Russell Martin

[saintant]

25 minutes ago, Dusic said:

I wonder how much the departure of Wilcox has impacted him? Does feel that since around that point there has been far less consistency in selection.

I also think the gap Wilcox left has surely impacted squad management. We have an absolutely ridiculously bloated squad with far too many options of a similar level and far too many players not playing which cannot be healthy for anyone and I think gives him too many options to get confused by. No PL team should be able to name 5 strikers on the bench whilst leaving out one of their best young talents (SAA).

We brought in some decent players this summer but it doesn't look well managed from the outside at that senior football level, i.e above Martin

Maybe the Wilcox influence is not as great as we thought - he's not exactly got Man Utd ticking. He may be another who talks a very good game but without substance.

[saintant]

3 minutes ago, Turkish said:

This is what we do as a club though isn't it. We sign young players or cheap players and hope they'll swim rather than sink, we get lucky a few times like with Livramento and Lavia but in the main they struggle and it's been rinse and repeat for years.

We bring in managers thinking they're going to be the new Pochetino because we did it once before. Martin is just the latest in a long line of appointments of this ilk, the current squad the same. We never learn do we. We sign 2-3 players for the same price as one decent one in positions all over the pitch. Then we are left with a big, shit squad that aren't good enough to play and no one wants to sign. Different owners, different managers, different players same outcomes. What do they say the definition of madness is?

Agree, quantity over quality never works and it was the demise of one Rupert Lowe who filled us with a squad of very average players and not enough game changers. If you exist by trying to polish turds you will end up with a lot of, well....turds.

[macca155]

The club is being badly run, that much is clear. No shortage of money being spent but so much wasted.

As Turkish said, same old, rinse and repeat.

Saints came up with a weak squad, and an unconvincing Championship season behind them. They needed experienced grunt players to support the talent we do have.

I was unconvinced about Taylor and Lallana, but actually both have shown some backbone.

Frazer, Stewart, Cornett, Archer, Ugochuckwu, Diaz, Wood, and Edwards were pointless transfers. Cast offs or inexperienced.

Add Armstrong, Smallbone, Stephens, Charles, Manning and Bree to that list as Championship players who can at best support the team it's no wonder we are stuffed.

Even then a pragmatic, do or die, fight them on the beaches style, would at least make us difficult to beat.

He has to go and a few others as well.

[FarehamSaintJames]

I’ve backed him for a long time, but once again his naivety and stubbornness are going to cost us.

It’s mad that at 3-0 down we were still trying to pass it out from the back and being pressed.

It’s mad that we started Ryan Fraser purely to wind up opposition fans when we have better alternatives.

It’s mad that we don’t play a striker but have five on the bench.

It’s mad that one of those strikers scored close to twenty goals last season and doesn’t get a look in.

It’s mad putting our brightest spark in Dibling in the centre against effectively two CBs and a holding midfield.

It’s mad the chopping and changing of our team when seemingly last week against Ipswich we played rather well.

It’s mad that we have the likes of Armel Bella-Korchap, Paul Onuachu and Kamaldeen Sulemana out of the frame (yes they didn’t perform last season), but are they worse than the dross we have seen.

On a further note…

It WILL be mad when Jack Stephens returns form suspension next week and is shoehorned back into a back five making us extremely defensive again.

 

[Fabrice29]

You lot are weird. Newly promoted team struggles, it’s hardly the most shocking thing is it. Not everything needs to be ripped up. Biggest issue is the constant team changing, that’s on the manager but having an huge squad doesn’t lend itself to clarity. I criticised the idea of playing a team of new players on here a while back and didn’t like it yesterday. Massively improved when Aribo was on who suits our game much better than LU right now. But either way, as I’ve said in here a while now, we are going to lose games, the first half yesterday was worse than that but if anyone thinks there’s a magic selection, formation, manager or whatever else that stops us losing regularly in this league they are deluded. You 100% can start badly in this league and survive, but our best way of doing that is by gradual improvements rather than ripping everything up.

Also, anyone who thinks a new manager is taking over with our October is sorely mistaken. 

