Russell Martin - Confirmed as First Team Manager

[CosbehFox]

1 minute ago, boosmanana said:

Agreed that this is of concern, we gave up some guilt edge chances through our own flaws/mistakes. It is just  one game though, and hopefully it's something that becomes less of an issue as the season goes on providing we're able to replace those that don't fit.

Worryingly it's two games we've been beaten on it. Northampton beat us 0.80 to 0.48. 

[Foxin_Mad]

I still think there is an element of we have brought in quite a few new players, unfortunately I cant think of many squads where I manager has gone in and had instant success. I didn't really want Martin, but he's here, we arent going to get anything better while Topkin are here, so the best option is either try and back it at least for a while, or find something different to do on a Saturday till someone buys us. If we get rid of Martin you know Topkin will bring in another terrible manager anyway, they have no clue. We probably need to wait until the window is shut, he has his settled team, fit , it we still look shit and devoid of ideas and are playing Bobby Reid then, I will be the first to start booing, It isn't the fault of the academy players or the new lads that they are here, so we need to give them a bit of time to rectify it. Im really concerned how shit the defence is, the new keepers look awful, I don't rate Skipp and I detest BDCR. I still think the cretins wait too long to bring the manager in as per this project needed longer imo. Pearson started his team building at the end of June. 

[boosmanana]

3 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

Worryingly it's two games we've been beaten on it. Northampton beat us 0.80 to 0.48. 

What was the score in the Northampton game?

[kingfox]

According to Opta from this weekend, so far certain statistics are exactly what I feared.

 

3rd lowest xG 

1.33 for direct speed, the slowest team in League 1 over the weekend.

 

But not to worry, we had 69% possession with 565 successful passes.

 

Martin ball is in full swing.

[boosmanana]

7 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

It's not just one game, our xG vs Northampton was ming beast as well. 

 

We've not been great in either game so far and we've given up some really easy chances for the opposition to score without really making the same level of chances ourselves, that is concerning, yes. However, to use it as a reason to get rid of a manager (even if I don't want him myself) after 2 games, in which we've lost neither, is just silly at best.

[Ric Flair]

Just now, boosmanana said:

We've not been great in either game so far and we've given up some really easy chances for the opposition to score without really making the same level of chances ourselves, that is concerning, yes. However, to use it as a reason to get rid of a manager (even if I don't want him myself) after 2 games, in which we've lost neither, is just silly at best.

I agree, I am not championing that and I challenge you to find anyone who's been more critical about Russell Martin in the last 3 years than me. (Rangers fans aside 😂😂😂)

 

 

[FoxesWalk]

2 minutes ago, boosmanana said:

We've not been great in either game so far and we've given up some really easy chances for the opposition to score without really making the same level of chances ourselves, that is concerning, yes. However, to use it as a reason to get rid of a manager (even if I don't want him myself) after 2 games, in which we've lost neither, is just silly at best.

I don’t like him but he needs to have at least 10 games after the window closes imo. Assuming the club isn’t bankrupt by then. 
 

I suspect the squad is going to look very different in a few weeks 

Edited 17 August by FoxesWalk

[boosmanana]

Just now, Ric Flair said:

I agree, I am not championing that and I challenge you to find anyone who's been more critical about Russell Martin in the last 3 years than me. (Rangers fans aside 😂😂😂)

 

 

People also need to consider that whilst they might not like Russell Martin and they might not look the style of football that his teams play (understandable to a degree on both ends), if we were to get rid of him this early into his job here, not only do the club have to fork out yet more compensation to get rid but you also make the position even less appealing for any prospective new manager. If you're employed at a club and you're approached to take over at Leicester, you're not taking it as there's little to no job security after that. If you're looking for work, you're likely to look for something that's going to keep you employed for a bit longer and not have such a reactionary negative fan base on your back from the moment you don't win your first game in charge. 

[boosmanana]

4 minutes ago, FoxesWalk said:

I don’t like him but he needs to have at least 10 games after the window closes imo. Assuming the club isn’t bankrupt by then. 
 

I suspect the squad is going to look very different in a few weeks 

Agreed, and I hope it does. We've got the makings of a good team and a pretty well rounded squad but still need to recruit pretty urgently in some positions to match what we're trying to do.

[Foxmeister]

2 minutes ago, boosmanana said:

Agreed, and I hope it does. We've got the makings of a good team and a pretty well rounded squad but still need to recruit pretty urgently in some positions to match what we're trying to do.

