S-Clarke

For the first 30 mins, as everyone has said, I thought we had finally come to life. I liked the setup and the spaces between everyone, we were pressing United and constantly winning the turnovers. Fernandes in midfield was popping up in the pockets and playing some wonderful passes down the sides, or across. Dibbling has Dalot on toast. It was kind of what we'd been waiting for. The penalty was shit. It wasn't a good save, it was crap. But the problems stemmed from that. Our heads dropped, our mentality dropped and with one foul swoop of something bad happening we crumbled yet again - it's a criticism I've had of this club for years now, different players, different managers, but whenever adversity hits we just melt in front of our eyes. Defensively from open play, I thought we were open and got caught on the turnover a few times in the 2nd half. Ramsdale earned his wage, and given it was 3-0 anyway, that is pretty worrying. The first goal was absolutley woeful defensively, but equally that third goal was a joke in terms of THB failing to play the line correctly - basic stuff, really. At the end of the day, a good 30mins in the Championship can put you 3-0 up (like against PNE), but a good 30mins in the PL doesn't really ever equate to anything other than a defeat. We still look and act naive in moments both on the pitch and on the bench. We don't look capable of sticking in and nicking something if other things aren't going well. It's all about next week for me. If we lose next week then I think it's probably curtains.

If only we'd followed Trabzonspors logic when we went shopping in January 2023.

Summer 2022 - Roméo Lavia (sold for big profit) £15m Gavin Bazunu (long-term injured and pretty poor) £14m Mateusz Lis (sold for a small profit) £Free Ainsley Maitland-Niles (left) £Loan Armel Bella-Kotchap (trying to get rid of) €12.00m Sékou Mara (sold for a small loss) €11.50m Duje Caleta-Car (sold for a loss) €8.00m Samuel Edozie (loaned out) €8.00m Juan Larios (Still here, but injured for a year) €7.00m Joe Aribo (Still here) €7.10m January 2023 - James Bree (Still here) £850k Mislav Orsic (sold for a loss) £5.75m Carlos Alcaraz (sold for small profit) £13m Paul Onuachu (trying to get rid of) £18m Kamaldeen Sulemana (trying to get rid of) £23m

You're right, I didn't even count Cornet - forgot about him. Just realised Dibling too can play from wide areas. Makes sense in that case.

Good move for him. It'll be interesting to see how he does over there, will be watching closely. Jury is still out for sure, but I've not given up on him yet. I wonder what this means for Sulemana? (the lack of news from Ajax is quite damming I think) I'd find it hard to believe that we'd loan out both Sulemana and Edozie, as it could leave us a little short if we had any injury issues.

I don't think there is an anti-RM bandwagon at all, I for one want him to succeed as much as any other fan and always have done. I don't want to be a club that chops and changes managers every year or so. But that doesn't mean we cannot call out issues or voice concerns over what we see in front of us. What I take issue with on your post, and a lot of your posts, is that you're calling what he's doing as revolutionary, something different, no one has ever tried it. That narrative is repeated by Martin himself and seems to filter throughout the club and it's really cringeworthy. Let's just take a step back and work out what he's trying to do - Dominate possession and create an extra man when on the ball out of defence. Now tell me no other team has ever tried that before? It's honestly nothing new, unique or magical. Barca did it, Man City do it, Arsenal did it in the Wenger years. What is the big difference between us and those guys? Player quality. In the Championship we could get away, to a degree, because our players ability was higher than that of the other sides in the league. We're now doing the same in a league with much, much higher quality than we have. I'm not sat here saying abandon all passing football, but there needs to be an acknowledgement and an awareness within our coaching that our quality is significantly lower than that of who we are facing. Bednarek's touch isn't tight enough for example, so what we're providing is an absolutely perfect press trigger for opposition sides when we retreat back. They know that Bednarek/Stephens aren't comfortable on the ball when pressured, so as soon as we go back they swarm on our weakest ball playing players. Brentford played it perfectly. They use our back passing as a trigger to condense and tie us in knots, and that's where we give the ball away and get ourselves in a muddle. That's not reinventing football, it's being stupid and not being honest about your own limitations.

Kompany only got that Bayern Munich job because he was called Vincent Kompany. He wouldn't have got it for any other reason. If Martin goes the same way, he'll end up rocking up at Preston or Hull - somewhere like that.

That's a nice little move for him, can't begrudge him that. I think (like most of us) he'd had enough of the UK!

Softening the approach on Leicester to make up for an almighty brush under the carpet for City coming up soon. Sounds about right!! Like you said, Everton and Forest have genuine reason to be absolutley pissed. None of this is good for us though, that was potentially one of our 'saving graces'.

That's a great post mate, you nailed it all there. Couldn't have said it better myself.

Looks like he's been released early.

