Russell Martin

[CB Fry]

  On 06/09/2023 at 14:57, Dig Dig said:

Let's all start frothing at the mouth over a single quote without any other context added. 

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It's my understanding that what Ryan Manning means is he would prefer it if Saints lost every single game and wishes we were all dead. Also also he thinks the fanbase is all slugs, just little slugs

Edited 6 September, 2023 by CB Fry

[Miltonaggro]

  On 06/09/2023 at 15:43, CB Fry said:

It's my understanding that what Ryan Manning means is he would prefer it if Saints lost every single game and wishes we were all dead. Also also he thinks the fanbase is all slugs, just little slugs

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I think it’s much deeper than that. Unbelievable given how long he’s been at the club! 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

https://footystats.org/england/championship/xg

Top of the xG league!

On Manning's quote, there's still plenty in the media who see any victory as a statement of heroes and any defeat as the wheels coming off, on the way over the cliff. The sad binary world of hacks, knowing their ignorance at least gets clicks from the sensational headlines.

Meanwhile, some clubs use a variety of methods to improve players over the longer term, without knee jerk reactions. If the system they're working towards is sound, then the results will come. How quickly they arrive, how many players need to hit their marks for the system to work, the usefulness of the inputs and the viability of the system itself are all worth monitoring. You can have all the inputs you like, but if there's a fatal flaw in the system then it won't work.

Nothing wrong with preferring to work somewhere where you don't get shouted at for a narrow defeat, but where a fluky win is roses.

On posession, the team will surely be looking at being able to play at pace, and when not to. Some teams need to get drawn out patiently. Others can get punished with quicker, incisive passing. At the same time, where there are clear advantages, we should be working to take them. Under Martin's system, that's a lot of variations to learn, to make sure we're taking the best options and providing adequate cover.

[derry]

In a nutshell we lack basic discipline. Full backs who play like out of work Kamekazi pilots. Saturday was an ideal example, 9 players in Sunderland's penalty area leaving Edozie as the only defender. A serious team would not have done this. If the players can't think for themselves the the management need to hammer the importance of organisation and discipline. If we are sending the centre backs up for corners we need to have a screen across the field to defend a break. We don't need 9 men up for corners, nor do we need the left back taking right wing corners, sheer stupidity.

Logically we should be able to score twice nearly every game. From that I deduce the most important thing to do is block the opposition. KWP and Manning don't need to lose the ball by the corner flag, they don't even need to be there that's the job of the wingers. It is ludicrous for KWP to pass short to the winger then overlap. Give the through ball or give the winger the ball in front so that they can take on the defender. If Sulemana plays he could leave KWP standing so stay out of his space. Full backs are defenders. 

If the centre backs are up both full backs and two midfield players should be the defensive screen. One job take out the breaking player as far up the field as possible. Forget this inverted full back idea as it opens the door down our flanks. Not sophisticated, I'll tell you what's not sophisticated 68% possession and lucky to lose 5-0.

Edited 6 September, 2023 by derry

[saintant]

  On 06/09/2023 at 14:54, Smirking_Saint said:

And yet in recent history the most dominant sides have been coached by Pep Guardiola… an advocate of possession based football

And currently, Brighton.. a team rightly lauded for punching well above their weight… play possession based football

Burnley won this division playing.. you guessed it.. possession based football

Ive not seen the figures this week yet but last week we had the best xG in the division, so from an attacking perspective we looked the best side in the Champ.. the issue isn’t about possession based football.. the issue is team structure

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Man City and Brighton do not play the slow possession based style of football you describe - anything but. If we could get close to how either of those teams play then happy days.

[notnowcato]

  On 06/09/2023 at 18:18, saintant said:

Man City and Brighton do not play the slow possession based style of football you describe - anything but. If we could get close to how either of those teams play then happy days.

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Unless you have oil money then it’s a process and it takes time. Brighton were fairly pedestrian when Potter took over, they got better and better, De Zerbi accelerated the process but wouldn’t have been able to do so without all the groundwork being laid. 

