Saint86

Think/hope this may be overly pessimistic. It stopped working for Ralph because he largely had utter dross to work with up front for a prolonged period. He overachieved with what he had, but there is only so long a team can keep working like they were, and losing, without morale suffering significantly. The fans turning wouldn't have helped either lets be honest (rightly or wrongly). Marsch will have Sulemana, a fit Lavia, Alcaraz, Onuachu, a bedded in Edozie, KWP back, and hopefully ABK back. The main point being that he won't be reliant on AA, Ely, Adams, and Aribo for goals. Plus he'll hopefully be able to avoid relying on Diallo and AMN as central midfielders - freeing up JWP... May even get Stu back fit. Ralph's last games with a fully fit squad (which was weaker than the squad we have now), were the unlucky loss to united (who we outplayed), and the Chelsea win... Marsch plays a very similar style to Ralph, so if he can get us back to anywhere near that level he'll have a chance. He isn't as good as Ralph granted, but Ralph with a fit team and a class striker basically achieved a top 4 points over a calendar year... albeit that was before ings got injured / left, and before the injuries and progressive weakening of the squad was exposed. If Marsch comes in and hits the ground running (a big ask with no time to work with the players), there is a chance he keeps us up. Slim, but its there - he'll have to beat all our relegation rivals... The chelsea game is basically a warm up game for him at this point. Very unlikely to get anything there and the leeds game is the important one. Leeds away (25th Feb) Leicester home (4th march) West Ham away (1st April) Palace home (15th April) Bournemouth home (226th April) Forest Away (6th May) Some of those are a tough tough ask. Other possible wins are Fulham home (13th May), Brentford home (15th march), Tottenham home (18th March). Last 2 games of the season being Brighton away and Liverpool at home... highly likely both those sides are chasing european football. If we're lucky Liverpool's season will have petered out and they're on holiday. But i wouldn't want to rely on getting more than a point from those 2 games. Grim really.

Fair enough, he's a class signing tbh. They've done well there.

I haven't said i don't like Marsch, and I have posted my thoughts on potential managers... Just in the new managers thread, not the Jessie Marsch thread... Imagine that. 😘

For starters, there is an entire thread dedicated to discussing potential managers - which has lots of suggestions on who people would like.... Secondly, people discussing pro's and con's of JM isn't just "moaning" and they're fully entitled to do that without being required to provide a foolproof appointment as an alternative. Surely goes without saying that there is no foolproof/perfect appointment - we don't have infinite money and we're bottom of the league. But we've just had to endure 3months of Jones - and the start of that period was accompanied with fans being criticised on here for raising any concerns over him... i.e. "moaning" in your book. Yet they were right and the people that told them to shut up could not have been more wrong. Anyway, i don't want to argue about it since we largely agree on Marsch overall - if you read my post you'd see that i wasn't moaning, i was posting a link to a breakdown of his tactical style at Leeds - i don't think there is any real critisim in it and i also say that he is likely the best of the more likely names linked... I.e. what you've written above.... So if i'm "moaning" maybe you should stop "moaning" as well? 😘

Time to change your profile GIF already?

Yeah exactly. In some ways is it not a bit weird that he knew literally nothing about the kids personal life, family, settling in arrangements etc? Maybe thats just how it is at prem teams, but in my head i had imagined managers being involved enough in recruitment to know something about a player and their character and background etc.

Why, fans aren't experts and they're allowed to not like a given manager. That reads like an intro to the early defence of Jones by some fans when he was first appointed... i.e. where we had a set of fans determined to dump on anyone that was critical of Jones at the start - not something that needs to be repeated and hopefully not how you meant it to be taken. Also, there is another thread for discussing other/all managerial candidates so it would seem a bit silly to replicate that here? As for Jessie Marcsh, there is a limited breakdown of his time at Leeds (last season) here: https://themastermindsite.com/2022/05/23/jesse-marsch-leeds-united-tactical-analysis-2021-22/ TLDR: Played predominantly a 4-2-3-1 as others have previously said, switching into more of a 4-2-2-2, 4-4-2, 4-2-4 (depending on your preference) out of possession for the high press/recovery. Full/Wing backs push up to limit gaps and press wide men (perhaps not as much as Ralph), but so that it resembles a 2-4-4. (All very similar to Ralph - seeks to score goals by winning the ball back in a high press basically). Kalvin Philips shined for him in the middle when fit due to his ball winning ability in that system - (Similar to Romeu for us i'd wager). Used a 10 behind the main striker coming deep to dictate attacking play (likely JWP, maybe Stu). Not always the most aggressive team in possession apparently, sometimes quite patient in passing where more attacking direct play would have suited better. Favours wide wing play when attacking - wing backs and wingers getting at the full backs is a strong feature. Article is somewhat critical of Leeds defensive players, talks about a lack of cohesion and communication between the back 4. (Personally i would say that any four from KWP, Perruad, ABK, Salisu, DCC, Bree is better than what Leeds can field.) Apparently leeds suffered a lot from unforced errors (looks at Diallo and "Janny B") which cost them on various occasions. Marsch also likes to play the ball out from the back - which has seen them get caught out vs high energy attacking sides/presses. Meslier's distribution is poor, but he's a good shot stopper. States he suffered from key injuries in midfield so struggled to maintain regular partnerships. (similar to saints - we only have Alcaraz, JWP, and Lavia that i would want to see lining up in central midfield for us ideally). Hi front 4 at leeds was Dan James, Rodrigo, Raphinha, and Harrison. All geared to wards high energy and pressing. (We'd likely go with Edozie, JWP, Sulemana, and big Paul)... I'd personally favour that leeds attack over ours - certainly on current form). Says he likes to improvise and experiment a lot - sometimes well, sometimes poorly - but he did have a lot of injuries. He perhaps isn't the greatest appointment in the worlds for some fans, but he's probably the best of the more realistic names linked. Personally i would prefer a high press attacking style of football as per Ralph's best stuff, and it suits the players we have far better than this 5 at back direct stuff we've been playing.

