Tonda Eckert

[tdmickey3]

The choice of experience he needs to have to help is not my job but anyone, miserable or not can see it's what is needed. 

We will see how happy you are when it goes tits up and it will if we continue with this shambolic game management 

[JohnnyShearer2.0]

2 minutes ago, washsaint said:

Like who?  Whose this mythical experienced manager who would have us winning every game and keeping clean sheets every game.

Yes we were terrible second half: unfortunately(?) we go 3 0 u[ and take the foot off the gas completely and become almost complacent.

However, being 3 0  up and winning and seeing 4 back to back wins at home and scoring for fun.  I'd take that any day of the week unlike many of you miserable keywboard warriors.

Um, not sure who you're arguing with. I'm pretty sure most people here want Saints to win too.

However people are rightly concerned that there is a big drop off in the second half.

Why not kill the game off and make the other team think twice about going at Saints?

[washsaint]

1 minute ago, tdmickey3 said:

The choice of experience he needs to have to help is not my job but anyone, miserable or not can see it's what is needed. 

We will see how happy you are when it goes tits up and it will if we continue with this shambolic game management 

Live for the moment - you can't worry about what may or may not happen in the future

[S-Clarke]

I think the players need to take their share here - they were 3-0 up, they shouldn't need a manager babysitting them on the touchline. They pissed the game through their passiveness.

I sensed it from around 55 mins - the subs were too late, but then we don't have RB's at the moment which makes it tricky. Fraser at RWB when we were against it was a poor move - should have been Edwards really.

I hope he gets some experience around him, because the Championship is not forgiving. Some moments require experience and having seen it before.

Edited 15 hours ago by S-Clarke

[JohnnyShearer2.0]

Just now, S-Clarke said:

I think the players need to take their share here - they were 3-0 up, they shouldn't need a manager babysitting them on the touchline. They pissed the game through their passiveness.

I sensed it from around 55 mins - the subs were too late, but then we don't have RB's at the moment which makes it tricky. Fraser at RWB when we were against it was a poor move - should have been Edwards really.

I hope he gets some experience around him, because the Championship is not forgiving. Some moments require experience and having seen it before.

Yep agreed.

Would be good to see if he uses other formations too or not.

[Willo of Whiteley]

His in-game management is pretty horrific.

Our tactics are very predictable. He’ll be found out before too long.

Edited 14 hours ago by Willo of Whiteley

[Ex Lion Tamer]

You have to believe that a 32 year old manager in his first major job might be able to learn and improve their in game management

[West end Saints]

On 07/12/2025 at 16:04, West end Saints said:

Came in when we had 0 confidence and struggling.

Performing, factually (points /GD) as one of worst teams in the league.

Has been manager for 6 games.

For those 6 games we have been the best team in the championship - literally top of the 6 game current form table.

We have gone from a point below skates, 10 points below Bristol in 5th, 13 points below Middlesbrough in 2nd 

To

To 10 points clear of skates, to 2 points below Bristol to 9 points Middlesbrough.

I would say unlikely any manager would have done better.

 

Since he came in

Saints 18 pts +12GD

Coventry 16 PTS + 5 gd

Middlesbrough 14 PTS +4 gd

Ipswich 12 PTS +7 gd

Skates 4 PTS -4 gd

Several of the recent posts are unbelievable!

 

 

[Charlie Wayman]

The only thing that matters is that we picked up 3 more points tonight. The ends justifies the means.

Eckert is on a steep learning curve and making a good fist of it. Of course we are not world beaters yet but given the dubious quality of the squad he inherited the guy is working miracles.

[Hayling Saint]

3 minutes ago, West end Saints said:

Since he came in

Saints 18 pts +12GD

Coventry 16 PTS + 5 gd

Middlesbrough 14 PTS +4 gd

Ipswich 12 PTS +7 gd

Skates 4 PTS -4 gd

Several of the recent posts are unbelievable!

 

 

Totally agree with this

 

[moorw003]

I'm pretty disgusted we are playing brilliantly, by far the form team, and we're discussing how bad he is? For real. Tonda is a breathe of fresh air and I'm delighted we appointed him. 

[Willo of Whiteley]

26 minutes ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

His in-game management is pretty horrific.

