saintant

Noah Diliberto is a free agent. French defensive midfielder 22 years old. Could do a job for us.

Those 5 yard passes are a big part of the problem as, unless you have triangles of players ready to move the ball on, you just get smothered by the opposition press causing the panic we are seeing. If you watch the teams who know how to play out from the back most of the passes are much longer which changes angles and creates space. We pass out from the back without thought or purpose bringing pressure on ourselves just so RM can say that we are a modern team that plays possession football and builds from the back rather than playing hoofball. Something has to change and quick.

Nah, that's not hipster enough 🙂 Got to be clever these days.

Some very good points there especially about how slow we are which just invites our opponents to press. How RM fails to see that we need to quicken everything up is beyond me. Walking football is for 50 year old men.

Haven't seen that goal before. That is so embarrassing for Utd - made no attempt to close down. Good from Brighton but few teams in the Premier League would allow that.

Agree. I reckon a degree of jealousy clouds some people's ability to give full credit to Brighton where it is due. I have an admiration for any smaller club that gives the big boys a bloody nose on a regular basis and makes their entitled fans suffer. Fair play to Brighton. Maybe it won't last but right now they are doing brilliantly. We've been there and know it is tough to maintain when competing against the massive money clubs but it's great while it lasts.

KWP is not playing midfield he is trying to play the inverted fullback role which involves him moving into midfield. The problem is he does not seem to know how to do it. Either we coach our fullbacks to play the inverted role correctly pretty damn quickly or we abandon it and use them as traditional fullbacks with more emphasis on defending than attacking. The way we are leaking goals I think we need to go for the latter option.

I agree we need to stop playing with two attacking midfielders - however, I haven't seen enough defensive qualities from Smallbone to show he can play that role, he is too weak and lightweight for me. Our problem is that we don't have enough muscle in the squad so have few options. That's down to poor transfer activity.

An interesting read. I'm not convinced that RM, his coaches or our players fully understand the intricacies needed to make this work effectively. Meanwhile we leak like a sieve so let's hope they are quick learners.

Wouldn't be against trying Manning in midfield - my only reservation being that he's another short arse.

Lots to agree with here. Perraud is a much better fullback than Manning who has been awful in every game so far. I'd give Bree a go on the right and play KWP left back with none of this inverted nonsense. If one gets forward down one wing then the other stays back and both concentrate more on defensive duties than attacking. We never address the lack of height and power in the side. Its an essential part of the make-up of any team yet we continue to field too many weaklings who are not up to the physicality of professional football. Cut out the tip-tap walking football from the back, beef up the midfiled (though we probably don't have the players for this), get two wide players hugging the touchlines and Stewart, when fit, through the middle. Ping balls down the flanks or channels with midfielders bursting forward in support. Much more movement off the ball and getting between the lines. We'll create more chances, score more goals and be much more solid at the back. Carry on the RM way and the only direction for us is down because we'll leak goals by the bucket load.

My apologies, I hadn't realised you were privy to what RM said to Charles after the first goal. Bazunu picking out runners with a few long balls can hardly be described as mixing it up -there are ten outfield players in the team.

Where did I say nobody outside of Man City tries it? The problem with RM is that he is for total possession football which his players cannot give him. Of course, all teams play for possession of the ball but you can't instruct your defenders not to ever go long to the flanks or channels which is where he is going wrong. Mix it up and make the possession football more purposeful. We have no shape or strategy and look a ragbag of a team that has no clue what it's doing. Let's see what the future brings - my guess is that RM's current style of play will be binned one way or another.

Anyone else find losing back to back games 5-0 and 1-4 entertaining?

I wonder if JW has sat RM down for a chat after the last two abysmal performances. I'd like to think he has because things need to be said.

It's nothing to boast about.

Yet some are saying we are great on the ball - I don't agree by the way.

How many goals had they conceded?

You have far more faith in his ability to adapt and change than many of us and we were warned by Swansea fans what to expect.

The only time you'd normally see a picture like this is if Leicester were the defending side 🙂

Go to any ground in the country and fans will react in the same way as we do when the ball is constantly being given away particularly in dangerous areas. You can't expect anything else because that is the norm and people like you who may be prepared to sit and applaud politely are a rare breed. Fans are passionate and, having paid a lot of their hard earned income to watch their team of very highly paid professionals they quite naturally become pissed off if said professionals on massive incomes perform like players who have barely been introduced to a football. Currently I tend to blame RM more than our players because his system is making them look bad. You can laud RM all you like for trying a brave new way of playing but I can tell you and him it has zero chance of working because that kind of effective possession based football is only possible if you have the best players in the world at your disposal. You cannot coach it - if you could teams like Man City would be ten a penny. There's a very simple reason very few managers, if any, outside the top of the Premier League try it and that reason is that it is impossible to implement. The sooner we get back to a more basic, simpler brand of football the sooner our players will perform to the best of their ability and not have the crowd constantly pressurising them - we have a decent squad but they are being asked to play in the wrong way. Now results are turning and teams see how easy we can be exploited it is only going to get worse. Time for management to bite the bullet and inform RM he has to change and see if he has anything else to offer other than possession football.

Think you are kidding yourself and have believed the hype - we are not very good on the ball.

His comments after the game were strange to say the least. He sounded like the pressure is already getting to him and most of what he said came across as garbled nonsense that I don't think even he believed.

I'm not convinced you can build a team to play out from the back. The best sides can do it but only because their players are so good. It's nigh on impossible to learn on the job because mistakes get made, sloppy goal are conceded, players confidence nose dives and the fans get restless. It's ok to play out when the option is on but it shouldn't be the default setting as there's nothing wrong with hitting long balls to the flanks and into the channels. RM will not last long if he does not learn to mix it up.

I'm guessing JW won't sleep easy tonight after back to back debacles.