Saint86

We can be pretty confident that article is rubbish tbh. They're not convinced by JM but were happy to see Jones hired, and dressing room moral improved? Ditto no one ever said they didn't like the tactics under Ralph, Marsch's are basically the same. Also, we're bottom of the league - the players aren't thinking about any "project" other than staying up and maintaining their wages... 😂

This. Rasmus has suffered one hell of a tough learning curve. Nowhere near as clever as he thought he was... Also, if they think Selles is the right man, they would have given him the job in November - there is no dressing up the abject failure they've made on the management front if they fail to get someone good in now.

That's a stretch. They failed to back and then fired a decent manager who would likely have kept us up, wasted the winter break hiring an awful manager on a long contract, kept said numpty for far too long (wasting valuable games), sacked him without a replacement in place, and are now currently failing to hire a replacement despite the club being rudderless and running rapidly out of time.... Far from acting properly, you have to surely ask WTF are they doing if they're wasting even more time now (which we don't have) talking to managers that they aren't happy to have in charge in the championship or who have no interest in a short term deal... IMO the timespan should be made clear at the outset, and they should really be talking to managers for next season - then if we stay up its a bonus... Seems likely something is amiss on one of those points since we've wasted 4 days on Marsch only for it to break down over contract length... talk about fiddling whilst Rome burns.

Interesting Selles was assistant under him at Copenhagen.

If we go down, we'll be one of the most attractive propositions outside the top flight. A lot of pessimistic bed wetting going on here imo - not sure how some of you think other championship clubs attract good managers? Or whether people are aware there are good manangers outside of the Premier league... Saints will be the very top of that market. 🤔 The only way that changes is if SR have pulled a superb cover up on the club's finances and their intentions re backing the club... For all we know, the club have another candidate lines up who isn't available until the summer 👀

Interesting video - some similarities with Ralph but some noticeable differences. My takeaway from watching Leeds this season was that they plated some great stuff but conceded incredibly simple goals.

I'll say this.... YouTube's subtitles needs some work... Or maybe they don't - In which case press conferences could get interesting.

Well for starters it's utterly irrelevant where a team's form ranks vs a bunch of random other teams given we only compete with 19 of them.....😆 Clearly any side that is struggling in their league would have poor form compared to a team sitting say mid table in league 1 or chasing promotion in the league 2... and similarly, there are less teams in the premier league so extremes of form will likely be amplified relative to a 24 team league. The only thing that actually mattered was our performance in the league this season - and the reality was that Ralph was doing an okay job with what he had - 3points of 12th when he was sacked, despite gelling a young squad with limited experience and having played the best sides... Seemed fairly reasonable given we had key injuries to critical players and no premier league level attackers to speak off - Indeed, the last 2 games where Ralph had a fully fit squad we beat Chelsea and outplayed United - And that was still with the likes of Che, Armstrong, Ely etc as attackers. Rumours are that Marsch is the candidate that Semmens/Ralph had earmarked to eventually replace him. If thats the case then hopefully he can deliver some of the more successful football that Ralph managed - free from the relationship/morale fatigue that eventually crept in over Ralph's time, and with a fully fit and stronger squad (notably including good attackers). I'd like to think that the fanbase's recent dose of humble pie (i.e. "can't do worse than Ralph"... meet Mad Nath) will be enough for the fans to settle down and support the new manager - we need to if we're going to have a chance of staying up. Something to actually look forward to - technically, we're basically one game away from Wembley in the FA cup... unless we somehow conspire to lose to Grimsby... which absolutely does not bear thinking about! And there are only going to be 3 tough teams in the quarters - City, United, and maybe Brighton. So there actually is a decent chance of an FA Cup Semi this year.

Trousers is taking no prisoners today...

Failed at Leeds is a bit harsh though isn't it. He had his best players sold and Bamford has been missing basically all season, other injuries as well. Reality is that he saved them last season, and he had them staying afloat this season despite the above... #Failed 🙄

I would love to see that "i believe that we will win chant" sung passionately by an American team's fans in a match in this country.... just to see what kind of response it gets from the home fans.

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 🤣