Our tactics are very predictable. He’ll be found out before too long.

I’d like to be a fly on the wall to understand how we can have game after game of amazing first half and monumental drop off in the second.

Is that not a fair point? 🤷🏻‍♂️

I’m not saying he’s crap, I’ve not even said he’s crap. But as fans we can see that certain players aren’t performing or that as the game peters out you have to tweak tactics, and it just stays the same.

An example is bringing on Joe Aribo who has been dogshit every time he has played, that is poor in-game management. It’s basic stuff. 😂

[saintant]

Tonda has done an amazing job to get 6 wins out of 7 games. He deserves massive praise. However, I hope he can somehow improve the game management side of things. The second half today after leading 3-0 was extremely poor. Nobody expects us to dominate every game for 90 minutes but hard work is going to have to be done on the training ground to make winning from good positions far less stressful. He comes across as an intelligent coach so let's see what he comes up with.

[Bob60]

Don't think we can forget the players missing, add in the two right backs, Charles and Stewart and the bench options look a lot lot better.

[skintsaint]

Some turnaround, I'm not entirely convinced by Eckert, but the points don't lie.

[JohnnyShearer2.0]

7 hours ago, West end Saints said:

Since he came in

Saints 18 pts +12GD

Coventry 16 PTS + 5 gd

Middlesbrough 14 PTS +4 gd

Ipswich 12 PTS +7 gd

Skates 4 PTS -4 gd

Several of the recent posts are unbelievable!

 

 

Yep, great viewing.

I like what he said the other day about the priority is winning first and getting the result. Then comes togetherness and then good football (I think there was more).

Therefore I'm pretty certain he's working on a way to get the balance on the attacking front and defensive side.

It's a fantastic start and hopefully it'll continue!

[Oisin]

I probably shouldn’t be surprised but some of the comments on here are remarkably negative and unfair. Words like “horrific” and “shambolic”.

Seriously, what are people expecting? Yes, the second half performances need to improve. But there’s such a thing as context. He’s 32, he’s come into a squad of mentally fragile players, low on confidence, with no real leader on the pitch, no strong leader at the back, a (choose your own adjective) keeper, no right back, no number 9 and no transfer window to change the squad … and returned 6 wins out of 7, 21 goals, some hugely entertaining, exciting and attacking football (best I’ve seen in about a decade) and 4 of the last 5 games have essentially been won within 40 minutes. 
The first half performances are 11 out of 10. And in the context he’s doing an outstanding job.

Can he do some things better? Yes. Do I think some of his subs could be better? Yes. Are we overly reliant on Scienza and in need of a formula to play effectively without him? Yes. Do I think a 32 year old has the capacity (and is indeed likely) to learn to get better in these areas? Yes. Are words like “shambolic” and “horrific” reasonable and fair in any way? No.

Could any of us reasonably expect any better so far? No. 

Some of you need to get a grip on reality and a sense of perspective. This is as good as it gets - if you want better, it ain’t ever gonna happen so go find another hobby or die miserable.

Edited 5 hours ago by Oisin
Wrong phrase on subs

[AlexLaw76]

1 minute ago, Oisin said:

 

Some of you need to get a grip on reality and a sense of perspective. This is as good as it gets - if you want better, it ain’t ever gonna happen so go find another hobby or die miserable.

This is as good as it gets!!!

 

what the hell are you in about?

[sockeye]

Not saying he’s shit, just saying that his flaws will allow the better teams to compete with us and may well could cost us promotion

Weve collected a lot of points and upped the gd massively but he failed his first real test in millwall

[Fabrice29]

4 minutes ago, sockeye said:

Not saying he’s shit, just saying that his flaws will allow the better teams to compete with us and may well could cost us promotion

Weve collected a lot of points and upped the gd massively but he failed his first real test in millwall

First real test was conveniently the one he lost. These mysterious better teams around the corner. Cost us the promotion we’re getting closer to every week. 

[sockeye]

1 minute ago, Fabrice29 said:

First real test was conveniently the one he lost. These mysterious better teams around the corner. Cost us the promotion we’re getting closer to every week. 

You don’t think Coventry, Boro are better teams?