[saintant]

3 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

You lot are weird. Newly promoted team struggles, it’s hardly the most shocking thing is it. Not everything needs to be ripped up. Biggest issue is the constant team changing, that’s on the manager but having an huge squad doesn’t lend itself to clarity. I criticised the idea of playing a team of new players on here a while back and didn’t like it yesterday. Massively improved when Aribo was on who suits our game much better than LU right now. But either way, as I’ve said in here a while now, we are going to lose games, the first half yesterday was worse than that but if anyone thinks there’s a magic selection, formation, manager or whatever else that stops us losing regularly in this league they are deluded. You 100% can start badly in this league and survive, but our best way of doing that is by gradual improvements rather than ripping everything up.

Also, anyone who thinks a new manager is taking over with our October is sorely mistaken. 

Yeah, the majority are weird but the minority are the clever ones. Let's see how that pans out.

[Fabrice29]

42 minutes ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

 

Our recruitment yet again has been poor. Ipswich went big for Delap (a gamble that appears to be paying off) we went low for Ben Brereton. Fraser is not a PL player and neither is Cornet. Archer is unconvincing.

We agreed a fee for Delap and he turned us down. We’ve gone big for him for quite a few years now. Everytime we did this place had a meltdown over our attempts to go big for him. So don’t talk shite. 

[Fabrice29]

2 minutes ago, saintant said:

Yeah, the majority are weird but the minority are the clever ones. Let's see how that pans out.

You aren’t the majority fella 😂 You’re some people on an internet message board who have whipped yourselves into a frenzy and convinced each other you’ve cracked football and the solution is so so simple. Like Dibling starting up front for example.

[cambsaint]

One thing that stuck out a mile to me was that Dibling was being bullied off the ball every time he touched it. 

I would have thought that he was either moved onto the wing and a striker who could cope with their centre back brought  on

or replaced. It was embarrassing to watch and none of his team mates helped him. 

I was also astonished how much pushing and grappling was allowed. They my have stopped the crunching tackles of my youth 

but in my day these tactics would have been dealt with by our hard men.

Personally I think he'll either be sacked imminently or left to play the season out and see what transpires.

I'd like to see if "tall Paul" can be effective as a target man.

[saintant]

1 minute ago, Fabrice29 said:

You aren’t the majority fella 😂 You’re some people on an internet message board who have whipped yourselves into a frenzy and convinced each other you’ve cracked football and the solution is so so simple. Like Dibling starting up front for example.

So you think the majority want RM to continue 🙂

[Farmer Saint]

2 hours ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

That’s your opinion and you’re entitled to it. I’m not saying we’ve got anything more than a mediocre Prem squad, but it’s better than the results have shown. It’s the coaching that’s appalling. The recruitment has been awful too, but Russ has had his hands all over that too.

Players that could get into Bournemouth’s team are - Ramsdale, KWP (unused), Downes, THB, Suga, Cornet (if used wisely), Dibling (if used properly), ABK (unused), TP (unused). But that’s not the point - they’re receiving crap, negligent coaching and team management.

It’s utter rubbish to say Bournemouth are a relegation rival - they’ve spent better than us and have a better coaching set-up. They’re an established mid-table club who were out of sight by half-time playing quick expansive football, although I will concede Russ handed the first half to them on a plate.

It is about opinions, but imo you are massively, MASSIVELY, overrating our players, and underrating Bournemouths. Yes the managament has been poor this season, but the players haven't shown anything either. 

If Bournemouth aren't a relegation rival, the who is? Take out those that got promoted with us as we need to finish above at least one of last seasons PL teams. 

TP has never scored a PL goal, and has only scored in 3rd rate leagues. ABK wasn't used in the Dutch League. Suga is too early to say whether he is PL quality. There is a reason that THB was not bought by Kompany at Burnley, and he's shown that this season. Downes is a bang average PL player. Cornet the same at best. Dibling may be, but he is young and showed a lot of naivety yesterday. 

If you think our team is that good you are going to be perpetually disappointed, whether we have Martin or Guardiola as manager. 

Edited October 1 by Farmer Saint

[Lee On Solent Saint]

6 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

You aren’t the majority fella 😂 You’re some people on an internet message board who have whipped yourselves into a frenzy and convinced each other you’ve cracked football and the solution is so so simple. Like Dibling starting up front for example.

Ok. Let's see what the majority of fans in the ground think about Martin if he is still manager by the time we play Leicester. 

[saintant]

12 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

You aren’t the majority fella 😂 You’re some people on an internet message board who have whipped yourselves into a frenzy and convinced each other you’ve cracked football and the solution is so so simple. Like Dibling starting up front for example.

