Russell Martin

[saintant]

25 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

Our best hope is that somehow he learns. He isn't that stupid to realise we have to change how we play to even have a chance of getting anything from the next two away games, Arsenal and Man City. And if he does insist on playing the slow, dour, possession stuff and we get tonked, then the blame will no longer be on Martin, but shift to that wanker Rasmus and whoever else is responsible at the top.

The problem is that he does not come across as the sharpest of coaches so I'm not overly convinced that he has much more in his locker than we've already seen.

[Disco Stu]

3 hours ago, OldNick said:

He didnt at Sunderland if my memory serves me right. 

True. Still an infinitely better manager than Russell Martin though.

[Sir Ralph]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAlpf5lITpp/?igsh=N2F6NmIzdXc0cWpo

[HarvSFC]

31 minutes ago, Sir Ralph said:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAlpf5lITpp/?igsh=N2F6NmIzdXc0cWpo

I posted in the non-Saints games thread that it's a weird era for football, and it really fucking is. You've got League One and Two clubs playing this way also, which is inevitably upping their goals against tally. A few years ago conceding a goal was the worst thing you could do on the pitch. Goalkeepers would berate their defenders for allowing a shot on target. These days, manager's risk conceding a goal by playing it around at the back and I'm not sure it's giving us much of an advantage, as the ball ends up going backwards, allowing the opposition to reset and reposition, negating any advantage we did get by beating the initial press, or hoofed up the pitch when the options aren't there. So, it's a risk of conceding a goal, but it's a few phases of play before you get the reward of scoring a goal so can't really be attributed to scoring, unless you're doing it in under 10 passes, which we never do. Essentially, the risk far out ways the reward. Now, I know Guardiola and Manchester City play this way. The best club in the country and probably the best manager in the game of a top club in the game. But, that last bit is important. Guardiola doesn't play this way with anything less than top quality footballers. He hasn't proven he can work these tactics with your Southampton's, Wolves', or even a Tottenham. He has always handpicked the best club in the country, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City. Even then, Manchester City's defensive record is pretty poor for their standards. They have kept one clean sheet in their first six league games this season and they kept 13 over the entirety of last season. So, for 25 games they had to score at least two goals to win a match and that of course is a lot easier when you have a free scoring robot upfront, but no other clubs have this.

I just don't think these tactics translate to a club like us in the football hierarchy. I think we work better when we press and outwork the opposition while playing good attacking football. This was us under Koeman. While Pochettino and Hasenhuttl for a period got us punching above our weight with a fairly limited inherited squad. I just remember the immediate uplift we had when we went from Hughes to Hasenhuttl and our squad was poor back then too.

Perhaps we need another one of these: https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/tactical-football-evening-with-russell-martin-and-jason-wilcox

Edited October 2 by HarvSFC

[Fabrice29]

22 hours ago, Dark Munster said:

"You’re some people on an internet message board"

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

43 minutes ago, HarvSFC said:

I just don't think these tactics translate to a club like us in the football hierarchy. I think we work better when we press and outwork the opposition while playing good attacking football. This was us under Koeman. While Pochettino and Hasenhuttl for a period got us punching above our weight with a fairly limited inherited squad. I just remember the immediate uplift we had when we went from Hughes to Hasenhuttl and our squad was poor back then too.

Totally agree. Some of my happiest memories this century have been Hasenhuttl's early high press years, and even when we were not so good, I can still remember the Hasenhuttl White Christmas song at Villa Park.

This drawing players on by passing around at the back and looking for a break is a fad and a busted flush. It also slows the game down to a crawl and the problem our team has is that they can't get out of this low tempo mentality. That's why dropping KWP has contributed to our failings in the last two games. He might not be the best defender and he's not in the form of his life either but at least he injects pace in to the team.

But does RM see the problem and if he does, does he know what to do about it? 

[Fabrice29]

25 minutes ago, OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint said:

Totally agree. Some of my happiest memories this century have been Hasenhuttl's early high press years, and even when we were not so good, I can still remember the Hasenhuttl White Christmas song at Villa Park.

