pmcla26

With one of Ndidi/Soumare in for Facundo and a couple of decent defenders signed in the summer and we would have gave ourselves a much better chance. It wasn't hard to see what to do using Enzo's blue print.

Barely had a run in comparison to what was offered to Ayew and Reid, and when he did feature he has been better than both.

Good listen, might open some people up who are totally closed off to the idea of Martin here next season.

We heavily rotated against Bournemouth, too.

What’s his philosophy? I haven’t seen any defined style of play since he’s been in charge.

That front 4 should have started every game since Fatawu’s injury. Still amazes me two managers haven’t thought the same.

I wouldn’t mind Martin as long as he’s learned from some of his mistakes he made in the Premier League. He has a clear way of wanting to play. I’d rather see us go down the route of getting a manager whose strength lies in employing a really effective pressing system, rather than possession, though. Bournemouth have been the Premier League’s biggest over achievers this season and that’s come from how effective Iraola’s system has been for them - if we’re to get promoted then over achieve to stay up then I think it’s a good idea to look at the trend of how effective that’s been for them.

Yeah I think he’ll probably be there next season, think it goes without saying McKenna will still be Ipswich manager and they’ll probably be best placed to bounce straight back up (they’ll probably only lose Delap). We’ll probably end up with a free agent, I can’t see how RvN’s position will still be tenable after relegation. I genuinely think Russell Martin will probably be our manager next season, although many fans won’t like it.

Don’t think it will be this drastic of a change. I can’t see Evans or Golding being ready to start just yet. Think it’ll be Daka and Winks instead of those two. Mavididi is still a better option than Alves on the left at this moment in time at Championship level, too - although he may get a chance behind the striker instead as I reckon someone will pick El Khannouss up. Doubt our back line will look like that too. Not sure anyone takes Coady, Justin or Ricardo off of us with their wages. Could see the back 4 having them 3 + Nelson in first game of the season. Wouldn’t be shocked to see Okoli go back to Italy, but rather he stayed. Two things to factor in are the Championship is a big drop off from the Premier League, and we have players in the squad that aren’t attractive assets for teams to buy due to age/wages. Players like Ayew, Coady, Vestergaard, Reid, Winks will be hard to sell, yet at Championship level they will also probably be pretty effective, says more about the standard, than it does them. I can’t see us having money offered for any of them. Soumare, Hermansen, Kristiansen, Okoli, Faes, Ndidi and El Khannouss are the sellable assets in comparison to the others, not including Fatawu as I doubt he’ll move after his injury. Stolarczyk Ricardo - Coulibaly Coady - Nelson - Vestergaard - Souttar - Okoli Justin - Thomas Winks - Choudhury - Skipp Fatawu - Reid - McAteer Alves Mavididi Daka - Ayew Probably be left with something like this to add to with youth/new signings. Vardy and the back up keepers might resign but not for what they’re on currently.

Southampton won’t hire now I wouldn’t have thought, it’ll be interim coach internally then they’ll hire someone to start in pre-season, surely?

Juric probably had a relegation break clause, hence why it’s happened so quick after the event. RVN might have the same, he’s on a 3 year deal though, so probably not cheap if he doesn’t.

Forest’s style of play looks like it will be pretty unsustainable, it’s similar to how ours was when we won the league. Eventually you have to develop to be the more dominant team in the game, whether that’s through ball retention or having a high press that’s hard to play through that you stop the other team at source. Forest might be able to transition to the latter but they’ll need a more mobile centre-forward than Wood and a bit more quality in centre midfield to make that happen.

Exactly. Didn’t matter when our players were decent.

Rodgers gave him loads of chances

Tbf a lot of it has coincided with Jackson being injured. He’s their only competent number 9 at Premier League level. Their squad also isn’t all that for the money they’ve spent. Pedro Neto has been a poor signing for them.

I prefer Soumare out of the 3 options other than Ndidi but it’s just trying something else for the sake of it as in a two man midfield Soumare has proven he doesn’t track runners effectively enough and Wilf gets hung out to dry too often in there. Skipp is a bit better than Winks defensively and physically, would just have him there and try get him to do a job on Fernandes for this game. Winks is the best 6 as a single pivot, but in a two man partnership with a back 3 (especially as there is a middle centre back occupying that central space in the build up) he doesn’t really offer anything.

I’m not sure about not playing a left footer at left wing back and Ricardo starting. Think we’d get torched in the wide areas.

More of a box midfield with Buonanotte and El Khannouss as two 10s in that lineup.

Hermansen JJ Coady Faes Coulibaly Ndidi Skipp Kristiansen Buonanotte El Khannouss Vardy

Someone should send Top and Rudkin the Gary Neville interview with Jim Ratcliffe on the overlap. I think we’re owed that sort of insight as to what the club is doing about our failings.

If Ruud goes then I’d like him in the summer. He has a clear idea on how he wants his football to be played and speaks knowledgeably about the game. He made mistakes in the Premier League but it was his first season at that level, I can see him going on to be a very good manager in years to come.

Relative to the position. We had top 4 quality players but also had a relegation worthy defence.

The Steve Walsh/Pearson era is over. Wish people would stop suggesting them. Football has moved on, we need to move with the times and reset. Set ourselves up for the future with new progressive thinking. The only similarity is that football looks like it is going back to being more effective in transitional play rather than possession based systems. It’s still merging the two ideologies though. I think it would be clever looking at people who have worked for clubs in Central Europe that have punched above their weight as they tend to have less to spend, and are focused on the gegenpress idea that seems to be largely what’s been most successful this season in England.

With Buonanotte and Mavididi either side then he probably would’ve been more effective in recent weeks, but last night he didn’t do the basics right, which was worrying. His passing was poor and he really didn’t look bothered when he was out of possession. Him and Vardy just don’t lead a press well enough for a side that doesn’t have the ball often.

Daka should’ve come on at about 60 minutes when it was obvious El Khannouss was having no impact on the game. Bypass the 10 and go two up top.