saintant

Could you send this to Dragan. You've made a compelling case for him to get rid of all the snake oil salesmen at SR who are continuing to waste millions of his hard earned.

Yeah, trouble is, 95% of the time they look ridiculous - if only it was the other way round 🙂

Agree with much of this. Through no fault of his own it is apparent that RM does not possess the tools and ability to manage above the Championship. He is unable to set up a team to be solid defensively and this means scoring lots of goals to compensate which is not going to happen in the Premier League. Credit is due for getting us promoted but we need someone else to take us to the next level and sooner rather than later.

Unfortunately for us they know exactly how to beat us as they proved last season. They will press us hard and flood men forward knowing that 1) they are likely to win the ball near our goal and 2) if we do beat their press we'll take so long to get the ball forward they'll have ample time to get back into shape. They hammered us twice last season by doing exactly this and Rm learned nothing from the first game at St Marys.

I see few spoilt kids on here. What I do see is differences of opinion and there is nothing wrong with that unless you happen to be one of those who call those with opposite views to your own, spoilt kids. Some think RM is doing a good job and are happy for him to continue whereas others would prefer to see a change of manager. Both viewpoints have their merits and time will tell which group was on the money.

Agree but Russ can hardly be compared to Kompany and no huge club is going to be monitoring him just because he has a philosophy that involves trying to play possession football. Anyone can say their mantra is to play possession football but it's much easier said than done as RM is finding out. I still think he's flogging snake oil to anyone who'll buy,

So his style of play is not slow, backwards and sideways and pass the ball until its surface is worn off then?

Presumably you don't exonerate yourself from being one of the 'I told you so's' seeing as your post contains a number of predictions which, if they come true, will give you the same opportunity as others to say 'I told you so.' Or does it only apply to those with different opinions to your own?

Well let's all bow down to the superior football knowledge of Rasmus who has on his CV the appointment of the one and only Nathan fucking Jones. If he says we should stick with Russ who are we mere mortals to question one of such wisdom and insight - he can make a huge pile of bullshit materialise from thin air, that's how brilliant he is.

He will go at some stage and the only question is, how long will SR leave it? The more games they allow him to continue with his vanity project which will not work the less games a new man will have to extract us from trouble.

Russball has us playing mainly horizontally which would be perfect if the goals were on the sides of the pitch. Obviously they are not which is why the better teams play mainly vertically as Bmuff did against us and Brighton and Spurs showed yesterday. Until he changes from horizontal to vertical we will continue to hamper our ability to make fast and effective progress upfield towards the opponents goal and we will continue to play meaningless football from side to side and back.

Give your head a wobble - it's a great game of football between two very good teams.

We'll do it plenty of times this season so don't worry.

Two sides going hammer and tong and getting the ball forward as fast as they can - it'll never replace Russ bore ball.

Brighton are a very good watch 🙂

Spurs are a very good watch. We can only dream of playing this type of football.

It's a no brainer but our Russ is convinced he can buck the trend but continues to prove himself wrong.

Save percentages on their own tells you nothing really does it? Two keepers could have identical save percentages of 65% but keeper a) might have made far more brilliant saves than keeper b) among the 65%.

It's a kind of Hobson's choice but you are offering but, if pushed, I'd have to opt for Rasmus choosing a new manager because I think there is a slim chance he'll finally get the decision right whereas I 100% believe that RM is not a Premier League level manager and needs to be gone immediately to offer us some slight chance of avoiding relegation or at least giving us the opportunity to accumulate a decent points tally.

Well, we can all have our own wish list and mine is to ditch the pair of them.

How about a third option - we get rid of both of them.

If bullshit was gold Rasmus would be one of the richest men in the world.

Unless RM has learned from our two games against Leicester last season this can only go one way. My worry is that they pressed us to death at St Marys and beat us comfortably but he set us up to play exactly the same way in the second game and, unsurprisingly, we were soundly thumped again.

Now is the ideal time to get rid as it gives a new manager the international break to get his feet under the table and prepare for the crucial Leicester match. My instinct tells me SR will stick with Russball.

I think this is harsh on Downes who is clearly being overloaded and needs some help. I will keep banging on that he needs to be played as one of a two man pivot in a 4-2-3-1 formation so that he can form a partnership that will provide more defensive stability. The poor guy must feel completely overwhelmed in games at the moment because RM is providing him with zero help and he is being asked to do far too much of the work load. Small wonder that mistakes are creeping into his games as with every other player being hung out to dry in this vanity project.