Smirking_Saint

Dragan is more invested in SR than he is Saints, make no mistake about that He’ll want out of SR/Saints before he ditches Rasmus from what I believe

We want to go heavy and emulate CFG, that’s basically the model that SR want and as such it looks like we’re trying to bring in as much experience from that organisation as possible, undeniably I think it’ll end up/has ended up strengthening the links between us Agree… Semmens gets a lot of hero worship but he was, imo, part of why we as a club were all over the place in the summer, like I said before I believe; - He was charged in getting a striker over the line in the summer and failed - There was a lot of misalignment between SR and Semmens footballing vision and they clashed - He was instrumental in keeping RH and then appointing Selles I’m also not convinced he did a ‘fantastic’ job under Gao, it always felt to me like he basically managed our decline, we majorly got away with it that was imo, strongly because Ralph over achieved and there was a lot of dross in the prem He isn’t going anywhere but I think his ‘stepping back’ is going to an oversee role for building the overall footballing group, my understanding is he will still be sticking his nose in to ‘help’ wilcox etc though… but.. I do think he got his hands burnt over the winter window so hopefully won’t be as blaise about his ideas

Im also not the biggest admirer of Piroe, I’ve written about my worry that he isn’t clinical enough in the Russell Martin thread but you are doing him a bit of a disservice tbh in the way you’ve butchered the stats… he just simply isn’t 93rd in npXg in the championship (he is infact in the top 9%) he also has outperformed his xG the last two years FBref doesn’t compare against just the league they play in but against 8 other leagues, so its not the fairest of reflections… for instance Gyokeres has the same npXg as Piroe (0.40) snd I’d take him in a heartbeat. For balance though, the stats do suggest that Piroe isn’t super clinical, infact his conversion has him in the 71st percentile and he takes an average of 6 shots per goal, for reference Akpom is 3 and Gyokeres is 4.25 Edit - Shots per 90; Piroe - 2.38 gyokeres - 2.07 Akpom - 2.17 Not really a huge margin is it

Yeah well… like I suggested I think there are reasons for that tbh

Not yet, but he won’t be here next year, he wants out

Yeah I expect as much tbh… its really optimistic because both look every bit prem quality Hamer looks an absolute revelation, reminds me of a younger Kovacic, technically gifted and very combative, all round a very good player Gyokeres yeah, can see Broja. Tall, reasonably quick but he has great feet and looks clinical, sort of like a Tammy Abraham mould

Admittedly its from the prem, but Ive still not really seen a lot that fills me with confidence He’s been out of the Championship for 2 years ? And for 2 years its just not worked, I find it unlikely tbh that he’ll rekindle his form here now… generally when players are out of form for a long period of time they tend to need to find themselves a new club

If I had to choose him or Adams to play through the middle I’d pick Adams because even if neither are prolific Adams ability in other aspects of his game would/could be very useful to Martins set up I don’t personally see much of a way back for AA, he hasn’t shown me any indication of ability from what Ive seen, he’s lightweight, isn’t an intelligent runner, is not progressive on the ball… he is effectively a poacher and he’s failed at that.. and I appreciate Im being pretty scathing of him but I’d suggest if we are hanging our hat on him coming good we’re in trouble This is his underlying stats by the way… he’s just an awful footballer

Yeah I like Archer he looks very good, young too and is a reasonably well rounded forward My number one choice would be Gyokeres, to me it feels very much like a Lambert esque signing if we could pull that off He is ready made for a championship promotion run but I feel like he’ll pitch up in the prem next year either way… sticking to the Coventry theme I’d also try to nick Hamer too but I’d say he’s destined for bigger things

22/23 xG - 19.8 / Goals - 18 21/22 xG - 12 / Goals 22 That 21/22 stat looks a bit mental tbh as it’s suggesting that he basically scored twice the goals he was expected to When you dig a little deeper though he does look a little wasteful, he takes a lot of shots (in the top 10% of the division) of which you’d expect a striker too anyway, but his actual conversion rate only just puts him in the top 30% Playmaking wise he looks very poor, if we are talking about his pure stats, generally all key stats in that area have him sat at or below the top 50% in the division Of course… Ive not really watched him so its hard to get a FULL picture but certainly from what Ive read I do think we could do better than Piroe

