Russell Martin

[LGTL]

9 minutes ago, Mr X said:

Russell Martins interview 

Interviewer: What's your analysis of that game russell?

RM: We played them off the park for 30 mins and our possession was world class 

Interviewer: And the second half? 

RM: We were so brave so brave we just have to keep doing what we are doing and believe in it 

Interviewer: It's not the ideal start though is it? No points and 8 goals against while only scoring one, any idea when it will start clicking?

RM: Football isn't always about goals or winning games surely you know that? 

 

 

The worrying thing is that I’ve no idea if that’s true or not. 

[Badger]

1 hour ago, Yorkshire Saint said:

I dont disagree sir. I just look at the game today and, once again, see so much nievity in our approach. I am just proposing it as a solution to support RM as I believe he will come good in the PL but perhaps needs some support / mentorship. 

Not disputing some mentoring or support wouldn’t help but most of all he needed a CF and decent striking options. Instead of which we brought together Sheffield Utd’s striking partnership from last season.

Some striking partnerships can be put back together and they click as if they’ve never been apart. Boyer and MacDougall prime example.

This one so far has the makings of possibly in time being marginally better than Dixon and Speedie. 

[Badger]

1 hour ago, Midfield_General said:

Three words to strike a chill into any heart: Frank Lampard's Southampton. 

Careful what you wish for. 

I see Plymouth won today. So that’s one win for Rooney. Just hope the cretins charged with recruiting a new manager don’t see that as evidence his career is again on an upward trajectory…

 

[Badger]

1 hour ago, bangkoksaint said:

Moyes anyone?

He’s probably waiting on the Everton job. 

4 hours ago, Suhari said:

Who else could we get?

First text to Solent tonight I heard was “they should get Potter in”.

Didn’t get the blokes name, probably the half wit from Shirley who attends Forums and asks why they don’t sell Quavers in the concourse. 

[qwertyell]

You can debate until the cows come home the overall value of his football philosophy, but a major issue for all of his teams - every one of them - is they can't defend at all. An absolute organisational rabble.

So, either his philosophy doesn't believe defending is particularly important - in which case he's a certified nutjob - or he's not a good enough coach to train his teams how to properly defend within his set-up.

Because it's not a statistical fluke that his sides concede 60+ goals per season. It's entirely baked into being a Russell Martin team.

And as we have a set of championship forwards and a couple of teenagers, there's not a lot of hope that we can compensate for our weakness at one end through a weight of goals at the other. That's not necessarily on the manager - I doubt he drew up a list this summer demanding we sign the dregs of Sheffield United's shite - but it's clear that his shortcomings aren't going to be bailed out by the quality of the squad in this division.

So where do we go from here?

[Midfield_General]

3 minutes ago, qwertyell said:

So where do we go from here?

The Championship

[Saint in Paradise]

Well to an old man ( me ) RM is looking more and more like he is a type of Narcissist.

As in their mind they are never wrong they refuse to admit that they are and so they

never act on any advice that they are offered.

H.G.Tudor on YT explains about such people, he is well worth a look at.

[FarehamSaintJames]

Best team for thirty minutes. Well done tactically RM.

A player missing a pen isn’t his fault.

A defender causing a player to be onside, again isn’t his fault.

Stephens being reckless, again, isn’t his fault. 
 

Today’s result isn’t on RM. He just needs to call out his team more.

[Badger]

13 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Best team for thirty minutes. Well done tactically RM.

A player missing a pen isn’t his fault.

A defender causing a player to be onside, again isn’t his fault.

Stephens being reckless, again, isn’t his fault. 
 

Today’s result isn’t on RM. He just needs to call out his team more.

If he fails to select the penalty taker, and allows the team players to choose between themselves (spoof for it, whatever), then yes he  shares some of the responsibility. 
 

Failing to drill defensive discipline, including not playing the opposition onside is also something he has some responsibility for. This is not a bloke just slipping on his arse. 
 

 

[Dark Munster]

26 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

A player missing a pen isn’t his fault.

A defender causing a player to be onside, again isn’t his fault.

Stephens being reckless, again, isn’t his fault. 
 

Today’s result isn’t on RM. He just needs to call out his team more.

