Fabrice29

What we actually need is 1 more point than 3 others. 5 more points than Leeds for example over the next 16 games. You’re just assuming everyone else is getting to your magical 36 points. That involves Leeds getting 17 points or Everton or Bournemouth getting 18 more points. We’ve won the same amount of games than all of them this season. What, which I think my post explains, I find baffling is the idea that we’re already down. Not that we will go down, like I said, maybe we’re most likely to go down, but the idea that we just write this season off with 16 games to go is baffling.

I’m sorry but I don’t buy this at all. We’re 5 points off safety right now. If you want proof that teams in this league are utterly terrible then its being 5 points off safety despite having a goalkeeper who doesn’t save anything, strikers who don’t score goals, defenders unable to stop or defend crosses and a midfield that is dominated even when with a man advantage. We have 16 games remaining. That’s double what we just endured with Jones. Maybe we’re not good enough, maybe we will go down anyway, but it’s absolute bollocks that we’re already down and if Marsch does give us some organisation and the young players some structure and guidance then we have real chance of getting out of this. Seasons are decided with how you finish them, that goes for Champions and relegation. The points needed this season to stay up will be less than other seasons and somehow despite being utterly guff all season we’re still a small well timed run away from getting out of trouble. It’s baffling that people are just writing off 16 games as if they don’t have to sit through watching it every week and we’re planning for next year. If we go down this year, it’s not going to be some heroic end of the season and we all come out of it inspired by the future of the young players and manager, it’ll be a gruelling end to the season and we’ll look back on it as a chance missed because anyone who stays up over us, will be a piss poor side. Obviously that might happen of course, and yeah we look the most likely to go down right now, but 5 points off, 16 games to go, fuck this idea that we’re already down and certainly fuck this idea that we all just sit through these next 16 games looking for inspiration for next season.

I very much doubt they sit around and go ‘right, I chose the last one so you choose this one’. Especially as Semmens is off in the summer. Think it’s simply a case of a manager who they’ve admired previously being available. (And yes, contrary to popular belief, data/recruitment analysts who were at the club previously can admire the same people that Ankerson and his team admire too)

That Gnonto video getting praise is funny. It’s just someone being nice, hardly ground breaking stuff. The more interesting thing is why it took him so long to play the kid. Even Italy called him up before Leeds. Also, posts about how his credibility will help us if we’re in the Championship are deluded. He’s got 16 league games in charge plus cup games and we’re 4 points off safety. If we’re in the Championship next season then that’s double the amount of dross we’ve just been through with Jones and Marsch will have lost a lot of credibility with us, media and players. Anyway… appointment seems fine, it will suit the players better in the short term and hopefully we can gather some momentum at the most important part of the season. I think people under estimate how long we have left.

Throwback in style and going back to being a reactive team will suit the players. Although likely to be less DCC and Onauchu and more Bednarek, Moi and Che so good luck stomaching that. Do enjoy reading the odd ‘good for the Championship’ comment as if he gets anywhere near the start of next season if we’re relegated. This toxic fan base just saw off one guy after 8 games, nobody is surviving 16 if we’re down.

Shocked to hear Shearer is coming out with cliche nonsense that he has absolutely no evidence, knowledge or basis to back up. Not sure how in way what so ever a stat can represent how someone feels. Actually am shocked to hear anyone finds it interesting.

25/1 for the guy who has been suggested by the poster on this forum who called the Jones appointment way before anyone thought of it seems to be worth a fiver. Would he want it before the summer though?

This is correct and has been for a long time. Find it a little strange that Jones get's booed off the pitch today but the players, who once again absolutely bottled it, got a clap from parts of the ground whilst walking around. Maybe he goes this weekend, maybe it's the right decision but experienced players going missing and shitting themselves in big moments is costing us. JWP especially should be running the game against 10 men but was beaten to everything in midfield.

I’m not saying it’s a bad performance 😂 I’m saying that idea of just playing like that again is one I don’t think will go down well on Saturday. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the other 11 players on the pitch play a massive part in our performances and perception of performances. We have a squad that until this January was recruited for a manager who primarily focused on how we would set up without the ball. It makes us a very reactive team so when teams come to St Mary’s and put the onus on us, we struggle. Hopefully the new January signings help with that but let’s be honest, if we set up on Saturday to surrender the ball to Wolves, like we rightly did against City, it will take a maximum of 7 minutes before people are screaming to get stuck in, attack and push up. I just find it funny people seem to see the City game as a blueprint for going forward because they won’t stand for it against anyone else.

