egg

There's no width in a diamond. The danger with that formation is that the deep midfielder drops in to make a back 3 and in reality the formation becomes a 352. There is no proper width if we play 2 up top unless we play a back 3 which we all seek to accept ain't working. For me the solution is a 433 with the wide man tucking in making a 2 up top when the ball is on the other wing. That way we can play 2 midfielders sitting deeper, and 1 getting forward, and the full backs having licence to get upfield knowing there's midfield cover.

We're not Liverpool. Where does our width come from if we play a back 4 and 2 up top?

Where does the width come from if we're playing a back 4?

Ha!! Harris pressed his buttons and he reacted with nonsense like that. She also hates the Arabs and Israel at the same time apparently. Bless.

Yep. JS isn't good enough, but he's been better than THB this season who looks like he's struggling to adapt to the PL. If you're picking on form alone, there's not much of a case for THB. If you're picking our best 2 CB's then there's no place for either, and although ABK is back training, I'm not sure RM will use him. Let's see. The full back positions are just as problematic imo. Suga is great, ditto KWP, but we look unbalanced with them both in the team. Taylor would give us better balance.

Cheers, hadn't heard of that one. My missus Vodafone deal is ending. Loves the network but hates the prices so that'll do nicely.

As above mate, take a look at smarty. You'll get the same speed as 3 cos it is 3, but much cheaper. As someone said, just get a 1 month sim and try it - nothing to lose and a few quid to save.

One cow a year should cover that. Bargain.

One of my kids runs a smarty (running on three) unlimited (truly unlimited) sim through an old phone which she basically uses as a router. It costs her £15 pcm and gives her a much better signal than the sky broadband she had, and is much cheaper. She has no complaints whatsoever.

While I respect your sentiment, I don't think it's reasonable that RM should need hindsight to see what what was obvious beforehand. Wide attackers and no CF was never going to work, static over passing in tight areas at the back was only going to end one way, a lack of progression through midfield means a lack of progression up the pitch, etc etc. Sure, he changed things during the game at Brentford, but you're not persuading me that it should have reached the stage where winnable points were lost before he saw the bleeding obvious. That said, I'm not calling for his head yet, but I don't see him making the radical changes to his approach that he needs to make to give is even half a chance this season. A few more games for me - if pride hasn't been swallowed in that time, and changes made accordingly, then I don't think he ever will.

What's with all this Lego head bollox? Seems unnecessarily personal whatever it is.

These are the important stats: 0-1 0-1 1-3 0 points.

Yep. Managers who are their employees mates are the worst managers.

What we're seeing was predictable before he arrived. Quite interesting looking back in the thread at people's views. We got away with it last year, just, but I can't see him turning this around as much as I want him to. The ability just isn't there, and the approach so flawed.

Whatever it is, the longer he's out, the more difficult it'll be for him to come back.

I put one poster on ignore so I didn't have to see all his posts, but I could dip into it if I wanted to (which would usually remind me why I was ignoring the bloke). I see the function as a filter against being faced with all of a persons posts, not the poster as such.

I thought he'd get a decent championship club to be honest, but playing for Vancouver in the MLS probably has more appeal (although for a lot less money you'd imagine) than a season or two at Stoke or Preston. Good luck to him.

It amuses me why people get so animated by the CoT. Just scroll by if you ain't interested, but tbh, I look at the site mostly to chuckle at people having a moan. Anyways, I'll post up a nice easy CoT style image to help get the thread back in track.

I'm satisfied that my opinion that RM is learning on the job, isn't doing terribly well, and that it's not ideal to have a trainee PL manager, is watertight.

I couldn't give a monkeys about other managers and other clubs. Our manager is out of his depth, is tactically naive, and our club is destined for relegation of something doesn't change sharpish.

You're essentially saying that it's ok for us to be managed this season by a trainee PL manager. This is the richest and best football league in the world with many of the best players and managers. It's no place for a manager to be learning his trade, and (hopefully) eventually seeing what everyone else could see ages ago.

Lucky

What you're describing are different tactics.

What I heard was during the season. Since then we've had promotion, and the new contract. I take from it was they had doubts and were willing to be fire the bullet. Why they gave him a new contract is anyone's guess, but if they had doubts last season, they surely have them now.

Agree with all of that. From what I heard last season, RM was lucky to go into this season as manager despite us going up. He doesn't have long imo. Archer has got something about him. Good touch, movement and finishing. He'll be good for us and is a very sound investment.