V.Johnathan.Wilson

RC Lens regularly had over 15 shots per match in games they had over 50% possession so I assume that the large number of passes was a means to an end for dealing with Ligue 1 sides that sat deep rather than fannying around at the back.

Will Still's system is high press but there's also a lot of emphasis on ball playing ability, Lens had several games where they had close to 600 odd passes.

TBH I don't think we're targeting the British Market as much this time in terms of transfers.

I hope we can do better in front of goal than Will's soon to be previous team.

The SIU "Brotherhood" Badge = The Lens Management team (soon to be former). The Calendar clue took a while to figure out that it was referring to Windows 95 and by association Bill Gates or William Henry Gates the III.

Still's a Red Bull esque football manager but quite willing to switch the way they play in possession and out of possession depending on who their opponents are so his teams can have wildly varying levels of possession per match. Loves to get the ball in the box as quickly as possible through any means possible (they have some stupid high crossing stats) but his team this season couldn't hit a barn door (home game expected goals was 1.88 and actual goals was 1.13 which is a ludicrous differential). At Reims he used both 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-1-2 and at Lens he used predominantly 4-2-3-1 until he lost Khusanov to Man City switching to a back 3/5 because it suited the new look team better.

I like how a lot of these clues allude to the number 3 or Microsoft.

Henrik Rydstrom is the guy who does the Relationism thingy that Diniz of Fluminese made popular. The purpose is to use strange positioning to confuse pressing structures which can include having a several players within close proximity of the ball carrier and setting up players in a diagonal line towards the edge of the box so that they confuse defenders about whether a pass into midfield or attack is being made.

Unless we're lining up someone like Henrik Rydstrom or another innovative possession based manager that no-one's heard of then I think we're better off sticking with Martin and either taking the relegation and coming back better for it or results turn around and we manage to get enough to stay up.

Dang it so far we're getting Ajax De Ligt and not Post Ajax De-Ligt.

Why does the Graphic say we are 4-4-2? Aren't we 4-3-3?

The club's long term plan is to play possession based football going into the future, it takes time and maybe 1 more year in the Championship to start seeing the fruits of the endeavour, it was no different for Brighton they could've easily been relegated in their first year under Potter. Unless we find someone who can do PB build up tactics better than Martin between now and the January Window then sacking him off for a survival specialist would be a far worse idea for the club long term.

I wonder if Turkish predicted the Alcaraz to Flamengo as far back as July considering that one of his earlier clues shows a Flamingo on the left side of the picture.

There were moments in the 2nd half where I saw Smallbone try it to some success but then had limited options outside of going wide because of how wide the attackers initial positions were so perhaps there is some hope for him that he can do it more often if he can get a little more confident with more games under the belt at this level, I don't recall Aribo pulling it off once though so I hope that one of Fernandes or Ugochukwu can take his place soon.

They've sold a whole heap of players for quite a hefty sum I think. They're currently in the green in terms of spending by around 5 mil I think.

If we stick with a back three, I wouldn't mind him trying Taylor as the left CB, 3-4-1-2/3-5-2 so the most central midfielder would be more advanced so he can bring the front 2 into the game where they are needed the most more (Fernandes or Dibiling would be that player) and then Russ can opt to play two sixes as the other two positions in midfield. The front 2 has to be narrower and we need to start mixing up taking shots from the edge of the box and trying to create chances that are less than 15 yards out so that the opposing defense have two things to worry about as opposed to one. Basically I am copying Alonso's back 3/5 system that he uses at Leverkusen (Hope Russell Martin watches plenty of Leverkusen games if he's sticking with a back 3/5 because they are the shining example of how a back three centerback system can create goals for fun).

Honestly think that we didn't play as bad as the stats show (5 shots 1 on target), especially that 2nd half. Obviously it wasn't great either since we lost, but for me the biggest problem is that we only seem to want to shoot if we're 5-10 yards which is going to be very difficult if their rest defense is just outside the box and their midfielders are parked very close in front of the back line and that our front two are far too wide which makes them easy to isolate and forces our wingbacks to make an overlapping run which makes us very easy to counter attack out wide. People say its wasteful to shoot from just outside the box/the edge of the box but doing so also encourages the opponent's defensive line to step out more to mitigate that risk which then brings about the opportunity to get an Arma or Archer in behind as the defence would be in two minds whether to stop the shot or block the pass in behind. If we stick with the back three I think Russell Martin should try working on a 3-4-1-2 formation, with one of the wing/full backs inverting if need be to provide an extra passing route. The player at the front of the diamond can freely roam around to either provide for the front 2 or drop deeper to open up the two 6s/8s (between lesley, downes, smallbone and fernandes) if Alcaraz stays he'd be perfect as the man between the front 2 and the central midfield otherwise Dibling/Fernandes/Aribo would probably play that role.

Shocked that Verbruggen isn't on the 24 and under list, I'd imagine he'd probably be the number 1 ranked under 24 keeper in the world now though.

Its reddit you always get comments like "player bad" or "ur scout is dumb" with no context. For what he brings, bone injuries from no regard for one's safety can be mitigated, calf last season a bit iffy, but no hamstring injuries and small to moderate knee injuries over 3 years ago is a much safe bet in comparison to Ross Stewart.

Love a goalkeeper with a bit of shithousery to him.

Is Ugochuckwu capable of playing on the left? I wouldn't mind him playing a role like that of Kjaergaard at Salzburg in being the pacy 8 that can track back quickly, drive with the ball or even make himself a goal scoring option with a late run.

In terms of injuries, bone related from lacking self-preservation is quite a bit better than if had a history of muscle/tendon injuries.

Nuno apparently likes to play more front footed against bottom half sides, plus they seem to have an issue of there being a big distance between their front 4 and their double pivot when they are setup more offensively, not too dissimilar to Farke's issues with Leeds. We have to exploit the man advantage centrally and hope that AM doesn't gift the ball to one of Elanga, Gibbs-White or Hudson Odoi. Not sure how much Nuno varies his tactics mid game either.

I think that rule only applies to loans, implemented to curb the stuff Chelsea was doing with their loan system I think.

Not 100% sure but I think prem clubs can't buy a player and then loan them to another premier league club that same window.