[CB Fry]

  On 06/09/2023 at 19:18, notnowcato said:

Unless you have oil money then it’s a process and it takes time. Brighton were fairly pedestrian when Potter took over, they got better and better, De Zerbi accelerated the process but wouldn’t have been able to do so without all the groundwork being laid. 

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Potter finished below Ralph for both of his first two seasons and they couldn't score for toffee.

We have the opposite problem, but still it's a little early to write off our boy and his new system just yet.

[Osvaldorama]

He’s been a huge breath of fresh air since he arrived. 
 

The big thing for me is that his post match interviews align with what we can all see. This is quite rare. He clearly knows the defence isn’t good enough and that the passing is too slow, and accepting responsibility to change it. 
 

Makes a huge difference from the naive ignorance of Selles and the bullshit from NJ. All we can do is trust the process at this point 

[Weston Super Saint]

  On 06/09/2023 at 15:12, revolution saint said:

You do realise you can play possession football and still move the ball round quickly?  Possession football doesn't equal pedestrian football.

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It's not us you need to convince about that....

[kevdoh]

Martin claiming that if we didn't already have bazunu he would be somebody he would want to sign could prove to be his downfall. Defense hopefully will improve but having a reliable keeper gives defence more confidence and visa versa. At the moment we have suspect defence with a keeper behind them that doesn't make any saves, recipe for disaster. Forster looked class when he had fonte and alderweireld in front of him and in turn they were more solid because they had a brick wall in wanyama and schneiderlin sat in front of them. Confidence breeds confidence if everyone trusts each other they know they can play and the odd mistake will be picked up and sorted by someone else. Haven't had that for years there's been too many weak links/bottlers/billy big bollocks

[kevdoh]

  On 06/09/2023 at 22:16, kevdoh said:

Martin claiming that if we didn't already have bazunu he would be somebody he would want to sign could prove to be his downfall. Defense hopefully will improve but having a reliable keeper gives defence more confidence and visa versa. At the moment we have suspect defence with a keeper behind them that doesn't make any saves, recipe for disaster. Forster looked class when he had fonte and alderweireld in front of him and in turn they were more solid because they had a brick wall in wanyama and schneiderlin sat in front of them. Confidence breeds confidence if everyone trusts each other they know they can play and the odd mistake will be picked up and sorted by someone else. Haven't had that for years there's been too many weak links/bottlers/billy big bollocks

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Or just god awful coaching. Who knows? Had some talented players that have started brightly and just had all confidence sapped out of them. Even tadic who was still class for us got some shit. Went to Ajax for pittance and was ripping real Madrid apart in champions League. If we signed him after that everyone would be creaming their pants but he wasn't appreciated here fully. Probably too clever for players around him ditto Ramirez and gabbiadini. Need a manager that knows his shit rather than a one way of playing and that's it kind of guy. Look at tony mowbray. If we had got him there would have been uproar but his experience meant he spent the week knowing exactly how we play and how to pick us apart and he won that game. Our players man for man are better than Sunderland's but we were picked apart by a better prepared inferior team

[SW11_Saint]

  On 06/09/2023 at 13:55, saintant said:

You seem to be an advocate of the type of slow, dreary football most of us detest. Walking football is played by 50 year old men. I'm sure most of us want to see the ball moved crisply and with purpose, we want to see flying wingers taking on opponents and players charging into the box to get on the end of high and low crosses. Football is not a game of chess, it's meant to generate emotions, passion and excitement. Watch all the best sides in the world and they get you off your seat - they don't stroll around tip-tapping five yard safe passes just to say they play possession football. Possession with a purpose is what I want to see.

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Have you found the first five games boring? I haven’t. (The last one was painful, mind). 

Was there no emotion involved in the 4-4 game with Norwich? Was there no excitement in three injury time goals?

Not sure I recognise the picture you’re painting of dull, event-free games? 

 

[revolution saint]

  On 06/09/2023 at 22:29, SW11_Saint said:

Have you found the first five games boring? I haven’t. (The last one was painful, mind). 

Was there no emotion involved in the 4-4 game with Norwich? Was there no excitement in three injury time goals?

