Tonda Eckert

[Willo of Whiteley]

Absolute bollocks on the whole “the players dictate what happens” or “the board dictate the formation”.

There are that many leaks through the club it would be common knowledge.

Also it would be fucking stupid of Sprt Republic to try and build a reputation on players that aren’t good enough and a formation that doesn’t work. 🤣

[tdmickey3]

10 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Absolute bollocks on the whole “the players dictate what happens” or “the board dictate the formation”.

There are that many leaks through the club it would be common knowledge.

Also it would be fucking stupid of Sprt Republic to try and build a reputation on players that aren’t good enough and a formation that doesn’t work. 🤣

Well, they are doing it with a goalkeeper 

Edited Tuesday at 07:54 by tdmickey3

[Weston Super Saint]

9 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Also it would be fucking stupid of Sprt Republic to try and build a reputation on players that aren’t good enough and a formation that doesn’t work. 🤣

Sadly, I now accept SR's 'stupidity' as the 'norm' for us.  

[AlexLaw76]

https://saintsmarching.com/tonda-eckert-just-affirmed-what-southampton-fans-have-been-saying-for-weeks

[Osvaldorama]

On 15/12/2025 at 15:43, tdmickey3 said:

Sorry, but there is nothing ridiculous about expecting a manager/coach to identify glaringly obvious flaws in our tactical set up and make attempts to rectify them but we have seen nothing so far.

We play one way and when it is nullified we don`t have an answer except desperate backs to the wall defending, yet in that defending we continually let teams put crosses in to our box virtually unchallenged, inevitably teams will score as was proven on Saturday

This backs to the wall stuff has been evident for a while now, we got away with it against QPR and West Brom, Millwall and Norwich beat us after our first half did not bear fruit we needed and we offered very little in the 2nd half of each game

Sadly i think the Coventry game will be the time it will be shown to be a major issue

You can’t just flick a switch and turn a poor team into a good one. 
 

So far he’s done better than anyone could have hoped for, results wise. 
 

I agree we are poor in the second half. I also would prefer a 3 man midfield. 

But stuff takes time and he has to work with what he has been given. 
 

[Dark Munster]

3 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

https://saintsmarching.com/tonda-eckert-just-affirmed-what-southampton-fans-have-been-saying-for-weeks

Weird headline. I didn't see anything in that article about Tonda affirming anything it says. It should say "Saints' defeat affirms what Southampton fans have been saying for weeks"

[StrangelyBrown]

On 15/12/2025 at 21:21, Willo of Whiteley said:

Also it would be fucking stupid of Sprt Republic to try and build a reputation on players that aren’t good enough and a formation that doesn’t work. 🤣

So what's your rationale for the multitude of managers playing 3 at the back despite it not working and not having done anything about Bazunu who is statistically proven to be one of the very poorest keepers in the championship?

[StrangelyBrown]

8 hours ago, Osvaldorama said:

You can’t just flick a switch and turn a poor team into a good one. 
 

So far he’s done better than anyone could have hoped for, results wise. 
 

I agree we are poor in the second half. I also would prefer a 3 man midfield. 

But stuff takes time and he has to work with what he has been given. 
 

You can expect to see some marginal improvement though.

Defensively we are still as bad as we've been for some time. Yes our players aren't the best but there are some simple glaring issues that can be addressed on the training ground - For instance what is Jack Stephens role in the defence? To the best of my knowledge he hasn't won a "best seat in the house" competition to watch the game so he should take responsibility for some defending. Why does Ryan Manning let his man have so much space game after game?

[tdmickey3]

9 hours ago, Osvaldorama said:

You can’t just flick a switch and turn a poor team into a good one. 
 

So far he’s done better than anyone could have hoped for, results wise. 
 

I agree we are poor in the second half. I also would prefer a 3 man midfield. 

But stuff takes time and he has to work with what he has been given. 
 

Not suggesting he could flick the switch but the 2nd half types of performance show zero signs of any moves to address it

[Willo of Whiteley]

53 minutes ago, StrangelyBrown said:

So what's your rationale for the multitude of managers playing 3 at the back despite it not working and not having done anything about Bazunu who is statistically proven to be one of the very poorest keepers in the championship?

But then you would hope that any one of those managers would’ve turned around and said “are you fucking deluded”?

I’m not disagreeing but I feel like if managers would be strong armed into certain criteria off the pitch then we’d hear about it.

[danjosaint]

18 minutes ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

But then you would hope that any one of those managers would’ve turned around and said “are you fucking deluded”?