Hey fella - you clearly think RM is a great manager and he decided it was a good idea to play Dibling up front so why are you slagging me off for suggesting something that your hero Russ did? 🙂

[Long Shot]

16 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

We agreed a fee for Delap and he turned us down. We’ve gone big for him for quite a few years now. Everytime we did this place had a meltdown over our attempts to go big for him. So don’t talk shite. 

One minute you call out most on here and then you are using their opinion of Delap to justify your opinion. Hmm. 

[Farmer Saint]

On 09/07/2024 at 13:52, FarehamSaintJames said:

Delap going to Ipswich isn’t that big a loss. Questionable at times in the Championship and completely unproven, £20M would’ve been a lot for a player in that regard.

Have we got confirmation Che Adams left and got his dream move to Wolves or Nottingham Forest?

 

On 09/07/2024 at 14:01, Miltonaggro said:

Delap looks to have all the athletic and physical attributes to be an effective centre forward, but there is something missing, a bit like Sekou Mara.  No great loss IMO.

 

On 09/07/2024 at 14:09, Dusic said:

No great loss perhaps but not a great look to be losing out to Ipswich and seemingly already quite far down our list of striker targets if Ings has turned us down too (and thats just the ones we know about).

If we got to the point of agreeing a fee with City then we obviously wanted him.

Our best run of fixtures is at the start so vital to have got a decent amount of the business done in time for that and there is a huge amount to do to even have a slight chance of staying up.

 

On 09/07/2024 at 14:32, Harry_SFC said:

Not bothered about Delap but Philogene going to Ipswich is frustrating, he's a very good player. Greaves is also a solid CB and much better than Nathan Wood. 

 

On 09/07/2024 at 18:14, egg said:

Broja has scored 16 in 70 with us, vitesse and Fulham. Lots of sub appearances in there. 9 in 29 for Albania adults and u21. That's decent in a shit team. 

Delap 12 in 68 in the championship. Delap has only managed 5 u21 games, albeit scoring 2 goals but 1 was against Luxembourg. 

Putting stats aside, Delap barely looks like a championship player, whereas Broja looked like a PL player when with us. 

I wouldn't want Delap but I would want Broja. 

23 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

We agreed a fee for Delap and he turned us down. We’ve gone big for him for quite a few years now. Everytime we did this place had a meltdown over our attempts to go big for him. So don’t talk shite. 

A number of people didn't rate Delap... 

[Saint Fan CaM]

11 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

It is about opinions, but imo you are massively, MASSIVELY, overrating our players, and underrating Bournemouths. Yes the managament has been poor this season, but the players haven't shown anything either. 
A: how do you know what the ceiling of our squad is when the coach doesn’t know his best team and demonstrates time and again that he doesn’t have a clue how to best utilise them? Yesterdays starting 11 was hugely negligent and Dibling for one didn’t deserve that.

If Bournemouth aren't a relegation rival, the who is? Take out those that got promoted with us as we need to finish above at least one of last seasons PL teams. 
A: Wolves? That’s just one. Do you really think Bournemouth looked like a relegation candidate last night? I think the majority of Saints fans would say otherwise.

TP has never scored a PL goal, and has only scored in 3rd rate leagues. ABK wasn't used in the Dutch League. Suga is too early to say whether he is PL quality. There is a reason that THB was not bought by Kompany at Burnley, and he's shown that this season. Downes is a bang average PL player. Cornet the same at best. Dibling may be, but he is young and showed a lot of naivety yesterday. 
A: so you’ve immediately changed your mind - Ramsdale is not the only PL standard player. A good coach will utilise his squad in a manner that makes the whole better than the individual parts. That’s not happening in the slightest with Russ.

If you think our team is that good you are going to be perpetually disappointed, whether we have Martin or Guardiola as manager. 
A: I have not stated how good I think the team is - none of us will know until Russ is gone and we’ve got a Manager proven to be up to the job.

See above…^^^

[Fabrice29]

27 minutes ago, saintant said:

Hey fella - you clearly think RM is a great manager and he decided it was a good idea to play Dibling up front so why are you slagging me off for suggesting something that your hero Russ did? 🙂

Hey fella, I thought it was a daft idea before yesterday, during yesterday and today. Don’t care if it’s you or Martin suggesting it. 

26 minutes ago, Long Shot said:

One minute you call out most on here and then you are using their opinion of Delap to justify your opinion. Hmm. 

Sorry, what?

