Tonda Eckert

[Willo of Whiteley]

10 hours ago, Hoggins said:

 

 

10 hours ago, maysie said:

Since Tonda took over.

We were so wasteful over Christmas, and maybe over-confident for say Charlton at the weekend.

But you can’t deny that record is excellent right now.

Shame we ballsed up the season with fifty draws under Will Still and decided to over-eat on Christmas pudding during the festive period.

[pimpin4rizeal]

1 hour ago, Midfield_General said:

The end of the poor Christmas period form and the start of the current run of great form maps pretty much directly onto two events:

- The end of Armstrong / Archer starting at centre forward, and Stewart / Larin starting instead

- Bazunu being replaced by Peretz

So it turns out that in the Championship you need a keeper who can make saves and a target man with a physical presence up top. Amazing. 

However, ditching 3 at the back, bringing Bree back in and replacing Manning with Welington as first choice left back have had a big impact as well. Tonda learnt from that period and changed it, which is the sort of trait you want to see in a manager.

Yeah I think Bree is just as important as the other two events though since we switched to a back four we have been flying and to go with that he’s also providing a massive goal threat quite regularly too The man has been sensational and probably player of the month for me 

[ally_uk]

I'm actually pleased for him, obviously has a good understanding with the players, isn't afraid to field youth players and give them a chance.

Yesterday's game I thought the performance was super. 

I'm so glad Matsuki has been given a run out, he caught my eye during preseason and I was a bit miffed at the time why he didn't play during the initial start of the season  

[trousers]

Yep, fair play to Tonda for turning things around (hopefully permanently).

He quite rightly attracted flak during his mid-season 7 match spell in the league without a win, and is now quite rightly attracting praise for a 7 match spell in the league without a defeat. 

Consistently do badly, get criticised.

Consistently do well, get praised.

Who knew...?

Edited 7 hours ago by trousers

[whelk]

4 minutes ago, trousers said:Yep, fair play to Tonda for turning things around (hopefully permanently).

He quite rightly attracted flak during his mid-season 7 match spell in the league without a win, and is now quite rightly attracting praise for a 7 match spell in the league without a defeat. 

Consistently do badly, get criticised.

Consistently do well, get praised.

Who knew...?

Yes we all do it and there is massive recency bias when talking about football but you don’t go from clueless to being good and vice versa. 

[S-Clarke]

I want him to do well, and he has done well up to this point - but we do have one of the best teams in this league, so we had to have an uptick given our quality. However, once we've moved away from this fixed 3 at the back, shoehorning Wood and Armstrong in at 9, we've looked more comfortable. I never thought we had the CB's who are happy in a 3, they all seem much more comfortable in a pair. THB - Bednarek,  THB - Stephens etc. 

There are a few things that have shifted since that miserable Christmas -

- The Bazunu experiment being ended

- The return of Bree, so we didn't have to force a winger to play in a 5.

- The introduction of a 4 at the back as we had Bree to operate as a proper RB again. 

I think we were somewhat unlucky with Mads and Jelert having injuries pretty much all season, so our RB slot was never perfect and I think we tried too much to fill that gap, thus changing the entire team structure to fit around Fellows.

I feel there is more balance now, we play with proper 9's, we play with proper full backs and we have a pair of CB's in position to build a partnership. It's the most consistent 11 we've had all season to the point where we can actually name it most weeks, that's a huge shift from earlier days.

Credit needs to be given to Tonda who has been involved with 1) identifying the issues, and 2) suggesting and implementing the solutions which make sense.

There will be further bumps in the road, he is still very inexperienced in many aspects, but it looks like he has the backing of the group and they're all grown up and big enough to know what's right or wrong on the pitch. We just needed someone who didn't overcomplicate the plans they're asked to follow.

[trousers]

1 minute ago, S-Clarke said:

I want him to do well, and he has done well up to this point - but we do have one of the best teams in this league, so we had to have an uptick given our quality. However, once we've moved away from this fixed 3 at the back, shoehorning Wood and Armstrong in at 9, we've looked more comfortable. I never thought we had the CB's who are happy in a 3, they all seem much more comfortable in a pair. THB - Bednarek,  THB - Stephens etc. 

There are a few things that have shifted since that miserable Christmas -

- The Bazunu experiment being ended

- The return of Bree, so we didn't have to force a winger to play in a 5.

- The introduction of a 4 at the back as we had Bree to operate as a proper RB again. 

I think we were somewhat unlucky with Mads and Jelert having injuries pretty much all season, so our RB slot was never perfect and I think we tried too much to fill that gap, thus changing the entire team structure to fit around Fellows.

I feel there is more balance now, we play with proper 9's, we play with proper full backs and we have a pair of CB's in position to build a partnership. It's the most consistent 11 we've had all season to the point where we can actually name it most weeks, that's a huge shift from earlier days.

Credit needs to be given to Tonda who has been involved with 1) identifying the issues, and 2) suggesting and implementing the solutions which make sense.