I’m not disagreeing but I feel like if managers would be strong armed into certain criteria off the pitch then we’d hear about it.

Your not going to turn down £1.5m a yr on 3yr contract despite knowing you may be asked to play a certain way. There's evidence of other teams, Forest, Chelsea etc where the owners are interfering so whose not to say its happening here, it may or may not be happening you or I wont know, but for me there are enough snippets to think something is/has been going on 

Edited yesterday at 08:31 by danjosaint

[LuckyNumber7]

4 hours ago, StrangelyBrown said:

You can expect to see some marginal improvement though.

Defensively we are still as bad as we've been for some time. Yes our players aren't the best but there are some simple glaring issues that can be addressed on the training ground - For instance what is Jack Stephens role in the defence? To the best of my knowledge he hasn't won a "best seat in the house" competition to watch the game so he should take responsibility for some defending. Why does Ryan Manning let his man have so much space game after game?

Since Tonda took charge, we have won 6 out of 8 games and scored 22 goals, more than anyone else in the league. Is that not a pretty huge improvement?

Of course there are still issues especially in defence, but I'm not sure why people expect him to be some kind of miracle worker. He still has the same mostly shit defenders and goalkeepers to choose from, and that probably won't change until at least the summer.

[Saint86]

1 hour ago, LuckyNumber7 said:

1. ) Since Tonda took charge, we have won 6 out of 8 games and scored 22 goals, more than anyone else in the league. Is that not a pretty huge improvement?

2.) Of course there are still issues especially in defence, but I'm not sure why people expect him to be some kind of miracle worker. He still has the same mostly shit defenders and goalkeepers to choose from, and that probably won't change until at least the summer.

1.) Not specifically aimed at you, but i feel there is a need for some of the fans to adopt some realism here.

And on that, i mean that our results generally overshadow the quality of the performances (across 90min) - i.e., we don't deserve to have won 6 games out of 8 - and so constantly having people bandy that stat about like its some kind of "gotcha" argument to counter anyone raising concerns is becoming quite tedious.

So yes, we did comfortably beat a injury ravaged Charlton, an imploding Sheffield Wednesday, and 10man Leicester... But surely, any serious fan (that expects us to be targeting promotion with this squad) would have expected as much?.

Then you look at the other games, and it really hasn't been that convincing imo. There has been spells of breath taking attacking football - but matches are longer than 20-30min!

• We led twice vs Birmingham, allowed them back into it the first time, and ceded the entire pitch to them after going 3-1 up - on another day they get at least a draw because they certainly had the chances. A lucky win.
• WBA - 3-0 up and we tried our hardest to snatch a draw from jaws of a comfortable victory - a terrible performance and lucky to get the win (which after being 3-0 up is very poor).
• QPR - Outplayed us and deserved at least a draw, if not the win - so another lucky win for us.
• Norwich - A side in the relegation places missing their best player and only real goal threat (The rest of that team had a maximum of 7 career goals at championship level, Sargent has 50). Handball goal aside, we would have carried on the same way until they'd scored regardless. So all in, we deserved that loss.
• Millwall - we were poor. Soft penalty in our favour, had the lead twice, ceded the pitch and initiative to them. End result - you certainly can't begrudge Millwall the win, and its a deserved loss for us.

Its been the exact same pattern in each of those matches, with no signs of him adapting or learning from it. Its a huge tactical flaw in his game and if it doesn't get addressed we won't get promoted.

2.) What does being a miracle worker have to do with anything? He's manager of Southampton football club, a position he should only have been given on merit. With the squad of players available, that means he should be good enough to deliver promotion. Regardless of the results, there is certainly an open point on our performances (game management and defensive setup) to be concerned over whether he's good enough to achieve that. I think that is all people are (rightly) saying.

Hopefully he learns and develops, but Saints are not here to be a creche for new managers - as a club we need promotion. Equally, does he have the background and experience to radically learn and adapt his tactics in the short timeframe he has this season? I hope he does, but i'm not convinced. 

Edited yesterday at 13:55 by Saint86

[revolution saint]

3 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

 

And on that, i mean that our results generally overshadow the quality of the performances (across 90min) - i.e., we don't deserve to have won 6 games out of 8 - and so constantly having people bandy that stat about like its some kind of "gotcha" argument to counter anyone raising concerns is becoming quite tedious.

 

I've read some bollocks on here but this takes the biscuit.  Winning games is the only thing that counts.

[saintant]

5 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

1.) Not specifically aimed at you, but i feel there is a need for some of the fans to adopt some realism here.

