this year. If Onuachu is picked then Martin if he's still manager must tactically try to get the best out of him and ditch the possession obsession.

It shouldn't be his decision. A new manager with I'll look at the squad and give it a shape that gets the best out of the players attitude is what's needed. Not a 600 - 5 yd backwards and sideways in our own half possession obsessive. Just get rid of him before he wastes any more games. Seven is too many already.

That's the way to go for middling team.

The critical change is dispense with the possession obsession and the straitjacket imposed on the players. I feel Martin is obsessed with possession so whatever tinkering around the edges he does isn't the solution. A high tempo, high pressing fast transition into fast breaks together with take no chances at the back. Play the fast pass and run in the opponents half.

The only way a lesser talented team can compete is physically. High tempo, massive press, move the ball quickly forward and take no chances at the back. Kamikaze ball recycling for possession's sake is as it says on the label suicidal in terms of results. Relegation is not just likely playing this way it's certain. The problem as I see it, the longer we delay change the less chance we give his replacement to save us. I don't see any change. I see a desperate rotation without getting it right and a straitjacket possession obsession giving opponents goals. Seven matches in he hasn't got a settled side just constant change.

I've had time to reflect on the difference between Arsenal's about 60% possession and up to yesterday our 60% average possession. The possession was like chalk and cheese. For a start our possession is slow sideways and backwards around our last third and when we lose the ball we funnel back without pressing and passively just back off. Arsenal on the other hand get the ball straight out to their ball carriers who attack at speed and their passing is designed to cut through to create chances. If they lose the ball they swarm forward to win the ball back. Most of Arsenal's possession is in their opponent's half. If yesterday the managers switched and Arteta was our manager does anybody think for one second we would have played the slow recycling go nowhere garbage we were trying to play. Three minutes after scoring Downes flicked the ball casually sideways to an Arsenal player opening us up and in our net ten seconds later. Sugawara, shades of Aribo against Forest needed to put his boot through the ball under pressure before gifting the third goal. The only time we looked ok was Fernandes and Dibling breaking and Archer linking plus much better when Onuachu was holding the centre. We need to change the manager he is now the problem because of his possession obsession and the straitjacket he has imposed on the players. Goals are not going to be scored by us trying to work the ball up the field as we mostly lose it or give it away. We need to press the opponents at a high tempo and break quickly into the opponents penalty area. Martin won't change, the players need freeing up and he isn't going to do it. Under him relegation is a certainty. Continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result is insanity.

The reason we got 10 behind the ball was because Arsenal had 67% possession mostly in our half. It wasn't a plan it was force of circumstances. Stewart was never going to get free and Archer was isolated. It was much better with TP, Dibling, Archer.

When the ball hit the bar off THB/AA he was causing mayhem behind them. Defenders were struggling because he towered over them. Start him from now on as a CF with a partner. If that means 4-4-2 so be it. Ramsdale Sugawara/KWP THB Bednarek Taylor, Dibling Downes Fernandes Armstrong, Onuachu Archer with no tippy tappy crap.

Whatever the verdict we lost three goals which our possession obsession contributed to. As Martin wants to play this Kamikaze passing at the back and midfield let him do it somewhere else. The players should be drilled so that the first reaction in our last third is tackle hard and put a boot through the ball and leave some players up top to fight for it. Our short passing for passing sake at the back is our biggest weakness as it is inhibiting the players.

And Downes too casual for their first.

I think he got his sentence wrong. What he thought he said, "I'm managing in the Premier League" not "I'm a Premier League Manager" There's a world of difference.

I am really past caring what this twat does. I've seen last minute "Hail Mary" substitutions but Ryan Manning. Behave!

I rest my case.

They might be a different team altogether if the best team was played and given their own high tempo game instead of this own half possession garbage.

Most of the style theories are garbage. Take Martin for instance across the four divisions he was unsuccessful and every team let in sixty odd goals a season. Now he's a bloody genius, how? He achieved the same concession of goals, won fourth place, changed his tactics and won the play offs by a single goal. Learned nothing. reverted to type and again conceded goals for fun. A style can't be imposed on a team. Every team of eleven has a natural shape dependent on the abilities of the players. Pep didn't impose a style he paid £50m to £100m for individuals that fitted his philosophy and put them into a framework. We haven't been able to do that. Instead of picking his best team and playing to their strengths we have imposed a totally negative ball recycling in our own half that is destroying the ability of the players to defend or attack. They know this and are afraid of it's consequences. Last year we conceded lots of goals with the same players in a much more forgiving league, now, plus some really stupid line-ups, we are being strangled by the poorest teams never mind the better teams. This one size fits all philophosy is nonsense. The current fad playing out from the back is being exposed across football as a poisoned chalice and only a specialist style for the best teams constructed at great expense to play it. If this manager persists with it we are going down. He seems a one trick pony unable to admit it doesn't work. For that reason the sooner he is sacked the better. If Ankersen can't see that he's an idiot and if he isn't looking to change maybe Solak needs to review our complete structure.

Over the years every time I've heard of players praising the manager it's usually in the middle of a clusterfuck or ending up in one. I never heard of anybody praising Ferguson but I have heard of boots or other flying objects if he wasn't happy. He never lost the dressing room, they didn't dare and in his time cleared out a lot of famous internationals long before they were waning.

Exactly that. I can still see that last goal as the ball was put under crossbar and Kirby driving in, I thought Grummit bottled it and almost tried to get out of the way. I was behind the goal at Villa Park, so close, what a disappointment that was. Not long after that I saw George walking along Cumberland Place pushing a pram, you'd never know.

George had a list. For example he had been clogged by a well known centre half. When Saints played them George had a trick up his sleeve. He had the ball but let it out a little towards the centre half in question who took it hook line and sinker. As he went to control the ball George went over the top and cleaned him out. I'll never forget the night Saints were in a replay with Notts Forest in the FA Cup 0-3 down and 13 mins left. George terrified goalkeeper Peter Grummit under the crossbar, lethal with Paine putting the crosses in. Saints drew and won the second replay at White Hart Lane the next week 5-0. Lost 0-1 in the semi final at Villa Park in 1963 after that awful snowy winter. Denis Law scuffed in the winner.

Well, he already knows how to get battered.