18 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

 

 

 

 

A number of people didn't rate Delap... 

Yes, that’s my point. 

[Saint86]

Have reflected on that awful performance over night.

I do feel sorry for him tbh. Was always going to be a tough ask keeping us up, but feels like he's totally lost his way the last few games.

I don't think the transfer window has been as brilliant as some (we could have loaned someone like Kepa for example and signed a better striker with the extra £25M. He did give us a great season last year (albeit we did almost fail to get over the line), and Wembley was a fantastic day out for the whole fanbase! It was also notable that he did have his dark times last year (Leicester post match interview in particular - and he seemed to used that as a motivation to change up, seemingly with a Neil Warnock intervention occurring behind the scenes... Strikes me he seems to fluctuate between extremes when the pressure is on, which isn't good, but he is a young manager at the end of the day... and who knows, if he stays on maybe he'll push on again - and he did i think prove those particular doubts wrong last year in that he did show he could change for the final run in and playoffs.

Ultimately though, I don't think he's going to keep us up. At times we've played well, but we're not good enough to score the goals we need, and the players are making bad mistakes to cost us (and that isn't just on Martin):

• Bournemouth yesterday:
  • The free kick was pure naivety, and then its compounded by the players very poor / limp reaction to go behind - I also think that ball was likely still moving and i wouldn't be at all surprised if it had been disallowed had we scored it - i.e., it was a good goal that you don't often see come off, and we've just been ruthlessly punished for that error.
  • Deflected second goal
• Ipswich's deflected goal last week, bad positioning for the defence sure... but again ruthlessly punished - straight into the top corner - keeper no chance
• Penalty Miss vs united - that's just down to the players... simply not good enough!!
• Newcastle we outplayed even with 11men, players made one mistake and again punished.

And sure, teams make their own luck by being better, but does feel like we're being punished for everything atm.

And saying all that, i'm not actually sure anyone else will keep us up either... So if SR have decided that Martin is our man and are committed to him long term, that they think he will continue to grow and develop etc., and they're going to stick with him regardless of relegation - then frankly they need to say it... Because otherwise he's basically being hung out to dry, facing the music every week with all and sundry waiting for him to get sacked... Which is a grim level of pressure for anyone to be under and won't help the team or the fans.
Equally, if we're going to sack him soon, then for goodness sake get it over and done with - we're using up winnable games and he needs putting out of his misery, he's a nice enough bloke who gave us some good times and no one wants to watch it all fall apart for him in a long drawn out slow motion car crash...

Edited October 1 by Saint86

[benali-shorts]

As well as an imbalanced and inadequate squad, the lack of Director of Football must be leaving RM feeling isolated. He only has Phil Parsons ("I didn't realise how difficult PL transfers would be") and his own subordinate coaching staff, which seems deficient and dysfunctional. This is on Kraft, Ankersen and to a degree Solak. Whether RM can compromise his footballing beliefs to build a pragmatic team is open to question, but seems unlikely given his track record elsewhere. But the Board need to look at themselves over their record of Football Director appointments and refusal to bring one in after Wilcox, their managerial appointments and the inadequate squad they have allowed to be assembled. I have very little faith in their ability to build a proper football structure. 

[pingpong]

I've been a fan of rm, I like possession  football, I get the whole feel the press, create gaps, and go for the kill thing.

What I don't get is why we don't then run the channels, and why we play the u shape, with no central threat. I would like to see tall paul given a chance, with some like archer alongside, so that when we do get in the final third we have options to cross or to slide the ball through. 

Even lallana, who does drive forwards, dinks a pass through and it's immediately knocked back to the centre backs, wasting his effort. 

So I'd like to go back to high press blood and guts football please.

[Farmer Saint]

59 minutes ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

See above…^^^

I don't think we're going to agree on this, our team is very poor IMO and I'm not sure the calibre of Manager we'll be looking to bring in is good enough to mask those deficiencies. 

Either way I think Martin splits the fan base too much. It's a shame as I imagine he will do well in the future as he's only 38 and he will continue to learn. Not sure many Managers have become competent PL managers at that age, but sobeit. 

[Wade Garrett]

Have they sacked him yet?

