saintant

Sounds as though we've had a decent first half so here's hoping we can push on and secure a much needed victory. The first 20 minutes of the second half will be crucial. Think we might still need at least one more goal - stats show Ramsdale has made zero saves although I think they hit the post. We need all 3 points, nothing less.

I'm not sure even he thinks a bigger club is going to come in for him.

Just watched part 1 of the press conference. Near the end RM seemed to be intimating that those in charge are not too bothered about results and it's more about sticking with the process. He said something along the lines of the perception inside the building being totally different when Adam Blackmore asked about how the club stop the noises about his position being under threat. This is a worrying attitude from those running the club.

But not the worst football team ever to play at St Marys judging by our home games so far this season.

Last season RM did ok but nothing out of the ordinary considering the squad he had. True to form he presided over a team that let too many goals in. I've seen and heard nothing from him so far to convince me that he is capable of managing at a higher level than the Championship - one of the glaringly obvious reasons for this is that he continues to prove himself unable to set up a team that plays in a compact manner meaning we are still conceding far too many goals a lot of which stem from mistakes which are often a by-product of the set up and tactics he prefers. Conversely we create too few chances and don't score nearly enough goals because he remains hell bent on the tippy-tappy system of playing out from the back. Combine the two and it's a recipe for certain relegation and I get that we don't have a squad capable of above mid-table but he is not making the most of what he has largely due to being welded to a system that doesn't and will not work with the players at his disposal. A decent manager looks at what he's got and adapts to get the best out of them.

Ramsdale Sugawara THB Bednarek Taylor KWP Downes Dibling Lallana Fernandes Archer Tall Paul on the bench but give him 30 minutes and get some crosses in. Also SAA on the bench and give him 20 minutes to show what he can do running at a tiring defence.

Win, lose or draw I think RM will be here after the Leicester game.

I can't seeing Russ being sacked tomorrow. Forget some meaningless charity game, he'd surely have gone after the Arsenal game leaving the incoming manager with the best part of two weeks to get his feet under the table. Will be surprised if RM is not still in charge for the Leicester game.

Amen to this. Very much spot on in my book.

The problem with your argument is that we haven't seen these players put into a system that suits a newly promoted team. Until we do it is hard to judge them as they are continually being thrown under the bus by a manager who refuses to accept that his tactics do not work despite every football commentator and pundit plus many fans telling him week in and week out that it won't.

Option 3 depends on the fans putting up with him staying for the season and I don't believe the majority will.

There is a good article about RM and Saints posted on The Ugly Inside under the thread titled Inverted Full Backs and False Nines. It includes the statistic that, for goal kicks, we are the joint highest with Spurs of teams who play the ball within their own six yard box 84% of the time. It also states that our opening set of fixtures were the 4th easiest out of all teams.

Carsley will be available soon.

Greece proving that underdogs who are well drilled, well coached and set up in a good formation can upset the big boys. They broke quickly, passed horizontally, got between the lines and gave England a harsh lesson. Are you watching Russ?

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.