pmcla26

I have no idea what any redeeming features Rohl has tactically that suit our squad. He’s been coaching a side to be hard to beat and play on the break, when we have a side that is going to be one of the most technically gifted and strongest in the league - teams are going to play the complete opposite against us as to how they set up against Sheffield Wednesday during his time there.

That’s an awful use of our squad in an 11. Ricardo and Thomas aren’t flying wing-backs, Fatawu and Mavididi are wingers, not wide 10s that you usually play in a 3-4-2-1, and Skipp and Winks don’t have the legs to be a double pivot in a 3-4-2-1 system.

I reckon we’ll by sticking with Ruud now. Disappointed Martin has gone Rangers, was excited to see what he could do with our young players.

Diallo to be banished to RWB for eternity. What a waste of his talent.

Yep, he's only DoF by name. He's more of a general manager off the pitch. Sacking Rudkin wouldn't solve anything, employing people with a football strategy around him while he can be allowed to focus on the good things he does with the day-to-day running at Seagrave and the academy would be better. Maresca told Top this and he hasn't done anything about it.

Martin would play the youth and get us playing good football, a lot of people would convert very quickly and find him likeable. However, some people will always just have a dislike for him because either they have been told not to like him, or their opinion on him is set in stone and will never change.

His decision making in his last season was stupid (Ward and Amartey) but he didn’t just become a bad coach overnight. If the board had our house in order and we had a proper summer backing him in 2022 then we’d still be mid-table Premier League now.

I think some people forget the market has regressed. The days of us getting £70/80m for our players are long gone. El Khannouss’ market value is probably about the same as it was 12 months ago, and with the need to comply with PSR etc., I doubt we’ll stand in his way if we get an offer at around that price.

It’s fine if the idea is to have the wingers play high as an outlet - draw the opposition out then use them to break. Enzo’s 3-2-4-1 chance creation was built a lot around that, the way opposition teams would mark us meant that Mavididi and Fatawu could get really high and then often only have to beat their full back to get in.

Yeah I should have said as well in a possession based side, too. To be fair you don’t see many sides use a single pivot if they aren’t playing a slower build up style.

Really don’t think we need to sign a full-back, even if one leaves. All of them are good enough for the Championship and we also have Aluko coming through. We’re well stocked there.

People saying he’s not good enough for the Premier League, I think he is in the right system, but we haven’t used a system that suits him. He’s not great in a double pivot, he’s better as a stand alone 6 where he can drop deeper in the build up and with two 8s ahead of him as passing options. Soumare has obviously been preferred due to his physical attributes making him more suited to playing in the double pivot.

If we get Russell Martin looking forward to watching us play a similar style of football to 23/24 at the top end of the Championship

I agree with everything you said there. I think trying to combining the two styles (not going extreme either way) is the best way to get success in the Championship - Leeds did that well this season, I think Farke having an extra year has helped him to coach that. Pearson did it with us as well after our play-off defeat at Watford and we won the league, where some games we’d be super aggressive with Dyer and Vardy then in others we’d need Knockaert and Mahrez to be a bit cuter.

Look at how deep Rotherham are as well throughout that - that’s how most teams will try to do us next season. Having a style that beats that is important.

Depends, they could spend c. £150m like Villa, Fulham, Forest and Ipswich have done upon promotion and if they do well with it then they can give themselves a chance. As far as I’m aware they’re in a decent position financially after changing the model over the last 5 years?

Don’t know if it’s a great barometer what the fans say after a poor season given some of ours seem to think we’ll get relegated next season. I expect Ipswich will still have Jack Clarke, Jacob Greaves, Leif Davis, Dara O’Shea, Axel Tuanzebe and Alex Palmer who are all very good players at that level. If Hutchinson stays too that’s another very good player there. Cameron Humphrys coming back from Wycombe is a good prospect in midfield, as well. They might struggle at striker but Hirst is decent enough for the Championship. It’s similar when you analyse our team and some of the prospects, it’s hard for me to see a scenario where either team aren’t battling for promotion, unless the window goes horrifically wrong for both.

And with Rodgers it worked for 2 and a half seasons. We don’t need Martin to be forever, just get us back into the Premier League and develop the younger players we have coming through. Most teams are going to play a low block style of football against us next season, we need a manager that can coach how to break that down - which is exactly what Martin does well. It worked with Maresca so can see it working again.

Any idea why he didn't get in at Fiorentina?

I think he’ll be a big player for them next season, special talent. With no disrespect to Bournemouth, I thought he would have gone to a bigger club.

Without him they’ll be screwed.

I don’t disagree with expectations it’s more just you’d expect Martin to be better equipped to guide a side back up when he’s already been there and done it.

If he’s our first-choice striker next season how many goals do we think he’ll get? 15?

Martin would get the best out of McAteer, Mavididi and Fatawu. at Southampton, he often used two 10s (rather than a 10 and a 9) in the build up that create a box in midfield and pushes the wingers really high and wide as an outlet to attack the space centrally that’s vacated when centre-backs try to push on to mark the two 10s. LW RW 10. 10 8. 8

I’m confused as to why some people are all for Rohl and totally against Martin when one has a promotion from the Championship on their CV and the other one doesn’t.