And on that, i mean that our results generally overshadow the quality of the performances (across 90min) - i.e., we don't deserve to have won 6 games out of 8 - and so constantly having people bandy that stat about like its some kind of "gotcha" argument to counter anyone raising concerns is becoming quite tedious.

So yes, we did comfortably beat a injury ravaged Charlton, an imploding Sheffield Wednesday, and 10man Leicester... But surely, any serious fan (that expects us to be targeting promotion with this squad) would have expected as much?.

Then you look at the other games, and it really hasn't been that convincing imo. There has been spells of breath taking attacking football - but matches are longer than 20-30min!

• We led twice vs Birmingham, allowed them back into it the first time, and ceded the entire pitch to them after going 3-1 up - on another day they get at least a draw because they certainly had the chances. A lucky win.
• WBA - 3-0 up and we tried our hardest to snatch a draw from jaws of a comfortable victory - a terrible performance and lucky to get the win (which after being 3-0 up is very poor).
• QPR - Outplayed us and deserved at least a draw, if not the win - so another lucky win for us.
• Norwich - A side in the relegation places missing their best player and only real goal threat (The rest of that team had a maximum of 7 career goals at championship level, Sargent has 50). Handball goal aside, we would have carried on the same way until they'd scored regardless. So all in, we deserved that loss.
• Millwall - we were poor. Soft penalty in our favour, had the lead twice, ceded the pitch and initiative to them. End result - you certainly can't begrudge Millwall the win, and its a deserved loss for us.

Its been the exact same pattern in each of those matches, with no signs of him adapting or learning from it. Its a huge tactical flaw in his game and if it doesn't get addressed we won't get promoted.

2.) What does being a miracle worker have to do with anything? He's manager of Southampton football club, a position he should only have been given on merit. With the squad of players available, that means he should be good enough to deliver promotion. Regardless of the results, there is certainly an open point on our performances (game management and defensive setup) to be concerned over whether he's good enough to achieve that. I think that is all people are (rightly) saying.

Hopefully he learns and develops, but Saints are not here to be a creche for new managers - as a club we need promotion. Equally, does he have the background and experience to radically learn and adapt his tactics in the short timeframe he has this season? I hope he does, but i'm not convinced. 

We didn't.

[coalman]

38 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

I've read some bollocks on here but this takes the biscuit.  Winning games is the only thing that counts.

Out of curiosity, do you think we're going to continue winning games if we continue with the performance we showed against Norwich?

[revolution saint]

Just now, coalman said:

Out of curiosity, do you think we're going to continue winning games if we continue with the performance we showed against Norwich?

I've no idea and that's pretty much irrelevant.  My point is you can do your monday morning quarterback sessions all you like but let's not relegate winning games into just another stat like possession percentage or xG.  

[tdmickey3]

6 minutes ago, coalman said:

Out of curiosity, do you think we're going to continue winning games if we continue with the performance we showed against Norwich?

No chance

[Wade Garrett]

16 hours ago, Osvaldorama said:

You can’t just flick a switch and turn a poor team into a good one. 
 

So far he’s done better than anyone could have hoped for, results wise. 
 

I agree we are poor in the second half. I also would prefer a 3 man midfield. 

But stuff takes time and he has to work with what he has been given. 
 

I agree.  We get outnumbered in the middle of the park at the same time as we have 2 centre-backs free.  It’s madness.

[coalman]

27 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

I've no idea and that's pretty much irrelevant.  My point is you can do your monday morning quarterback sessions all you like but let's not relegate winning games into just another stat like possession percentage or xG.  

How is the ability to win future games irrelevant? How is wanting to see the team address obvious weaknesses irrelevant?

[revolution saint]

2 minutes ago, coalman said:

How is the ability to win future games irrelevant? How is wanting to see the team address obvious weaknesses irrelevant?

It's irrelevant because it wasn't the argument I was making. I could try and explain it again but once is enough. 

[coalman]

2 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

It's irrelevant because it wasn't the argument I was making. I could try and explain it again but once is enough. 

Understood. It's still going to have the same gaping holes you don't want to address in it the next time you try to make it anyway.

[Saint86]

2 hours ago, saintant said:

We didn't.

Well regardless, it was still a well below par  / shit performance.

[Saint86]

2 hours ago, revolution saint said:

I've read some bollocks on here but this takes the biscuit.  Winning games is the only thing that counts.