Not sure I recognise the picture you’re painting of dull, event-free games? 

 

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That's because no one has actually said that - you've just made it up.  Well done.  All saintant said was that we need to play the ball a bit quicker, and not only is he right but Russell Martin agrees too.

[Dark Munster]

  On 06/09/2023 at 19:41, Osvaldorama said:

He’s been a huge breath of fresh air since he arrived. 

The big thing for me is that his post match interviews align with what we can all see. This is quite rare. He clearly knows the defence isn’t good enough and that the passing is too slow, and accepting responsibility to change it. 

Makes a huge difference from the naive ignorance of Selles and the bullshit from NJ. All we can do is trust the process at this point 

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True, since we fans don't have much choice! Before last Saturday that would make some sense, although talk is cheap, and alarm bells were ringing defensively in most of the matches (not to mention his entire stint with Swansea).

Do you still have confidence in him after his appalling decisions, from start to finish, against Sunderland?

Edited 6 September, 2023 by Dark Munster

[Boris Karloff]

I still have confidence in him. Not going to condemn the man because of one game. 

He's had a torrid month with players leaving and players wanting to leave staying. Key injuries. I really don't think we know what it's been like behind the scenes.

Ok, so there's no excuse for playing Mara on the wing, but hopefully he won't do that again and with Fraser getting fit hopefully we won't. 

I think it's interesting that Lavia hasn't got into a Chelsea squad yet. Not because he's unwanted or injured but because he's not fit enough. What was he doing at Saints??? Just sitting on the side staring at his laces? I'm sure the last couple of months haven't been what RM was expecting when he took over and have probably been horrible to navigate. 

So yeah, I've still got faith in him. 

[Long Shot]

  On 07/09/2023 at 03:28, Boris Karloff said:

I still have confidence in him. Not going to condemn the man because of one game. 

He's had a torrid month with players leaving and players wanting to leave staying. Key injuries. I really don't think we know what it's been like behind the scenes.

Ok, so there's no excuse for playing Mara on the wing, but hopefully he won't do that again and with Fraser getting fit hopefully we won't. 

I think it's interesting that Lavia hasn't got into a Chelsea squad yet. Not because he's unwanted or injured but because he's not fit enough. What was he doing at Saints??? Just sitting on the side staring at his laces? I'm sure the last couple of months haven't been what RM was expecting when he took over and have probably been horrible to navigate. 

So yeah, I've still got faith in him. 

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All clubs have had an unsettled window including the side that beat us 5-0. That week they lost their star striker to us while we also made an unsettling bid for their winger. Sure it’s not been a bowl of cherries for Martin but last Saturday was right up there in truly horrendous football games and his gargantuan errors were unforgivable. 

[Boris Karloff]

  On 07/09/2023 at 05:42, Long Shot said:

All clubs have had an unsettled window including the side that beat us 5-0. That week they lost their star striker to us while we also made an unsettling bid for their winger. Sure it’s not been a bowl of cherries for Martin but last Saturday was right up there in truly horrendous football games and his gargantuan errors were unforgivable. 

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Mowbray had bids on two players who were injured and not training with the first team squad. Slightly different. Neither Roberts or Stewart were ever going to play a part against Saints. 

And "gargantuan" errors! Really? Very melodramatic. He tried a few things where he had very limited options and he'd be the first to say they didn't work. 

[ally_uk]

All this passing it at the back nonsense and keeping possession I think time and time again will be our downfall this season.

Will be like groundhog day watching the defence playing table tennis to then play to midfield and be countered with one splitting long ball 🤣🤣🤣

I can understand fhe philosophy if we are City... 

[Long Shot]

  On 07/09/2023 at 05:54, Boris Karloff said:

Mowbray had bids on two players who were injured and not training with the first team squad. Slightly different. Neither Roberts or Stewart were ever going to play a part against Saints. 

And "gargantuan" errors! Really? Very melodramatic. He tried a few things where he had very limited options and he'd be the first to say they didn't work. 