He’s not been officially appointed yet but people are being branded a ‘Russell Martin Apologist’ Jesus wept give your head a firm wobble

Id be surprised at that tbh

Yeah sorry meant terrible 😂

100% agree I said at the time it was a terrible appointment because of the timing more than anything, it was a huge ask to come in and change what was surely an ingrained tactical understanding that our players had Ill try and dig out my posts from the time but Im sure my opinion was that we needed someone to tweak and steady NOT try to reinvent If we wanted to go with Jones, it should of happened in pre season

Yup or possibly even Leeds/Everton if they stay up, regardless thats 4 good potential opportunities We are still an attractive appointment but Rodgers/Potter are out of our reach No matter the waffle being said about Martin he has more league experience than the likes of Vieira or Gerrard or even a Jaissle or Gallardo Carrick/Corberan didn’t want to move Moyes would be attractive IF/WHEN he gets released but I wouldn’t want the club to wait and he just doesn’t fit the philosophies wanted right now So who else are we left with ? Mowbray ? Not for me Warnock ? Absolutely not I see people like to talk about risk but will happily look at Vieira etc that has zero championship experience and so, in my mind, carries as much risk as Martin

My belief was that he’s holding out for a prem opportunity

Personally think this is how it’ll play out

Disaster or not he’s tried his best and is well liked behind the scenes You are able to both acknowledge he’s been a woeful appointment and understand the club probably should have discussed the fact that we are replacing him.

You’ve written a lot of sensible stuff on this thread that I’ve enjoyed reading so thank you for that 👏🏻 The thing is, all tactics have a place, all have pro’s and con’s. And all of us have a preference, Whitey clearly has his and I understand his critique.. I remember watching Spain in Qatar and thinking “All of this possession is lovely, but where is the threat ?” The difference is Martin clearly wants to bakance the risk/reward ratio properly, it’s evidenced in his Swans being 4th in most of the attacking metrics in the Championship yet towards the botton of the goal scoring chances conceded… and I’ll probably get flamed by the Stats/Metrics nay sayers for saying that’s optimistic but football is currently built on analytics. Martin looks a good long term appointment for a football club looking to pivot away from a form of gagenpress. I’ll make no mistake in saying Im a fan of pressing tactics, I spent a lot of time reading about them. The issue is its not an easy system to coach to players that are not elite and it’s incredibly draining.. we fade towards the end of PL campaigns under it, so its only right to ditch it in a 44 game season. Martin isn’t the ‘name in lights’ manager that we want as a fanbase, but he is VERY highly regarded as an up and comer in football circles (as well as Carrick and Corberan). I think, given the right backing and a full pre season he could do very well for us and the more I read the more cautiously optimistic I am

Ahh yes.. Lee Hendrie, my go to guy when I need an opinion worth listening too

TBH I don’t think you’re far from the truth, I do think/optimistic that both Tino and Alcaraz stay perhaps Adams.. but yeah I can see the majority of the rest leaving. I think we’ll hold onto Bednarek, not sure about DCC. Ely is definitely gone, Perraud basically definitely gone I believe, Diallo is very probable. Lots of work to do tbh

Ive said before, they genuinely want us back in the prem, then they want us to push on… they got it very wrong last year, all ends up.. both on and off the field I do hope that they’ve learnt, but proof will be in the pudding, they need to back Martin effectively and get the bulk of the backroom appointments done ASAP

Yeah I tend to agree with this, in order to be able to be successful he’ll almost certainly need to be able to sign a couple of players that fit what he wants to achieve Thankfully the reports/whispers are that SR are willing to back us into a promotion push, lets just hope we can identify/sign the players we need IMO we definitely need a No.6 unless by some miracle Lavia remains, we need a LB because Perraud is off (Manning ?), Tella or a new RW and obviously whoever else we’ll potentially lose

Are you talking about the greatest manager Europe has ever seen 😍