[Fabrice29]

5 minutes ago, sockeye said:

You don’t think Coventry, Boro are better teams?

Yea, so all results before them shall be discounted. Except for Millwall.

[badgerx16]

Anybody who thinks we were in control of the game in the second half is deluded. From 3-0 up at half time to being very lucky to have not drawn, or even lost, with no defensive shape or leadership on the pitch, shows Tonda's lack of experence, and a worrying lack of cojones from the players.

Our second half performances under Tonda.......

QPR 2:1

Sh Wed 1:0

Charl 0:0

Leics 0:0

Millwall 2:3

Brum 1:1

WBA 0:2

Yes, we had dominated many of the first halves, but we totally switch into passive mode after the break. Last night it was a bloody good thing we had scored 3 in the first 45.

Edited 53 minutes ago by badgerx16

[hypochondriac]

34 minutes ago, sockeye said:

Not saying he’s shit, just saying that his flaws will allow the better teams to compete with us and may well could cost us promotion

Weve collected a lot of points and upped the gd massively but he failed his first real test in millwall

We've won 6 games out of 7 mate. By any metric that's incredible. Yeah there are things to work on but I think his results have earnt a bit of trust.

[badgerx16]

( Duplicate )

Edited 4 hours ago by badgerx16

[hypochondriac]

I'd try and sign a defender in January and maybe a better alternative to Scienza and Fellows if we can shift Edozie and Aribo.

[Osvaldorama]

Can’t believe some of the negativity on here

Fucking hell 😂. The guy could not have done any more so far. 
 

We’ve gone from looking like relegation candidates to playing great football. 

 

[kitch]

34 minutes ago, Osvaldorama said:

Can’t believe some of the negativity on here

Fucking hell 😂. The guy could not have done any more so far. 
 

We’ve gone from looking like relegation candidates to playing great football. 

 

This. Build a statue of the guy as far as I'm concerned, he's pulled off a miracle!

[beatlesaint]

It is on the players I think. Ok he may send them out to be more cautious and to conserve some energy in these 3 game weeks but bloody hell they are the ones who shrink into their shells and go back to playing all theur football in our defensive third. I cant believe Tonda is asking them to invite pressure on themselves.

I think the injuries at present aren't helping with these changes. If you want to take off Fellows for instance and shore up a flank there currently is no recognised right back available. It will be interesting to see when the injuries clear up if we are able to close out games better. Ok he isnt helping himself bringing on Fraser and Aribo but lets remember that early season Wee-man and Robinson were our best players.

You have to give him chance to learn, lets not beat him around the head with this no experience guff everytime we dont put in a perfect performance. We have won 7 out of 8 and probably wouldn't have lost the other if Leo hadn't been ill. Thats fantastic given where and what we were ! Even the greatest managers in history were young and had to learn as they went along ya know !

[Dusic]

45 minutes ago, Osvaldorama said:

Can’t believe some of the negativity on here

Fucking hell 😂. The guy could not have done any more so far. 
 

We’ve gone from looking like relegation candidates to playing great football. 

 

I think there is probably an element with some that they were adamant that we needed this mysterious, hewhocannotbenamed experienced Championship manager which is just cliched bollocks and now they will pick holes in anything to show that they were a teeny, tiny bit right.

#gamemanagement #wankerson

[influx]

Some people just love moaning.  The sort of people you would hate to work with.  Bring you down the minute you speak to them.   

[Osvaldorama]

1 hour ago, Dusic said:

I think there is probably an element with some that they were adamant that we needed this mysterious, hewhocannotbenamed experienced Championship manager which is just cliched bollocks and now they will pick holes in anything to show that they were a teeny, tiny bit right.

#gamemanagement #wankerson

Honestly, I understand people being scared of a lack of experience. 
 

But fuck me, we could have appointed Klopp or Pep and got worse results.
You can only judge people on what they achieve and so far he’s absolutely smashing it. 

[ally_uk]

What the fuck was Will Still doing? 😆 

Was he generally shit or did the players not like him and downed tools ? 

 

[M271]

4 minutes ago, ally_uk said:

What the fuck was Will Still doing? 😆 

Was he generally shit or did the players not like him and downed tools ? 