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You keep your head in the sand. IMO Martin is simply not a very good manager. The writing is already on the wall. Gillingham and Sunderland away has exposed his philosophy. Pedestrian passing and possession will turn the fans off. Feel free to throw this post back at me next May, by all means, but I doubt it will happen. By the way I do agree he is a good talker and unfortunately that seems to be enough for a large swathe of the supporter base. 

[AlexLaw76]

  On 07/09/2023 at 05:54, Boris Karloff said:

Mowbray had bids on two players who were injured and not training with the first team squad. Slightly different. Neither Roberts or Stewart were ever going to play a part against Saints. 

And "gargantuan" errors! Really? Very melodramatic. He tried a few things where he had very limited options and he'd be the first to say they didn't work. 

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Sunderland had more disruption last week than 2 bids form saints for injured players 

[rallyboy]

There was an interesting throwaway line in the Burnley documentary.

Kompany made the comment that it can take four months for players to really get to grips with new systems and to implement them correctly due to the amount of information you are asking them to absorb, a theory that was supported by the way their season went from average to dominant.

It's this small nugget of hope that makes me believe we'll be alright. 

[ErwinK1961]

Quite easy to spot the posters who never wanted Martin in the first place.

[SaintsFan86]

  On 07/09/2023 at 08:29, ErwinK1961 said:

Quite easy to spot the posters who never wanted Martin in the first place.

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Yeah, Pathetic really.

Beat the drum as soon as anything goes a little wrong, But not acknowledge any of the good.

[saintant]

  On 06/09/2023 at 22:29, SW11_Saint said:

Have you found the first five games boring? I haven’t. (The last one was painful, mind). 

Was there no emotion involved in the 4-4 game with Norwich? Was there no excitement in three injury time goals?

Not sure I recognise the picture you’re painting of dull, event-free games? 

 

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I'm not suggesting we have seen no good games this season. I am merely pointing out that, at times, we play the game at walking pace particularly our centre backs. This invites pressure leading to mistakes. Let's make sure everyone is playing at a decent tempo because there are times when we are not and they always seem to coincide with us getting into trouble at the back.

[derry]

I get the anxiety about passing out from the back which is in my mind different from passing it around at the back. We need the midfield and wide players to be more aware and more available. Attracting a press into our own penalty area isn't smart. Furthermore there ought to be a irregular double bluff element where the goalkeeper immediately on possession hits it long into the corners with the forwards pressing the ball.

Far worse for me was the first goal, 9 players in the opponents penalty area and Edozie the only covering player!!! We then were in disarray, outnumbered on Sunderland's break. The lack of discipline and an organised framework so that a break can be blocked is more worrying. It also displayed an arrogance and complacency on the part of the whole team. Playing off the cuff is great but only if there is a strict organised defensive framework behind if and once it breaks down.

It seems to me the only jobs the full backs think they have is to get up the lines or invert into a narrow midfield exposing our wings to undefended attacks and overloading on the other side. That has to stop. Defenders first and foremost are defenders not freelance walkabout, self indulgent undisciplined liabilities.

[Saint Fan CaM]

  On 07/09/2023 at 08:35, saintant said:

I'm not suggesting we have seen no good games this season. I am merely pointing out that, at times, we play the game at walking pace particularly our centre backs. This invites pressure leading to mistakes. Let's make sure everyone is playing at a decent tempo because there are times when we are not and they always seem to coincide with us getting into trouble at the back.

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Generally agree, but it’s not as simple as just stepping up the tempo - that’s when mistakes can be made. It’s about taking the time to pick out the right pass, made easier because your teammates are moving and making themselves available. Then, when the time is right, change gear rapidly and move forward with intent and purpose. The ratio of slow build up to explosive attack is critical to success…too little and goals are not scored…too much and there’s more chance of turnovers.

The main reason we got taken to the cleaners by Sunderland was because too many players were not reading the game, got caught upfield and left acres of space behind our defensive lines for their fast players to benefit from, plus there was little effort to press them in numbers meaning they had far too long to launch accurate long balls to advanced players.