[Oldandtired]

22 minutes ago, benali-shorts said:

As well as an imbalanced and inadequate squad, the lack of Director of Football must be leaving RM feeling isolated. He only has Phil Parsons ("I didn't realise how difficult PL transfers would be") and his own subordinate coaching staff, which seems deficient and dysfunctional. This is on Kraft, Ankersen and to a degree Solak. Whether RM can compromise his footballing beliefs to build a pragmatic team is open to question, but seems unlikely given his track record elsewhere. But the Board need to look at themselves over their record of Football Director appointments and refusal to bring one in after Wilcox, their managerial appointments and the inadequate squad they have allowed to be assembled. I have very little faith in their ability to build a proper football structure. 

Not only this but they are collectively taking the p*ss out of the fans, the ones who turn up week after week to watch this garbage overseen by a manager whose chief asset is bullsh*t (witness the pressers and after match interviews) which is not backed up by any top level management capability whatsoever. This is seemingly condoned by the owners who by letting it go on would appear to be content with and resigned to the fact that we will go down.

They owe it to us as much as to anybody to reinstall some pride in our club. If we were to go down fighting tooth and nail, playing something that at least resembles good football, do you know what I wouldn’t mind. But what we are seeing at the moment does not make me proud to be a Saints fan.

Edited October 1 by Oldandtired

[64saint]

2 hours ago, macca155 said:

 

Frazer, Stewart, Cornett, Archer, Ugochuckwu, Diaz, Wood, and Edwards were pointless transfers. Cast offs or inexperienced.

 

Yet many posters on here at the time were saying how this summer's transfer window had been really good, great work by the club and the recruiting department, money well spent etc etc ......that aged well 🙄🫤

Edited October 1 by 64saint

[Maggie May]

31 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

Have reflected on that awful performance over night.

I do feel sorry for him tbh. Was always going to be a tough ask keeping us up, but feels like he's totally lost his way the last few games.

I don't think the transfer window has been as brilliant as some (we could have loaned someone like Kepa for example and signed a better striker with the extra £25M. He did give us a great season last year (albeit we did almost fail to get over the line), and Wembley was a fantastic day out for the whole fanbase! It was also notable that he did have his dark times last year (Leicester post match interview in particular - and he seemed to used that as a motivation to change up, seemingly with a Neil Warnock intervention occurring behind the scenes... Strikes me he seems to fluctuate between extremes when the pressure is on, which isn't good, but he is a young manager at the end of the day... and who knows, if he stays on maybe he'll push on again - and he did i think prove those particular doubts wrong last year in that he did show he could change for the final run in and playoffs.

Ultimately though, I don't think he's going to keep us up. At times we've played well, but we're not good enough to score the goals we need, and the players are making bad mistakes to cost us (and that isn't just on Martin):

• Bournemouth yesterday:
  • The free kick was pure naivety, and then its compounded by the players very poor / limp reaction to go behind - I also think that ball was likely still moving and i wouldn't be at all surprised if it had been disallowed had we scored it - i.e., it was a good goal that you don't often see come off, and we've just been ruthlessly punished for that error.
  • Deflected second goal
• Ipswich's deflected goal last week, bad positioning for the defence sure... but again ruthlessly punished - straight into the top corner - keeper no chance
• Penalty Miss vs united - that's just down to the players... simply not good enough!!
• Newcastle we outplayed even with 11men, players made one mistake and again punished.

And sure, teams make their own luck by being better, but does feel like we're being punished for everything atm.

And saying all that, i'm not actually sure anyone else will keep us up either... So if SR have decided that Martin is our man and are committed to him long term, that they think he will continue to grow and develop etc., and they're going to stick with him regardless of relegation - then frankly they need to say it... Because otherwise he's basically being hung out to dry, facing the music every week with all and sundry waiting for him to get sacked... Which is a grim level of pressure for anyone to be under and won't help the team or the fans.
Equally, if we're going to sack him soon, then for goodness sake get it over and done with - we're using up winnable games and he needs putting out of his misery, he's a nice enough bloke who gave us some good times and no one wants to watch it all fall apart for him in a long drawn out slow motion car crash...

Confidence/mentality is a massive issue. RM needs to sort out the way the players’ heads drop when they go behind after being in control. If we’d have held on against Ipswich, last night would have been a different story. 

I am a big RM fan but I can’t see where our next points are coming from. 

[Oldandtired]

12 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

I don't think we're going to agree on this, our team is very poor IMO and I'm not sure the calibre of Manager we'll be looking to bring in is good enough to mask those deficiencies. 