It was an improvement on the Forest and Brentford shambles in the sense he cut out most of the tippy tappy at the back crap. Yes the first 30 minutes were fine. After that it went to pieces. That’s on the manager  

Also as the manager he should have had penalty takers well prepared, not just one, and set up in order. BBD has a good record. Why wasn’t he first choice?

As for Jack Shoehorn, who was responsible for him being picked?

And as for tactics, why was BBD out wide (yet again), where he’s crap? After the penalty miss we didn’t look like we’d score in a month of Sundays.

If Nic Cortese were in charge RM would be fired today. But we have Ankersen and his SR clowns in charge and they are clueless about football (they chose the poor managers in the first place).  Which means by the time they sack RM it’ll be too late to save the sinking ship. 

Edited September 14 by Dark Munster

[Dellyears]

I like Martin as a person, he comes over well n TV, he seems to be a good man manager, the signs are that the players like him (as far as we can tell). I don't get any bad vibes as in the Branfoot era or with Mad Nat. But I fear he is out of his depth and some good players will drown with him.

[Saint Matty 76]

1 minute ago, Dellyears said:

I like Martin as a person, he comes over well n TV, he seems to be a good man manager, the signs are that the players like him (as far as we can tell). I don't get any bad vibes as in the Branfoot era or with Mad Nat. But I fear he is out of his depth and some good players will drown with him.

Can't argue with that really.

He's been somebody I find quite easy to support, and I was worried he'd stick with his favourites all year which he hasn't to his credit. Unfortunately, the football which worked last year by tiring out the opposition and eventually breaking them down does not work in this league where you have less of the ball to do it with, and some of the worst players in the league attempting to play it.

It just seems like we're going to have a decent spell each game, followed by something stupid at the back which gifts a goal away and completely changes the course of the match. It'll be interesting to see what happens if we actually take the lead in a game during one of these decent spells which we've had against Newcastle/United.

Stephens and Bednarek was a horrible partnership years ago, and it's still a horrible partnership now. ABK was a Premier League standard player whilst he was fit a while back, and we should be utilising that if he's still here. 

I don't think he's been done much favours with the recruitment this Summer, as we seem to have just added potential and Championship-level squad fillers to an already weak Championship side.

Think it's going to start getting a bit rough for RM if we don't win one of our next two. The feeling within the ground for him still doesn't seem so bad at the moment.

[Dellyears]

3 hours ago, qwertyell said:

You can debate until the cows come home the overall value of his football philosophy, but a major issue for all of his teams - every one of them - is they can't defend at all. An absolute organisational rabble.

So, either his philosophy doesn't believe defending is particularly important - in which case he's a certified nutjob - or he's not a good enough coach to train his teams how to properly defend within his set-up.

Because it's not a statistical fluke that his sides concede 60+ goals per season. It's entirely baked into being a Russell Martin team.

And as we have a set of championship forwards and a couple of teenagers, there's not a lot of hope that we can compensate for our weakness at one end through a weight of goals at the other. That's not necessarily on the manager - I doubt he drew up a list this summer demanding we sign the dregs of Sheffield United's shite - but it's clear that his shortcomings aren't going to be bailed out by the quality of the squad in this division.

So where do we go from here?

Ok so his side concede 60 goals a season. Well, that's a problem in a side which has scored 0,0,1 and 0 so far. The back looks better equipped to survive than the front, to me.

[verlaine1979]

1 hour ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Best team for thirty minutes. Well done tactically RM.

A player missing a pen isn’t his fault.

A defender causing a player to be onside, again isn’t his fault.

Stephens being reckless, again, isn’t his fault. 
 

Today’s result isn’t on RM. He just needs to call out his team more.

We competed well for 30 mins, but both teams had plenty of opportunities in that time. It's not as if we were battering them and they couldn't wait to give us back possession. More like going toe to toe, which is obviously a step up from the attacking dross of the first three games. But let's not pretend everything had clicked into gear and it was only the penalty that caused everything to fall apart. United had already created plenty and we looked stretched every time we lost the ball.

[beatlesaint]

1 hour ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Stephens being reckless, again, isn’t his fault. 
 