I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it - the system’s fine if the players are competent to utilise it. I have doubts about a significant number of players being competent, whether that’s in body fitness or intellectual fitness and more worryingly without the capacity to improve through training (Holgate). On the plus side, there are players like SAA and the new young ex-City CB who while young, have time and ability on their side - if Martin has the courage to pick them and play them in their proper positions (Charles).

Edited 7 September, 2023 by Saint Fan CaM
Final thought

[Smirking_Saint]

  On 06/09/2023 at 18:18, saintant said:

Man City and Brighton do not play the slow possession based style of football you describe - anything but. If we could get close to how either of those teams play then happy days.

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So you’d rather a quicker possession game, leading to ultimately less possession and possibly less efforts on goal ? Considering we currently lead the xG table ?

[Osvaldorama]

  On 07/09/2023 at 07:11, Long Shot said:

You keep your head in the sand. IMO Martin is simply not a very good manager. The writing is already on the wall. Gillingham and Sunderland away has exposed his philosophy. Pedestrian passing and possession will turn the fans off. Feel free to throw this post back at me next May, by all means, but I doubt it will happen. By the way I do agree he is a good talker and unfortunately that seems to be enough for a large swathe of the supporter base. 

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What an absolute embarrassment of a post and I am fairly sure you aren’t a real saints fan. 
 

 

[Weston Saint]

  On 07/09/2023 at 12:59, Osvaldorama said:

What an absolute embarrassment of a post and I am fairly sure you aren’t a real saints fan. 
 

 

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I know who he is and he is more than just a Saints Supporter, trust me. Not going to expose his real name so do not ask! 

[revolution saint]

  On 07/09/2023 at 12:48, Smirking_Saint said:

So you’d rather a quicker possession game, leading to ultimately less possession and possibly less efforts on goal ? Considering we currently lead the xG table ?

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This is a complete non-sequitur.

[Whitey Grandad]

  On 07/09/2023 at 14:26, revolution saint said:

This is a complete non-sequitur.

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What is it with you people and so-called statistics? xG is an abomination and bears no relation to what actually happens. There is only one table that matters and that is the league table.

[revolution saint]

  On 07/09/2023 at 14:40, Whitey Grandad said:

What is it with you people and so-called statistics? xG is an abomination and bears no relation to what actually happens. There is only one table that matters and that is the league table.

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You may have quoted the wrong person Whitey - I didn't say anything about stats.

[Whitey Grandad]

  On 07/09/2023 at 14:41, revolution saint said:

You may have quoted the wrong person Whitey - I didn't say anything about stats.

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Yes, sorry. It should have somebody smirking instead of somebody revolting 🫢

[Whitey Grandad]

  On 07/09/2023 at 12:48, Smirking_Saint said:

So you’d rather a quicker possession game, leading to ultimately less possession and possibly less efforts on goal ? Considering we currently lead the xG table ?

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Oops, I meant to quote you earlier but Revolution_Saint is right. It doesn’t follow that more possession should lead to more goal efforts. Just as probably the reverse.

Is there such a thing as an xG table and for the love of God, why?

[notnowcato]

  On 07/09/2023 at 14:57, Whitey Grandad said:

Oops, I meant to quote you earlier but Revolution_Saint is right. It doesn’t follow that more possession should lead to more goal efforts. Just as probably the reverse.

Is there such a thing as an xG table and for the love of God, why?

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I've not seen an xG table but in the main I would expect it probably would resemble the league table; it will be the anomalies or outliers that could be interesting .

[benjii]

  On 07/09/2023 at 14:22, Weston Saint said:

I know who he is and he is more than just a Saints Supporter, trust me. Not going to expose his real name so do not ask! 

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Ron? Derek? Trevor?

[Convict Colony]

  On 07/09/2023 at 14:22, Weston Saint said:

I know who he is and he is more than just a Saints Supporter, trust me. Not going to expose his real name so do not ask! 

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I know it's a long shot (pun intended) but you've used exposed and more than a saints supporter so I'm going for Neil Shipperly.

Am I close ?

