Dusic

Cedric available on a free this summer. Knows the club and has nice trainers.

After tonight he will be starting the remaining games of the season. Be interesting to see in what position.

With the notable caveat that Martin managed them during the period where their parachute payments were cut and then ended. Cooper has had a mixed bag of a managerial career so far, comes across a bit dour to me. Obviously did well to get Forest up but they lacked any real style of play in the PL and he chopped and changed every week (albeit not helped by having a squad of 60). One thing for sure, if they did sack RM after delivering pretty much 2pts/game then the next guy would need to make a hell of a start. Personally think the last thing we need is more change (plus the costs that entails) and certainly no guarentee anyone else would come in and do better. Change again to a third manager and new style of play in November if we are in the playoff positions and on 1.7pts/game?!

Of the top 3 I would fancy us to beat Ipswich more than the other two.

Hopefully we face WBA rather than Norwich. WBA fixtures fairly kind so hopefully they hold onto 5th ahead of Norwich.

Seeing as Leicester and Leeds were better than us last season (and Leicester for about 5 years before that too, plus not complying with FFP) why should we certainly have been ahead of them? We have been in the mix for promotion for the whole season, and will likely end up with a points tally that would ordinarily get automatic promotion. I think at the start of the season 99% would have taken that outcome for this experiment (whatever that means!)

Failure to kill them off cost us everything. Quite clearly.

Setup the team well to absolutely batter the opponent. If the forwards take chances then we are deservedly out of sight. Clearly the biggest issue this season hasnt been Manning, Stephens or Bazunu...its been taking more of the clear cut chances we have created due to dominating the game. Seems kind off odd as we have scored so many goals but we have left a whole load out there too. The most frustrsting results this season have largely been when we have played well for the most part, gone ahead and but not got ourselves out of sight when we easily could have, only to be pegged back. Today was not possession for the sake of it, or crab football. It was total domination let down only by the finishing. Easy to blame the manager but not always right, and definitely not today.

Interesting that your dealings with him haven't been impressive - is that within this role or previously at academy level? I know a couple of people more on the academy side (but unrelated to Saints) who have been very impressed in their dealings with him and who were suprised we managed to get him kn the first place.

Possibly in the Championship if they feel Lis is able to be a #1 but if Goztepe get promoted then I expect he will stay there as was clearly signed for them originally. If we do go up then no chance it will be Lis - will need a signing or loan of an established keeper. Extremely unlikely Lumley would be a starter in any division.

Confirmed out for 9-10 months. Also causes a problem for the summer as will need to find a starting keeper when probably not budgeted for, who might not be needed by the end of the season when Bazunu gets back.

He had nothing to do. Leicester and Leeds away will be different story!

Why? Certainly much more likely McCarthy makes a howler playing out from the back in the next four than Bazunu. The manager sees the players in training every day sonwould rather at this stage of the season he has all the players available to him - especially one he has picked to start every game!

Good team selection tonight, clear style and identity and bang on a 2pts/game ratio for the season after 42 games. Obviously nobody knows what happens from here, but good time to be in form.

Would definitely bring Manning back in and personally think this game requires use of Bree as a front sweeper to cover the whole width of the pitch. Bazunu KWP--THB--Bednarek--Manning <<<<<<<Bree>>>>>>>>>>>> ---Downes------Smallbone--- Arma---------Che-------Edozie

Good for our stepping stone club sales pitch. That loan at Burnley has made his career.

Charles was poor in the Bristol City game which was the first one Downes missed I think - so essentially fluffed his opportunity and was subbed after less than an hour in the WBA game. I think RM lost a bit of faith after this and unfortunately his weakness seems to be that he isnt as reliable in possession as Downes or Smallbone and therefore think he doesnt want to risk him in that position and ahead of that he isnt getting game time ahead of Armstrong, Aribo, Smallbone and Rothwell has made an impact as a sub when needed. Seems a good player but jury out on whether he will make it long term IMO - although worth considering this is his first pro season of any kind. Certainly don't think its some kind of ludicrously poor management that he hasnt featured a lot.

If you want to be critical just do it, your constant on the fence routine is a bit tiresome. Do you think we won in spite of Martin? (FWIW Manning was a great sub today)

Have a day off!

Playoff wise I think we would b better finishing 4th than 3rd. For autos it such a shame we don't just have 3 points more. We would be right in the mix then. Such fine margins and for that reason find it hard to understand the strength of critisism for Martin - we could score in the 90s which everyone would have said was a top season if offered in August, and not go up.

Do you actually think that playing Stephens and Manning (who he has actually left out quite a few times) is the reason we won't finish in the top 2?

Clearly he should stay: - Likely to achive a pts tally that most other seasons would get auto promotion. We will be beaten by 2 teams who were better than us last year including one who have breached FFP and clearly have the strongest team for many years in the Championship. Ipswich have just had a freak season, fair play to them. - Has successfully changed the style of play as requested by the club after SR and Wilcox rightly recognised that even on the odd occassion we did win games there was often no clear reasons why in the data, i.e we had no repeatable plan. Now we have a clearly recognisable approach which players enjoy - Has overseen a club record run without defeat, which is some achievement - Entertaining football where we try (and largely suceed) in dominating. Personally would prefer this kind of aspirational style versus a more attritional approach. That we have scored stacks of goals (despite late sale of Tella who got 20 last season) yet still bemoan finishing is telling. - Utilised the whole squad very well and seemingly created a positive team spirit which has been sorely lacking in recent years. By all accounts many players wanted to leave in the summer and he has reinvigorated players like both Armstrongs, Bednarek, Aribo etc. - In what is likely to be a summer of change (again) we need some stability. If we were to remove him after a season of 2pts/game then imagine how much pressure would be on his replacement...would be ridiculous! I am amazed as many as a third must feel he has done a poor job, quite staggering.

Why? Most play a totally different style the one that the whole club has moved to adopt and recruit for (have you seen how dull Corberan's WBA are?!) and Cooper aside none have been promoted out of the Champ either.

Its almost as if when clubs hire managers and sign players they analyse the context of the manager/players performance and the methods used/reasons for it rather than simply expecting them to do exactly the same as previous in totally different circumstances.

You have misunderstood - my point is that Russell Martin came in and said that he wants his team to dominate possession and play in the the style that he coaches. He managed to do that quickly, even inheriting a team that for the last 3 or 4 years were almost entirely focused on an out of possession style. That was evident from the first game against Sheffield Wednesday and pretty much every game since. Even vs Liverpool at Anfield you could see it was a team playing the way he wants and has coached. Many managers talk the talk about how their team plays and then performances don't match with what they say. The one thing RM has consistently showed at all his teams is that he can quickly and effectively get a team playing the way he wants them to. That skillset is quite valuable when it comes to recruiting a manager as any prospective club knows what they are going to get vs say a Nathan Jones where for all the chat he couldnt show any specific style of play on the pitch. You may not like the style, but he is very good at getting his teams to play it.