Like hell we have 

[boosmanana]

Just now, Foxmeister said:

Like hell we have 

We have the fundamentals of a good team and well rounded squad for this division, 100%. It's not totally there, but I didn't say it was.

[AKCJ]

I will be concerned if we're having the same discussions about xG in a few weeks time.

 

Ultimately the problems we had on Saturday were either entirely self-inflicted (and there is definitely reason to believe that Russell Martin won't learn from this) or because we were playing players that simply do not have a long term future in this team.

 

That defensive spine of....

McCarthy

Okoli Souttar

Skipp

 

....will not (or can not) continue to play as slowly as they did. There is no way that Martin will have been happy with the performances those 4 put out and they are 4 of our most senior players.  However, we were only regularly cut open because of individual errors. It's not like Notts County created chance after chance, they were given to them through poor individual play.

 

 

Cullen is a player I am desperately worried of. I really don't think he has a future starting games for us when we're at full strength. He just does not influence the game and you need a player who is constantly looking to get on the ball in the final 3rd for a controlling style of play to be effective. Alves kept Notts County pinned in and when we were giving him the ball we were a genuine threat and we created numerous half chances. The trouble was if we couldn't get it to Alves then we were relying on Cullen (who simply was not showing for the ball) or Burns (who didn't look to have the burst of pace we were told he had) and both of them kept losing it in good areas.

 

I am convinced that once we start playing with a fully fit Bristric, Burns and Chaplin then we will cause teams some serious harm in this league.

 

Bristric

Alves Chaplin Burns

Skipp Braybrooke

McFarlane NEW CB Okoli Joseph

Stolarcyzk

 

That attack is simply bloody good for this league. If we can get Chaplin and Braybrooke on the ball in the final 3rd with Alves and Burns out wide then we will score a lot of goals.

[Foxmeister]

12 minutes ago, boosmanana said:

We have the fundamentals of a good team and well rounded squad for this division, 100%. It's not totally there, but I didn't say it was.

It’s nowhere near there, we’ve got 1 striker who’s a complete unknown quantity in England.

[boosmanana]

2 minutes ago, Foxmeister said:

It’s nowhere near there, we’ve got 1 striker who’s a complete unknown quantity in England.

I'm unsure how that disproves what I just said? 

 

[Gamble92]

2 hours ago, AKCJ said:

 

2025/26

Championship

Middlesbrough - Finished 5th with 59.5% average possession (ranked 1st in the league)  

Southampton - Finished 4th with 56.6% average possession (ranked 2nd in the league)

Ipswich - Finished 2nd with 56.1% average possession (ranked 3rd in the league)

Coventry - Finished 1st with 55.2% average possession (ranked 4th in the league)

 

League One

Cardiff - Finished 2nd with 63.1% average possession (ranked 1st in the league)  

Bolton - Finished 5th with 59.2% average possession (ranked 2nd in the league)  

Luton - Finished 7th with 55.7% average possession (ranked 3rd in the league) 

Stockport - Finished 4th with 55.3% average possession (ranked 4th in the league)  

 

2024/25

Championship

Leeds - Finished 1st with 61.6% average possession (ranked 1st in the league)

Burnley - Finished 2nd with 56.9% average possession (ranked 4th in the league)

Coventry - Finished 5th with 54.6% average possession (ranked 6th in the league)

 

League One

Birmingham - Finished 1st with 66.9% average possession (ranked 1st in the league)  

Stockport- Finished 3rd with 52.7% average possession (ranked 6th in the league)  

Leyton Orient - Finished 6th with 51.8% average possession (ranked 7th in the league)  

 

2023/24

Championship

Southampton - Finished 4th with 66.0% average possession (ranked 1st in the league)

Leicester - Finished 1st with 62.1% average possession (ranked 2nd in the league)

Leeds - Finished 3rd with 58.4% average possession (ranked 3rd in the league)

Ipswich - Finished 2nd with 53.1% average possession (ranked 7th in the league)

 

League One

Peterborough - Finished 4th with 62.2% average possession (ranked 1st in the league)  

Bolton - Finished 5th with 59.6% average possession (ranked 2nd in the league)  

Portsmouth - Finished 1st with 58.6% average possession (ranked 3rd in the league)  

 

 

 

There are some real outliers such as Lincoln winning League 1 last season with 42.3% of the ball but on the whole the majority of successful teams in League 1 and the Championship all play with the ball. It's not a coincidence. 

