hypochondriac

What gives you that confidence?

So it's a case of shoot the messenger? What here has he said that is incorrect?

Yep that's the primary weakness of our manager. The best managers have a level of flexibility and utilise the tools they have. Not Martin.

"progress"

I don't much care if Adam and Martin tag team Pinder over the changing room massage table. If he performs well and gets us points then what he does outside of that is irrelevant.

I'm not sure you can make that judgement after three games when he hasn't played in a 4.

I'll be honest. I've never warmed to the bloke in the way I did with Adkins. I think there's more than an element of him being in it for himself and the actual club not being particularly important to his project. However I did say at the start of the season that he got us up and deserves to do things his way. I expect he's quite a proud bloke and he should be given the chance to show that he can adapt now and make the necessary changes as he did last year. Even if we lose to United we need a much improved performance with signs that we are moving in a different direction which at the moment is breaking the record low points total.

There was loads of times this week and last where we weren't punished for mistakes. Like you say if you make enough of them they catch up with you eventually.

Obvious troll is obvious.

You're deluded.

Shame we don't have any strikers with the ability to do that.

Really liked that write up apart from the last paragraph. That was a really gripey downer.

Not convinced me he's a premier league player yet. Very limited ability on display so far.

This is Martins first taste of the premier league and it shows to be honest. Unfortunately for him it's not the fans' first time. We have a solid history in this league and we know the managerial and player requirements to do well. If we are failing then it certainly isn't the fan's fault if they question the football or the methods. He should be given time to turn it around but he's not going to do that by railing against people questioning his methods. There needs to be some humility and acknowledgement of his own failings. He can call it tweaking if it makes him feel better but he needs to be more realistic with what is required in this league and our calibre of players. What's wrong with building towards the football he wants to play whilst having some level of pragmatism in the meantime until he's built a more solid base of player?

Bereton Diaz is essentially the Adam Armstrong for the opposite side. Both totally out of their depth at this level. Another awful season for Armstrong and I'm afraid it could destroy his confidence as it will prove once and for all that he can't perform at this level.

In what way is Martin suggesting that English football critics and pundits are simply not enlightened enough to appreciate his brand of losing football much different from some of the mad nate meltdowns from last year? I hate his smug belief that he is special and that others just can't see the value in his progressive style because they are uneducated.

Maybe ABK needs to take a shit on the pitch to get everyone back onside.

There isn't really any other reason for him not to be in the squad if it wasn't something like that.

Mad nate would bite his nose off and get disqualified. Full marks for aggression though.

Unless there's some actual tangible reason why he is being frozen out (like he threatened a team mate or something like that) then it's actually negligent not to make an attempt to sort things and utilise the best resources you have.

It was shit because it was our reserves and it involved a substandard keeper being terrible. It had little if anything to do with the formation.

As someone else said earlier which you ignored, we conceded one goal from a Lumley fuck up, one worldoe that was unstoppable and then another goal when we had switched to three at the back. So not quite the gotcha you think it is.

100%.

Or they just had that opinion from the start of the season and have an opinion that differs from yours? You really seem to get a bee in your bonnet about people that disagree with you.

Why would you start Fernandes over Smallbone in a meaningless cup game that no one cares about if you had an idea that he is superior to the alternatives in his position and could have done with him on Saturday? It's madness. He didn't have to wait for three defeats with one goal scored and very little in the way of goal threats in order to feel that it was acceptable to make changes. We've just effectively thrown three games in the bin in order to be nice to the players that got us up and so that Martin can feel that enough time has passed to make changes.