This drawing players on by passing around at the back and looking for a break is a fad and a busted flush. It also slows the game down to a crawl and the problem our team has is that they can't get out of this low tempo mentality. That's why dropping KWP has contributed to our failings in the last two games. He might not be the best defender and he's not in the form of his life either but at least he injects pace in to the team.

But does RM see the problem and if he does, does he know what to do about it? 

🤯

[Oldandtired]

1 hour ago, Fabrice29 said:

"You’re some people on an internet message board"

Amazing insight

[bugenhagen]

5 hours ago, HarvSFC said:

I posted in the non-Saints games thread that it's a weird era for football, and it really fucking is. You've got League One and Two clubs playing this way also, which is inevitably upping their goals against tally. A few years ago conceding a goal was the worst thing you could do on the pitch. Goalkeepers would berate their defenders for allowing a shot on target. These days, manager's risk conceding a goal by playing it around at the back and I'm not sure it's giving us much of an advantage, as the ball ends up going backwards, allowing the opposition to reset and reposition, negating any advantage we did get by beating the initial press, or hoofed up the pitch when the options aren't there. So, it's a risk of conceding a goal, but it's a few phases of play before you get the reward of scoring a goal so can't really be attributed to scoring, unless you're doing it in under 10 passes, which we never do. Essentially, the risk far out ways the reward. Now, I know Guardiola and Manchester City play this way. The best club in the country and probably the best manager in the game of a top club in the game. But, that last bit is important. Guardiola doesn't play this way with anything less than top quality footballers. He hasn't proven he can work these tactics with your Southampton's, Wolves', or even a Tottenham. He has always handpicked the best club in the country, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City. Even then, Manchester City's defensive record is pretty poor for their standards. They have kept one clean sheet in their first six league games this season and they kept 13 over the entirety of last season. So, for 25 games they had to score at least two goals to win a match and that of course is a lot easier when you have a free scoring robot upfront, but no other clubs have this.

I just don't think these tactics translate to a club like us in the football hierarchy. I think we work better when we press and outwork the opposition while playing good attacking football. This was us under Koeman. While Pochettino and Hasenhuttl for a period got us punching above our weight with a fairly limited inherited squad. I just remember the immediate uplift we had when we went from Hughes to Hasenhuttl and our squad was poor back then too.

Perhaps we need another one of these: https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/tactical-football-evening-with-russell-martin-and-jason-wilcox

Good post!

There is always a new trend in football, and soon after a newer one trying to conquer the former.

There are times when passing can be good to keep the ball, control the pace of the game or even draw out the other team. A more direct forward play, high-press or even route one can be beneficial at other times. I understand that every manager will have a philosophy, but for gods sake: You are not betraying your principles by adapting as the game changes. Koeman probably did this best in my opinion.

Whatever style we end up with next I will probably allways favor the more fluid approach over the rigid.

 

[saintant]

8 hours ago, bugenhagen said:

Good post!

There is always a new trend in football, and soon after a newer one trying to conquer the former.

There are times when passing can be good to keep the ball, control the pace of the game or even draw out the other team. A more direct forward play, high-press or even route one can be beneficial at other times. I understand that every manager will have a philosophy, but for gods sake: You are not betraying your principles by adapting as the game changes. Koeman probably did this best in my opinion.

Whatever style we end up with next I will probably allways favor the more fluid approach over the rigid.

 

Agree. Before the game on Monday Graham Potter talked of the contrasting styles and described Bournemouth as a team that plays vertically which is to say they mainly play the ball forwards and look to progress towards the opponents goal in vertical lines at pace. We, on the other hand, look to play mainly horizontally and backwards slowly which is clearly madness seeing as the aim is to attack your opponents goal to create chances and score. I've had enough of Russball - the stats show that we have loads of possession which has led to us scoring three goals! We are currently going about the game in the wrong way and making the game look very difficult. As the Bournemouth manager said ahead of the game when asked whether he was concerned that we might have more possession, he'd rather have more chances than possession and so it proved - we had 60% possession leading to 9 shots with 3 on target and they had 40% possession which led to 14 shots with 6 on target. We're going about this arse about face.

