Russell Martin

[Farmer Saint]

11 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Were you entertained last season?

No, it was dogshit, hence why I wasn't overly bothered about being relegated. 

[Dman]

Mods @Lighthouse - You know how we love a poll on here. I'd be really interested to see the split of support for and against RM. 

Mabe something like: 

At the end of the season would you

1. Keep regardless - Deserves 1 more season.

2. Keep only if we gain promotion, Sack if we dont - Failed to achieve targets.

3. Sack regardless - I see no future with him as manager in this leauge or the one above. 

 

 

[notnowcato]

14 minutes ago, Dman said:

Mods @Lighthouse - You know how we love a poll on here. I'd be really interested to see the split of support for and against RM. 

Mabe something like: 

At the end of the season would you

1. Keep regardless - Deserves 1 more season.

2. Keep only if we gain promotion, Sack if we dont - Failed to achieve targets.

3. Sack regardless - I see no future with him as manager in this leauge or the one above. 

 

 

Create New Topic > Select Poll > Fill your fucking boots

[Morse]

2 hours ago, Dman said:

Mods @Lighthouse - You know how we love a poll on here. I'd be really interested to see the split of support for and against RM. 

Mabe something like: 

At the end of the season would you

1. Keep regardless - Deserves 1 more season.

2. Keep only if we gain promotion, Sack if we dont - Failed to achieve targets.

3. Sack regardless - I see no future with him as manager in this leauge or the one above. 

 

 

Sack regardless

[AlexLaw76]

Sack

[SaintsFan86]

Keep

[Dman]

4 minutes ago, SaintsFan86 said:

Keep

get lost, you're not welcome round here 

[SaintsFan86]

17 minutes ago, Dman said:

get lost, you're not welcome round here 

You could leave. 👍😇

[SambaMaverick]

I'd definitely be having a look to see who we could attract

[West end Saints]

Keep.

I would be absolutely shocked if they even consider sacking him this season.

 

People seem to forget we have never been favourites for automatic so have pretty much performed as most in the country would have expected.

As with most managers November will be key time (whatever division we are in).

[trousers]

I fear my answer might attract the wrath of the forum's much esteemed fence-sitting police... 

Edited April 29 by trousers

[notnowcato]

2 minutes ago, trousers said:

I fear my answer might attract the wrath of the forum's much esteemed fence-sitting police... 

Come on Splinters, don't be shy

[AlexLaw76]

8 minutes ago, trousers said:

I fear my answer might attract the wrath of the forum's much esteemed fence-sitting police... 

[Gingeletiss]

3, his pedestrian style of football, is dire. We would get murdered in the premier.

[trousers]

26 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

Come on Splinters, don't be shy

Nee-naw, nee-naw....

[John B]

1 hour ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Sack

The policy of sacking managers starting with Puel does not seemed to have worked as we are now on maybe our sixth manager and we find our selves in our lowest league position since 2012

[CB Fry]

2 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Sack

 

1 hour ago, SaintsFan86 said:

Keep

Kack

[Wyn]

Swans fan here in peace. I posted here at the start of the season so I thought I'd add an outsider perspective now that the season has played out. 

From my standpoint Martin has performed for you towards the upper end of what I expected. Yes, the complaints about being obsessed with possession and defensive shortcomings sound very familiar. On the other hand the stats show you defend from the front with greater intensity than any other team in the league (lowest ppda, most high turnovers, most shots from high turnovers). This is something we didn't see at Swansea.

You've also conceded a staggering 16  more goals from open play than your xG. Having a goalie in Bazunu with the second worst save percentage in the league, may go some way to account for that. 

It seems to me that you've been more than a tad unlucky. There may be better managers out there than Martin but for certain there are hell of a lot that are worse.

By the way your two victories over us were up there with the most impressive performances by an opponent this season.

 

Edited April 29 by Wyn

[Weston Super Saint]

21 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

 

Kack

He's definitely been that.

[Pamplemousse]

I'd keep him next season regardless, but I don't think he could survive the September 4 game losing streak like he did at the start of this season.

[aintforever]

Keep if we go up, if we don't then I'm not fussed either way. It depends who we can get to replace him, I certainly wouldn't sack him unless there was a decent candidate already lined up willing to take the job.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

If we go up he's earned the chance.

If we don't, the club have to look at the resources available, the cost of the gaps we need to fill both to make it work better and to fill departing players, and the returning players and the role they could be playing in the system of a new manager.

[Challenger]

Keep if we go up, it would be absolutely callous to get rid if he achieved that.

