ian__marshall

Couldn't resist telling them that I had a terrible experience due to the product on the pitch. What else can you say. If they want feedback then I'm happy to share.

We're hugely over playing in the opponents box. The amount of times yesterday when the shot was the better option and the man in possession chose to pass, it felt like Arsenal in the early 00s without the quality. Yesterday was the final straw for me, we should be absolutely smashing every team we face with this squad of players, no excuses. I don't necessarily have a problem with possession based football even though the general trend is leaning towards counterattacking football. However, if you're going to play that style you have to move the ball quickly and can't take 3 or 4 touches. It's the details that make this work and he's not coaching them. I remember Maresca talking about when players play the pass they have to ensure the ball is played infront of the receivers strongest foot. I'd never even considered the importance but makes a lot of sense as the receivers first touch is a pass to the next player. Russell ball is possession without the refinement. I'm interested what will happen over the next few days. He has to go. Rudkin's interview repeatedly said the goal is promotion this season, which implies time is running out. McCarron on the other hand seemed to double down on the Martin appointment, so I'm intrigued as to what happens next. Could we see a breakdown in relations, or will the board do the usual procrastinating until it's beyond recovery? Where is Top in all of this, can he actually afford for us not to be promoted and will he intervene himself or be pushed by mum to act? I think the next few days will reveal a lot about what we can expect for the season ahead.

GTF got to be in the squad. Lovely footballer despite his weight.

Pressures on now for RM. That's a ridiculously good squad for this level of football. Should absolutely walk this league.

What's happened to McFarlane? Can't believe he doesn't even make the bench for this unless he is injured.

Terrible result, especially given the circumstances. Frustrated to see us getting cut open again for their goal, and such a stupid mistake by O'Hora given his experience. Sammy needs to stick that header away in the 1st half, such a feeble attempt. Annoyed too that Burns chose to take the shot in the 2nd half with the keeper almost on the edge of his box. A square pass inside and it's a nailed on goal. Only positive to take is that's 2 in 2 for Cullen, but aside from that, we really should be ripping apart a poor team down to 10 men.

Both really good finishes. So pleased to see we finally have a striker who doesn't sh*t their pants when put through one on one.

How bad does Souttar have to play to get dropped?!? Can't get much worse than last week, yet he still makes the side 🤯

I agree with some of what he's saying particularly about the poor management of the club currently and the need to address this, potential for greater community engagement, and the marketing potential to drive revenue in a fast developing country with the largest population on earth, however there's a number of red flags. He kept referring to making the club profitable to drive success, yet there are very few examples of clubs who are both profitable and successful. We all know football is now a vanity project for anyone with extreme wealth and you don't enter into it unless you are willing to lose considerable amounts of money. It raises questions in relation to his backers. Are they wealthy and very naive in thinking they can buck the trend of spend equating to success, or is it a case that they aren't as wealthy as he suggests? Another concern for me coupled with the above, is his comments about the academy being seen as a means to generate revenue. Whilst I appreciate that should never be overlooked and more often than not any homegrown talent that shows significant potential will eventually get picked off by the big big boys thereby generating a tidy profit under the financial framework that has been introduced, I wouldn't want to see the club operating under a model where every emerging talent is sold before we see any benefit on the pitch from their development. If the players coming in are cheap buys to maintain a profitable position, we need to utilise the best academy products to propel the club forwards. Finally, his suggestion of having a mastermind group of former players to help with player identification scares the cr*p out of me. Clearly he's never met any of our former players. With the greatest respect to the big man, imagine asking someone like Matt Elliott for his opinion on whether to sign a player or not. Would be an absolute car crash.