Over a 46game season you'd have a point - but thats actually the point the rest of us are broadly making. Whereas since you take umbridge with that, i can only assume you think a 6 to 8 game sample size for a completely fresh manager is enough to extrapolate the rest of the season from, despite us not playing well in over half of those games and being damn lucky to have got 3 of those 6 wins. But Yeah... those of us that are worried about the tactics, game management, and overall performances (and what it will mean for future dropped points) are the ones chatting "bollocks" 🫣.

Edited yesterday at 16:20 by Saint86

[Saint NL]

Just saw that Brendan Rogers has gone to Saudi. I thought he'd have a choice of jobs, but guess he wanted some money

[sockeye]

3 hours ago, revolution saint said:

I've no idea and that's pretty much irrelevant.  My point is you can do your monday morning quarterback sessions all you like but let's not relegate winning games into just another stat like possession percentage or xG.  

We've had a decent return over a number of weeks, but our performances had weaknesses that have persisted over the run, and we will see those weaknesses continously exploited by the rest of the league adapting to our play, which already happened against Norwich. It's not irrelevant at all to notice that.

[Saint Fan CaM]

1 hour ago, Saint86 said:

Over a 46game season you'd have a point - but thats actually the point the rest of us are broadly making. Whereas since you take umbridge with that, i can only assume you think a 6 to 8 game sample size for a completely fresh manager is enough to extrapolate the rest of the season from, despite us not playing well in over half of those games and being damn lucky to have got 3 of those 6 wins. But Yeah... those of us that are worried about the tactics, game management, and overall performances (and what it will mean for future dropped points) are the ones chatting "bollocks" 🫣.

I understand the sentiment - there are areas that need improvement. However, what I don’t agree with is this entitled viewpoint that seems to suggest we should be winning every single game, which would be nice but unlikely. I’m starting to enjoy watching my team again and that’s because Eckhert has tangibly changed our style of play, with faster flowing football and yes, wins. I don’t start watching games thinking here we go again - another loss…why do I bother? Anyone with an iota of sense would know that there was every chance our ‘recovery on the run’ would be patchy - 6 from 8 wins is a very good return in relation to where we were just a short time ago. I think patience is needed right now.

[revolution saint]

2 hours ago, Saint86 said:

Over a 46game season you'd have a point - but thats actually the point the rest of us are broadly making. Whereas since you take umbridge with that, i can only assume you think a 6 to 8 game sample size for a completely fresh manager is enough to extrapolate the rest of the season from, despite us not playing well in over half of those games and being damn lucky to have got 3 of those 6 wins. But Yeah... those of us that are worried about the tactics, game management, and overall performances (and what it will mean for future dropped points) are the ones chatting "bollocks" 🫣.

I'll take 18 actual points out of 24 over your opinion any day of the week and twice on Sundays.  If you find people repeating the only stat that means anything tedious then listening to people who have watched too much Carragher and fancy themselves as armchair pundits is ten times worse.  I have no idea if the run will continue - if it doesn't then Tonda will deserve some stick but so far he's done a good job and I'm happy to give him credit for it.

29 minutes ago, sockeye said:

We've had a decent return over a number of weeks, but our performances had weaknesses that have persisted over the run, and we will see those weaknesses continously exploited by the rest of the league adapting to our play, which already happened against Norwich. It's not irrelevant at all to notice that.

It was irrelevant to the point I was making which is that actual wins trumps opinion or placing it in some arbitrary pile of stats that may or may not mean anything. 

[Wade Garrett]

36 minutes ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

I understand the sentiment - there are areas that need improvement. However, what I don’t agree with is this entitled viewpoint that seems to suggest we should be winning every single game, which would be nice but unlikely. I’m starting to enjoy watching my team again and that’s because Eckhert has tangibly changed our style of play, with faster flowing football and yes, wins. I don’t start watching games thinking here we go again - another loss…why do I bother? Anyone with an iota of sense would know that there was every chance our ‘recovery on the run’ would be patchy - 6 from 8 wins is a very good return in relation to where we were just a short time ago. I think patience is needed right now.

The fast football is great when we play it.  The slow tippy tappy RussBall seems to be rearing its ugly head again though.

[Badger]

2 hours ago, Wade Garrett said:

The fast football is great when we play it.  The slow tippy tappy RussBall seems to be rearing its ugly head again though.

It does although at least when we move forward we do so with a lot more pace than we’ve seen for a few years.

Trouble is that if Scienza and Fellows aren’t available it reduces our pace and how we play. 
 

The pissing around at the back drives me up the wall though. 

[EBS1980]

It’ll be interesting to see when we have a fit right back if we switch to 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 which would get Fellows into his natural position.

