CanadaSaint

Same players, drastically different intensity and positivity. Trying hard to suppress anger that Martin wasn’t shown the door after Bournemouth.

Big moment, that - aside from being a cracking goal. It’s the kind of take responsibility, go at ‘em mindset that had no place in Russball. Now that mindset needs to spread.

It was always going to take time to de-program the daleks Martin created. If we’re going longer earlier it makes no sense to leave a target/holdup player on the bench. Surprised that Tall Paul isn’t on already.

I don’t want to overplay this, but opening the door and pushing Russ out actually creates a kind of transfer window by letting some fresh air in. There are some decent players in our bloated squad (not great but decent) who haven’t had a sniff under Martin because they aren’t the conformists he demands. There are others who have been in and out of the side, or asked to play unfamiliar roles, due to his constant chopping and changing. And most of the squad have been cowed into submission and have seen their self-confidence, performance and reputation plummet. They know they’re being required to do things they’re not capable of doing at this level, and “playing scared” has triggered some negative body language that has been apparent for weeks. All those players can ‘improve’ with Russ’s departure. Something else could make a big difference. I’ve long felt that Russ had a loyalist inside the dressing room who made sure that everyone toed his line. This suppressed the squad feedback that Russ desperately needed to hear. We’ve seen his reaction to anyone who dares to question his tactics, so I can understand why nobody “inside the room” would speak up. We won’t automatically become a mid-table side with all those negative dynamics removed, but I think we’ll start seeing much more positive energy from both players and supporters. It’ll hopefully be a good example of addition by subtraction.

The number of 12 million has been bandied about for cleaning house on the coaching side but I don't think anyone on here really knows. The fact that we just accept numbers of that magnitude as plausible - and the entire notion of lengthy “gardening leave” - is indicative of everything that’s wrong in the spoilt, cosseted, cloud-cuckoo world of the PL. In the real world, people aren’t free to produce dire results without consequences; there are termination provisions in contracts, and employment law to cover those without contracts. As I remember it, the law addresses “dismissal for cause” and “dismissal without cause”, and cause has to be proven: “M’Lud, I cite 5 points from 15 games, recurrent mistakes, criticism from almost all of the football world, widespread anger in the fan base, and open disrespect shown to paying customers – including, allegedly, an instruction to ‘fuck off’. I could go on, M'Lud.” But regardless of whether it’s for cause or without cause, the departing employee has a duty to mitigate his/her loss by actively seeking employment to replace at least some of the lost income. That doesn’t mean waiting for another job as a PL head coach – it means employment in his/her field. There’s no licence in the real world to sit on their ass and do nothing, or nurture the veggies in their allotment, while their contract runs down. It’s difficult to imagine that Martin’s contract is completely silent on this stuff – even accounting for the fact that we’re talking about the PL in general and Sports Republic in particular. Every employee is subject to reasonable supervision, and this – to me – is where SR have been utterly inept. Martin acts like, sounds like and looks like someone who only reports to his own ego. If SR really don't intend to fire him, they need to wake the fuck up and start telling him as pointedly as necessary what he needs to change. That's certainly not my preferred option but they need to either piss or get off the pot before it cracks wide open.

THB can say what he wants (or what he’s encouraged to say) but I see a demoralized side going through the Russell Martin motions. No fight, no desperation, just nothing.

It’s mental that we completely negate Fernandes’ vision and passing ability by compressing his space with our own short-passers.

It doesn’t help that we don’t have a solid left side CB on the books. Oh, wait … we do but he’s got an attitude issue that’s apparently a much bigger problem than a ball-watcher who gets two red cards in twelve games.

There are lots of “I hate playing for this prick” signs out there.