 

I would like someone who has been in the squad for the past 5 years to write an Autobiography about the going ons behind the scenes with the great churn of managers and players during that time. Stephen’s could write one called something like ‘Gifting Goals’ or ‘ Losing My Man’.

[Saint86]

4 hours ago, Oisin said:

I probably shouldn’t be surprised but some of the comments on here are remarkably negative and unfair. Words like “horrific” and “shambolic”.

Seriously, what are people expecting? Yes, the second half performances need to improve. But there’s such a thing as context. He’s 32, he’s come into a squad of mentally fragile players, low on confidence, with no real leader on the pitch, no strong leader at the back, a (choose your own adjective) keeper, no right back, no number 9 and no transfer window to change the squad … and returned 6 wins out of 7, 21 goals, some hugely entertaining, exciting and attacking football (best I’ve seen in about a decade) and 4 of the last 5 games have essentially been won within 40 minutes. 
The first half performances are 11 out of 10. And in the context he’s doing an outstanding job.

Can he do some things better? Yes. Do I think some of his subs could be better? Yes. Are we overly reliant on Scienza and in need of a formula to play effectively without him? Yes. Do I think a 32 year old has the capacity (and is indeed likely) to learn to get better in these areas? Yes. Are words like “shambolic” and “horrific” reasonable and fair in any way? No.

Could any of us reasonably expect any better so far? No. 

Some of you need to get a grip on reality and a sense of perspective. This is as good as it gets - if you want better, it ain’t ever gonna happen so go find another hobby or die miserable.

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.

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Saint86

[beatlesaint]

49 minutes ago, ally_uk said:

What the fuck was Will Still doing? 😆 

Was he generally shit or did the players not like him and downed tools ? 

 

Probably a bit of both.

[Fabrice29]

1 hour ago, ally_uk said:

What the fuck was Will Still doing? 😆 

Was he generally shit or did the players not like him and downed tools ? 

 

Set the team up a bit too high on reflection. Attempted to camp opponents into their half which sounds good but meant when you win the ball back there’s quite a lot of players to get through. Now we’re set up slightly deeper and have better patterns of play. Players are clearly responding to that detail but ultimately the space the deeper set up allows is there to be exploited by an attack that’s best attributes are dribbling. 

Also, and this probably ties into the above set up but I really can’t stress enough how much more ruthless we’ve become up front. You take your chances and the game looks so much better. 

Edited 25 minutes ago by Fabrice29

[Lord Duckhunter]

4 hours ago, badgerx16 said:

Yes, we had dominated many of the first halves, but we totally switch into passive mode after the break

To be fair to Lego head, this was probably one area he was excellent in. Keeping the ball, sucking the life out of the game and seeing out the victory. It’s a difficult league we it’s games coming up quickly, handling it is something he has to learn quickly. He seems to understand the need to protect players & ease through when games are won, but the implementation isn’t quite there. Had he left Leo on & he’d got injured in the 85th minute , he’d be getting pelters. This is the first time Leo will have played a season like this, so it’s understandable we need to protect him a bit. Everytime he comes off they’ll be a drop off, same with Fellowes. 

Whilst I understand the rationale, the execution isn’t quite right imo. For me we’re still set up to be open and outplay sides, but with the mentality of seeing out the game, we’ve just swapped top players for slightly worse ones. Add to that the mentality of “hold what we have” and we’re caught between 2 stools.
 

Personally, I’d rather he adapted tactically to see the game out rather than just swap inferior players in. . As the half went on, id rather he had  Jack or Edwards on the right instead of bringing in Frazier, sat Jander in front of them . Leaving OR & Downes centrally. You could even have done the same the other side with Wellington or Manning in front of other. There’s no way WBA were scoring 3 if we set up to see it through & had that mindset. 
 

im sure there will be lessons learnt. Had we needed 5, we’d have come out with that mindset and got them. Nothing I’ve seen indicates this guy won’t adapt and work out how to see games out his way with minimum fuss. 

Edited 22 minutes ago by Lord Duckhunter

[saintant]

52 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

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.

 

I agree with some of what you say but 6 wins from 7 games is handy to have on his current Saint's CV.