 

also, do you think the new coaching appointment will be someone with a bit of championship experience? I think it will be another Trollope type given that’s what we are missing from the setup.

[Saint Fan CaM]

18 hours ago, Wade Garrett said:

The fast football is great when we play it.  The slow tippy tappy RussBall seems to be rearing its ugly head again though.

And that’s exactly what I meant when I said there were still areas for improvement. It’s clear that the tactic of inviting the press to provide space in the forward areas is one that is favoured at the club - possibly in the SR group. What this means is that you need defenders who are capable of breaking that press through careful passing and a midfield capable of collecting and moving the ball forwards. Eckhert’s inspired use of AA as the pivot with Scienza and Fellows used to carry the ball is the key to our improved attacks.

The problem is that our defenders are not capable of sustaining this tactic throughout the game, particularly when the opposing team know exactly how to nullify the out ball by marking AA, Scienza and Fellows. And then there’s the crap decision making, not knowing when to launch the ball forwards or into row ZZ, rather than trying to play out of an impossible position under pressure. Hopefully Tonda knows this stuff and importantly how to correct it.

[Saint86]

17 hours ago, Badger said:

It does although at least when we move forward we do so with a lot more pace than we’ve seen for a few years.

Trouble is that if Scienza and Fellows aren’t available it reduces our pace and how we play. 
 

The pissing around at the back drives me up the wall though. 

I think this is an overly simplistic view of the "tippy tappy" football (or passing it around at the back). We do this both when we're attacking and when we're defending.

When we're attacking its fine - we draw the opposition onto us with the two wide CBs moving out wide, and Baz and the other CB covering central. At least one of the WBs is then slightly further forward to provide width across the middle and crucially to be set for the counter attack. We bait the opposition onto us and then quickly transition up the pitch - either via a driving run from fellows/scienza, or by having created a pocket of space for the likes of jander/downes/AA/Azaz etc. I have no issue with this, we turn the opposition around and get them running to thier own goal with space for our very talented (for champ level) attacking players to move, run, and either take on or pass through the opposition. This is far better than under Still, where we played with an almost arrogant like style of having to push right up all the time and having limited opportunities to break through an opposition that was sat in two deep defensive lines basically in their own 3rd, and where we were open to the counter. I would prefer to see us play very similar even in a back 4 - with a central deep lying CDM to provide depth to the midfield, one all round CM (Jander), one central mid in a free role (azaz), and AA up top and given freedom to float and run at teams. We would be devastating on the attack, and generally stronger with a central midfield 3 and an actual anchor man.

My issue is when we go into what i am going to call Tonda's "defence mode" (his attacking play is superb). But its when he decides to stop attacking, seemingly take far less risks with the ball, and drop much deeper that we really do come a cropper. At this point we essentially pull the wing backs in as almost full backs and sit very deep with a flat back 5. We then only have the two CMs, who get overwhelmed by the opposition in the middle of the pitch which further stifles our counter attacking play and also starves possession from our attackers - essentially suffocating most of the threat we should be posing. In addition to that, the now defensive full backs, narrow CAMs/ST, and narrow CMs essentially remove any width for us in the central and final 3rds - this also greatly diminishes out ball options from the defence and further allows the opposition to push right up onto what are now essentially our defensive full backs... and that then means that they can overload our full backs with either the first man crossing, or passing it back to the supporting player to cross from deep... Which is why when you watch us we get absolutely bombarded by crosses. And given we have a keeper that (lets face it) isn't great at commanding his area, plus 3 cbs who are all pretty average in aerial defensive challenges - this just turns into an utter car crash.

We go from playing to our strengths (attacking players in space, using baz as a sweeper keeper or for his distribution), to nullifying basically all our attacking play and dropping deeper to invite crosses our defence and keeper are terrible at defending. And given we have done this in every game under Eckert, the only assumption i can make is that this is a deliberate tactical ploy and is how he wants to play - not something he is learning from or likely to change. In essence, i just don't think he has the bravery needed to keep us playing attacking football over say 70min, and instead he opts for the defensive parking of the bus once he's decided we're far enough ahead, which essentially is us ceding the pitch to the opposition and daring them to come and score goals. He certainly isn't a manager who follows the "attack is the best line of defence" mantra, but he needs to find a mid ground as a minimum, because honestly his defensive set up is just shit, no 2 ways about it.

Edited 4 hours ago by Saint86

[Fabrice29]

17 hours ago, Badger said:

It does although at least when we move forward we do so with a lot more pace than we’ve seen for a few years.

