Ex Lion Tamer

The passing game is the one thing that Bazunu is good at! And he hasn't had that many shots to save in recent games, he just lets in too many of the ones that do come to him

And yet you think we have a team that should be getting automatic promotion. How do we mount a promotion push with a poor goalkeeper, wingers who don't have a final ball, a centre back prone to bad errors (Bednarek), and so on and so on. How is it Russell Martin's fault that he's been given these players to work with?

https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/54/8/480

I think we were only prepared to spend the money on Piroe if Che left. That didn't happen, so we went for the cheaper, riskier option

Is our team really promotion worthy though? If you compare like for like then it's significantly worse than the one that we got promoted with before. I'm on the fence about Martin but I'm not sure fans are being realistic about the squad we have either. It's got lots of potential in it, but it's quite far off where it needs to be. Really it's a playoff team. Then you come to the fact that their keeper played a blinder and we could easily have won 4-1, and I'm not sure it makes sense to lay it all at the manager's door

Also why did Rasiak only start on the bench for both playoff games? We he carrying an injury or just past it?

Career history suggests he was quite the journeyman

Automatic promotion isn't totally out of the question but the playoffs are starting to look like a more realistic aspiration. So how do we look against the team that lost to Derby in the playoffs? Possibly pretty similar? My memory of that team is pretty sketchy, so I'd be interested in being corrected on this: Davis - Bazunu (not sure Davis was great at this point in time though) Makin - KWP Baird - THB Cranie - Bednarek (I can't honestly remember if Cranie was any good) Skacel - Manning Viafara - Smallbone Pele - Downes Guthrie - S Armstrong (I completely forgot about Guthrie, had to look him up) Surman - Sulemana Best - A. Armstrong Saganowski - Stewart

Is Ipswich's squad really as good as we had then though?

I can see Ipswich tailing off - they're full of confidence after their promotion and have a settled side but it doesn't always last

A few cynics on this thread but Charly has said repeatedly that he's happy here and values a settled environment more than just chasing money. I think he's a good lad. Sure we've given him a pay rise but that reflects the fact that he's keen to stay.

I think the point is that not only is our first 11 not so good as then, but we're also not benefiting from the team playing together for two years. So although I'm as guilty as anyone of expecting promotion this season, perhaps that's not realistic when a number of our top players still young and not near their best abilities. Although we can probably expect some improvement as the season progresses. The other possibility is we do have a promotion level team and the previous one was just even better. And actually Adkins wasn't a great manager and should have had us winning the league. Overall though, I do think a lot of it comes down to the fact we're not clinical in front of goal. Hopefully Stewart will help.

The answer is definitely no right now, but if you take potential into account, then I think it might be actually. The big difference is lack of ruthless goalscorers Davis - Bazunu (but Baz has the potential to be as good in a few seasons) Hooiveld - Bednarek José Fonte - THB (But THB has potential to be as good or better) Fox - Manning Richardson - KWP Lallana - Alcaraz (But Alcaraz has the potential to be as good) Cork = Downes (maybe Downes is better, I couldn't decide) Schneiderlin - Smallbone Sharp - Sulemana (But Sully has the potential to be much better) Guly - S Armstrong Lambert - A. Armstrong

Which players were top internationals at that time?

It's quite funny that we're now the big club getting the favourable decisions

I know it wasn't pretty but Stoke have barely managed to create a chance against us, we're clearly a class apart

Reminded me of Kelvin Davis' game away at Leeds. Not because of the goalkeeping performance but because it was the kind of tough midweek away game where you have to fight for the points if you want to challenge in this issue

Stoke were getting some joy down our left until Fraser came on. No way Edozie would have offered the same protection

In fairness, it seems like Leeds came to play open and with a high line. Next time a team sits back and defends against us we may find that our passing game starts to look more sterile again. Not because we're playing different tactics but because it's hard to find the spaces for more penetrative football

12 passes for the second goal, and that's just what they showed on the highlights, I'm wondering how many there were before that

Trying to solve this problem is exactly why we've moved away from a counter attacking game and to a posession based one under Russell Martin. Playing to hit teams quickly on the break was only working against the top teams that would attack in sufficient numbers to leave gaps behind. Any team that parked the bus would leave us out of ideas. That's also why our home record has been so bad. The "aimless" passing is designed to wear the opposition down, draw them out of their rigid shape and force a mistake. Obviously it's not working at the moment and Russ may not be the man to deliver but the theory is sound

It's funny people still think Rasmus is in charge when it's Jason Wilcox's job now

I'm really down about the state of the club at the moment. But the thing is, Martin won 7 of his last 9 games at Swansea. If his tactics are so easily found out then it apparently wasn't obvious to other teams then. And since then, Swansea have only managed one win this season under their new manager. So grim as things are, Martin simply can't be as much of a mug as he seems like at the moment. We can point to mistakes that Martin has undoubtedly made but something deeper is wrong at this club and it seems to be wrong whoever is in charge of the team