[gecko]

  On 07/09/2023 at 15:13, notnowcato said:

I've not seen an xG table but in the main I would expect it probably would resemble the league table; it will be the anomalies or outliers that could be interesting .

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There's always been a pretty good one here - albeit for the Prem: https://understat.com/league/EPL/2022 Sort it by xPTS and we would have been expected to survive. 

Statistically, last year we let in 10 more goals than we'd have been expected to (against the chances created, on average) - either everyone got consistently lucky (possible) or our defence + keeper are trash (probable)

 

I personally think that everyone's overreacting for now, mostly because 5-0 sounds so bad. In reality, two of their strikes came from outside the box (one heavily deflected). Don't get me wrong the performance was still shocking, and Martin has some defending to work on for sure, as at the moment we're not really doing any.

This is still a new team with massive wholesale changes and completely new playing style to boot. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt for a while longer

[Smirking_Saint]

  On 07/09/2023 at 14:57, Whitey Grandad said:

Oops, I meant to quote you earlier but Revolution_Saint is right. It doesn’t follow that more possession should lead to more goal efforts. Just as probably the reverse.

Is there such a thing as an xG table and for the love of God, why?

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I appreciate you don’t like stats, and I do understand the dislike for them, but they are important, which is why you see pretty much every high level sports team using data to a hugh degree, some more than others

I also agree that you can’t base everything on stats alone, you have to look at the bigger picture

xG is expected goals, its a relatively easy metric, but basically if you’re matching your xG then you’re doing well and taking chances, equally if you have a high xG its an indicator that you’re doing well from an attacking perspective, and we’ve been praised for that

So… Im tackling the ‘we’re too pedestrian’ narrative here… if we’re at the top of the xG charts than attacking isn’t a problem, and as such moving the ball in a quicker and less controlled way isn’t going to improve this, it’ll probably wreck team structure even more than it is.. we need to get better at taking our chances of course, but I think getting Stewart or Adams on the pitch addresses it

Our problem is defending… or more pertinently IMO being able to stop counters, now in my mind, atleast in theory and more slow and controlled possession game ‘should’ allow us to remain in a relatively solid structure, certainly more than a quicker counter type game style would… so again.. the issue for me isn’t the possession game, its the way we’re set up when we lose possession

So really im trying to get to the crux of what people’s issue is and it seems to me that they just don’t like possession football but I think, given a chance it can be very effective.. again though, he needs to ensure we’re defensively sound on the turnover and Ill want to see improvements 

[Bakovnetski]

  On 07/09/2023 at 16:41, Convict Colony said:

I know it's a long shot (pun intended) but you've used exposed and more than a saints supporter so I'm going for Neil Shipperly.

Am I close ?

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Long shot has to be Beattie

[Lord Duckhunter]

It’s clearly not Baz, he’s nowhere near any long shot. 

[harvey]

  On 07/09/2023 at 05:54, Boris Karloff said:

Mowbray had bids on two players who were injured and not training with the first team squad. Slightly different. Neither Roberts or Stewart were ever going to play a part against Saints. 

And "gargantuan" errors! Really? Very melodramatic. He tried a few things where he had very limited options and he'd be the first to say they didn't work. 

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Tbf I would say playing Mara out wide was 'gargantuan'...totally unfathomable, was never going to work and not a position anyone would expect Mara to do 'a job' at.

Unless you're RM.

[saintant]

  On 07/09/2023 at 18:37, Smirking_Saint said:

I appreciate you don’t like stats, and I do understand the dislike for them, but they are important, which is why you see pretty much every high level sports team using data to a hugh degree, some more than others

I also agree that you can’t base everything on stats alone, you have to look at the bigger picture

xG is expected goals, its a relatively easy metric, but basically if you’re matching your xG then you’re doing well and taking chances, equally if you have a high xG its an indicator that you’re doing well from an attacking perspective, and we’ve been praised for that

So… Im tackling the ‘we’re too pedestrian’ narrative here… if we’re at the top of the xG charts than attacking isn’t a problem, and as such moving the ball in a quicker and less controlled way isn’t going to improve this, it’ll probably wreck team structure even more than it is.. we need to get better at taking our chances of course, but I think getting Stewart or Adams on the pitch addresses it