Either way I think Martin splits the fan base too much. It's a shame as I imagine he will do well in the future as he's only 38 and he will continue to learn. Not sure many Managers have become competent PL managers at that age, but sobeit. 

The Brighton manager is 31. He seems competent.

[SWLondon Saint]

Watched the whole 2nd half and saw highlights of the 1st. Nothing has changed from the long post I wrote a few matches back. RM is just out of his depth - there's nothing personal about that, he just doesn't have the knowledge or experience.

It looks like what he needs is some time away when he finds a way to go observe, say, managers like Alonso, Gasperini, Simeone, Inzaghi. He has never played at that level or been managed by anyone that good. All the experienced PL managers have set traps for him and he's walked the team into them with absolutely no self awareness whatsoever, and you can see it in the players. They don't have confidence in the structure, the setup, so they simply can't perform.

The biggest thing is that he seems completely clueless that teams are going to press the crap out of us because they know they will get goals out of it. You can't simply say 'Be brave and keep possession lads!!!', you have to have a plan about how to beat what you know is coming. He's shown absolutely no signs of adapting to the challenge of outsmarting the press he knows is coming. And let's not get started about the defensive shape and set pieces, we made exactly the same mistakes about leaving the top of the box totally unguarded several games ago now.

When the only thing a manager can say is 'we need to play harder' that's usually a sign they're out of ideas.

[Saint86]

3 minutes ago, SWLondon Saint said:

Watched the whole 2nd half and saw highlights of the 1st. Nothing has changed from the long post I wrote a few matches back. RM is just out of his depth - there's nothing personal about that, he just doesn't have the knowledge or experience.

It looks like what he needs is some time away when he finds a way to go observe, say, managers like Alonso, Gasperini, Simeone, Inzaghi. He has never played at that level or been managed by anyone that good. All the experienced PL managers have set traps for him and he's walked the team into them with absolutely no self awareness whatsoever, and you can see it in the players. They don't have confidence in the structure, the setup, so they simply can't perform.

The biggest thing is that he seems completely clueless that teams are going to press the crap out of us because they know they will get goals out of it. You can't simply say 'Be brave and keep possession lads!!!', you have to have a plan about how to beat what you know is coming. He's shown absolutely no signs of adapting to the challenge of outsmarting the press he knows is coming. And let's not get started about the defensive shape and set pieces, we made exactly the same mistakes about leaving the top of the box totally unguarded several games ago now.

When the only thing a manager can say is 'we need to play harder' that's usually a sign they're out of ideas.

Its certainly notable that we might tweak things and get on top for 5-10min... but then the opposition manager makes a slight change and we're nullified until say half time... then we'll change things for 5-10min... and then we're nullified again. Too easy for other managers to counter out setups and then he seems unable to figure that out or realise the danger. First half vs Bournemouth it was obvious it needed changing urgently at 2-0, we did nothing and the game was totally gone with the 3rd goal.

[SWLondon Saint]

5 minutes ago, Maggie May said:

Confidence/mentality is a massive issue. RM needs to sort out the way the players’ heads drop when they go behind after being in control. If we’d have held on against Ipswich, last night would have been a different story. 

I am a big RM fan but I can’t see where our next points are coming from. 

I think the reason we always seem to concede a 2nd after the first is that after conceding, the other team tends to press as hard as they can to try and secure the advantage. Because we try to keep possession rather than playing direct / positional (the traditional ' get and keep the ball up their end') we actually invited pressure instead of exploiting the old 'teams are vulnerable after going ahead' truism.

So it's a double or triple whammy of the more passive style adding to pressure/ increased confidence for the other team.

[Lord Duckhunter]

4 hours ago, Galway saint said:

We look out of our depth sadly. Similar to the Huddersfield, Norwich teams that came up and never looked like staying up

Huddersfield stayed up. 🙄

[Whitey Grandad]

3 hours ago, saintant said:

I'm failing to comprehend how a friendly match featuring Martin's X1 comes before our first team and their diminishing chances of survival in the Premier League. We'd be bonkers to make that a reason for not sacking him now.

Dump him now and let him have his friendly to say goodbye.

[Whitey Grandad]

1 hour ago, Farmer Saint said:

 

 

 

 

A number of people didn't rate Delap... 

Martin would have had him sat on the bench.

[Forester]

I was there last night.  Before the game I had posted to say that I wanted him to succeed but if we lost then this is the time to pull the trigger as Arsenal is a free hit, we have international break, and there are still 30 odd games without being cut adrift.  The choice of managers will shrink by the week.