[Patrick Bateman]

15 hours ago, Sir Ralph said:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAlpf5lITpp/?igsh=N2F6NmIzdXc0cWpo

I don't know who he is, but he's right. 

Someone else mentioned Koeman - that was the best era in the Premier League for us since Strachan's ridiculously fit and in shape squad running their bollocks off every week. Hassenhuttl reminded me of Dave Jones, not in style, but just I think the club could've carried on plodding on, not break ground but surviving. 

Anyway, Koeman - I long for those days of counter attacking but also the ability to mix up play with some decent passing. Saints do have some pacy players who can break ad do this. Get the squad fit (as I don't think they are as fit as they could be, certainly nothing like Strachan's team), press when it allows, let the opposition have the fkn ball for once, break or at least pass it fkn forwards at pace and allow the fast guys that are at the club to RUN. That would be novel. 

Oh and get Bella-Kotchap back into the squad. If he doesn't work out, fine, but there is potentially a huge defensive talent there doing nothing. 

I don't know, I'm not a football expert, it's not my job but that's what I'd like to see anyway. If we're going to go down, can we at least go down having watched something more extertaining and more likely see us scoring? That's all I ask. 

[saintant]

19 minutes ago, Patrick Bateman said:

I don't know who he is, but he's right. 

Someone else mentioned Koeman - that was the best era in the Premier League for us since Strachan's ridiculously fit and in shape squad running their bollocks off every week. Hassenhuttl reminded me of Dave Jones, not in style, but just I think the club could've carried on plodding on, not break ground but surviving. 

Anyway, Koeman - I long for those days of counter attacking but also the ability to mix up play with some decent passing. Saints do have some pacy players who can break ad do this. Get the squad fit (as I don't think they are as fit as they could be, certainly nothing like Strachan's team), press when it allows, let the opposition have the fkn ball for once, break or at least pass it fkn forwards at pace and allow the fast guys that are at the club to RUN. That would be novel. 

Oh and get Bella-Kotchap back into the squad. If he doesn't work out, fine, but there is potentially a huge defensive talent there doing nothing. 

I don't know, I'm not a football expert, it's not my job but that's what I'd like to see anyway. If we're going to go down, can we at least go down having watched something more extertaining and more likely see us scoring? That's all I ask. 

If the squad are not as fit as they could be that is inexcusable. Fitness is so important and even more so at Premier League level where even the elite teams insist their players are in the best possible physical condition. If we are not on a par (I'm not saying this is the case just responding to the claim in the message) then that is on RM and his fitness coach and is a damning indictment. The one thing we can match every other team on is fitness. The problem is, if we are not fit enough, that will be down to poor pre-season conditioning and it is very hard to rectify any shortcomings whilst playing games every week.

[SWLondon Saint]

'Mikel Merino says he is seeing football in a different way after his first month or so under Mikel Arteta at Arsenal.'

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/oct/02/mikel-merino-arsenal-training-methods-mikel-arteta

Call it a hunch, but given RM's teams long history of shambolic defending, I'm guessing our training isn't at that level...

[John Boy Saint]

15 minutes ago, saintant said:

If the squad are not as fit as they could be that is inexcusable. Fitness is so important and even more so at Premier League level where even the elite teams insist their players are in the best possible physical condition. If we are not on a par (I'm not saying this is the case just responding to the claim in the message) then that is on RM and his fitness coach and is a damning indictment. The one thing we can match every other team on is fitness. The problem is, if we are not fit enough, that will be down to poor pre-season conditioning and it is very hard to rectify any shortcomings whilst playing games every week.

I mentioned the fitness issue last season - I think it might have been v Coventry at home, 2-0 at half time and Coventry scored to make it interesting for them. At the final whistle most of our players were very noticeably sat or laying on the pitch with the body language of marathon runners having set a good time - Coventry players who had spent 20 odd minutes throwing kitchen sinks at us, looked notably much more fresher.

