Saint86

1.) Its great that he's come in and got 6 wins out 7. I don't think we really deserve all 6 wins, but he's got them - so great. And attacking wise, fair play, superb stuff - i really couldn't ask for any more there - he's putting our best players on the pitch, and got them playing some sensational flowing football at times. But game management/defence wise, there are some concerning signs that some of us would like to see improve - its unfortunate that this is seen as a bad thing by some. But, if we can do that, then I personally feel we have another level we can go to. I'm also not interested in talk of "missing out" with this squad, or excuses to that effect. Regardless of the bad start, we are easily in the best three matchday 11's and overall 25man squads in the league. There are 78points to play for and we're only 9 off 2nd despite a very below par start and with every team above us to still play at least once. So to be honest, if Eckert doesn't get us promoted he was the wrong hire, and it really is as simple as that for me - and the same would go for any manager appointment we could have made come the end of the season. In fairness to Eckert, he's basically said the same thing with regards to promotion. 2 & 3.) You're talking about results, but score lines hide performances - and again, i don't think we really deserve all of those 18 points based on the actual full 90min performances 🤷‍♂️. Ultimately this season won't be defined by a one of sample size of 7 games, it will be defined by the 31-34 he'll have as manager - we've played some fantastic attacking football, he's had a good start overall, but we've certainly had a bit of luck in that. I think we can get better and both dominate teams in an attacking sense whilst also looking comfortable and defensively solid (the part we aren't at the present), but to do it he does need to improve on game management and sort his defensive setup/tactics. Get that right and we've got the potential to comfortably be the best side in the league imo. He's a young manager and therefore can be expected to learn and develop. As it is though, we seem to have 2 distinct gears under Eckert, a frankly superb attacking setup that is capable of blowing teams away, and then this jekly/hyde transition into a pretty passive and weak defensive setup - one which I really don't like, and that sees us essentially cede 2/3 the pitch to the opposition and invites them back into games. It has already nearly cost us points vs: WBA - we did everything we could to scrape a draw from a 3 goal lead 🙃, Brum - who had every right to get a draw after twice being 2goals down, QPR - who frankly completely outplayed us for much of the game, And then ofc, we did drop points vs Millwall - where we lost despite leading twice, and which was entirely due to standing off them and dropping deeper and deeper, inviting them on to us, and allowing them to pepper our box with crosses and long shots. Needlessly. If we stay as we are, I still think we'll get play offs like as not, but its going to be pretty tense watching us invite teams to pepper our box with crosses and shots with these awful defensive setups - I can't say i relish the prospect of that in say a play off 2nd leg (or even at Wembley). I don't have an issue resting players - i have an issue with standing off the opposition and inviting them onto us. We are changing the players like for like, but completely changing the system into one that invites pressure. 4.) I don't agree that its patronising - Still's coaching setup left with him, Lallana is now with the u21, and Paul Trollope has also left. There seems to be a bit of a void there to fill with respect to senior coaching support. He's the youngest / least experienced manager ever at this level. The club would look to bring in experienced coaches and assistants to support any other manager, it can't just be deemed patronising because Eckert is 32 😄. And just look at managers like Jose, SAF, or Pep etc., who've had many prominent assistants over the years, not least the likes of Arteta and Maresca recently.

Tempted to agree, but also pretty sure the reason we're suffering for this is because we are sitting back 2nd half and allowing sides to push up on us, overload the wb/fbs, and ping crosses in at leisure. I feel more attacking options (to improve on fraser / aribo as a minimum) would allow us to maintain a threat going forward, and therefore alleviate a lot of the pressure on the defence - at least more than having a defender who can wind balls in the air and allowing teams to pressure us ever deeper (also, Quarshie should fit this bill regardless).

The interesting thing about capable strikers, is that they score goals...

I considered fellows at RWB, but actually we have Roerslev and Jelert who can play there when fit.