Fail to go up? Then providing he learns from the mistakes of this season, ditches the crab football ( to the extreme extent he favours), studies the opposition more and adapts better in play, play his best team in their correct positions and develop some sort of plan B, then I would keep him for a while.

Neither of these scenarios look likely to happen though.

Edited April 29 by Challenger

[Roo1976]

54 minutes ago, aintforever said:

Keep if we go up, if we don't then I'm not fussed either way. It depends who we can get to replace him, I certainly wouldn't sack him unless there was a decent candidate already lined up willing to take the job.

wow, youd trust our executives?...........our recent managerial appointments havent hit the right tones really have they,or have they?(From the swansea city fan).... Having a goalie in Bazunu with the second worst save percentage in the league, may go some way to account for that. 

[Wade Garrett]

2 hours ago, John B said:

The policy of sacking managers starting with Puel does not seemed to have worked as we are now on maybe our sixth manager and we find our selves in our lowest league position since 2012

I think the issue is the policy of appointing shit managers rather than sacking them.

[Wyn]

23 minutes ago, Roo1976 said:

wow, youd trust our executives?...........our recent managerial appointments havent hit the right tones really have they,or have they?(From the swansea city fan).... Having a goalie in Bazunu with the second worst save percentage in the league, may go some way to account for that. 

According to Fotmob, Bazunu has a negative goals prevented tally of -11.5 goals. In other words he's conceded 11.5 goals than that expected from shots faced. Pretty awful. Reminiscent of Fisher for Swansea last season.

There was certainly a tendency last season for Swansea to concede some howlers,  with the defence being far too open, leaving the goalie with little chance of saving efforts on goal. So perhaps it's not just your goalkeeper's deficiencies that are to blame for your relatively poor defensive record. 

Edited April 29 by Wyn

[Holmes_and_Watson]

21 minutes ago, Wyn said:

So perhaps it's not just your goalkeeper's deficiencies that are to blame for your relatively poor defensive record. 

Not just, but sadly he really isn't an excellent shot stopper overall, either. The combination...

[saintant]

2 hours ago, John B said:

The policy of sacking managers starting with Puel does not seemed to have worked as we are now on maybe our sixth manager and we find our selves in our lowest league position since 2012

Maybe because we keep selecting the wrong ones.

[saintant]

2 hours ago, Wyn said:

Swans fan here in peace. I posted here at the start of the season so I thought I'd add an outsider perspective now that the season has played out. 

From my standpoint Martin has performed for you towards the upper end of what I expected. Yes, the complaints about being obsessed with possession and defensive shortcomings sound very familiar. On the other hand the stats show you defend from the front with greater intensity than any other team in the league (lowest ppda, most high turnovers, most shots from high turnovers). This is something we didn't see at Swansea.

You've also conceded a staggering 16  more goals from open play than your xG. Having a goalie in Bazunu with the second worst save percentage in the league, may go some way to account for that. 

It seems to me that you've been more than a tad unlucky. There may be better managers out there than Martin but for certain there are hell of a lot that are worse.

By the way your two victories over us were up there with the most impressive performances by an opponent this season.

 

Nothing unlucky - RM backed Bazunu and tried to convince us he's among the best keepers in the division.

[Galway saint]

The wheels have come off really since February and we are limping to the end of the season. A lot of that is down to the coach and the way we play. The refusal to change approach means we have become easy to play against yet he persists and seems to have run out of ideas. If he’s willing to be more pragmatic then fine let’s keep him but otherwise what’s the point ?

Equally it’s not his fault he wasn’t given a fit central striker and another proper CM to play alongside Downes. I’m not sure he really thinks Bazunu is one of the best keepers in the league and I wonder how much pressure he was put under to keep playing him. If he genuinely does think he’s one of the best keepers in the league then he should go for that alone. 

He’s ultimately a relatively young coach learning the ropes but he has some serious flaws in his coaching. If there is someone better out there then I wouldn’t be overly concerned if we changed managers 

[ErwinK1961]

57 minutes ago, saintant said:

Nothing unlucky - RM backed Bazunu and tried to convince us he's among the best keepers in the division.

He’s hardly going to say “I’ve got one of the worst keepers in the league, saves fck all, but they won’t give me a new one” is he.

[saintant]

2 minutes ago, ErwinK1961 said:

He’s hardly going to say “I’ve got one of the worst keepers in the league, saves fck all, but they won’t give me a new one” is he.

Come on - he genuinely believes Baz is one of the best.

[Galway saint]

2 minutes ago, ErwinK1961 said:

He’s hardly going to say “I’ve got one of the worst keepers in the league, saves fck all, but they won’t give me a new one” is he.