Today’s result isn’t on RM. He just needs to call out his team more.

Well it is, he keeps picking him, this isn’t a one off from Stephens, it’s a repeated offence many many times.

[FarehamSaintJames]

Stephens hadn’t really done anything wrong prior to todays game, THB has had a poorer start to the season.

Penalty takers - none of us have a clue as to who is meant to be the takers in priority order. So I think that argument is a little pointless without knowing the facts.

Ipswich next week is a must win, if we don’t he’ll be under real pressure.

[imadirtyurchin]

Just listening to the post match conference- I can’t believe (amongst many other things) that he thought archer played well?! What game was he watching???

 

also to get so pissy with Alfie’s question… Martin is so unlikeable at times 

[Saint_clark]

57 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Stephens hadn’t really done anything wrong prior to todays game, THB has had a poorer start to the season.

Penalty takers - none of us have a clue as to who is meant to be the takers in priority order. So I think that argument is a little pointless without knowing the facts.

Ipswich next week is a must win, if we don’t he’ll be under real pressure.

You're kidding aren't you? Stephens was directly involved in 4 of the previous 5 goals conceded by passing it to the opposition, passing to someone already under pressure or by running into Bednarek when trying to defend. 

[SteveGc]

4 hours ago, Dellyears said:

I like Martin as a person, he comes over well n TV, he seems to be a good man manager, the signs are that the players like him (as far as we can tell). I don't get any bad vibes as in the Branfoot era or with Mad Nat. But I fear he is out of his depth and some good players will drown with him.

Too nice clearly, it’s more like training with your mates than the boss. 

[gammon cheeks]

I think our next home games are Ipswich , Leicester and Everton ...with away trips to Bournemouth ,Arsenal and Man City.

Looking at 9 points at home and maybe a point at Bournemouth..that would be 11 points from 10 games .......its the hope that kills you !

 

[Wade Garrett]

10 hours ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Best team for thirty minutes. Well done tactically RM.

A player missing a pen isn’t his fault.

A defender causing a player to be onside, again isn’t his fault.

Stephens being reckless, again, isn’t his fault. 
 

Today’s result isn’t on RM. He just needs to call out his team more.

He picked Stephens.

[Whitey Grandad]

8 hours ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Stephens hadn’t really done anything wrong prior to todays game, THB has had a poorer start to the season.

Penalty takers - none of us have a clue as to who is meant to be the takers in priority order. So I think that argument is a little pointless without knowing the facts.

Ipswich next week is a must win, if we don’t he’ll be under real pressure.

Oh really?

Please see my earlier posts.

[Harry_SFC]

7 hours ago, imadirtyurchin said:

Just listening to the post match conference- I can’t believe (amongst many other things) that he thought archer played well?! What game was he watching???

 

also to get so pissy with Alfie’s question… Martin is so unlikeable at times 

A lot of people say he comes across as a nice guy but I think the opposite. Can't stand him at times myself. If anyone dares to question anything about him or the team he gets incredibly rude and defensive.

[LGTL]

12 hours ago, qwertyell said:

You can debate until the cows come home the overall value of his football philosophy, but a major issue for all of his teams - every one of them - is they can't defend at all. An absolute organisational rabble.

So, either his philosophy doesn't believe defending is particularly important - in which case he's a certified nutjob - or he's not a good enough coach to train his teams how to properly defend within his set-up.

Because it's not a statistical fluke that his sides concede 60+ goals per season. It's entirely baked into being a Russell Martin team.

And as we have a set of championship forwards and a couple of teenagers, there's not a lot of hope that we can compensate for our weakness at one end through a weight of goals at the other. That's not necessarily on the manager - I doubt he drew up a list this summer demanding we sign the dregs of Sheffield United's shite - but it's clear that his shortcomings aren't going to be bailed out by the quality of the squad in this division.

So where do we go from here?

We go to the Championship, hopefully avoiding any record low points total and embarrassing scorelines. That’s literally all there is to play for as we’d might as well be relegated already. 

[Wade Garrett]

Keeping Martin on any longer is merely delaying the inevitable.

Time for SR to be ‘brave’.