We need another left winger / attacking mid style player. Currently the cover for Azaz and Scienza just isn't good enough. Its bad enough at the moment when we take off Scienza and go into "camp our box" mode once the game is almost already won (only to almost throw it away - or indeed do as per Millwall)... but if we have to start games without some of our best attacking players we will struggle.

Overall i agree with your sentiment, but your being about as reactionary as the more negative posts. Also... Is it "as good as it gets", or can we indeed "get better"? MLG must be fuming at these two statements😄 I've said before on this thread to not be too reactionary to Tonda. He's a young manager, probably deserved the job till the end of the season if there is no one better, but he's yet to do enough to convince me he'll get us promoted. As for our performances, anyone who doesn't think we're Jekyl and hyde under him (depending on whether we're trying to defend a lead or attacking) is living in absolute cloud cuckoo land imo - are we all watching the same games?! Similarly, digging out other fans for being concerned about his 2nd half tactics is not helpful - especially since its an entirely valid concern... we lost at Millwall because of his defensive setup, we almost dropped a 3 goal leader yesterday because of it (and got lucky to get away with it frankly), and on another day Brum score with the pressure and that chances towards the end as well. He absolute has to get this sorted out - his current defensive setup isn't working and is already costing us points, and this will only get worse as teams adapt to us and players get tired/injured. I've long said that people need to not get carried away and get too reactionary. We hands down have one of the best squads in the league, and Tonda has quite possibly the best attacking quartet (in fellows, scienza, azaz, and AA) - and fair play to him for using them as well as he has. We are frightening when we attack.... Great stuff on that front, and full credit to him for it. But he has absolutely got to sort out his game management and tactics for when he wants to ease off, because this part of his gameplan is really really poor - i just can't relate to anyone who can watch these games and not see this. The way we drop deep in games we're previously dominating, to instead seek to keep possession with a back 5 in a narrow 3-4-2-1 formation is just complete game management suicide. Its like the very worst of Southgate for England. We're dominating and winning a game, and Tonda decides to tell them to stop committing men forward, stop taking risks, and to basically to try and sit deep, slow the tempo, keep meaningless possession, and to basically invite the other side to come and have a go at us... we go from dominating teams to inviting them onto us (for basically no valid reason). We also give up all width in this defensive shape - the wing backs become fairly static full backs, we have no midfield width because of the narrow formation, and so the opposition are able to overload the wings and get crosses in at will - and even a blind 95year old russian granny could watch us for 10min like this and realise we can't defend crosses for shit. The way he sets us up "to defend" is suicidal from a game management perspective - we are consciously choosing to go from being in a position of control, to inviting the other team to come and get back into the game. Needlessly. He needs to learn from this ASAP, get some coaches in around him to help him, or someone have a word in his ear, because continued 2nd halves like this will cost us promotion.

First one absolutely isn't his fault. He doesn't see it till late, so unless it was straight at him he's never reacting in time. Command of the box is a weakness for him - but i also do not understand why (at set peices) we don't protect him and allow the opposition to just stand on top of him and jostle him (get another body in there to deal with that player).... but no... we seemingly go, "we know baz struggles with this, lets let the opposition maximise that advantage".... Similarly, we play in such a way so as to invite crosses - and our defenders simply do not deal with them... we struggle to win defensive aerial challenges well, and even when we do, the clearances are often weak and don't clear the ball properly. He has his limitations, and he has his advantages... when we attack, we either use him to draw the opposition onto us by recycling the ball through him, or by using his distribution for a release. This pattern of play is what led to the first goal vs WBA and has been important to much of our most dangerous play under Ekert. This is why Macca was dropped - he just can't do this job. Baz also is a very effective sweeper keeper and comes out almost to centre circle on occasions. This is playing to his strengths. But then (second halves currently under Ekert) when we decide to stop attacking we drop deeper and deeper, invite pressure, invite balls into the box - which means we are directly playing to his weaknesses of having a poorer than average command of his area, and a slight weakness on some shot positions - particularly in crowded boxes where that extra split second reaction time of seeing a shot late etc makes a difference. But in those cases, its also down to our defence not doing the basics that exposes us/bazunu - i.e., not winning the first ball, not stopping the cross, not closing someone down... the Gray goal for brum the other night (which was a fantastic hit that you don't expect a champ keeper to save frankly), the two ranged hits for millwall (again, he isn't saving those)... Fact still remains, he is the best keeper at the club. He is also a young keeper that has had limited game time / injuries in recent years, and was thrown in the deep end too early into a terrible premier league season, and then suicide football under martin... But he will develop if coached properly, and there is a good keeper in there.