Ajax are still playing in a relatively weak league, even though they're a big name as a club. The problem myself and others have with Sulemana is his lack of footballing intelligence. He's similar to Edozie in that regard. You can be the quickest footballer ever, but if you don't know how to utilise that pace then it's all a bit pointless. He can beat a man, he can take on players, but more often than not there is nothing at the end of it. If he wasn't as quick as he is I doubt he'd have ever made European football from that right to dream academy. Last season, in the 2nd tier of English football, was his opportunity to showcase his pace against lumbering Champ CB's, but he didn't do anything. One of the last chances he had was in that utter shit show at the King Power, we wilted in the 2nd half of that game and he was one of the main culprits of downing tools - and that's likley why he's not been trusted since.

Yep, now Ajax. Hopefully a realistic fee on the buy option and not like Charly's at Juventus. Thanks for the two goals against Liverpool in that nothing game I guess.

Seen it pop up on some twitter feeds. We accepted a loan from Benfica last week, but his work permit was denied so that fell through. Apparently we've now accepted a loan bid from Galatasaray, with an option to purchase. But he doesn't want to move to Turkey so the club are trying to convince him.

That's not true. We'd accepted what Rangers had offered, they were the ones who pulled it at the 11th hr.

And he'd never see PL football again. He knows that though, thankfully.

He's primarily played from the left as far as I know. He played there for Sheff U last season. He played in tandem with McBurnie who held it and let him run beyond from wide to central. I guess we shouldn't expect much if we buy up the two strikers from the worst side the PL has seen in recent years.

The Martin logic behind that is that we get an extra player in the middle when we are on the ball. But when that extra player is Jack Stephens the advantage is somewhat removed anyway. Pep did similar with John Stones if you remember, but the gulf between John Stones and Jack Stephens is enormous and he should know that.

I agree it's not just about putting better players into the 11, there's more to it than that. We need some natural width out there and not BBD or AA. Pass out from the back by all means, but it's the over-doing it which is killing us. We got it out of defence a few times today, out to the full backs and somewhat away from danger - but we then played it right back to our CB's or GK when the opposition were mid-press. It's that sort of decision making which isn't brave, it's just bonkers. I'd also argue that our attack is more blunt because of the level we're at. Good Championship players with space, but lack that extra bit required (physique and power) to do it at this level. We'll see how it pans out.

At the moment, Sugawara - Bednarek - Stephens - KWP

I don't think he's proclaiming ripping everything up, more so just playing the better players in the positions that the weaker players are currently occupying. Smallbone and Aribo, I'm sure you'll agree, have been naff. It was a worry for me at the end of last season re: Smallbone, the game passed him by a lot in the Champ last season and he is going to be eaten alive at this level. Fernandes, albet a few games, already looks a few levels above either Smallbone or Aribo. What really worries me about our side is the attack though. I think we will all settle down once we get a goal from AA/BBD/Archer etc, at the moment I can't say with confidence where our goals are coming from.

Technically Smallbone or Aribo were taking his place, but how we were playing did mean that Stephens stepped into midfield when we had the ball. It's such a strange approach when we have better midfielders actually sat on the bench. For me, we have to go back to something that makes a little more sense. Straight back 4. Lesley and Downes in the two central midfield slots. Fernandes AA - BBD - Cornet as a three. (AA's place up for debate with Dibling pushing). I think BBD, physically, is our best option as an out ball if we need it. That should give us more control in the middle of the park, and width through Cornet and the full backs. That's how I'd do it anyway. We can still pay keep ball like that, but if we keep width (full backs) and have two '6's as such, we will have more angles. A lot of it is based on the receiving players providing the angle or the opportunity for a pass, we didn't really do that (we haven't all season), then we panic and it all goes to shit. Positionally it all looks a bit wrong at the moment.

He looks a bit like a rabbit in headlights so far. I have no doubts that he'll become a decent player at this level, but right now I think he needs to go back to basics a bit and calm down. Taking him out of the firing line is something I suggested too, ditto Smallbone. Sometimes for the sake of the player you need to take them out for a bit, settle the team down, and then re-integrate them when things are a little more settled. I think there are tools to work with here, but I do fear we are lacking any star quality in the top third to make much of a punch this season.

I hope to see more of Fernandes, but we need to see less of Smallbone or Aribo if we are going to make anything of this season. Feels harsh to say, but they're just a level below what is required for PL in speed and strength. You see it a lot - good Champ players that just cannot make that jump, in the end their careers level out and they become lower league. Unfortunately we currently have a lot of those sorts of players. A bit more game time from the likes of Lesley, Fernandes, Cornet, Sugawara, Ramsdale etc and we may be able to do something. I still think we've got way too much to do though given that we've been shown up so much by 2 of the weaker sides in the league. WHU played really well against Man City today but were done 3-1. This league is impossible if you cannot even compete with the dregs.

Stephen's hasn't made any obvious clear errors, but if you watch his game closely you can see him actually playing others into trouble. The THB mistake was because Stephens played a ball back that was never on. The Bednarek mistake was because Stephens ran in front of the ball and got in his way. He hasn't become a PL defender overnight because he's never been a PL defender. A squad player a PL level, sure, but this weird hybrid beckenbauer role at this level needs to stop. Two centre backs, Lesley and Downes in front. Fernandes in front of them. Full backs staying wide giving the GK and CB's angles. Job done.