[Gloucester Saint]

8 hours ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Stephens hadn’t really done anything wrong prior to todays game, THB has had a poorer start to the season.

Penalty takers - none of us have a clue as to who is meant to be the takers in priority order. So I think that argument is a little pointless without knowing the facts.

Ipswich next week is a must win, if we don’t he’ll be under real pressure.

*Brentford*

[Lee On Solent Saint]

8 hours ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Stephens hadn’t really done anything wrong prior to todays game, THB has had a poorer start to the season.

Penalty takers - none of us have a clue as to who is meant to be the takers in priority order. So I think that argument is a little pointless without knowing the facts.

Ipswich next week is a must win, if we don’t he’ll be under real pressure.

Penalty takers should be decided in pre match tatical briefs, if we even have them. Martin was alluding to the fact that whoever fancies it at the time takes it. We just have no in game management at all. 

[Badger]

10 hours ago, Dark Munster said:

 

If Nic Cortese were in charge RM would be fired today. But we have Ankersen and his SR clowns in charge and they are clueless about football (they chose the poor managers in the first place).  Which means by the time they sack RM it’ll be too late to save the sinking ship. 

What’s Jesse Marsch up to these days ? 
 

(Satirical question) 

[Badger]

1 minute ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Penalty takers should be decided in pre match tatical briefs, if we even have them. Martin was alluding to the fact that whoever fancies it at the time takes it. We just have no in game management at all. 

Shocking admission. Surprised he’s not too embarrassed to come out with that. 

[beatlesaint]

9 hours ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Stephens hadn’t really done anything wrong prior to todays game

 

I sincerely hope you typed that with either a sense of irony, under the influence of alcohol or just for shits and giggles........if not i suggest you have a look at the goals we conceded previously.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

Just now, Badger said:

Shocking admission. Surprised he’s not too embarrassed to come out with that. 

Maybe it was me just reading between the lines, buts thats kinda the impression I got.

[Gloucester Saint]

Just now, Badger said:

Shocking admission. Surprised he’s not too embarrassed to come out with that. 

It’s terrible and makes you wonder what organisation is happening on the defensive side. I don’t think Russell’s coaching team are up to much, but as you said yesterday replacing Ralph’s and giving him Selles didn’t work out either. 

[obelisk]

I'd give him no further than the Ipswich game. Lose that then show him the door. If SR aren't already canvassing EPL quality managers on their availability then that would be negligent. Yes, for 30 minutes yesterday Saints went toe to toe with ManU but then they totally capitulated. Unless the plan is to just surrender what was earned with promotion last season then RM has to know he's on borrowed time.

[ErwinK1961]

10 hours ago, Dark Munster said:

It was an improvement on the Forest and Brentford shambles in the sense he cut out most of the tippy tappy at the back crap. Yes the first 30 minutes were fine. After that it went to pieces. That’s on the manager  

Also as the manager he should have had penalty takers well prepared, not just one, and set up in order. BBD has a good record. Why wasn’t he first choice?

As for Jack Shoehorn, who was responsible for him being picked?

And as for tactics, why was BBD out wide (yet again), where he’s crap? After the penalty miss we didn’t look like we’d score in a month of Sundays.

If Nic Cortese were in charge RM would be fired today. But we have Ankersen and his SR clowns in charge and they are clueless about football (they chose the poor managers in the first place).  Which means by the time they sack RM it’ll be too late to save the sinking ship. 

The same Cortese who didn’t sack Adkins after 5 points from 11 games after promotion?

[AlexLaw76]

4 minutes ago, ErwinK1961 said:

The same Cortese who didn’t sack Adkins after 5 points from 11 games after promotion?

Adkins' job was on the line the moment we did not win the Championship

[ErwinK1961]

14 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Adkins' job was on the line the moment we did not win the Championship

It was so on the line, he didn’t get sacked until January. Not after 4 games.

[Cabrone]

IMO the only route to survival or at least a respectable relegation is defence. IMO we simply do not have the attacking capability to outscore opponents in free flowing games.

I believe we do have a defence that could be competitive, our GK is good and the back 4, if coached well, could be a decent unit. Grinding out clean sheets is the only survival strategy. Then its up to the strikers to nick enough goals to keep us in the hunt.

