Holmes_and_Watson

Tuck

The older you get, the more difficult it is to move with the times, leaving you with outdated concepts like ... going for the win and defending. 🙂

On the occasions that Martin's system was clicking along nicely, Baz played his part as the base of a lot of our moves. When it was going well, he was spared from having to make a lot of saves though, which also helped.

Oh for... Don't ask for a whole packet! 🙂

Not just, but sadly he really isn't an excellent shot stopper overall, either. The combination...

Well, that explains the effectiveness of VAR 🙂

We don't hear much about Martin's tireless work at making all levels of the club adopt RussBall. Well done, the U21s!

Oh Rover, how could you?

If we go up he's earned the chance. If we don't, the club have to look at the resources available, the cost of the gaps we need to fill both to make it work better and to fill departing players, and the returning players and the role they could be playing in the system of a new manager.

I agree with this. Paul was one of a list who didn't fit Martin's philosophy. And that's fair enough really. Martin has always been clear that he has one way of playing. He's not shown any sign of changing that. So why, in what was a bloated squad, where we're trying to offload costs, would he stick with them? He'll stand or fall playing to his principles. At least we won't have to go through the "That's not my team out there. From now on..." phase. Sadly, we've got quite a list of players that don't suit the system, either at all or not quite enough. Add to that those that seemed to be progressing a bit, going a bit flat too. I watched a lot of Paul's movement. He was wasting his time thinking the ball would ever get to him, let alone in a way that would give him a chance. He'd make the runs and trot back to his starting position on a regular basis, before he left.

Triumph

Salad

We manage to get shot of the, still large, number of players we don't want, that don't fit the system, or who want away. We use those funds to strengthen the core group. We get a couple of options in CM, and some reinforcements up front. RussBall flies out the traps next season. And this is all after we've already secured promotion from the play offs. 🙂

Chamois

Not once did they allow the opposing defence to reset, and then meticulously try and pass it through them. I'm not sure any of those goals count. 🙂

He did say he picks 100 locks. That'll be in every move. By the time he's done that, we've lost the ball and probably conceded at the other end.🙂

Couldn't wait for that chancer Le Tissier to go off. 🙂

There's a do not resuscitate sign on our season?

The rehersal ended up with with the squad passing around the awards for 90mins, with none of them able to get it to a winner?

Some boos noticeable there at the end. That was really just a lesson that we don;t have the squad to play RussBall. To compound this, Martin made sure to drop the few players who are key to when it does work from the side. No engine of Downes, work rate of AA, presence of Adams. Oh, and he also shoehorned in Stephens resulting in THB having a poorer game than usual. As usual, Martin got his possession stat. The base of everything he wants. But we were never on top of either domination of play or chances. A midfield that offered no physical presence, no disruption ot opponents play, no drive and no creativity. Supported by Mara, who doesn't offer the support Martin needs to have. Fraser and Edozie had some bright moments, with Fraser's first half chance being our best effort. But that was Edozie beating his man, without anyone being there to get on the end of anything. Fraser cut in centrally to some success, but these were mostly scraps. With all that mess in front of him, McCarthy is shown not to be able to pass anywhere near as well as Baz. On the other hand, he did have to make a number of stops today. Nothing spectacular, but you always wonder if Baz would have just managed to get "close" to one of them, but not close enough. Martin has worked his way through the squad, and found he doens;t have the players who can do the things he needs. He has tried a number of things, and line up changes. But not for long. You sense the players are impacted by the chopping and changign. All the work that's gone into Martin's system falls apart when the players put out weren't the best at it, or haven;t played as aunit regularly together. There's that losing mentality around again. No minutes for the youngsters. Martin is trying to find senior personnel to make something click. But we've pretty much gone through hsi options, so it would be nice to see them get some game time. We may be depending on them a lot next season, if we don;t go up. Players takign families round the pitch. A shame there's nowhere near that feel good factor around, that flickered for a while earleir in the season. Still, it's not over yet. Leeds fell apart the other night and WBA wil be disapointed they didn't kick on in the seocond half of the season.

Last ditch cross.... hopefully someone from way back in the stand will throw that back...Thanks Bree.

'Tator worried aobut playing in the corner for 4 mins hadning the momentum back to Saints. We'd just pass momentum across the back, until it went away.

Fraser ( who I forgot was on) tries a cut back, but no one there. "They are a good team and play good football." - Stoke 'tator talking about Saints, who have shown very little "good" in anything today.

Yes! My link must have been behind. Well done Russ! 64% possession. The foundation of success!

Still just below that 60% possession. C'Mon Saints. McCarthy makes one of those save things that the Stoke keeper hasn;t had to do much of.