Not only do I think this remains the case, but last night firmed things up in my mind.  Why do I say this?

- if you take Martin’s own words after the Manure and Ipswich matches, he “loved” some of the things he saw, talked up Fernandes and Dibbling, etc.  We were “so close” to that win, we heard.  So why the hell do you move Dibbling away from right wing and ask Fernandes to play as a striker?

- not only is this crass stupidity but it damages the development and confidence of young players.  I felt genuinely sorry for both in that first half

- choosing to put FIVE strikers on the bench is reckless.  Quite apart from the obvious point being that one or two needed to start, what would have been the plan if Jan or THB had got injured or red card after 5 mins yesterday?  Were all three of ABK, Wood and Edwards injured or ill?

- he has mismanaged now games against Forest and Bournemouth (by his own admission), and we were piss poor against Brentford.  I am afraid I have now lost confidence in giving him control of crucial games against Leicester, Wolves and Everton.  We probably only need to win 8 or 9 games this season with 6 or 8 draws.  Maybe less.  We can squeeze out narrow victories against our rivals with the right selection and tactics.  I fully accept the team is weak compared to many, but 4th bottom is not impossible

Act now

Edited October 1 by Forester

[westmidlandsaint]

I do actually quite like RM but I remember saying to my son last year that if we do get promoted and we continue to play the way we do with no plan we'll be slaughtered in the Prem. I was thinking this would be against the likes of City, Arsenal & Liverpool not bloody Bournemouth. The insistence of playing one way and not learning our lesson, last night teams selection of playing without strikers!! does he think he's Pep? this has annoyed me now to the point I think if we want a slim chance of staying up we need to change now. I'm not sure i trust the board to make the right call in terms of replacement which is another matter. 

[Farmer Saint]

38 minutes ago, Oldandtired said:

The Brighton manager is 31. He seems competent.

Brighton fans aren't convinced...

[Mr X]

The most damming thing is Martin has no clue how to create a half decent defence, wherever he's been the team his shipped goals so no suprise that it hasn't changed here, that combined with a championship level strike force its bever going to work when you have to score more than you concede! And all together while combining it with martins suicidal style!

Why the hell did the club renew his contract with literally nothing proven at premier league level? It should have been a get us back get a nice huge bonus and leave deal nothing more as it was clear he wasn't the man to keep us at this level.

I can only think that they were content to go back down from the begining and maybe that's what we need, they maybe realise as well as us that we came up way to soon?

Edited October 1 by Mr X

[egg]

2 hours ago, Farmer Saint said:

 

 

 

 

A number of people didn't rate Delap... 

Correct. He was unproven at this level. He didn't cut the mustard with England under 21's. Nothing he'd done screamed that he was a good idea and a better option than the likes of Broja who'd done it on the PL.

We can all rate people with hindsight. 

[Lord Duckhunter]

Fucking angry last night and having Boscombe twats taking the piss all morning hasn’t helped my mood today. 
 

The season so far has been a complete and utter shit show, 7 games, every bit as disjointed & unorganised as anything Jones delivered. Shambles. 
 

Some of the pony being spouted in his defence is ridiculous. 
 

Young & inexperienced. He’s managed nearly 250 games . To put that in perspective McKenna has managed 138, Enzo Maresca 76, & Poch 161 before coming to Saints. He maybe young but he’s not that inexperienced, certainly not so inexperienced to make the fundamental fuck ups he made last night. Inexperience can be lived with, if the inexperienced person learns from experiences. This chump, not only doesn’t, he doesn’t seem to want to. Convinced of his superiority & brilliance, and convinced he’s right & everyone else is wrong. “If it wasn’t for those pesky results, I’d be right”. 
 

As for this “he’s a nice bloke”. What’s that based on? He comes across as an arrogant thin skinned Lego headed David Brent wannabe twat imo. 

 

[beatlesaint]

10 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Inexperience can be lived with, if the inexperienced person learns from experiences. This chump, not only doesn’t, he doesn’t seem to want to. Convinced of his superiority & brilliance, and convinced he’s right & everyone else is wrong.

100%

[Andrew Watson]

I believe RM does his fair share for charitable causes,that makes him a decent man as far as I am concerned. I have to agree with the above assessment of his managerial abilities though,the worry is that we do not have any one at the club with any football nous and there fore when it eventually happens,we will end up with another manager way out of his depth at this level. The other point that has already been made,by others and myself,is who with any management skills would want to ruin their reputation by joining our shambles of a club.