No but equally if he does think that he doesn’t need to describe him as one of the best in the league. 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

On the occasions that Martin's system was clicking along nicely, Baz played his part as the base of a lot of our moves. When it was going well, he was spared from having to make a lot of saves though, which also helped.

[bpsaint]

If we fail to go up you’d have to say he’s failed, but then again he’s not really been given the tools to succeed having to choose from Che, Mara, and a 1 legged Stewart for a strike force alongside ArmA.

What I’d really like to know is whether he even had any say in transfers, was it his decision to bring in Brooks and Rothwell in January but not to strengthen up top? Is playing Baz really his decision or one dictated to by DoF. If the answer to those two is yes then he’s clearly mental.

Either way I’m fairly confident nothing will happen until a replacement for Wilcox arrives, that may prove to be a bigger decision than changing RM. If we bring somebody in to adopt the same shite philosophy of possession based football throughout the club then we’re in big trouble next year.

About time Mowbray and his team of scouts pulled their fingers out of their arse and actually highlighted some decent signings too, if we’re going to hold on to Martin until at least the start of the season they need to find some hidden gems.

[Whitey Grandad]

34 minutes ago, bpsaint said:

If we fail to go up you’d have to say he’s failed, but then again he’s not really been given the tools to succeed having to choose from Che, Mara, and a 1 legged Stewart for a strike force alongside ArmA.

What I’d really like to know is whether he even had any say in transfers, was it his decision to bring in Brooks and Rothwell in January but not to strengthen up top? Is playing Baz really his decision or one dictated to by DoF. If the answer to those two is yes then he’s clearly mental.

Either way I’m fairly confident nothing will happen until a replacement for Wilcox arrives, that may prove to be a bigger decision than changing RM. If we bring somebody in to adopt the same shite philosophy of possession based football throughout the club then we’re in big trouble next year.

About time Mowbray and his team of scouts pulled their fingers out of their arse and actually highlighted some decent signings too, if we’re going to hold on to Martin until at least the start of the season they need to find some hidden gems.

Irrespective of the squad of players he has made so many mistakes that I cannot cut him any slack. Defensively we are wide open and that has to be down to his coaching.

[HKsaint]

11 hours ago, Dman said:

Mods @Lighthouse - You know how we love a poll on here. I'd be really interested to see the split of support for and against RM. 

Mabe something like: 

At the end of the season would you

1. Keep regardless - Deserves 1 more season.

2. Keep only if we gain promotion, Sack if we dont - Failed to achieve targets.

3. Sack regardless - I see no future with him as manager in this leauge or the one above. 

 

 

You have missed the 4th option: 

4. Sack only if we gain promotion, Keep if we don’t. He is a championship manager at most like Adkins. He should be sacked if we are lucky to gain promotion; otherwise, we all know we will be relegated next season immediately. We should be brave enough to sack him as we sacked Adkins, and find a premiership manager. 
 

[Sarisbury Saint]

With a decent goalie and a proper striker, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

[Weston Super Saint]

8 hours ago, ErwinK1961 said:

He’s hardly going to say “I’ve got one of the worst keepers in the league, saves fck all, but they won’t give me a new one” is he.

His actions speak louder than words.  He's picked him for every single game until he was injured. 

[John B]

10 hours ago, Wade Garrett said:

I think the issue is the policy of appointing shit managers rather than sacking them.

In the first thirty years I supprted the Saints we had three managers and were relatively successful keeping manager through lean periods as the club supported them getting in top class players.

During the subsequent thirty four years we have had twenty five or so non caretaker manager and have been unsuccessful except for the period after administration when the club invested in top class players .

My view is that we have not succeeded on the pitch is because we have not consistently invested in the right players but I do agree that some of the managerial appointments such as Branfoot Sturrock Wigley Pellegrino and Nathan Jones were questionable but Russell has a win percentage of over 50% together with Pardew and Adkins who both had the advanate of the investment of top class players thanks to the investment of Cortese

 

[Long Shot]

Sack but it won’t happen because SR can’t afford it and the loss of face would be too embarrassing. 

[Mr X]

12 hours ago, aintforever said:

Keep if we go up, if we don't then I'm not fussed either way. It depends who we can get to replace him, I certainly wouldn't sack him unless there was a decent candidate already lined up willing to take the job.

If we kept him and were promoted which looks very unlikely anyway, we'd be straight back down to the championship quicker than you can say Russ ball his brand of football wouldn't compete in the premier league.  I agree though no point in sacking him as it will just be another failure lined up by our incompetent owners, they wouldn't know a decent manager if they saw one. 

[Gingeletiss]

1 hour ago, John B said:

In the first thirty years I supprted the Saints we had three managers and were relatively successful keeping manager through lean periods as the club supported them getting in top class players.