Playing devils advocate - That has all the hallmarks of the Jones training video that the club's media team thought was a good idea to share. God willing, the players will be aggressive enough this time around. For the record, i'm not against Marsch - we could do an awful lot worse, he has had Leeds playing some pretty good football lately (but very unlucky), and he may well work out quite well for us. I am far from convinced he can come in and keep us up this year however.

Very well said. If we were ever to reach for Adkins again, it would be if we were bottom of the Championship or in League 1, with a rebuild on the cards. Absolutely love the man for the memories he gave us as fans, but he is not the man to somehow save us now, nor i think to reverse our trajectory immediately on arrival in the Championship.

Southgate is an appalling manager and someone i do no want to see even being linked with the Saints job. At the time, one of the main saving graces of sacking Ralph when we did was that we couldn't hire Southgate as a replacement... Somehow we managed to do the unthinkable and find someone who plays and even shitter version of 5 at the back than Southgate - i didn't even consider that was a possibility before jones.

Only natural to at least think exactly this in my opinion. I think its quite likely that he was either following instructions from training / Jones, or he had had enough of him by that point.

There is no way that was too close for JWP. Seriously odd that he didn't go for it.

Trying to get out of the country PDQ then... Probably realised he enjoys not being our mananger 🤣

God willing, Rasmus hears this.

Yeah, it was an informal term used for a few years by a few people trying to sort out the rules between what formally football and rugby. It was never formally adopted, I.e. it has always been football, the football association, the football league etc... There is just no way it should be called soccer over football.

Guaranteed 3 points for Chelsea... Or am I being overly pessimistic?

Seen this said a lot the past few months, like some kind of justification for the states' continuing to use soccer (it's weird that this is needed). However... When looking into the history of football and the English football league in particular. "The first meeting was held at Anderton's Hotel in London on 23 March 1888 on the eve of the FA Cup Final. The Football League was formally created and named in Manchester at a further meeting on 17 April at the Royal Hotel. The name "Association Football Union" was proposed by McGregor but this was felt too close to "Rugby Football Union". Instead, "The Football League" was proposed by Major William Sudell, representing Preston, and quickly agreed upon." And does the rest of the world use soccer? Or basically just the USA?

Ralph was a good appointment for us. A manager with a distinct and stand out style and a good reputation in Europe. Some of the stuff he had us playing was superb, but he was let down by years of under investment in an ever weakening team relative to the league. We need to be going out and getting another exciting and promising manager (like galardo). Marsch is absolutely not that man, although he'd be a massive improvement over Jones - but can you imagine if we get Leeds' unwanted mananger and they go and get gallardo (as is rumoured).

Rasmus is a car crash, lurching from one disaster to the next. Constant changes, no plan, no serious footballing thinking. Marsch isn't the worst, but he's not keeping us up and he has nothing that will get the fans onboard or excited. Offers nothing that is required for the role right now, and if that's what we're looking for / the best rasmus can manage then we should just wait and make a seriously well thought through appointment. Just screams of no plan and no ambition.

Have to say, I would love this guy.

If Rasmus is involved, then the reality is that whoever we're getting now will be one of the backup choices to Nathan Jones... Let that sink in. After the Jones fiasco (and the obvious Semmens / Rasmus divide at the fans forum), we all better hope Semmens has been able to wrestle back enough decision making power to be allowed to use whatever is left of our recruitment department to find the next hassenhuttle instead of a Rasmus pick...

Jones has had 60M spent this month, had a pre season with nothing to show for it, has worsened performances by any metric, has caused serious disharmony in the squad, has fully alienated the entire fanbase, and has turned the club into a laughing stock. The only person at the club who is more incompetant is Rasmus.

You've met our fans right? 🤣😂

Looks like he's a hipster bell end that thinks he's personally responsible for brentford's rise (reality did very little)... Fitting that he'd be absent whilst Rome burns? One of those cocky fuckers that gets too the top off of other people's hard work until they eventually get found out... Which is happening now, unfortunately for us.