RM is not going to organise a decent defence in a month of Sundays. If the board don't want to see their money flushed down the khazi we need a manager that can at least make us hard to beat and ASAP.

[Badger]

1 hour ago, Harry_SFC said:

A lot of people say he comes across as a nice guy but I think the opposite. Can't stand him at times myself. If anyone dares to question anything about him or the team he gets incredibly rude and defensive.

Certainly seems to divide opinions. To paraphrase and adapt an old marketing slogan “if Marmite made football managers ..”

[notnowcato]

11 hours ago, Saint in Paradise said:

Well to an old man ( me ) RM is looking more and more like he is a type of Narcissist.

As in their mind they are never wrong they refuse to admit that they are and so they

never act on any advice that they are offered.

H.G.Tudor on YT explains about such people, he is well worth a look at.

There’s lots we could pick at with RM but to state he refuses to admit he is wrong is just untrue. On several occasions he has held his hands up. 

[Lee On Solent Saint]

10 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

There’s lots we could pick at with RM but to state he refuses to admit he is wrong is just untrue. On several occasions he has held his hands up. 

In my opinion it's just soundbites. I don't believe for one moment that he actually thinks he is wrong on anything. He says that because he thinks he has to.  

 

[gio1saints]

First 30 minutes was the best weve played all season. We outplayed Man Utd and should have gone in 1-0 up. 

My view is we can build on that first half hour. It was a massive improvement on Brentford and Forest albeit nil points nil goals. 

 

Anyone can’t/ won’t accept that but just wants to pull trigger on RM - I get it- fine - but no new manager comes with a points or goals scored or conceded guarantee - whereas that first 30 v a good team had promise for me and looked like something RM can build on.
 

Frankly one bad pen miss and the match turned. Should not mean the entire fan base turns on RM. Obviously does to his detractors on here but I hope SR do not get swayed into binning him for another newbie or old timer and what will probably be season of managerial changes because we ARE favourites for relegation after all and when that’s ever more apparent later in year whoever has the misfortune to replace RM will get the same criticism once more from same people on here. 

Surely it makes more sense to back him and what we have seen improving in terms of starters - especially the new and the younger ones - and to give his new formation (s) and new player(s) time? Oh and stamping out the bad stuff? 
 

[Lord Duckhunter]

2 hours ago, Harry_SFC said:

A lot of people say he comes across as a nice guy but I think the opposite. Can't stand him at times myself. If anyone dares to question anything about him or the team he gets incredibly rude and defensive.

I’m with you. I don’t get where this “nice guy” pony comes from. Because he says nice things about the players, and won’t call them out? 
 

He comes across as arrogant and condescending , superior  to us laymen who just don’t understand his tactical genius. He’s half right I guess , I don’t understand his tactics. He’s a bit of cock imo. 

[S-Clarke]

51 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

First 30 minutes was the best weve played all season. We outplayed Man Utd and should have gone in 1-0 up. 

My view is we can build on that first half hour. It was a massive improvement on Brentford and Forest albeit nil points nil goals. 

 

Anyone can’t/ won’t accept that but just wants to pull trigger on RM - I get it- fine - but no new manager comes with a points or goals scored or conceded guarantee - whereas that first 30 v a good team had promise for me and looked like something RM can build on.
 

Frankly one bad pen miss and the match turned. Should not mean the entire fan base turns on RM. Obviously does to his detractors on here but I hope SR do not get swayed into binning him for another newbie or old timer and what will probably be season of managerial changes because we ARE favourites for relegation after all and when that’s ever more apparent later in year whoever has the misfortune to replace RM will get the same criticism once more from same people on here. 

Surely it makes more sense to back him and what we have seen improving in terms of starters - especially the new and the younger ones - and to give his new formation (s) and new player(s) time? Oh and stamping out the bad stuff? 
 

I don't think anyone disagrees with that first 30 mins, but a good 30 mins gets you nowhere in the PL. If all we can muster is a good 30 mins, with the mental strength of an ant, then we will lose 38 out of 38.

