Holmes_and_Watson

Rustle

Sometimes, a club needs a certain sprinkle of star quality. A single personality bringing charisma, talent and yes, in today's social media world, a sprinkle of Hollywood. All things Les Reed has in abundance, as he is takes Wrexham from strength to strength.

Lowest wages per player and possession percentage. The real placings any modern club aims for. 🙂

We had one recently when we got a free kick from a corner. We play a short pass within a second. Our opponents have barely got out of our box, and were all present to close it down. Yes, play things quickly to create a tempo. But not by rote, when it's daft to do so.

I'm not missing the endless PL links and transfer gossip things either this season.

Villa 2 up

It's tough to watch other teams, once you've watched the clinical control of RussBall. 🙂

Villa take the lead.

Time

For various reasons both Forster and McCarthy were given big contracts. That the club then spent every season trying to get them out the door, so they could get out of those deals. It wasn't because of the obvious talent of the first choice keeper, that they weren't getting games (although there were injuries and drops in form in there at times). Even last season, Baz could have been removed from the firing line a lot sooner than he was. I don't think McCarthy's stats were great either then, but the season had long since sunk, beyond anyone coming out of it well.

We activate the previously unrevealed buy back clause. Tella cries and launches a #freetella campaign. 🙂

I think RM really rates Stephens' versatility and leadership. He clearly wants that somewhere on the park, as much as possible, and has done even before Jack's injury. Jack's also the CB who gets to move forward into the middle, and has had an even more free role as an inverted full back in at least one game. Martin possibly thinks all of that, plus adaptability to in game things is required more than what Charles brings in, with inexperience, in a more specialist role. RM relies on the experienced players, when things aren't going well. He was losing ground on the Autos, trying different things with more experienced players, but still young, than Charles in other areas. He dropped Charles after what was considered a poor performance. The youngster has found it tough to get back in, probably partly through a little trust, but also because he prefers the all rounders in midfield (even if they are weaker in some parts than Charles would be). I also think Martin is looking to unlock his tactic to create more, rather than shut things down by packing the midfield, or bringing on a defensive minded player.

I just went back and added that Stephens can also play in midfield. He can also play everywhere else, but I thought it looked cluttered. That should put your promtion fears to rest. 🙂

Some other goalkeepers who've started out as outfield players. https://www.football.co.uk/news/goalkeepers-who-started-out-as-outfield-players/740162/ Despite all playing for top clubs, I think a number have all been slated at some point. Joe Hart was happy at City and being England #1, and that fell apart, for example.

Disappointed we can't tempt him back to play in a system that doesn't suit him, wasn't what he was brought in for, for a different manager who doesn't rate him in that system, and where he makes runs where no one passes the ball to him.

If we were to go up, then RM would be manager unless Brighton get him. If he's here then we're playing this season's system. One of SR's goals is to keep the player wages low. They didn't mind bringing in a load of duds, but individually it's a goal. So, I can see them keeping the core of what we have, looking to offload all the loan players yet again. That means they can focus on bringing in the players RM needs to get his system working across a whole game, even if loans in places. We'd also keep a lot of players who can work within the system, without having to go through the process for a second season. They may try to bring in some talented youngsters. We do have quite a few in the squad already though. And there might also be movement for those going into their last year too. GK- Joe Lumley - 2025, Gavin Bazunu - 2027 (U21) After 2 seasons of Baz, I can easily see it being 3. We'd be looking for a 2/3rd choice there. Lis if SR are looking within the group, I guess. FB -Kyle Walker-Peters – 2025, Ryan Manning - 2027, James Bree - 2026, Juan Larios - 2027 (U21), Jayden Meghoma - 2025 With Stephens available here, I can see them sticking. Romain Perraud wasn't fancied by RM. CB -Jack Stephens – 2025, Taylor Harwood-Bellis - 2024, Jan Bednarek - 2025 We've ABK, DCC and Lyanco coming back. If none of those are fancied, and no youth talent is available, then we'd need a fourth, especially if Charles is probably not fancied to fill in. I could see it being Charles though. CM - Joe Aribo - 2026, Will Smallbone – 2026, Shea Charles - 2027 (U21) Flynn Downes would be perfect here, if we could get him. That's still not enough though. Charles is young, and not fully able to fill the DM position. We'd need another here, since we've never properly replaced Romeu. With Stu going it would also be nice to have Alcaraz back, but is going to find it frustrating, unless his game has developed in the way RM wants. RM has also moved Stephens here. MR/L -Adam Armstrong - 2025, Kamaldeen Sulemana - 2027 (U21), Samuel Edozie - 2027 (U21), Sam Amo-Ameyaw - 2026 (U21) Fraser has said he's want to stay, so a deal there probably. That leaves a gap for a direct wide player, to offer us something different, as Tella did. ST- Ross Stewart - 2026, Sékou Mara - 2026 (U21) With Che going and Mara not being someone you'd want to pin a season on beside so far crocked Stewart, we may need a couple of reinforcements here. AA is a back up option, but we play better when he's wider. Ounachu would be back, offering something different. But too different for RM's needs. SR haven't been able to get one functional replacement, so two might be beyond them, let alone of a PL standard. We've also got the likes of Tyler Dibling, Dom Ballard, Cam Bragg and Nico Lawrence looking to get more minutes at some point. SR will want to ensure there's pathway options.

We'll be a little disjointed, as RM looks to keep the team fresh, by giving players minutes. It takes us a little bit to get going. But we're solid enough at the back, and get a 1-0 win.

