Chez

Yeah, I am starting to see the sense in us writing off a £15m asset next summer as his goals look like they are going to get us promoted....

Sulemena clean through, pulled back ever so slightly, then falls over his feet half a second later. Aghh

and the skates are winning 1-3 away at Barnsley. Fuck football.

Got to shoot and score there AA. Bottled it IMO by coming inside.

Not good enough from AA. He should be anticipating that ball and smashing it in the back of the net first time. Crap first touch in a congested area and the chance is gone.

We have defenders passing it in our own box to the nth degree to desperately try to keep possession, but then two minutes later we bung it long down the line from a throw in conceding possession instantly. What the fucking fuck?

slow fullbacks are just a liability. Slow, short and out of position fullbacks... There were some much better left back options available this summer IMO. RM's choice.

to be fair, I think he was referring to the early goal(s) rather than the cluster fuck of a fourth.

RM is painting a picture of having to turn an oil liner around. With an incredibly low base to start from. A losing side. A side without much a shape/philosophy...etc. He's suggesting we can't expect that to change overnight. It will take time before it clicks. He says Leicester was very different to Sunderland. Sunderland we didn't fight back, but against Leicester we did. The errors that led to goals are put down to nervousness, not the tactics.

I suspect Martin's thought process will be that it takes time for players to get used to his system and way of playing, so no point in making wholesale changes in terms of formation and tactics simply because it hasn't worked the last two games. To a degree, that makes some sense, but I just wonder if his tactics really work against decent, confident sides? Overall, his Swansea sides were very middling, but when they came up against the decent opponents, that's when they came most unstuck. I guess that's not really surprising. Lose to the better teams and concede more goals against them. I wonder if we will continue to do the same. Some stats related to his Swansea tenure. 21/22 Start: 2 wins, 4 draws, 4 defeats Season: Won 16 games, drew 13, lost 17. The bigger defeats (three, four and five goals conceded) were against the four best sides (Sheff United, Fulham, Forrest, Bournemouth) Finished 15th. 22/23 Start: 3 wins, 3 draws, 4 defeats Season: Won 18 games, drew 12, lost 16. Bigger defeats (three or four goals conceded) against Burnley, Sheff United, Boro and Blackburn (top seven teams). Finished 10th. After 37 games, they were 17th.

He started really brightly, and showed his electric pace, but he seemed to run out of steam quite quickly. Also, I got the slight feeling that he might be more interested in putting a highlight reel together than get this team promoted. That might be as harsh as the red card he got.

Smallbone looks the same player as he always was. Passive, lightweight and ill equipped to play CM. I saw Leicester players waltz past him like he wasn't there.

he was shite last season too. We badly need to get him back to his best. It's horrible watching him right now doing little of worth in attack or defence.

Pepe also going to Trabzonspor puts our fuck up into perspective. A £72m transfer fee and £150k a week wages for three years and they failed to get any kind of tune out of him too. Looks like they have had to pay up most if not all of the last year of his contract just to get rid of him. Doesn't help us, but makes me feel a little better. Also, just shows that even when you aren't panic buying, you can still get it badly wrong.

Onuachu to Trabzonspor, possibly: https://dailypost.ng/2023/09/05/transfer-onuachu-set-for-trabzonspor-switch/

It would be interesting to look at (and analyse) an `all the goals conceded' video of a few championship teams just to get an idea of the kind of errors, poor positioning, and instances of could do better etc. for other keepers. I wonder how Baz compares to them.

Both individual and team errors. 4th is also caused by an absolute woeful pass from Alcaraz that is easily intercepted - and we are in trouble thereafter. And even that possibly over simplifies things, because it's probably that the forwards haven't done enough to give him another option. The 5th is partly down to a midfield not doing nearly enough to win the ball and then stop the cross, plus the defence not positioned correctly leading to Downes, caught on the wrong side, `marking' and failing to do enough to stop the header. RM alludes to the lack of running/effort and this may have contributed to both those goals. I've not analysed the other three, but I'd guessing lack of movement/running/effort will be a small part of them.

I'm with you. I've watched that video several times and I don't see errors or think he could/should have `done better'. For most of them I find myself saying out loud "no chance". Perhaps the third against Sunderland is an error and he could/should have saved it, but I don't see that as some sort of calamitous error - he just doesn't get there. I understand that is the point some are making though - he just doesn't seem to save those shots and that's his job saving stuff. That's not to say he hasn't made errors or let shots go in that he should have done a lot better with in the past. I just don't see them in that Championship goals conceded so far video - which is why it annoyed me that much of the focus after the Sunderland defeat was on his performance when it should have been on other players and the manager IMO.

Agreed. We look very easy to score against. Pretty similar to last season to be honest. We are just a woeful Man City impersonator. ...although don't underestimate Sunderland. They finished 6th last season and may have improved.

I suspect he will continue to work on bringing it out from the back, and positions of players to try and work the free man and get between the lines...over and over again. Defensive shape, not so much.

makes me feel a bit better.

I was going to post, that, although prehistoric, maybe us just playing 4-4-1-1 might give a bit more defensive structure. Having Mara playing right wing but be expected to chase runners all the way back to his own byline seems like madness to me.

I wonder if any of the teams finishing in the top two over the last few years have been smashed 5-0 early on in the season? Perhaps slightly knee jerk, but we didn't look like a promotion candidate to me. You can lose games, be a little flat, a tad unlucky, but to just get murdered with few signs that we are a decent side is a worry.

decent post. Glad you only gave a 6.5 for MoTM as KWP was only OK. I don't understand why he is being asked to play so much in midfield. He isn't right for that role.

The marking and tracking is woeful. However, I would say that defenders were constantly being asked to cover gaps caused by others losing the ball up field and having men beyond the ball, to defend facing their own goal and cover more than one man due to wingers not tracking all the way back. There's big gaps, wide open spaces, not enough cover and lots of one on ones. I'm all for possession based football, but we seem obsessed with working the ball slowly through the middle. Twenty passes to get the ball just ten yards forward seems excessive. Is it even necessary at this level? I understand the benefit of getting between the lines, but we seem to make bloody hard work of doing it.