Living in a world where THB wins defensive headers are we? 😂🤣

You're on the match thread slating him for "not saving anything", yet completely ignore the fantastic 3 saves he made back to back that had the commentator waxing lyrical about him. His ball play at the back is tactically very important to how we draw teams on to us and led directly to the first goal where we broke away, and the first goal he is utterly unsighted for. The 2nd goal he could command the box better, but equally it's about 6 saints players Vs 2 west brom attackers, and once again a case of 3 cbs that cannot win headers. Ditto we seem unable to effectively stop crosses even with a 5 man back line. He has weaknesses for sure , but he is the best keeper at the club. And ultimately the PPG doesn't lie compared to macca.

A CB who wins headers would be a fantastic addition. But it doesn't resolve the glaring tactical issue. We try to defend games we're dominating, with a 5 man defence tasked with dropping deeper and keeping possession - I would imagine the entire forum can see it's terrible. We can't keep the ball, we have no outs, we get deeper and deeper, the full backs get overloaded and no one can stop the crosses, and our cbs can't win the headers - and baz ain't the best at commanding the air either. This tactical setup is untenable and someone needs to have strong words with him. But fundamentally, carrying more threat and more bodies up field, with more width in the middle 3rd, would resolve much of the threat. His 2nd tactic (the defence mode) is just appalling.

Yup, it's all on Ekert, he gets ahead and then decides to defend it. It's Southgate level stuff. I desperately hope he learns from this quickly.

Imagine this 2nd half crap being played at fratton park... 🤮🤮

Who does he have around him for support? Trollope has gone and lallana is with the u21s? (Not that they are by any means brilliant). Ekert deserves credit for getting the attackers playing so well, but then when he changes it to all out defence its appalling. Real jekyl and Hyde stuff.

Ominous. Don't think he's got it on recent games. He blows teams away with the best attacking players in the league, and then tactically morphs into Southgate likes he's actively setting us up to let the other team come and beat us. Needs to learn quickly. But I don't think he'll get us through the playoffs with these tactics.

Reckon they made a difference today! That was shocking.

Like, if he wants to sit and hold possession, he needs more bodies in midfield. 5 defenders ain't keeping possession anywhere other than our own 3rd. This is delusional.

2nd half we came out and were told to sit on this. And so we end up trying to keep possession whilst playing a formation that has 5 defenders and limited ability to retain possession up field. And so the other team can easily push up on to us and we get deeper and deeper. He's basically a German Southgate with hungry eyes and no waistcoat - is he getting away with it because we frankly have the arguably the best front 4 on the division? He has one style of play, which is the same as Southgate for England basically, and he has awful game management.

What's the fucking point if we let them cross at will and can't win headers....

This is shocking. Another cross there and no one even closing him down as he crosses FFS.

We aren't winning this.

We gave tonda this job to soon imo. We have a bunch of defenders that can't defend crosses - and sitting on leads is not an option. He has to learn this asap. This is entirely on him.

Tonda cannot keep playing like this FFS. It's utterly unnecessary. We already lost Vs Millwall because of this.

3 fantastic saves by baz there. Any chance of our defence actually defending?

Behave, he is utterly unsighted.

That goal is on tonda for me. Needlessly stopping attacking and inviting pressure once again. Just stupid that we do this every game.