During the subsequent thirty four years we have had twenty five or so non caretaker manager and have been unsuccessful except for the period after administration when the club invested in top class players .

My view is that we have not succeeded on the pitch is because we have not consistently invested in the right players but I do agree that some of the managerial appointments such as Branfoot Sturrock Wigley Pellegrino and Nathan Jones were questionable but Russell has a win percentage of over 50% together with Pardew and Adkins who both had the advanate of the investment of top class players thanks to the investment of Cortese

 

For me, it’s the style of football, this is batshit boring stuff. I suspect we would have got more out of this group of players, with an adaptable manager, this one believes his tippy tippy football is ‘brave’ and exciting. He, in my opinion, is wrong, and if the philosophy of SR is this type of football, without the same sort of resources as city, then we are doomed to stay in the championship or lower, for years to come. I repeat, playing this defensive suicidal football in the top flight, will see us lose heavily most weeks. You think 9-0 was bad, it could get worse.

[aintforever]

30 minutes ago, Mr X said:

If we kept him and were promoted which looks very unlikely anyway, we'd be straight back down to the championship quicker than you can say Russ ball his brand of football wouldn't compete in the premier league.  I agree though no point in sacking him as it will just be another failure lined up by our incompetent owners, they wouldn't know a decent manager if they saw one. 

I don't disagree about his brand of football, it will probably be a disaster. However sacking him and having the clowns in charge choose another manager would more likely end up worse IMO. His brief was to get us promoted and he deserves the chance to prove himself if he is successful, you would like to think he would have the common sense to tweak the style when up against Prem teams.

[Turkish]

10 hours ago, bpsaint said:

If we fail to go up you’d have to say he’s failed, but then again he’s not really been given the tools to succeed having to choose from Che, Mara, and a 1 legged Stewart for a strike force alongside ArmA.

What I’d really like to know is whether he even had any say in transfers, was it his decision to bring in Brooks and Rothwell in January but not to strengthen up top? Is playing Baz really his decision or one dictated to by DoF. If the answer to those two is yes then he’s clearly mental.

Either way I’m fairly confident nothing will happen until a replacement for Wilcox arrives, that may prove to be a bigger decision than changing RM. If we bring somebody in to adopt the same shite philosophy of possession based football throughout the club then we’re in big trouble next year.

About time Mowbray and his team of scouts pulled their fingers out of their arse and actually highlighted some decent signings too, if we’re going to hold on to Martin until at least the start of the season they need to find some hidden gems.

WTF?!!  He's got a centre back who won the title last year alongside a polish international with 56 caps and a 150+ premier league apperances, the best right back in the division, probably the best holding midfielder in the division and the second highest goalscorer who also has the most goal contributions in the division. Then he's got really strong squad players who would get into a lot of the teams in the league perhaps some premier leagues ones. The fact that those players have conceded more goals than a lot of teams in the bottom half of the table, which is what has cost us promotion,  says more about his ability to stop his teams conceding than the players he's got. Of all the defences you can hridave of Martin not having the tools to succeed is ridiculous.

Edited April 30 by Turkish

[east-stand-nic]

I see a lot of people sort of sticking up for RM here and to some extent I agree that finishing 4th was very good and beyond what I expected. But that does not tell the whole story. he still clearly does not know his best 11. He puts people in wrong positions, changes the line up for no reason other than change, makes poor and reactive subs. I think sadly he is a lower league manager who cannot handle big squads. He would be better with a smaller club smaller squad so he does not get confused.

I truly believe with a different manager, a more standard playing style manager we could have been top two. We dropped a lot of points due to bad line up and sub decisions and changing rotating stuff for no reason.

[JRM]

I'd love him to be a success and unite the fanbase but the style of football seems doomed to failure. 

Wilcox replacement will be key , see if it's someone who can work alongside Martin, hard to have much faith in the board to get it right, perhaps we'll find someone else from Man City 

[Mr X]

The man talks utter waffle..... Form not important going into the playoffs according to our great man https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/southampton-russell-martin-play-off-form-three-losses/

[Whitey Grandad]

4 hours ago, Sarisbury Saint said:

With a decent goalie and a proper striker, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

It needed a lot more than just that. Our defence has been wide open porous and the best keeper in the country could never make up for that.

[The Curse of St Mary's]

8 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

It needed a lot more than just that. Our defence has been wide open porous and the best keeper in the country could never make up for that.

We are way too open but at the same time Bazuna has made very few beyond expected saves. Watford away and Ipswich away are just some examples where is inept shot saving ability has cost us crucial points.