Things they wouldn't know until they got into the building. You'd sort of expect them to know the standard of the facilities. It might take time to resolve it, but they don't seem to have known at all. SR might have a multi club model, but it's taking a lot of harsh lessons for them to develop a multi club template to take over clubs with. In his first week, he had 4 players looking to leave. He mentions it as disappointing, after what they've done at Southampton. Which was to get us relegated, which is exactly what's happened here. That raised a chuckle. What happened with us, isn't much of a selling point. He did mention they'd made mistakes, and being honest. But we don't hear what those were. Perhaps it's the long list of things they've had to react to. Inherited a disgruntled squad, that has been unsuccessful. Promptly implements the SR way, which isn't to improve the results, but to get them to finish even lower. It's a shame things can't be improved without breaking them and restarting with SR. Admits recruitment didn't always work. Something we know all about. He mentions the striker they had the season before, wasn't their player. Perhaps they had as much success there, as they had with us. Massive discipline issues and bottom of the league. Mentioned having shipped out 18 and brought in 18. In Jan bringing in another 2, and moving on another 6 or 7. So a massive overhaul there. But either, there were still a load of players left, or the ones brought in couldn't change the dressing room. Because there's a lot of having to build in discipline, of wanting to bring in players with character mentioned in the interview. We ended up getting relegated with a bloated squad with cliques of want away players. Some bought because SR's focus was on sell on value, rather than what they would give in the building and on the pitch. With our previous constraints, some of those looked impressive, much like the list given in this interview. Our Jan window was an utter shambles. Some other key areas remain that way, 4 windows in. But they've not heeded what happened to us, and repeated a lot of it here. Without knowing the contract lengths of character of who is left, there may be even more of a turnover in the next window. He mentions a number out of contract. They will be looking to move on those that haven't worked out. We've a small army of players out on loan, which was a financial and resource drain in getting us structured for this season. Hopefully, it's a smoother process here. The mix of experience, players from much higher leagues and youth in improved facilities sound promising. Hopefully it won't get put into doubt by playing possession based football for the sake of it, in a league you should dominate. 🙂

Nelson

"Ultimately it's been a really good day, but I'm annoyed it took until the 97th minute to win after the start we had. I'm frustrated about that. "I said to the players, 'We can't afford to come off it for one second' and at 2-0 we came off it. But I think we were the better team and we deserved to win. "I said to the players, 'The emotion we felt in the 97th minute, we have a chance to feel that 10 times over (by getting promoted) as long as we don't take our foot off the gas at any point. "It's my job to be relentless with them. There are going to be twists and turns and we need to take care of (results) ourselves. "We did that today and we deserved to. It took until far too late, but I'm delighted with that moment at the end. "There was so much good stuff but also stuff we really need to do better." He's not wrong in that they stepped off after 2-0. He's not wqrong about there being a lot of good stuff. And he's very aware that he could say/ has said that about so many of our leads in games this season.

It's not worked out for him when he's placed out wide. He's clearly not to be relied on to chase lost causes when we're holding onto a lead. I'd like to think he's getting minutes because RM sees other players really tire, or knows he might have to rely on him should we get injuries up front. Even trying to rotate the squad as best he can with the fixture list, knowing the recovery each player has to have. But it does seem that he feels obligated to use all the subs, even when the game in front of him doesn't need it, or they will weaken us. If Che hadn't started he would have come on ahead of Mara. The same with Aribo, and if mobility scooters were allowed, Stewart would be ahead of him too, even injured. If he is on, he can get into decent striker positions. Often, by that stage we've chucked a lead and are struggling to find any pattern to our play, which won;t have helped him.

Farke, when Norwich Manager, did indeed not have a plan B. He didn;t even muck about as much as Martin within Plan A. They had 2 good attacking full backs and launched pretty much every attack from there. Even when other teams caught on. Even with an iffy central midfield. And it worked twice for him in the Championship. Especially first time round, when it was new. When we played Liverpool, and they hunted our passing around the box in packs. That's what teams were doing to Norwich in the end. Leeds play an open enough game, following Farke's philosophies that I fancy our chances against them every game.

Hmmmm... How come your AI is better with the summary, than my AI was in writing it in the first place? Right ... Winning iz gud! We can still go up! There. I think that captures everything. 🙂

I only caught the second half. So, presumably missed the bit where we dominated and created. Second half was a mixed bag. We had some lovely passing moves. But, we didn;t create much from it. We look to be trying to be a bit more solid. But it only seems to be reducing our chances on goal, while our opponents get more. There's no one surprised to see us give up a lead. one goal, two goals... Under this system, we don;t seem to be able to contain. it's set up that we don't capitalise on momentum. When we attack at the pace we do, opponents have lots of time to reset. When they attack, we've often got our full backs inverted, leaving space and player out of postion elsewhere. Yet in there, you can see what we're trying. We had a goal ruled offside. But we don't have the tempo to create chances like that more often. We don;t dominate *and* shift teams about the way we had been doing either. We did have good spells, but the subs seemed to weaken us. Particularly the more of them Martin made. Stu had a couple of nice moments, but didn;t shore us up, as Aribo had. Fraser was a decent switch for Brooks. Manning (assist!) is like for like with Bree, but a bit more open defensively. I don;t recall Mara getting a touch. But we worked right to the end, and the winner was well earned for their efforts. Martin is trying a number of things. We're starting well, but after all these games still struggle to maintain enough control (not possession) of games, creating stradily throughout, to keep opponents from gettign back into it. Martin and the team will take a lot of strength from the 3 points, closing the gap on the teams around us. Even if it will take quite a feat to get back into the top 2.

Get in!!!!! Never in doubt from a RussBall Masterclass!! >cough<