In football if you are super fit like WGS, even Poch, had them, your footballing brain works far more effectively for the full 90 minutes.

Changing subject slightly, on Monday night driving home Radio 5 had a snippet of RMs press conference that made me scratch my head. He was uttering that he had a team of good players who haven’t yet been given a chance, and he feels he has to give them a chance (pretty sure Manning was one name mentioned) - so no surprise at the team line up later. But driving along, quite surprised at this comment, thinking you see them everyday surely there is reason why they haven’t had a chance because if they were truly up to scratch they would have been in mix already. Half thought - have you made them all your mates, so now you feel obliged? Ranieri when he pulled off the football coup of the century, from recall he did that pretty much (and luckily) with the same starting 11 for the whole season - there must have been back up players at Leicester deserving of a similar chance but never got given it just because they were there. 
 

Ah well time will tell on this.

[Whitey Grandad]

3 hours ago, John Boy Saint said:

I mentioned the fitness issue last season - I think it might have been v Coventry at home, 2-0 at half time and Coventry scored to make it interesting for them. At the final whistle most of our players were very noticeably sat or laying on the pitch with the body language of marathon runners having set a good time - Coventry players who had spent 20 odd minutes throwing kitchen sinks at us, looked notably much more fresher.

In football if you are super fit like WGS, even Poch, had them, your footballing brain works far more effectively for the full 90 minutes.

Changing subject slightly, on Monday night driving home Radio 5 had a snippet of RMs press conference that made me scratch my head. He was uttering that he had a team of good players who haven’t yet been given a chance, and he feels he has to give them a chance (pretty sure Manning was one name mentioned) - so no surprise at the team line up later. But driving along, quite surprised at this comment, thinking you see them everyday surely there is reason why they haven’t had a chance because if they were truly up to scratch they would have been in mix already. Half thought - have you made them all your mates, so now you feel obliged? Ranieri when he pulled off the football coup of the century, from recall he did that pretty much (and luckily) with the same starting 11 for the whole season - there must have been back up players at Leicester deserving of a similar chance but never got given it just because they were there. 
 

Ah well time will tell on this.

“Nothing beats a settled team”

[Disco Stu]

5 hours ago, saintant said:

If the squad are not as fit as they could be that is inexcusable. Fitness is so important and even more so at Premier League level where even the elite teams insist their players are in the best possible physical condition. If we are not on a par (I'm not saying this is the case just responding to the claim in the message) then that is on RM and his fitness coach and is a damning indictment. The one thing we can match every other team on is fitness. The problem is, if we are not fit enough, that will be down to poor pre-season conditioning and it is very hard to rectify any shortcomings whilst playing games every week.

Interestingly, Danny Rohl made some comments regarding Shea Charles' fitness when he first arrived at Wednesday after a full pre-season with us. 

Quote

Honestly this is of course a little bit of the biggest question at the moment for me. I have seen his training, I have seen his quality immediately. But his last game was a little bit far away.

Edited October 3 by Disco Stu

[madge]

When you play to keep the ball you’re not conditioned enough to have to chase it.. martins issue we only play one way and have no idea How to change

[beatlesaint]

Russell Martin on AFC Bournemouth defeat: "I was proud of them for the second half because it would have been really easy to down tools at 3-0 down but we didn't, we ended up playing some brilliant football but it was too far gone at that point."
 

I’ve got to the stage where everytime this guy opens his mouth I dislike him that little bit more !! Is he fkin serious? Brilliant football? 

[Turkish]

On 02/10/2024 at 09:43, Farmer Saint said:

We were not on a par with them - they are a much bigger club than us with much more money. We would never have attracted Unai Emery. 

i think you'll find most of Aston Villas fan base is in our catchment area.

[Turkish]

1 minute ago, beatlesaint said:

Russell Martin on AFC Bournemouth defeat: "I was proud of them for the second half because it would have been really easy to down tools at 3-0 down but we didn't, we ended up playing some brilliant football but it was too far gone at that point."
 

