Galway saint

There was an article in the paper over the weekend about the Rotherham keeper who played a blinder against us and others this season. He’s just been capped by Sweden and is coming into his prime at 25. They picked him up on a free and whilst the Millers are struggling, he has shone. It does away with the notion that you can’t be a good keeper and have a great season playing behind a struggling team. That’s the sort of keeper we should be looking for; someone who can keep us in games and win us points and and I think we would be more open to that, were it not for the fact we spent £12 million on Bazanu. It’s the sunken cost fallacy and it is incredible we spent that much on a young reserve keeper who being kind is still learning his trade whilst we try and get promoted.

great half hope he doesn’t tinker at sixty minutes as there’s no need to do so

flip it round and they had one third the possession and the number of passes but the same number of goals and shots. ordinarily, you would look at those statistics and say the Home team fluked a draw, but in reality, we were the lucky ones to get away with a draw. it’s bizarre that you can have that much possession and many passes, but still looks so disjointed and incoherent.

We had approx 75% possession but still conceded two goals. When we didn’t have the ball we looked fragile and when we did have it (which was most of the time) we looked ponderous. it’s a weird style of play that means you have the ball most of the time but you still concede a lot of goals. i just don’t get what the point is in wanting to have so much possession but then being so unambitious with how you use it. i don’t get what he wants to achieve

RM says it will take time for the players to learn his style but he’s had over 200 games in his career and produced as many wins as defeats with a very poor defensive record. I’m not sure where this is all heading really. Last night we had 75% possession (!) yet played really badly and still conceded two goals. Does he want even more possession or less ? Does he even know ? We seem to have no idea what to do with possession other than keep possession. The main issue for me is the fact that we concede far too many goals but his teams have always done, so there’s no logical reason to think it will be different for the rest of the season

Thought that was pretty dire. RM said it will take time but i don’t really see any progression as a team and last night was really disjointed. he can’t help the defensive changes but offensively we were poor and created little. i also thought charles had a poor game. seems very nervous on the ball and tentative. as someone said at that price tag he should be dominating this division. however ultimately we are performing as all RM teams have performed. we have better players than he had at swansea and MK Dons but he’s never going to achieve much as his teams concede too many goals and still do as we have the worst defensive record in the division. i don’t see that frailty changing given his style of play. the obvious worry is that if we don’t go up we will lose the better players next season and we then gradually morph into Stoke, Sunderland etc. as the money dries up

He made a good save ( perhaps his best for us?) but again he should be doing better with the first goal. He struggles with shots from outside the box at pace where he needs to get down to his left. See Sunderland and Middlesbrough. The second was more marginal but if you were being critical he should have been more advanced and narrowed the angle. Not sure why he turned away from the shot either. Again he doesn’t make howlers and neither was but he doesn’t make enough saves for me. Did well at the end though but with a decent keeper tonight we steal three undeserved points. They said at the beginning on the commentary he’s only had 5 or 6 clean sheets in 50 or so games ! The way we defend under Martin by the end of the season it will be nearer 5 or 6 in 80 or so games.

low down to his left is his weakspot

great goal

dreadful game we look disjointed at the moment with all the changes. need to move it quicker ( as always )

Have just left kings x after waiting hours to get a train. there was a train to Hull that left 90 mins ago but anyone trying to get to the game on the train from london will really struggle to make it or will have gone home. it’s chaos

He does speak well, but did he give an indication of how much time he needed to get the players playing how he wants to play and how will we know when he’s achieved that ? The reason I ask is that in his managerial career totalling nearly 200 games he has produced broadly as many wins and losses so it looks like the way he wants to play typically delivers as many wins as losses which means we aren’t going anywhere any time soon.

ordered my tickets a week ago but have yet to arrive. have others received theirs ?

Martin’s sides self evidently concede too many goals to be successful so unless you have some really good goal scorers ( which we don't) to offset that, promotion will be a challenge. makes the decision to sell teller an odd one but perhaps he wanted to leave

i agree and that’s what i am saying - thought that was clear but perhaps not

we’ve been over all this countless times but Bazanu doesn’t make that many absolute howlers. his goals conceded tend to be more in the camp of ‘could have done better’ or ‘should have saved that’ or ‘i’d have expected him to save that one’. even if he did make absolute gaffs everyone would forgive him if he made some great saves as all fans can forgive their keeper the odd howler so long as he’s making great saves and winning points. the rotherham keeper on saturday was a case in point as what a difference a keeper can make to the outcome of a match. i don’t think Bazanu has ever done that but equally i don’t think he’s lost us any points this season - it’s just that he’s not altered the course of a game either and he’s never really been that sort of keeper and I don’t think he ever will. he’s a nothing sort of keeper. however he’s obviously not going anywhere any time soon

Just listened to the Guardian podcast and they have done an EFL special. When covering the championship, we didn’t even merit a mention ! Not a single word. The pundits were making the point that the gap between the Premier League and the championship is so great, and that is why Leicester have found it easy. No such luck for Saints as we continue to make heavy weather of it treading water in mid table. All of that said when Martin arrived, his record was as many losses as wins, and he is simply repeating that now, so at the moment it looks like another gamble that’s not paid off for the SR team.

that doesn’t seem good how does it compare to others in the division ?

if you look at his record at previous clubs he’s performing at par. there’s nothing there to suggest he can deliver on average 2 points plus per game

martin is doing what he has always done and leading a mid table side. he has no track record of doing much more so he’s performing to par looking at his managerial record he loses broadly as many games as he wins and that’s what the owners employed and that’s what he’s producing its ultimately again a SR issue not a RM issue we might get into the play offs but that’s about it

he’s done what you would expect in the last two games. nothing to get excited about. some routine saves but he has looked more assured and that’s a positive. can’t recall whether there were any low shots to his left during the last two games as thats been his achilles heel

still need a proper mobile striker. let’s hope stewart is that man and if so the team might look dangerous. starting to look more solid defensively after the shit shows of sunderland and Leicester. feel THB has made a massive difference. he’s one of those players who always seems to be in the right place. the contrast with holgate is stark

thought THB and Bednarek looked very good. been a while since you had confidence we wouldn’t concede. not sure the subs helped much eight points off the top two so need to keep winning

agreed he looked very good

good Don’t change a winning team ! when was the last time we didn’t change the line up ?