Trouble is that if Scienza and Fellows aren’t available it reduces our pace and how we play. 
 

The pissing around at the back drives me up the wall though. 

Its almost as if the pissing around at the back is designed to create the space further up the field for us to move forward and with pace. Like it always has been.

[saintant]

3 hours ago, Saint86 said:

I think this is an overly simplistic view of the "tippy tappy" football (or passing it around at the back). We do this both when we're attacking and when we're defending.

When we're attacking its fine - we draw the opposition onto us with the two wide CBs moving out wide, and Baz and the other CB covering central. At least one of the WBs is then slightly further forward to provide width across the middle and crucially to be set for the counter attack. We bait the opposition onto us and then quickly transition up the pitch - either via a driving run from fellows/scienza, or by having created a pocket of space for the likes of jander/downes/AA/Azaz etc. I have no issue with this, we turn the opposition around and get them running to thier own goal with space for our very talented (for champ level) attacking players to move, run, and either take on or pass through the opposition. This is far better than under Still, where we played with an almost arrogant like style of having to push right up all the time and having limited opportunities to break through an opposition that was sat in two deep defensive lines basically in their own 3rd, and where we were open to the counter. I would prefer to see us play very similar even in a back 4 - with a central deep lying CDM to provide depth to the midfield, one all round CM (Jander), one central mid in a free role (azaz), and AA up top and given freedom to float and run at teams. We would be devastating on the attack, and generally stronger with a central midfield 3 and an actual anchor man.

My issue is when we go into what i am going to call Tonda's "defence mode" (his attacking play is superb). But its when he decides to stop attacking, seemingly take far less risks with the ball, and drop much deeper that we really do come a cropper. At this point we essentially pull the wing backs in as almost full backs and sit very deep with a flat back 5. We then only have the two CMs, who get overwhelmed by the opposition in the middle of the pitch which further stifles our counter attacking play and also starves possession from our attackers - essentially suffocating most of the threat we should be posing. In addition to that, the now defensive full backs, narrow CAMs/ST, and narrow CMs essentially remove any width for us in the central and final 3rds - this also greatly diminishes out ball options from the defence and further allows the opposition to push right up onto what are now essentially our defensive full backs... and that then means that they can overload our full backs with either the first man crossing, or passing it back to the supporting player to cross from deep... Which is why when you watch us we get absolutely bombarded by crosses. And given we have a keeper that (lets face it) isn't great at commanding his area, plus 3 cbs who are all pretty average in aerial defensive challenges - this just turns into an utter car crash.

We go from playing to our strengths (attacking players in space, using baz as a sweeper keeper or for his distribution), to nullifying basically all our attacking play and dropping deeper to invite crosses our defence and keeper are terrible at defending. And given we have done this in every game under Eckert, the only assumption i can make is that this is a deliberate tactical ploy and is how he wants to play - not something he is learning from or likely to change. In essence, i just don't think he has the bravery needed to keep us playing attacking football over say 70min, and instead he opts for the defensive parking of the bus once he's decided we're far enough ahead, which essentially is us ceding the pitch to the opposition and daring them to come and score goals. He certainly isn't a manager who follows the "attack is the best line of defence" mantra, but he needs to find a mid ground as a minimum, because honestly his defensive set up is just shit, no 2 ways about it.

The slightly frustrating thing from my point of view is that, having taken commanding leads in a number of games, I would then expect the oppo to leave gaps as they throw men forward to try to get back into the game. We do not seem able to set up in a way to exploit these gaps and I get we make substitutions but for me the set up is the problem rather than who is on the pitch.

[saintant]

I see in the presser for Coventry Alfie House tried to question Tonda about the goalkeeping position but he wouldn't be drawn. He more or less said he is happy with the squad including his goalkeepers. Ringing alarm bells that unless he's just keeping his powder dry and towing the party line because the world and his wife knows we have among the weakest (if not the weakest) keepers in the league.

[CB Fry]

6 minutes ago, saintant said:

I see in the presser for Coventry Alfie House tried to question Tonda about the goalkeeping position but he wouldn't be drawn. He more or less said he is happy with the squad including his goalkeepers. Ringing alarm bells that unless he's just keeping his powder dry and towing the party line because the world and his wife knows we have among the weakest (if not the weakest) keepers in the league.

No football manager on earth is going to say he is looking for a new manager because his current choices are terrible in a pre match press conference.

Tonda giving utterly generic standard quotes shouldn't be "ringing alarm bells".