That's showing who had an average of more possession and correlating that directly with this particular style. Russell seems to be an extreme version of it to me. 

 

I feel like you naturally have the ball more if you're better. Russell's approach is if we have the ball more it proves we are better. Anyone with eyes can tell the last 2 games the far, far inferior team were better with far, far less ball. It's no coincidence all the feedback from his previous clubs fans is the exact same.

 

Souttar, Okoli and McCarthy (all of whom can't play with the ball much) had the ball most. We were full of fear and conceded 6 big chances to Notts County. 

[cityfanlee23]

I really hope McCarron has a contingency plan, if we are sitting mid table 10-15 games in, we simply cannot afford to stay down. 
Likely be some new names available, but looking at who is available right now, I think a fair few of these would turn us down without significant ownership changes and money to spend. 
- Rob Edwards?
- Dave Challinor
- Scott Parker
- Gerhard Struber
- Ralph Hassenhuttl
- Jon Dahl Tomasson
- Alan Sheehan
- Liam Manning (Unlikely to return to football just yet)

RM really needs to get this right, or we need to pray we are sold to a mega owner willing to convince a top manager to come to us on big wages. 

[FoxesTalker]

11 hours ago, trooky said:

Knowing we would have a very high turnover of players in the summer why would anyone employ a manager who needs at least 4 months to coach his complicated tactics. 

This was one of the biggest concerns with the appointment. It’s whether Martin is going to be able to deliver results and performances at pace.

[Hales]

13 minutes ago, cityfanlee23 said:

I really hope McCarron has a contingency plan, if we are sitting mid table 10-15 games in, we simply cannot afford to stay down. 
Likely be some new names available, but looking at who is available right now, I think a fair few of these would turn us down without significant ownership changes and money to spend. 
- Rob Edwards?
- Dave Challinor
- Scott Parker
- Gerhard Struber
- Ralph Hassenhuttl
- Jon Dahl Tomasson
- Alan Sheehan
- Liam Manning (Unlikely to return to football just yet)

RM really needs to get this right, or we need to pray we are sold to a mega owner willing to convince a top manager to come to us on big wages. 

Ooooh yes please to Rob Edwards 😍😍😍🤪

[trooky]

2 hours ago, AKCJ said:

Absolutely and i'm sure this will improve vastly with Bristric.

 

I think people need to realise he's not playing BDCR up front because he wants to.

 

I'm quite confident that last Saturday will be Reid's last game as striker for us now that we have Bristric and Chaplin.

He has played BDR as striker because he wanted to. We've played 4141 with Cullen as an 8 along side Braybrooke. 

 

RM picked BDR as the striker when he could have played Cullen there with Page as an 8.

 

[Winstonthedog]

I may be missing something here but XG and possession mean nothing much to me ... I prefer entertaining and passion in my football ... talking points ... controversial decisions.... there's not much of to get excited about with possession stats and XG .... its killing the English game 

Edited 17 August by Winstonthedog
Spelling

[fox_favourite]

I don't care about possession, xg and all the baggage that comes with football now...I just want to watch my team and enjoy doing so. It's just been so long!!

[jim5000]

Regardless of his terrible tactics, I can’t stand his haircut and clothing style.

 

He looks like he’s on his way out of an Oasis gig rather than a football manager.

[Foxmeister]

1 hour ago, boosmanana said:

I'm unsure how that disproves what I just said? 

 

It’s one of many clear examples of how we’re not nearly there. At best we have an average L1 squad that have not been the better side against 2 teams, one in L2 and the other fresh out of it.

 

i admire your positivity, maybe we can pick this up in May.

[boosmanana]

4 minutes ago, Foxmeister said:

It’s one of many clear examples of how we’re not nearly there. At best we have an average L1 squad that have not been the better side against 2 teams, one in L2 and the other fresh out of it.

 

i admire your positivity, maybe we can pick this up in May.

I'd be happy to.

[Enyoueffsea]

1 hour ago, Foxmeister said:

It’s nowhere near there, we’ve got 1 striker who’s a complete unknown quantity in England.

The team who won the League One title at a canter last season didn’t have a player in the top 21 scorers in the league.

 

Leicester’s squad, despite its flaws, is comfortably the best team on every metric; experience, wage bill, cost, and so on. I haven’t looked but that probably applies across all time rather than just this season.

 

Okoli individually is worth more than the entire Notts County squad.

 

Any failure this season is not down to resources and it would be ludicrous to suggest otherwise.