That Tottenham home game under Rodgers has to be up there. To be leading with 30 seconds and then to lose is unlike any I've witnessed. Don't forget Deeney Day too, Watford fans are still buying the commemorative merchandise to this day 😂

I understand why people keep saying this, but if you look at our shape whenever McCarthy has the ball both Page and Braybrooke split in the same line just in front of the CB's, so I definitely think the plan is to play with a double pivot. I think where it falls down and people keep saying we aren't playing this way, is that Page doesn't have the discipline to hold his position (rightly so because that's neither his best position nor his game). If you look back at earlier games when Skipp was in the side we were definitely playing this shape. The reason we are getting cut open so easily in my view, is one of two reasons. Firstly, the gap between the 10 and deeper lying CMs is too big so it allows teams to dominate that central area and get a run on us in the turnover. Secondly, because Page doesn't have positional discipline, he often gets caught out operating in areas he shouldn't which leaves us wide open. Regardless, the biggest issue with the formation is that we don't have the right players to play it effectively in the attacking third irrespective of whether the intention is to play a single/double pivot. Until that is addressed, we'd be better playing to our actual strengths.

Why oh why does every manager we employ rigidly play this formation and refuse to deviate no matter how poor the results? I'm starting to wonder whether Rudkin is writing this as a requirement into manager contracts. Since Brendan, every manager has played this formation. Is it down to manager recruitment and picking managers who are wedded to this formation or is it that there's a perception that because the majority of PL teams play this formation it must be the way to setup a team? I'm leaning towards the latter, given that Rowett reverted to this setup when clearly he had no idea how to implement it. I wondered if I was being naive and deluded in terms of modern football, but actually having done a quick bit of research of preferred formations of coach's who have been successful over the past few years, with the exception of Emery, Iraola, Maresca (arguably not that successful yet in PL) , there does actually appear to be quite a few variations in shape, e.g. 4-3-3 (Klopp, Enrique, Arteta, Howe, Frank), Pep preferring 4-1-4-1, and Glasner going 3-4-2-1. What does stand out is that all of the managers that have had success with 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, have deployed exceptional acceleration and pace in the front 3, hitting teams hard and fast on the break/turnover. This has worked particular well for the lesser teams who have experienced success. If you think about Villa, Newcastle, Brentford, and Bournemouth in particular, all were/are still happy to invite pressure on, set traps, then explode forwards on the turnover with great success. So why do we insist on this style of play given we have no explosive players in the side? Would it not make more sense to play a formation that plays to our strengths, maybe going 5-3-2 (3-5-2) giving us more security at the back, allowing McFarlane and Joseph to push forward more, and offering more support to the isolated immobile forwards we have. At this level, I'd even consider 4-4-2, as anyone who has ever played the game knows how to play the system, and with all due respect to League 1, you're not exactly coming up against elite players and coaches so it pretty much comes down to who works the hardest, wants it more, and who has the better quality. Interested to hear others thoughts as I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking this way.

Big Nige, with Walsh and Appleton as No. 2. Include Fuchs in the coaching team (succession plan for Nige). Pay whatever it takes to make it happen.

Disgusting performance. Souttar and Thomas were awful, both in terms of individual performances, but also the tempo they set. Way too slow playing out from the back. Never want to see Souttar in a Leicester shirt ever again, let alone have the captains armband. Clearly has no interest in putting in a shift, I'd have him train with the u10s from hereon in. Bobby is another who needs to go. Been hoping he'd turn things around, but I've now decided enough is enough. Burns needs to buck his ideas up too. No idea why Ipswich fans rate him so highly, looks like his legs have gone and we've been sold a dud. Sounds daft after berating the experienced players, but today showed what Top and Rudkin have reduced this club to; that we are so reliant on youngsters to consistently perform to a high level. Today was literally men against boys. We've got some exceptionally talented young lads, but to keep throwing a team of kids into games against seasoned pro's who are not only highly experienced in this league, but know this is their level as a professional footballer and are literally battling every week just to secure a contract for the following season, is beyond negligent. Martin did himself no favours and has completely lost me now, but despite his inadequacies, quite frankly that result today is once again another huge example of the Top's mismanagement of our once proud football club.

I've tried to refrain from judging him too early and wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, after all we can't keep sacking managers every 6 months. However, after that abysmal performance today, what tipped the balance for me was how quick he was to head off down the tunnel at FT. He needed to own that performance today and take the focus off the players, but quite frankly he didn't have the b*llocks to face up to the fans and take it. As such I hope he gets shown the door tonight. If not, he has to go if we fail to beat Stockport.