Warning: Lengthy vent inbound. I can’t believe I’m typing this when I’ve long felt little sympathy for spoilt, ludicrously-overpaid athletes who live cosseted lives and don’t face the day to day challenges most of us face. But I really sympathize with our guys because they’re like the crew of the Costa Concordia, as our version of Francesco Schettino takes them on his ego-triggered journey onto the rocks. Or, to use another metaphor, they are the cannon-fodder that “General Lead-From-Behind” sends out to meet their inevitable fate. The last words they hear from him are “Be brave, men, be brave”. Russell Martin says “brave” constantly but only focuses on the first word of the definition: courage in the face of danger. He arrogantly refuses to focus on the last word (the word that pretty much the entire football world keeps using), and is dismissive of what that last word means for the players. So what does it mean for the players? I have little doubt that, if the real truth were told, the vast majority hate playing for him. You can see the fear in their eyes, the panic as they try to find the “Russball” pass when all their football instincts are telling them to do something else. They know they are being transformed into football robots. They know that being robotic and sycophantic with the manager will get you in the team ahead of far more talented players. They know that not being sufficiently robotic will get them a one-way trip to the sidelines. They know that when they make the inevitable mistake, all eyes will be focused on them. And then their mistake will be replayed and replayed again, before making its way to YouTube for even more people to see. They know that their career trajectories are heading ever-lower with each game under Russ. Having played the position myself, I see Martin as a “keeper killer” because he forces his keepers to play in a way that compromises their positioning, and try to make Russball ‘contributions’ that A) are well out of their comfort zone and often beyond their capability, and B) damage their ability to actually be keepers. We can criticize Bazunu and McCarthy until we go blue in the face, but when we spend 25 million on a high-quality, ultra-confident keeper and can see the fear in his eyes two games into his stint with us, something is very, very wrong. Despite their huge pay checks it's very sad to watch, and I’m really starting to feel for them. Here’s another thing I can’t believe I’m typing, given our disastrous results so far. There are numerous very solid elements of Russball, and I’d be sorry to lose them. It can be great to watch until it hits the point at which it turns from great to suicidal. The problem is back to that definition of “brave”. Martin’s self-besotted arrogance only allows him to see the courage part, not the danger part. The bit where everything falls apart. Just as there’s a “trigger” for pressing tactics to kick in, there needs to be a trigger for Russball to end. But he just won’t accept it – won’t even pick fast, wide players who are targets for quick transition from Russball to penetrating offence. He says he wants fast transition but does nothing to make it happen, and sometimes even shows exasperation if someone tries it. I doubt that he took anything from Tall Paul’s excellent play on Sunday, other than the fear that it might derail Russball and make other talented but non-robotic players think that there’s a route from the doghouse to the starting lineup. I’d love to know what was said in his little chat with Dibling on Sunday – it didn’t look like they were on the same page but young Dibling seemed to be holding his ground. It’s becoming increasingly clear that Russ isn’t leaving, so we can only hope that he is somehow forced to face some realities. It won’t come from SR – that’s like being up shit creek with Rasmus for a paddle. The fan opinions don’t work with Russ or Rasmus because they’re the smartest guys in every room they enter. It needs a new dressing room leader (i.e. not Jack Stephens or Ross Manning – good guys but …) to have enough gonads to step forward, on behalf of what I suspect is a large majority of the squad, and have a frank conversation with the manager. It wouldn’t be a player “revolt” but a very pointed discussion. So who’s going to have a chat with our Francesco Schettino?

I’ve voted Yes even though it’s just a plaintive cry if the reality is that he CAN’T be moved on because the cost would cause us to breach the Profit and Sustainability Rules, because of the understandable lack of decent candidates willing to pick up the poisoned chalice we’ve become, or because (like many on here) they fear that we’re doomed regardless of whether he stays or goes. If that’s the case our only realistic option may be to hire someone with football knowledge and a powerful-enough personality to supervise him. There are pacy, wide players in the squad who can add the fast-break dimensions we need, but Martin refuses to play them. They may be short of PL standard but the important thing is that they offer us the early out-ball and the through-the channels target we need in order to break out of our self-created quicksand and get an earlier delivery into the box. AA contributed nothing out-wide yesterday, and playing BBD out there was ludicrous. I can’t imagine that Martin’s contract gives him unfettered control over team affairs regardless of his performance. He has to report to someone, and that “someone” is also doing a really shitty job right now.

