kingfox

I wish for Russell Martin 80% possession football against Oxford United as we lose 1-0.

Roll on the Russell Martin era.

Goallllllllllllllll Rob Huth.

CBA to watch tonight. I’m just waiting for next season to arrive so we can get the Russell Martin era up and running.

In an ideal world, Faes, Coady, BDCR, Kristiansen, Ayew, Daka, Soumare and Vestergaard would all be on the chopping board. Question marks hang over the likes of Okoli, Souttar and maybe a couple of others. One of Hermansen, Fatawu, BEK will definitely go. We may see similar to what happened to Leeds last season, with a few being shipped out on loan, then coming back into the fold. Can see BEK and Okoli both potentially going this way. Ndidi will probably be our other major sale. Then you’ll just be left sweating in hope that some kind gullible teams, will take the players I mentioned at the top off our hands. Unfortunately though I can see Coady, Vestergaard, BDCR and Ayew all sticking around 🤢 If we go with a back three next season though, the thought of Coady and Vestergaard sticking around doesn’t worry me as much, rotating them as the middle man in a back three in the Championship, I’d be content with that. BDCR and Ayew on the other hand though, one must fvck off somehow, I can’t bear the thought of both of them sticking around.

How dare you disrespect our manager for next season

Excellent post Finners 👍🏻 It’s exactly why I said in another post about the Championship method being frustrating. Being possession dominant like we were last season has been the key ingredient for success in the Championship. The top 10 in the Championship right now are pretty much all possession dominant sides. This graph from earlier in the season just shows how many promotion chasing clubs drift towards a more intricate style. But as seen in the Premier League this season, more teams are drifting towards fast & direct over slow & intricate. Liverpool have been an absolute menace on fast breaks, which is probably a big reason why they are top of the league. As you say, maybe the perfect ingredient for staying in the Premier League if this shift of play continues, is to follow the method that Nottingham Forest and a few others have started to show. This is why I personally feel that the style of Championship clubs might have to change. Being slow & intricate when it comes to a newly promoted side, as you say, recent history suggests it’s not the intelligent and effective way of playing. You’re just going to see teams constantly yo-yo between the divisions, because they are not getting on board with the current shift in times. Setting your team up to be a threat on counter attacks/fast breaks is probably the lane that teams need to get in. The only thing I don’t necessarily agree with is the need to be tactically flexible. So many managers have been caught out by being obsessed with one particular style, look at the guy in my display pic for example I read an interview with Liam Rosenior a few days ago, regarding how flexible he was in the way he approached both games against us last season. John Mousinho has done similar at Pompey this season, they were one of the most possession dominant teams in League 1 last season, early doors in the Championship, he realised that’s probably not the right way to go, now they’ve become a more direct team and he’s probably done enough to keep them in the Championship. If you are to attack the Championship by being possession heavy, you have to be flexible enough once you hit the Premier League or you’ll soon get found out.

Barry Hawkins on fire, Shaun Murphy is terrified. 5 centuries from The Hawk this afternoon as he ends the session 7-1 🔥

It will be interesting to see if more counter attacks and fast breaks become the norm in the Premier League. If so then you’ll see more clubs evolving, maybe the three promotion teams got caught out by this shift in change. We certainly did, because we failed to recruit the right type of wingers to make that style effective.

This graph also shows the shift in the Premier League of teams being more fast and direct. But as I posted with an earlier graph, our problem is we’re non existent on the counter attack. But that’s what you get when you appoint Steve Cooper, he gifts you Jordan Ayew and Bobby Reid, then you appoint RVN who persisted with them for a chunk of games just because they did alright against Spurs. It’s no wonder we’ve been shit, when the league has evolved, but we don’t have the right players to evolve with it. We didn’t replace Fatawu with a like-for-like and it’s hurt us massively.

Not a patch on Amanda Balionis let’s be honest.

An add on to this as I’ve found more stats. In a league that has evolved where fast breaks are more prominent, we are officially the worst team in the Premier League for fast breaks. Southampton 2nd worst, Ipswich 4th worst. We need to get with the times otherwise we’ll continue to fall behind.