We do have to build on that 30 mins, but we also had to build on that 60 mins or whatever it was at Newcastle and we didn't. At the moment it's propaganda football at it's finest.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

1 hour ago, gio1saints said:

First 30 minutes was the best weve played all season. We outplayed Man Utd and should have gone in 1-0 up. 

My view is we can build on that first half hour. It was a massive improvement on Brentford and Forest albeit nil points nil goals. 

 

Anyone can’t/ won’t accept that but just wants to pull trigger on RM - I get it- fine - but no new manager comes with a points or goals scored or conceded guarantee - whereas that first 30 v a good team had promise for me and looked like something RM can build on.
 

Frankly one bad pen miss and the match turned. Should not mean the entire fan base turns on RM. Obviously does to his detractors on here but I hope SR do not get swayed into binning him for another newbie or old timer and what will probably be season of managerial changes because we ARE favourites for relegation after all and when that’s ever more apparent later in year whoever has the misfortune to replace RM will get the same criticism once more from same people on here. 

Surely it makes more sense to back him and what we have seen improving in terms of starters - especially the new and the younger ones - and to give his new formation (s) and new player(s) time? Oh and stamping out the bad stuff? 
 

It makes no sense at all. How long do you give him? Another 6 games? 10 games? If we are favourites for relegation, I'd like to see us at least be competitive and have a go at avoiding the drop. If this continues any longer we will be cut adrift before we know it. There is no in game management from Martin. We are weak as a team. The penalty yesterday was farcical. Absolutely no way should Archer have been given the kick. Penalty takers need to be decided pre match, not during the game. Looked to me like nobody really wanted the responsibility of taking it. What's the point of playing well for 30 minutes if your still getting dicked three nil? 

[ecuk268]

3 hours ago, obelisk said:

I'd give him no further than the Ipswich game. Lose that then show him the door. If SR aren't already canvassing EPL quality managers on their availability then that would be negligent. Yes, for 30 minutes yesterday Saints went toe to toe with ManU but then they totally capitulated. Unless the plan is to just surrender what was earned with promotion last season then RM has to know he's on borrowed time.

EPL quality mangers who are available will have been sacked from their previous jobs.

It''ll probably cost us at least £10m to sack Martin and his team.

We've had worse starts (1998 - 1 point by the middle of Qctober having conceded 21 goals) so I think that they'll give until Christmas to see if things improve.

[RedArmy]

2 hours ago, ErwinK1961 said:

The same Cortese who didn’t sack Adkins after 5 points from 11 games after promotion?

His number 1 target was Poch who was employed until the end of November, by which point we’d started picking up points. 

[Mr X]

1 hour ago, ecuk268 said:

EPL quality mangers who are available will have been sacked from their previous jobs.

It''ll probably cost us at least £10m to sack Martin and his team.

We've had worse starts (1998 - 1 point by the middle of Qctober having conceded 21 goals) so I think that they'll give until Christmas to see if things improve.

That's the problem they will give him that long by which time our fate will pretty much all be decided 

the owners know we got lucky and we're the worst of the teams that came up I don't think they have any huge expectation that we are going to stay in this league 

[CB Fry]

1 hour ago, RedArmy said:

His number 1 target was Poch who was employed until the end of November, by which point we’d started picking up points. 

Jesus wept. 

[Teamsaint1]

1 hour ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

It makes no sense at all. How long do you give him? Another 6 games? 10 games? If we are favourites for relegation, I'd like to see us at least be competitive and have a go at avoiding the drop. If this continues any longer we will be cut adrift before we know it. There is no in game management from Martin. We are weak as a team. The penalty yesterday was farcical. Absolutely no way should Archer have been given the kick. Penalty takers need to be decided pre match, not during the game. Looked to me like nobody really wanted the responsibility of taking it. What's the point of playing well for 30 minutes if your still getting dicked three nil? 

From where we were,admittedly 70 yards away it definitely looked initially as if BBD wanted it ? Which really , if he wanted it, he should have done with a very decent track record, and in the absence of AA.

[Oldandtired]

48 minutes ago, Mr X said:

That's the problem they will give him that long by which time our fate will pretty much all be decided 

the owners know we got lucky and we're the worst of the teams that came up I don't think they have any huge expectation that we are going to stay in this league 

Looking forward to the parachute payments...