coalman

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.

Christ we have a lot of central defenders.

Whilst I don't want to return to the heady days of Martin's empty platitudes it's hard not to be traumatised by last season. If anything it was far more traumatising than the Hassenhutl, Jones and Selles relegation simply because we were being told every work how the process was working. Trying to sugarcoat that we were fucking shit top to bottom also wouldn't be a good start. So he had to find a polite way of conveying that without alienating too many people.

One thing I like from his videos is he's looking to take the ball in stride with his first touch to commit the defender rather than stopping and taking the pace out of the game. We've needed that so much in recent years.

Surely rule 34 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_34

Talk like a pirate day seems to come round earlier every year.

Correlation and causality aren't the same thing.

Then he'll need a really commanding ball playing centre back that can step into midfield to dominate the game.

Let's wait until the cheque has cleared before we get picky about that.

We do seem to have managed the incredible feat of making our striking options worse every transfer window for several years now 😢

He showed incredible pace and skill getting out of the car, wriggling past the front desk and into the doctor's office. Then fell over as he was about to get on the stretcher trying to follow his training and check back to maintain possession.

How did this turn into a rumour overnight. Has MLG un-scooped himself?

He was on a par with the wingers we had (who didn't wind up doing much in our Premier League campaign) so you can't say he was awful in terms of contributions but he wasn't standout either. I do remember him (and Rothwell) giving the ball away a lot though.