The problem I found with Enzo and numerous other Championship managers, is the fact they are too one dimensional, they have to play a particular way and stick to it, as you say when more teams found us out last season, it was a very crap and frustrating watch at times. Such a particular style can be absolutely perfect for players, he got the best out of Hermansen, Vestergaard, Winks, Mavididi, Fatawu, but as you say, it can also alienate players, Kristiansen an example. But as I stated in my previous post, the Premier League has evolved this season, it feels like we haven’t caught up with the times and the stats back that up. Teams have been very effective with counter attacks and fast breaks, we haven’t. This is from the Championship last season… Now look where the three teams in the relegation zone fall in the Premier League this season. A lot of things are to blame for us not doing well this season, but failing to get with the times seems to have played a massive role with how crap we’ve been this season. Shame I can’t find stats for the Championship to see if that league has evolved in a similar direction. But if this is the norm going forward, we need a manager who not only trusts youth, but can play effective football on transition with speed and counter attacking ability.

Fully agree. It’s partly why the Championship model frustrates me. How many of the current top 10 in the Championship are actually good to watch, you could make a good case for not many, because too many of the managers are obsessed with controlling possession. But it’s a style that has shown it can get teams out of the Championship, but come the Premier League it tends to be not sustainable. The Premier League has evolved to a more direct, fast breaks style, especially this season. Under Maresca even though we were a possession heavy team, we were also statistically the best team in the Championship for counter attacks. Instead of capitalising on that for the Premier League, Steve Cooper gifted us Jordan Ayew and Bobby Reid, now throughout this season, we look like one of the worst counter attacking teams in the country.

Annoyingly, of the current top 10 teams in the Championship, 8 of them fall in the top 10 for most possession this season. Only Sheffield United and Sunderland slightly fall outside that bracket. The Championship is being dominated by teams who like to control possession, it’s why going down that route again seems highly likely. If that’s to be the case, I’d still want someone who isn’t scared of throwing youth into the mix. It’s a shame West Brom took Mowbray, he would have been perfect for that type of scenario. Maybe it’s why the club are supposedly interested in Rosenior, worked with a relatively young squad at Hull, now working with the youngest squad in Ligue 1 at Strasbourg. I’d also make a case for Tom Cleverley, his reign at Watford has been far from perfect, but he’s done a solid enough job considering the media were tipping them for relegation this season. Watford have one of the more younger squads in the division, while he hasn’t been scared to throw youth into the mix.

We needed creativity in pre season and Cooper didn’t give him a shot, what a twat.

the disrespect to BDCR and Ayew. I reckon McAteer will probably stay too tbf.

Think it will depend if we want a goalkeeper that is capable of building out from the back. If we’re to give Stolarczyk a shot as number 1, if we want a younger understudy with the potential to be first choice, then Abramowicz is definitely the guy for me. If we want a more experienced number 2, who can step in as first choice if needed, then as a few other posters have pointed out recently, Yvon Mvogo would also be the guy for me, especially as he might be a free agent.

Been looking at goalkeepers again, potential understudy to Stolarczyk. Fellow Polish keeper, Slawomir Abramowicz. Been producing very solid numbers in the Polish League and Europe…

Going after Potter, supposedly interested in Rosenior and having a bunch of our players under them, the relationship surely can’t be that bad.

I see Lisci is actually a Wasserman client @Tommy Fresh He’ll definitely be on the list alongside fellow Wasserman clients, Steven Gerrard, Gary O’Neil and Phil Neville. Rosenior and Heitinga are also Wasserman clients too, gerrimin!

There’s a few scattered across Europe that fit the Lisci, Siemieniec obscure mould, but I’m just not sure we’ll cast our net that wide. Part of me thinks we’ll play it boringly safe this time around, especially seeing what Farke, Wilder and Parker are doing this season. But I hope we go a bit fresher and look along the lines of Rosenior, Rohl, Manning, Cleverley, Mousinho. Those names come with potential and upside.

In the summer, they probably wanted someone with a bit more experience, hence Potter being first choice, but turning to Cooper instead. RVN was probably on the radar in the summer, but they probably felt it wasn’t the right time. His interim spell at Man Utd with two wins against us clearly gave Top a hard on, so that’s probably why we turned to him in the end.

Looked at Heitinga myself around the same period and mentioned him a few times on here. After delving into his period at Ajax, there were similarities to what Maresca produced with us, in terms of transition I thought he was a name that made sense, but experience wise I wasn’t surprised that we didn’t go for someone like him. Looking highly likely at being back in the Championship though, he fits the profile that a Championship club may take a chance on. He’s worked under some quality managers, whether with us or elsewhere, I think he gets an opportunity in the not too distant future.