Our problem is defending… or more pertinently IMO being able to stop counters, now in my mind, atleast in theory and more slow and controlled possession game ‘should’ allow us to remain in a relatively solid structure, certainly more than a quicker counter type game style would… so again.. the issue for me isn’t the possession game, its the way we’re set up when we lose possession

So really im trying to get to the crux of what people’s issue is and it seems to me that they just don’t like possession football but I think, given a chance it can be very effective.. again though, he needs to ensure we’re defensively sound on the turnover and Ill want to see improvements 

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Play walking football between our centre backs and we invite trouble as we have already seen.  Playing from the back is fine but it doesn't work if we dawdle on the ball as Sunderland proved - we were a mess and they swarmed all over us because they soon twigged we were playing too slowly when passing between our goalkeeper and defenders. It will keep happening if we don't sort it out.

[Smirking_Saint]

  On 07/09/2023 at 20:22, saintant said:

Play walking football between our centre backs and we invite trouble as we have already seen.  Playing from the back is fine but it doesn't work if we dawdle on the ball as Sunderland proved - we were a mess and they swarmed all over us because they soon twigged we were playing too slowly when passing between our goalkeeper and defenders. It will keep happening if we don't sort it out.

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The only goal we’ve conceded by passing out at the back was Holgates fuck up, and there was plenty that should of happened to address that and it ended up with a 20-30 yard effort going in

The rest is purely due to terrible team shape and largely not because we get caught on the ball, if we set up defensively the way we do now but playing Ralphs way or Koemans, or Poch… the result would be the same

[Smirking_Saint]

  On 07/09/2023 at 16:41, Convict Colony said:

I know it's a long shot (pun intended) but you've used exposed and more than a saints supporter so I'm going for Neil Shipperly.

Am I close ?

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Whoever it is I don’t think he’s had much of a coaching back ground 

[Turkish]

  On 06/09/2023 at 13:57, saintant said:

Let's stop publishing league tables then. Football is totally results driven whether some players like it or not - those that don't are probably playing the wrong sport.

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Everyone gets a medal at the end of the season. dont record results, make sure everyone in the squad gets equal playing time regardless of ability. Sounds wonderful

[trousers]

  On 07/09/2023 at 14:22, Weston Saint said:

I know who he is and he is more than just a Saints Supporter, trust me. Not going to expose his real name so do not ask! 

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His memories of The Dell don't seem to suggest he was a player or manager 'back in the day'... if that's what you're alluding to...? 

https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/topic/544-top-10-memories-of-the-dell/#comment-17717

 

P.s. has he met Jonathan Fulthorpe recently...? #throwback

Edited 7 September, 2023 by trousers

[leeham_69]

  On 07/09/2023 at 21:05, trousers said:

His memories of The Dell don't seem to suggest he was a player or manager 'back in the day'... if that's what you're alluding to...? 

https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/topic/544-top-10-memories-of-the-dell/#comment-17717

 

P.s. has he met Jonathan Fulthorpe recently...? #throwback

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Anyone else read that in this voice?

[Saint_clark]

  On 07/09/2023 at 14:40, Whitey Grandad said:

What is it with you people and so-called statistics? xG is an abomination and bears no relation to what actually happens. There is only one table that matters and that is the league table.

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Christ, surely even you can agree that the fact we have had more shots on goal and shots on target than any other team in the league shows that the style of play isn't boring and pedestrian? That it does lead to good attacking outcomes? 

I know you see statistics as devil worship but surely you can see the link between that? 

[Dusic]

  On 07/09/2023 at 14:22, Weston Saint said:

I know who he is and he is more than just a Saints Supporter, trust me. Not going to expose his real name so do not ask! 

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Thanks Ron, see you up at the lodge on Monday.

Big Bad Barry

EDIT: sorry mods posted under wrong log-in, please can you switch to my Long Shot account. Thanks.

Edited 8 September, 2023 by Dusic