kingfox

Very much looking forward to him using Choudhury as an inverted RB next season

Lovely result, Sheffield United going up would have been boring. Sunderland fans deserve a bit of happiness after their shitty period a few years back. Sunderland vs Newcastle derby in the Premier League 🔥

Looking forward to our new manager Russell Martin pipping Will Still to automatic promotion

He has currently gone favourite for the Cardiff job

Had a feeling you’d mention him again annoyingly it’s very difficult to find a range of stats for him, DataMB is a great tool but they don’t have the Romanian league 😡 I’m still high on Shuto Machino as Holstein Kiel have been relegated, 11 goals in the Bundesliga this season, think he’d suit a Russell style if it came to it.

It’s just going to be the same case as two summers ago. The promotion experienced Scott Parker vs the imaginative gamble Enzo Maresca. This time around it feels like Martin or Dyche vs Rohl or maybe someone out of the blue. The board went for the fresh gamble two years ago, but it would be very easy for them to go for Martin or Dyche, especially after seeing what the likes of Farke, Parker and Wilder have achieved this season. Even though they’ll be numerous squad changes, if they want to return to some continuity, then unfortunately Martin is probably the strongest candidate that is currently available and realistic. When younger talent is concerned, you never know what to expect from Dyche, while Martin has far more substance in that category. If his style of play wasn’t so nauseating, you could make a stronger case for Martin over Dyche imo. Ideally though, I hope it’s neither.

Starting over a £40 million Evanilson, big statement! Frankfurt has been mentioned as a possible destination, Brendan Rodgers is after him too

Been linked with some decent clubs across Europe unfortunately, could well take £10+ million to get him too 😕

He actually has certain values that I think we need, especially concerning the development of younger players, he has solid history of this at Swansea too, as well as Southampton. I actually think a move abroad would be a wise move for him, stick him in a lesser league with a team who has always dominated possession, he could do well. I’ve said on here before, heavy possession is all well and good in the Championship, it’s shown to be a good formula to get you out the league, but if Martin came to us and achieved that, the question will always be, what next? His style of play just doesn’t translate in the Premier League for a newly promoted team, you have to have a 10/10 transfer window to make it potentially work imo.

Saw him quite a few times for Lorient last season, he had some really impressive performances. Wouldn’t be surprised if he is Evanilson’s back-up next season, or even starts just behind him as a second striker/number 10, but if Bournemouth are willing to loan him out, he’d be perfect if Martin comes in. As for him going to Bournemouth, that purely came down to the Bill Foley connection, as well as Bournemouth chairman, he is also minority shareholder at Lorient.

If our new manager ends up being Russell, if they would be willing to loan him out, Eli Junior Kroupi from Bournemouth would be absolutely perfect.

Watched it myself last night, came away from it thinking exactly this. Very easy to warm to the guy, especially regarding his upbringing. Also the way he was aligned with Jason Wilcox at Southampton regarding younger players, it’s exactly what we need at Leicester City, and that could well be the swing that lands him the Leicester job. But then you come to his football philosophy, he said he won’t change and is far too stubborn in his ways. I just can’t take a season or more of Maresca style football on steroids, just watching endless passes between centre backs, and watching Winks or Skipp take endless touches leading to backwards and sideways passing, will yet again drive us up the wall.

Was just coming into this thread to post the same thing, but you’ve beaten me by 22 hours.

Fresh was probably a better word to use, but you get my drift. I’m not going to rule Rohl out entirely, because they’ve gone the fresh route before with Maresca. But it would be no surprise to anyone if they played it unimaginatively safe, he may do a better job than him, but Martin just reeks of Cooper 2.0

It was always a case of going the imaginative route(Rohl) or playing it unimaginatively safe(Martin, Dyche). Will all depend if they want to pay Rohl out of Sheff Wed, but as we know, they wouldn’t do it for Corberan. Then you’re left with the free option list, which I’ve classed many times as uninspiring. Even looking past Martin and Dyche, the likes of O’Neil and Hasenhuttl are nothing to get excited about, the likes of Cleverley and Selles were harshly sacked by their previous clubs, but it’s unlikely that we’d even consider them, and a manager who’s only managed overseas never seems to be on our radar. If it’s Martin then it just boils down to two things, 1) A Championship promotion on his CV and 2) Plays the style that Top seems to love. This is the equivalent of Leeds appointing Farke and Burnley appointing Parker, they may have looked like the uninspiring options, but at least they have a Championship promotion on their CV. Martin could well do a decent enough job for us in the Championship, he may even get us out of it, but as I’ve said before, the Premier League is evolving, where his style especially if you’re a newly promoted team is becoming borderline obsolete, and that’s the worry I have if he gets us that far.

Tactical piece on him here https://the-footballanalyst.com/southampton-russel-martin-tactical-analysis/ The only thing going for Russell is some good pressing and high turnover statistics. As I’ve alluded to already, his in possession statistics are fvcking depressing.

Goalscorer, Elliott Moore, 90 minutes.

Who’s up for two inverted full-backs instead of one 🤔 In the high build-up, Martin’s Southampton sets up in a 1-2-3-5 formation, inverting the fullbacks and pushing a holding midfielder up as an attacking midfielder.

If we don’t get a transfer embargo, Bednarek is available for £6 million

This is the article I’ve referred to numerous times recently. Just scroll down to the sequence section and toggle around with the statistics. As I said to a poster yesterday, if Martin doesn’t change, it will be Maresca ball on steroids. https://theanalyst.com/eu/2023/08/championship-stats-2023-24-opta

Fvck you Leicester, I was hoping to change my profile pic this summer 😡 If this happens, I’ve been prepared for it for months, Martin becoming Leicester manager would just be the most inevitable appointment in our history.

With this morning’s shitshow news, it’s probably become even more important that we need to rely on our younger talent next season. If that’s Ruud’s number one vision, then as shit as it may sound, you can make a case for him staying. If he goes, then you need another manager who is willing to focus on the youth. Potential candidates for that though are pure and utter gambles, you’re probably looking at the likes of Cleverley, Selles or trying to get Muslic out of Plymouth if we can afford to.

To give a bit of credit to Russell, he has a solid enough history with younger players, he has a Championship promotion on his CV, Southampton’s out of possession work the last time they were in the Championship actually makes good reading, they led the pressing statistics and created the most shots from high turnovers. But it’s his in possession tactics that are nauseating. I posted this stat a while back, in the Championship two seasons ago… 10+ Pass Sequences 2) Leicester - 875 1) Southampton - 1,042 It’s basically Maresca ball but on steroids. No thank you.