There will be further bumps in the road, he is still very inexperienced in many aspects, but it looks like he has the backing of the group and they're all grown up and big enough to know what's right or wrong on the pitch. We just needed someone who didn't overcomplicate the plans they're asked to follow.

Good summary IMO 👍🏻

[BERMUDASAINT]

16 hours ago, SaintsRoyalty said:

This is most Saints fans in a nutshell since Koeman left. There is a semblance of a fair point but patience is not going to change the inevitable. There are three main traits.
 

One, comparing a shit manager to another shit manager and therefore concluding first shit manager isn’t as shit as the second shit manager so must be alright.

Second, giving proven no mark managers/players endless chances if they are nice quiet types yet absolutely ripping on a talented footballer if he doesn’t perform at his usual high standards every game.

Thirdly, ignoring the word pedigree. Every decision in life is a gamble but you can shorten the odds if you judge the pedigree of a player or manager. As far as football managers go, Eckart is the runt of the litter. Yet the attitude is let’s give him a go in arguably the most important season for the club since we were in Europe.

Add the above ingredients up and the result is mediocrity. Hence the last few years at this club. We should all take a moment to actually let it sink in that the manager of our club has never managed or played the game. We simply cannot get comfortable with that being a thing. Ibrox would be on fire if that happened there. 

Hey thick head, or dick head, HE HAS PLAYED THE GAME AS A CM. I put a long career history just for you....but i guess you are bad at reading comprhension.

Yes we have a young manager who is averaging almost 2 ppm. 

Has the team looking like the one early punters were betting on being at the top of this league.

We were shambles under Still, this player is shite, that player wrong position, wrong style and no hope feeling.

Tonda had turned this ship around (in honour of our seafaring tradition) from chrashing on the rock (relgation to L1). I now see a TEAM that will play to their potential consistantly, that alone is enough for me to love this team and game again.

Ps. His first jobs were as a analyst for German team, it shows he is very intelligent and has good analytical skills.

The other was Head Scout for Klon, showing he has the ability to spot good players.

 

 

Edited 5 hours ago by BERMUDASAINT

[Lymington Saint]

I think that he is growing into the job. He has shown an ability to learn and to make the necessary changes. There is a much better shape about the team and the players seem to be responding. Still a work in progress though. 

[Turkish]

Nothing to do with managers or formations 

[benjii]

Interesting that no one has managed 2 points per match since Eckhart took over. 

This really was a golden chance to win a league and we spaffed it.

[saintant]

15 hours ago, maysie said:

Since Tonda took over.

Can't argue with that. Considering his age and lack of experience his record to date is remarkable. He has the potential to manage at the highest level if he continues turning in these numbers. Probably a bit early to know what the future holds for him but you can't question his record with us so far.

[hypochondriac]

14 minutes ago, saintant said:

Can't argue with that. Considering his age and lack of experience his record to date is remarkable. He has the potential to manage at the highest level if he continues turning in these numbers. Probably a bit early to know what the future holds for him but you can't question his record with us so far.

It might be harsh but I still don't think we have been overly convincing. I think really he has got us performing roughly how we should be given we have a host of players that would get in virtually every squad in the division. He still deserves credit though, particularly for turning us around after the drop off in form. We look better in comparison to others because in truth no one has really run away with things, especially after Coventry shit the bed recently. 

[Turkish]

4 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

It might be harsh but I still don't think we have been overly convincing. I think really he has got us performing roughly how we should be given we have a host of players that would get in virtually every squad in the division. He still deserves credit though, particularly for turning us around after the drop off in form. We look better in comparison to others because in truth no one has really run away with things, especially after Coventry shit the bed recently. 

Kind of with you on that. He deserves huge credit, it's also highlights how poor Will Still was. However he also has a very good squad which should be top 6 minimum. All this shite about players not being good enough etc was a load of nonsense. If he was behind the clear out then even more credit is due, there seems to be a lot more spirit and harmony in the squad now, the players are clearly playing for him, which cant be said for the last few we've had.

[Cabrone]

Some managers just fit certain clubs and I get the feeling he just fits this one.

He's taken stick but you can't get on his back too much with that record. He's also getting better as the games go on and he gets a better feel for team formation\selection.

Whatever he does from now on in at least I've had more fun watching his teams than I ever did for Jones, Selles, Martin, Juric, Rusk and Still.

It's been the most fun since Ralph left in 2022.

[hypochondriac]

5 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Kind of with you on that. He deserves huge credit, it's also highlights how poor Will Still was. However he also has a very good squad which should be top 6 minimum. All this shite about players not being good enough etc was a load of nonsense. If he was behind the clear out then even more credit is due, there seems to be a lot more spirit and harmony in the squad now, the players are clearly playing for him, which cant be said for the last few we've had.

Agreed. He's broadly performing in line with my expectations. I wouldn't say we are massively outperforming anything, simply others have underperformed. We were massively below expectations and now we are where we should be. He still gets significant credit for that though to be fair. Shame we had to have the zero wins in seven in the middle of things though.