coalman

In the same way as with Stephens that doesn't mean we should be offering them new contracts ahead of this season.

At some point we'll realise our players look so good in training because of the standard of opposition.

He appeared in 19 out of 38 premier league games last season. He was suspended for 9 matches of the season. Not sure you can afford your captain to be unavailable for a quarter of the season. 6 of those matches were for a combination of hair pulling and mouthing off to the referee. Is that the example you want to set to new and inexperienced players? The season before he started less than half the games (17). The season before none because he was out on loan. Season before 13 starts. Season before 9 starts. It doesn't exactly scream first name on the team sheet. I don't see how he needs a new contract to talk about the importance of the Pompey games.

If he's trying to assess leadership and influence he kind of does. And if he's rocked up and had everyone bending his ear about what a great leader Stephens is he needs to do his due diligence. One of the key parts of his job is trying to understand "why were we shit?" because he can't come up with a sane plan until he understands that. It turns out that you can't do that if you're alienating people by having them think you're not giving people a fair chance.

Part of the trouble of going into a low performing organisation is that no one thinks they are low performing which leads to an inflated opinion of the people in leadership roles. I have taken over teams where the initial feedback from people in the team about a particular person is that they are great. It takes time to work through that but you kind of have to operate on trust until you can verify it. In some respects you can't rock the boat until you have data. That being said - I always assumed that low performance comes from the top and I have yet to be disappointed in that viewpoint. The old saying that "As hire As and Bs hire Cs" probably applies here. It's one of the reason why turning around a broken organisation is so hard because the people doing the hiring ARE the problem. By the same token you also run into the Dead Sea Effect where your lose your best talent and keep your mediocrity and thus mediocrity becomes institutionalised.

Even if they aren't jetlagged when they play us - they will be jetlagged when they're training to play us.

https://www.thewrexhaminsider.com/transfer-news/phil-parkinson-comments-on-whether-wrexham-would-fly-potential-signings-to-australia/ Wrexham have very generously flown out to Australia for their pre-season games. Have to wonder how that's going to affect their physical preparation as Australia jet lag is no joke.

Dead on the inside.

Maybe it's the old manager chestnut of he has trained really well. Assorted recent managers (though I'm looking at you Martin) used to trot out every week how great the players were in training shortly before they failed to show up again.

Sadly that's not true. We are.

Obviously Sport Republic are planning for a longer stay in the Championship. /jk

Whatever alchemy Saints have employed in the last 3 years I'm not sure you can argue it has made our squad work. We've turned Dragan's gold into shit. If the ethos of our club has been mediocrity then maybe. How has Jack's supposedly great communication helped us win football matches? The fact that Jack is even in the frame to be captain is indicative of our failure to recruit or develop leaders. The fact our central defensive ranks are so poor we would consider him as a first choice centre back is indicative of our abject recruitment. Yes, I struggle to see who else we could make captain unless Ramsdale stays but being reduced to a raft of bad options still means you end up choosing a bad option.

Agree. It's terrifying. The least shit of a bunch of shit options is still shit though 😢

Let's face it, we needed to move quickly to tie him down to a deal. Lots of clubs are going to be looking for a leader capable of playing the libero sweeper enforcer floating centre back role. And Jack has made it his own. Seriously, wtaf?

Can't blame the Rangers fans for living in hope. I remember the heady days after the playoffs final where I started believing that Martin had learned how to adapt his tactics to the situation and opposition.

Because what every player wants is to go play for the manager who froze them out of the first team then sent them to Anderlecht so they could play Ben Bereton-Diaz on the wing instead.

Are we having a mare or will we win the league at a canter? If not expect whines

Agreed. Team shit is great until you get to the other team's penalty box then you need players who can stretch play. Edozie was able to beat players for fun in the Championship and had started adding end product to his game with 6 goals in 16 starts (he'd already added the defensive side). The injury really set him back and then it seemed Martin wasn't a fan (let's face it a player who commits his man rather than stopping and recycling is never going to be popular in a Martin system). Even when there's limited product the threat of a pacy winger pulls the other team out of position and makes space in the middle. Last season in particular opposing fullbacks knew that 99 times out of a 100 we'd stop and recycle so they could be narrow in defense and nullify our threat completely, not least because our central midfielders were hanging out with our centre backs playing triangles. When we were at our best in the Championship season we had Edozie/Fraser commiting players at pace on the left and Armstrong committing players on the right. It helped we had Che in the middle who linked up the play brilliantly but the space for him and even Smallbone to play in came because teams knew we could get past them down the wings. Now, Edozie may not develop the way we want but he still gets on the team sheet in my book because he's got that ability to stretch play. He'll also tackle back if you need him to. If we get rid of him without strengthening out wide then I'm not sure Fraser is the answer as he seemed to do best as a sub. Yes our squad is bloated but it's not in attacking midfield positions. Our bloat problem lies in the plethora of central defenders and fullbacks we have on the books.

I look like Lionel Blair in highlight videos.

There's about 2/3 of a really good footballer in there. Passing great, movement great, shooting good. But also, struggles to take the ball on the half turn and isn't going to win the physical battle in the middle of the park. If teams stand off him he can pull them apart. If they get in his face he fades into the background.

Got to remember it's going to take Martin a while to coach the high risk no reward football into them so it's automatic and for their fitness levels to drop to the right level. It's not an overnight thing.

Trust the system. It's part of a long term process. The result doesn't matter.

That's the first true test of Will Still's management - if he keeps Stephens as captain something inside of me is going to die.

He'd be the best keeper in the division.

To be fair some of his link up play and assists were very good. But his finishing.... oh my. The no look handball deflection for the first is a thing of beauty. I've never seen another player with the ability to score absolute worldies and regularly miss absolute sitters.