28% possession against City. Let’s see if people really want to see that performance again on Saturday because my hunch is people will not have the patience they had that night.

Those stats you’ve quoted don’t show how well Jones did at improving the team defensively. You’ll need to look into how they were doing before he went back to Luton and how much he improved them. Not compare them to other teams in the league. You want to see the improvement the manager can have on a specific group of players he’s working with and presumably want to see how well he did that immediately. He also mentioned set plays. I’ve no idea how those statistics stand up by the way but the ones you’ve quoted won’t be the ones he would have looked at if he was looking to find someone who was good at improving teams defensively.

Can we end this theory that Blackmore has been shunned in anyway whatsoever regarding any status/goings on at the club. 2/3 weeks ago he had a sit down exclusive interview with the two main people at the club.

That’s not an exclusive. Tanswell and The Athletic so funny.

HotSaint was posting during the Everton game so it’s obviously not Jones.

He’s clearly talking about the players and maybe Jones position is now untenable but we have bigger issues than the manager if players are not feeling comfortable in certain formations and are dictating the way we play. To get out of this mess, some home truths will have to be told to those players, whether that’s Jones or Selles (who somehow seems to get more credit the worse we get) or somebody else.

There's actually some good stuff in this post. We have a squad that was recruited for a very reactive manager whose whole style was how we defended without the ball. It's led to a squad that is A) neglected in terms of quality on the ball and means we run out of ideas against teams who don't expose themselves on transitions and B) a squad that is set up to defend zonally and is really incapable of doing solid man on man defending. It's why we always seem to do okay against teams like City, because they play patterns and into your traps. When we come up against anyone who challenges us physically we crumble. Think the squad needs to take accountability, not just the manager, we've been utter shit for 18 months now and I think some people need to realise that just posting "pick this player in that position, it's so fucking obvious" isn't quite the magic advice they think it is.

So how did the magical 4 at the back go today? Is the system still the issue or is there some other magical yet so simple thing he's not doing? Interview was funny by the way. Wish he'd be a little more honest though and really call out the shit defenders and the toxic fanbase.

The lack of imagination in here is even more embarrassing than the topic. Almost everybody in here would absolutely love to support Everton.

So much click bait 😂

I don’t disagree that he was good Saturday and he’s clearly a class act. I just find the notion he’s the difference between us being good and bad a strange one.

Lavia was a big part of the midfield performance Saturday for which Jones has received more flak for. He was at fault for their goal and also at fault for a sending off on Tuesday. I’m all for raving about this kid but let’s not pretend he’s the only thing keeping this team together.

With the greatest of respect this is a 50 page thread solely aimed at ridiculing and destroying one man. It's just a minor part of a narrative that consistently undermines and aims to remove him from his job that includes but is not limited to booing and chanting directly at the man. It was started just after the guys first proper game in charge. I think I can understand why the man in question is a bit chippy and thinks fans might be against him a little bit.

Tuesday game was always going to be the more physical one and considering where Lavia is in terms of being managed back from his injury they chose to manage his minutes in that one for the benefit of upcoming games. Then went on to say Diallo is fantastic off the ball but needs to work on his game when on the ball and implied the other way around for Lavia (by stating that together they would be a complete midfielder worth £150 million). So I'm guessing Tuesday he'll go Diallo again at the start at least. He also made it pretty clear the PL is the priority so I'd suspect they want Lavia back in for that one.

Jones explained in the press conference yesterday why he preferred Diallo over Lavia for the Newcastle first leg. I imagine it's the same for Tuesday.

I'm led to believe this is not quite the case. Tella and Southampton both feel there's no point coming back to be part of the squad when he's on an upward trajectory at Burnley right now. As has been pointed out and is obvious to anyone with a brain, being good (not prolific, not outstanding) in the Championship is at best on par with what we already have here. All parties (including Burnley) will review it again at the end of the season.