Smirking_Saint

Has he made the mistake of picking the wrong consortium? We don’t really know what the alternatives were… SR aren’t that bad, I think they’re aligning things were we need to be behind the scenes tbh and putting money where it needs to be I’m not convinced Semmens is that fantastic at his job really, it’s basically all centered around Ralphs good work keeping us up.. thats largely it, that and soundbites… worth noting apparently he was the reason we failed to get a striker over the line in the summer Im also not entirely sure Rasmus is the devil incarnate either, outside of the obvious fuck up in Jones

Its a fair take and a definite possibility yeah, I imagine he’s been redied for Championship football but honestly who knows anymore

Yeah he’s basically an unknown entity at this point outside of having a reasonably good profile from a pure coaching respect inside the game Coaching and managing are an entirely different kettle of fish though and a great many fantastic coaches have struggled to manage and actually visa versa My point really is what impact he had under Ralph/Jones because surely its easy to disregard a coach/voice that you havn’t brought in personally

Selles always felt a bit of a weird appointment, Im sure he is a fantastic coach and ‘hopefully’ he can carry us atleast competetively until the end of the season However It just never felt like a good fit, I understand why they’d want to offer Ralph someone to challenge him, however if Ralphs issue was that his stubbornness, then why would he listen to Selles ? Equally with Jones, the club has effectively said, work with this guy, even though he had his own coaches Naturally a manager is going to resist outside influences, especially one’s appointed by the club It just always felt to me as an awkward and forced dynamic

Agree tbh, outside of Jones its not been that bad but the sheer catastrophe that WAS Jones has damaged things so much. Ralph had to go, I was told pre season that the idea was to give him until the WC break and then back a new manager if required. So that decision, although hindsight says we should of reset in the summer, probably wasn’t ‘that’ bad of a decision to give him time. The issue is around what metrics Jones was signed, because there are very little positives, if any, that came out of his appointment.. tactically he didn’t fit, egotistically he was a problem abd his coaching was sub par… you ‘could’ argue he had the 6 week WC break to embed new tactics so a mid season tactical change shouldn’t have been as huge a problem as it was BUT he utterly failed to use that time effectively

I believe Semmens led far more on the transfer side of things in the summer, atleast as far as negotiations are concerned however actual target acquisition is more of a group discussion. Ankerson took over in January, it ‘should’ of been Shields but obviously that was another clusterfuck of a situation Ankerson is effectively leading now as the DoF until Wilcox takes over in the summer, I think generally its s situation within which SR have attempted to make the necessary changes from a footballing perspective and we’re paying the price for the raft of changes happening now I think Ankerson is probably a half decent DoF, but the Jones debarcle was absolutely awful and shows how metrics really aren’t the be all and end all As far as Dragan and Rasmus/Kraft is concerned, Ive said it before and Ill say it again, I think Dragan is more invested in SR and so Rasmus/Kraft then he necessarily is in Saints so, its more likely they all walk rather than Ankerson/Kraft being sacked. I desperately just want the season tk end now tbh, however it ends. Get Wilcox appointed properly, have a reset and assessment and go from there

Its… to put it mildly… fucking embarrassing

Having seen his conferences im not sure it would of been a short conversation, even if Leeds didn’t have much to say

You ok Alpine ? I mean DT

Agree, we almost certainly have the personnel and depth for the redbull 4222/4231 Ragnick approach now, my only concern is Onuachu as he’d almost certainly need to initiate a press to a certain degree Even Orsic/Sulemana are effectively IF rather than traditional wingers

I think ‘fitness’ levels at top level are greatly exaggerated, top level sportsmen are likely to find their base level + a bit extra reasonably quickly especially as they’re effectively consistently doing some form of stamina based work.. I think a lot of the time is application and perhaps burn out We have a bigger squad now AND 5 subs available so I think we’re in a better spot then we were halfway through Ralphs tenure when it sort of fell apart imo

Just as well we didn’t sign any traditional wingers then

You’re absolutely spot on except for the fact that analytics and metrics is a HUGE approach to how Bielsa sets up and coaches and he has always been a huge advocate for analytics in football and coaching in particular, he’s also pretty egotistical, you only have to remember the whole spygate saga So obviously apart from being completely wrong in your attempt to side swipe SR its a cracking post 👍🏻

Rightly fucking so Up the baldness

Well said 👏🏻 and echos my thoughts completely

Im not ignoring anything, whatever you thought about Ralph we can’t have a manager that lost the dressing room

Exactly this There’s an argument that if he had a fit Lavia, Sulemana and Onuachu in the Summer we would be ok and he’d still be here, its definitely a theory that I believe Ultimately though, by the end he had to go, we’d lost any direction and cohesion under him and the players were tired mentally and physically

Probably not, mainly due to the rumours of dressing room unrest though tbh

Pretty much, though I don’t think Marsch is ‘as’ bad as many believe, it didn’t really work at Leeds but I do think there’s a decent manager there schooled at the feet of Ragnick like Ralph H.. my only concern is of all of RRs deciples Marsch is arguably the least polished and least tactically proficient

I nearly put Will Still actually, plays a sort of off shoot of a high energy/high press at Reims but in a less rigid 4231 as opposed to RBs gagenpress style 4222 A UEFA PRO licence is required in the prem though Im not sure if its fully mandatory or its a fine system like in Ligue 1

Bruno Lage or Nuno I think could/should be solid options that fit and have prem experience Poch obviously but we have no chance Bielsa BUT I don’t think he’ll have a quick enough impact to save us Gallardo Im not convinced about, another with tactics that just don’t fit the current set up at the club and there must be a reason why he hasn’t taken a role in Europe yet Marsch… bottom of the list but like I explained previously I think the fit is largely a good one Gerrard is a heavy no from me, is a relatively big name from his playing days but I don’t see a particularly impressive manager there Carrick is far too early in his managerial career but its an interesting name and I think is/will be a good manager

It wasn’t with Puel

I wouldn’t actually be completely against Marsch, plays football the right way and is versed with how the club is effectively set up tactically My main grip, well, one of many MANY gripes tbh, with Jones was he was in effect completely opposed to how the club had been structured for effectively the last god knows how many years, we needed somebody new that could tweak and compliment the systems, not completely attempt to re work them He’d almost certainly go back to a 4222 counter press imo, or perhaps a 4231 although I think he’d favour the former and from what little I saw of Paul and Sulemana yesterday Id like to see them more as a pair through the middle I suppose it depends on who is available and who actually wants to come here, Poch would be a no brainer.. Gallardo would be high on my list but Id genuinely worry about his transition into PL management… Im not at all convinced by Gerrard Bielsa would be interesting, but I think we’d go down with him, Im not convinced he’d be able to set his enigmatic style on the club within the time constraints we have

Our midfield is good enough to provide protection, Lavia and any two of JWP, Diallo or Alcaraz is enough especially if you play two CBs that can read the game and organise effectively.. defend from the front again in the form of atleast a semi organised press and we’ll be more than ok to atleast battle relegation Jones’ tactics were suicidal, I don’t care how many CBs you put infront of the GK if you sit back and concede possession meekly in our own half you’re asking to let goals in

Fuck me… ive not got the energy to talk saints tonight, just popped in to ask that Unbelievable 😂