I’ve got to the stage where everytime this guy opens his mouth I dislike him that little bit more !! Is he fkin serious? Brilliant football? 

what a joker, praising the team for doing okay when the game was already lost 

[beatlesaint]

5 minutes ago, Turkish said:

what a joker, praising the team for doing okay when the game was already lost 

All he had to say was “Monday was appalling, we’ve drawn a line and moved on” !!

To say we played brilliant football is not only an insult to every Saints fan who watched that but to every football fan who saw that on Sky. Absolutely deluded, makes Nathan Jones look humble !!

Edited October 3 by beatlesaint

[East Kent Saint]

Time to give football a miss if he stays as "Manager" .....

[tdmickey3]

2 hours ago, beatlesaint said:

Russell Martin on AFC Bournemouth defeat: "I was proud of them for the second half because it would have been really easy to down tools at 3-0 down but we didn't, we ended up playing some brilliant football but it was too far gone at that point."
 

I’ve got to the stage where everytime this guy opens his mouth I dislike him that little bit more !! Is he fkin serious? Brilliant football? 

All the more reason for him to fuck off now, utterly deluded fool.

Surely the hierarchy can see through this absolute bullshitter

Just seen the fool on SSN spouting more crap

Edited October 3 by tdmickey3

[VectisSaint]

On 02/10/2024 at 11:47, Suhari said:

Nothing really in the press about RM being under pressure, SR looking at options/giving a vote of confidence etc.

Presumably they are putting out feelers. I'd be even more pissed off if they're not.

Carlos Corberan (WBA) apparently being tracked, though quite why he would pass up top of the table Baggies for basket case Saints is beyond me. But Saints are apparently swayed by his possession based football. I don't know where I read that but it exists, no way could I make that shit up.

[gecko]

Anyone else keep coming here expecting (maybe even hoping) the title has changed? "Confirmed Gone" 

The jury's still not 100% in for me. however, It is so frustrating that all the frailties we all complained about last season have not been addressed - I don't know how many times I've read people on here saying something like "if that'd been a Prem team, it would have been punished" - low and behold, fast forward over the summer and we're being punished big time for all the needless passing at the back. 

A couple more games with no improvement will be enough for me to call for his head.

[Whitey Grandad]

"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly."

Macbeth

[Charlie Wayman]

1 hour ago, Whitey Grandad said:

"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly."

Macbeth

Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness.

[Charlie Wayman]

1 hour ago, VectisSaint said:

Carlos Corberan (WBA) apparently being tracked, though quite why he would pass up top of the table Baggies for basket case Saints is beyond me. But Saints are apparently swayed by his possession based football. I don't know where I read that but it exists, no way could I make that shit up.

Say, from whence
You owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting

[Whitey Grandad]

6 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Say, from whence
You owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting

The Blasted Heath died years ago.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

1 hour ago, Whitey Grandad said:

"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly."

Macbeth

 

17 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness.

 

12 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Say, from whence
You owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting

 

6 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

The Blasted Heath died years ago.

Wow. Loving the literature version of the Circle of Trust. Moyes it is then.

🙂

[Wade Garrett]

1 hour ago, Whitey Grandad said:

"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly."

Macbeth

‘Sack the cunt’

Hamlet

[badgerx16]

"Out, out, damned Russ"

[Holmes_and_Watson]

Hamlet:To pass, or not to pass. That is the question.
Horatio: Well, it's to pass isn't it?
Hamlet: Always. I know a hawk from a handsaw.
Horatio: Sadly not a striker from a midfielder up front, m'lord.

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

Hamlet

 

[Mr X]

This manager isn't going to change or learn he is far to egotistical for that and his comments have shown he has contempt for both the players and the fans!

How the club thought Martin and his risky style that needs world class players was premier league material I'll never know, it should have been a short term championship only contract with a nice bonus for promotion then a swift parting of ways!