[Lord Duckhunter]

Just now, Andrew Watson said:

 

I believe RM does his fair share for charitable

 

So does Arry 

[FarehamSaintJames]

2 hours ago, Farmer Saint said:

 

 

 

 

A number of people didn't rate Delap... 

Will quite happily say I was content with seeing us buy £7m BBD over £20 Liam Delap. 
How my opinion has changed. BBD is a donkey. It looks like he’s won a competition to play football.

[Baz Fl]

Martin’s teams always concede too many goals! We’ve returned to the Premier League with a squad that doesn’t have enough quality to score anywhere near enough to cover our defensive weaknesses. In the Championship other teams couldn’t capitalize on our turnovers of possession in dangerous areas, unfortunately that is not the case currently and everyone we play knows exactly how to turn us over. With Arsenal and Man City on the horizon Martin is in big trouble and so our Saints fans.

[FarehamSaintJames]

Russell’s next line up 100% confirmed:

Ramsdale;
Walker-Peters, Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Stephens, Manning;
Downes, Aribo;
Dibling, Stewart, Armstrong

I can just see it after his dig towards some of the newer signings. 😂

[Badger]

59 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

Brighton fans aren't convinced...

Wonder if they’d take a swap. 

[Toussaint]

33 minutes ago, Andrew Watson said:

I believe RM does his fair share for charitable causes,that makes him a decent man as far as I am concerned. I have to agree with the above assessment of his managerial abilities though,the worry is that we do not have any one at the club with any football nous and there fore when it eventually happens,we will end up with another manager way out of his depth at this level. The other point that has already been made,by others and myself,is who with any management skills would want to ruin their reputation by joining our shambles of a club.

So does a member of my extended family, and he's on every register you don't want to be on. Being seen to be giving to charity doesn't neccessrily make you "decent", in fact it could be seen as self aggrandising. 

Edited October 1 by Toussaint
gobbledygook

[Oldandtired]

3 hours ago, Fabrice29 said:

You lot are weird. Newly promoted team struggles, it’s hardly the most shocking thing is it. Not everything needs to be ripped up. Biggest issue is the constant team changing, that’s on the manager but having an huge squad doesn’t lend itself to clarity. I criticised the idea of playing a team of new players on here a while back and didn’t like it yesterday. Massively improved when Aribo was on who suits our game much better than LU right now. But either way, as I’ve said in here a while now, we are going to lose games, the first half yesterday was worse than that but if anyone thinks there’s a magic selection, formation, manager or whatever else that stops us losing regularly in this league they are deluded. You 100% can start badly in this league and survive, but our best way of doing that is by gradual improvements rather than ripping everything up.

Also, anyone who thinks a new manager is taking over with our October is sorely mistaken. 

Biggest issue is constant team changing? If only. The biggest issue is having a manager who is inept but has a my way or the highway attitude, who thinks that despite the world and his wife ( not only the weird fans) knowing for a certainty that his way won’t work in the PL won’t change, who won’t pick his best team (to be fair there’s not a lot to choose from), who spouts enough crap and hot air to make the planet 2 degrees hotter, the list goes on.

I suppose I ought to get off the fence and say what I really think…..

Edited October 1 by Oldandtired

[macca155]

34 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Russell’s next line up 100% confirmed:

Ramsdale;
Walker-Peters, Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Stephens, Manning;
Downes, Aribo;
Dibling, Stewart, Armstrong

I can just see it after his dig towards some of the newer signings. 😂

Stop it .... that is a seriously depressing team. 

[Sidney Fudpucker the 3rd]

Compare our team to Luton Town last season. With the exception of Ross Barkley you'd say that Saints have better players in every position. 

Luton looked like they had some fight in them. Saints don't. The reason for that that comes down to one man, the manager. 

Russell has already shown that he doesn't know how to adapt or change the system.

The board needs to act quickly or we'll be 10 games in with 1 point. 

 

 

[Give it to Ron]

1 hour ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Russell’s next line up 100% confirmed:

Ramsdale;
Walker-Peters, Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Stephens, Manning;
Downes, Aribo;
Dibling, Stewart, Armstrong

I can just see it after his dig towards some of the newer signings. 😂

Won’t be Stephens has another 2 match ban