Stunning save from Ramsdale after Stephens yet again demonstrates that he thinks that ballwatching is the key to effective marking.

Sadly, he’s a tactical eunuch who values possession far more than penetration. City’s goal today came when we had possession and control in their end but needlessly decided to play it back. We nearly conceded another in the second half when Fernandes - from the LB position FFS - tried to play a square pass across our own box. WTF is one of our most skilful and creative midfielders even doing there? City were vulnerable to a fast counter on many occasions today but it needed what Martin views as a mortal sin - an early out-ball to a wide area. His tactics are neutering some good players, and we will only start to see our true potential when he’s nowhere near the squad. The misplaced arrogance is astounding.

So infuriating when even skilled players like Fernandes have to become mere pawns in the Grand Master’s plan.

That came from us playing it back when we were in the offensive third.

They’d get their money back on Ramsdale, no problem, and Dibling is already worth a fortune. We’ve already shed some of the worst millstones of the relegation season. It doesn’t make much sense to me either, but it explains them just watching this shit happen. An owner’s idea of success is very different to a fan’s.

But we don't know what their business plan actually is, do we? It's increasingly looking like relegation might actually be PART of their business plan, as it did at times during the Summer window. Not that they were going to admit to it when they're wanting to maximize their season ticket sales. Appointing two dire managers, and then persisting with Martin months after all of football had him rumbled, gives the clear impression that they think being a yoyo club is a more sustainable business strategy than trying to compete up here. Seems crazy to me, but the longer this level of incompetence is permitted to exist, the more it starts to look intentional.

Sadly it's hard to see anything changing. No balls, no penetration. To me he's a tactical eunuch.

This is the part I don't understand. How can a group that targeted Jesse Marsch end up appointing Russell Martin? From what I've seen of Marsch's style he's very high on getting the ball forward ASAP with diagonal passes, runs "in behind", width and pace. It's exhilarating to watch, he gets total "buy-in" from the really talented and less talented players, and all of them improve. He scared the crap out of the South American teams, including the Argies, in Copa America. So why did Marsch turn us down, and how the hell did we end up hiring his polar opposite? I have a feeling that the explanations for both might just lead back to Rasmus and his fixation with player metrics.

Good managing is largely down to three things - selection, tactics and man management. His starting line-up tonight was a Frankenstein-esque gong show, his tactics were even exploited in the EFL and everyone bar him knew they'd be suicidal up here, and two PL quality players (KWP and ABK) have been left out in the cold for unknown reasons - probably questioning him. That's 3 fails right there, but he's not done. He deploys a carthorse as a wide attacker on the left, happily plays most games without a focal point in the box, persists with taking an eternity to get the ball forward, and now sticks it on the shoulders of an 18 year-old to dribble through the opposition as our main form of attack. Meanwhile, Bournemouth stuff us with the very tactics he despises. If anyone has the temerity to question him when things inevitably go pear-shaped, he throws one of his hyper-sensitive "smartest guy in the room" retorts. We won't find out how good our squad is until he's nowhere near it.

Martin’s a dead man walking. Done by a long ball from the keeper, and a one touch layoff. The very things that this utter fuckwit detests.

That lineup can only work if we get the ball forward much faster, so who knows what the hell the maestro has up his sleeve.

We are playing out from the back less, and playing it back into the back more. Russ likes to call it brave football but I think it's gutless football. We didn't surrender two points at the death, we surrendered them by refusing to even look for a forward ball countless times in the first ninety minutes.

But that's the point. Once it's hit anything can happen. You have to stop the shot. Defending the "D" is very basic stuff.

The "D" is one of the most dangerous places on the pitch, and we left it wide open. Unfrickingbelievable.