Wonder what his payoff will be now?!!!

[Dellyears]

2 minutes ago, Mr X said:

This manager isn't going to change or learn he is far to egotistical for that and his comments have shown he has contempt for both the players and the fans!

How the club thought Martin and his risky style that needs world class players was premier league material I'll never know, it should have been a short term championship only contract with a nice bonus for promotion then a swift parting of ways!

Wonder what his payoff will be now?!!!

Last time we came up it was with Adkins who had done brilliantly with double promotions but how long did he last in Premier Lg?
Was it ten games before Cortese gave him the push and introduced Poch. There was outrage from fans but it was the right thing
--where is the new Poch and who has the nerve of Cortese to do it?

[badgerx16]

14 minutes ago, Dellyears said:

Last time we came up it was with Adkins who had done brilliantly with double promotions but how long did he last in Premier Lg?
Was it ten games before Cortese gave him the push and introduced Poch. There was outrage from fans but it was the right thing
--where is the new Poch and who has the nerve of Cortese to do it?

Adkins was sacked in January, just after drawing 2-2 away at Chelsea. We were 3 points clear of the bottom 3 and had lost only 2 of our previous 12 matches, having 22 points from 22 games, with SRL being the then top English striker in the PL.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1491188-nigel-adkins-shockingly-sacked-as-southampton-manager

Edited October 3 by badgerx16

[SWLondon Saint]

1 hour ago, Mr X said:

This manager isn't going to change or learn he is far to egotistical for that and his comments have shown he has contempt for both the players and the fans!

How the club thought Martin and his risky style that needs world class players was premier league material I'll never know, it should have been a short term championship only contract with a nice bonus for promotion then a swift parting of ways!

Wonder what his payoff will be now?!!!

Honestly, with world-class players I'm sure Martin would still be shipping goals. That's a question of defensive organisation and he just can't do it, he never has.

What I don't get is what bloody metric anyone involved in the hiring process was looking at? The fact his teams concede so many surely should have been a red flag? 

[Dark Munster]

11 minutes ago, SWLondon Saint said:

Honestly, with world-class players I'm sure Martin would still be shipping goals. That's a question of defensive organisation and he just can't do it, he never has.

What I don't get is what bloody metric anyone involved in the hiring process was looking at? The fact his teams concede so many surely should have been a red flag? 

They have no metrics. Remember these are the clowns (led by their ringmaster Rasmus F*cking Ankersen) who hired Nathan Bloody Jones, took forever to sack him, and then replaced him with an amateur Selles.

[Suhari]

2 hours ago, TheAlehouseBrawlers said:

Hamlet

 

Filmed on the platform at Basingstoke train station.

And that's all I will say about that.

[Harry_SFC]

1 hour ago, SWLondon Saint said:

Honestly, with world-class players I'm sure Martin would still be shipping goals. That's a question of defensive organisation and he just can't do it, he never has.

What I don't get is what bloody metric anyone involved in the hiring process was looking at? The fact his teams concede so many surely should have been a red flag? 

Agreed. The thing that's worked in his favour is that in the lower league his sides have been able to score as well to even it up. Now we are up against much better opposition we can't even do that but are still letting in a ridiculous amount of goals.

How anyone thinks Martin will be a success with us in this division I'll never know. 

[BarberSaint]

Currently we seem to be on course for one goal scored every two games and two goals conceded every game = 19-76= -57 which is about right.  But going like that I really can see us not getting a win or possibly a majestic two wins all season.  Games I think we might win are Everton at home because they travel poorly and they're crap and a home fluke against a poor side e.g. Ipswich, but obviously not Ipswich. I'll say Crystal Palace. Someone like Liverpool might manage  5 against us because they have a Dutch manager who won't be sympathetic to our plight.

[Jack]

Since the start of the 22/23 season in the Championship with Swansea, he’s conceded 139 goals in 98 league games, 1.42 per game. 
 

I hope the media press him on why he’s so stubbornly committed to his possession at all costs philosophy, as it doesn’t achieve anything unless you’re banging in shitloads of goals which just isn’t going to happen at this level. He’s going to take us down with no sign of a fight. 

[AlexLaw76]

5 hours ago, Jack said:

Since the start of the 22/23 season in the Championship with Swansea, he’s conceded 139 goals in 98 league games, 1.42 per game. 
 

I hope the media press him on why he’s so stubbornly committed to his possession at all costs philosophy, as it doesn’t achieve anything unless you’re banging in shitloads of goals which just isn’t going to happen at this level. He’s going to take us down with no sign of a fight. 

What we need is sky or MOTD to push him post match, as Russell is a prick to the more local reporters out there

[S-Clarke]

On 02/10/2024 at 18:55, OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint said:

Totally agree. Some of my happiest memories this century have been Hasenhuttl's early high press years, and even when we were not so good, I can still remember the Hasenhuttl White Christmas song at Villa Park.

I was a big fan of Ralph, but we've had stacks of good times this century above anything he cooked up for us. Poch, Koeman, Adkins and even some of Burleys moments surely have to equate to better memories than what Ralph delivered.

Football goes through eras though and this is an odd one. Lots of progressive young managers trying to be the next Pep and emulate tika-taka with players a million levels below what Pep has available to him.

Personally for clubs without the best players I've always been for an aggressive high pressing approach, you don't need to have the best technical players for that - you just need to be fit as hell, run, press and understand the triggers - then 1 or 2 bits of quality up top can be all you need.

This tika-taka approach with inferior players to the ones Barca had in their pomp, or City have today, is a recipe for disaster for all the lesser clubs who are trying it. There's a reason this approach was successful for Spain, Man City, Barcelona - think Messi, Hallanad, Xavi, Iniesta, Silva, Pedro, Busquetts etc. It's all about player quality and picking an approach that suits the quality at the disposal.

Edited October 4 by S-Clarke

[Gloucester Saint]

11 hours ago, Dark Munster said:

They have no metrics. Remember these are the clowns (led by their ringmaster Rasmus F*cking Ankersen) who hired Nathan Bloody Jones, took forever to sack him, and then replaced him with an amateur Selles.

This time, Rasmus has to go as well. If SR want to employ him at Goztepe that’s up to them. But he is the most harmful individual I’ve seen in relation to SFC, even worse than Lowe or Askham. 

[SouSaint]

3 minutes ago, Gloucester Saint said:

This time, Rasmus has to go as well. If SR want to employ him at Goztepe that’s up to them. But he is the most harmful individual I’ve seen in relation to SFC, even worse than Lowe or Askham. 

Rasmus is the co founder of SR. He won't be going anywhere. 

[Gloucester Saint]

Just now, SouSaint said:

Rasmus is the co founder of SR. He won't be going anywhere. 

He can work with the other two clubs, I just don’t want him anywhere near SFC decision making, even down what beer is in the concourse. One of the most inept people I’ve ever seen in any industry. The Frank Spencer of transfers.

[Miltonaggro]

6 minutes ago, SouSaint said:

Rasmus is the co founder of SR. He won't be going anywhere. 

If the majority shareholder(s) want him out then he's out, like any other business.  It's essentially Solak's call.

[SWLondon Saint]

54 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Personally for clubs without the best players I've always been for an aggressive high pressing approach, you don't need to have the best technical players for that - you just need to be fit as hell, run, press and understand the triggers - then 1 or 2 bits of quality up top can be all you need.

Interestingly, the thing that turned Spain from possession kings who never won anything into the title winning juggernaut they are now was actually adding what you've just described to their traditional PB game. The work out of possession is arguably Pep's hallmark, I don't get why everyone focuses on the tiki taka bit when actually they probably score more in transition than after long periods in possession. 

The whole point of the 'counter press' thing is kind of choosing the areas where you take risks and lose possession, then winning it back in those danger areas and scoring very soon after. It's basic stuff and I just don't get why someone with a UEFA Pro license like Russ is getting flat-out schooled in it by all the other PL managers so far.