Has Martin turned the corner and we should support him?

[JonnyZeroFox]

There is an obvious change of style, we are quicker, more direct, seeing even some nice long balls played… certainly seems to be a change of mindset, the players look up for it and are getting stuck in more. Let’s hope that continues 

Edited 1 hour ago by JonnyZeroFox

[Muzzy_no7]

9 hours ago, Collymore said:

Draw at Luton and beat Wigan and the corner that we need to turn will be in sight.

 

Anything less then huge pressure is back on him. 

[DennisNedry]

If Martin succeeds, Leicester succeed.

 

He changed his formation and we look better for it. Let's see how we do up to Christmas. 

 

[Grebfromgrebland]

Looks like he's becoming less stubborn which can only bode well for us. 

 

Be can definitely coach, now he needs to coach a different philosophy which he appears to be doing. Isn't that what we want?

[AKCJ]

Crazy that it took as long as it did for him to swallow his pride and chaneg the team up.

 

Just have to hope he doesn't resort to type if results improve long term.

 

 

Doyle's introduction has been a big improvement on Decordova-Reid. 

[AjcW]

He’ll gaslight us into oblivion now. 

 

“See I told you when we win it’ll be fine”

 

Yes because the last two games have been you sticking to your cherished principles  

 

Good to see us winning again, young lads are ****ing brilliant, pleased someone has finally convinced the stubborn mule to try something different to save his career! 

[Staffs Fox]

As many others have said, let’s reserve judgement until after Saturday. If we win that and then go into Wigan on the back of 3 wins we could be looking very different. 
 

If we lose it’ll put us back on square one. Promising signs though 

[kingcarr21]

1 hour ago, Harboro said:

2 wins in 2 since I’ve changed my profile pic. You’re welcome Brussell!

Also applies to me. Maybe the Cat Snot is the secret formula

[jayfox26]

Martin? 

 

Martout? 

 

That is the question. 

[hejammy]

I think it's too early to be saying we have turned the corner, we have to accept that the teams that we have played (Doncaster and Bromley) are just not very good even by League 1 standards. I think Stevenage at home on the 31st is a very telling game. If we win that I can start to believe. Wigan should be a banker and Luton a draw or a win is acceptable. Time will tell

[Wasyls Pec Deck]

12 minutes ago, jayfox26 said:

Martin? 

 

Martout? 

 

That is the question. 

If you’re Martin, do you have a Marton?

[Jobyfox]

[Sol thewall Bamba]

The Braybrooke, Page, Doyle and Alves quartet is what I will give him credit for. Genuinely exciting, all young and crucially three are ours for the moment and we have a decent chance to snap up the other.

[Chelmofox]

There has been a massive change defensively. A jarring change when you consider what was happening before and what we saw from Southampton in the PL. McCarthy going long early in the game, throwing quickly outward rather than short to a defender. 
 

I don’t trust him though. I would imagine he doesn’t like this and will slowly try and tweak it back to what he wants. 

[PingCower]

41 minutes ago, JonnyZeroFox said:

There is an obvious change of style, we are quicker, more direct, seeing even some nice long balls played… certainly seems to be a change of mindset, the players look up for it and are getting stuck in more. Let’s hope that continues 

The quality of the opposition and the fact that it’s only two games means we should be cautious about the whole corner turning thing. Having said that, my problem was a passive tippy-happy play style, tactical inflexibility and not making the most of the players he’s got. In the last couple of matches that’s (finally) changed. Someone on here suggested we needed to switch to a back three playing with wing backs and that seems to be working for us.
 

I’d like nothing more than a hefty serving of humble pie, served on a bed of my own words and slavered with told-you-he’d-come-good gravy. 

[Manwell Pablo]

I mean, I don't want him to fail and have a long fuse with managers anyway.

 

But in terms of thinking of him in any kind of positive light because of last night and a home win against Doncaster, no absloutley not. When we are top six and not going into some games at home 3-0 down at HT, consistantly (i.e, not for four days) then maybe.

 

Even then, my posting has been pretty consistent, he may well get this division right with his football in the end (operative word being may), however the Championship will be a different story.

[Foxin_Mad]

Some of it is about momentum, there is still a bit of time yet before I think it will be clear if its working. We have been rancid for so long and had such a big change it was always going to take a bit of time, there are some positive signs. The teams we beat have been utter shite, however we have lost to some utter shite over the past few seasons. 

 

The young lads are a credit, some of the senior pros not so much. The issue for the young lads now if can they be consistently good as young players can flip in and out of form. 

 

I hope for our sake and partially Martins that it works out, I think he has been given quite a bit of unfair stick over the years, end of the day he is a person like any other trying to do his best, how he thinks is best. I hope for him he has developed and found some humility and pragmatism, because if he does he may actually be a very good manager. Football constantly adapts, currently the best team PSG are showing it can also be entertaining and technical at the same time. 

 

 

[ftfagos]

He may have turned a corner, we’ll have to wait a little while until we know whether or not his corner is just part of a roundabout.

[Sooper Steve's shin]

As many have said, the answers to the OP are No and Yes.

 

We don't have enough evidence to say we've turned a corner, but the last two performances have definitely been an improvement in terms of output. Despite some chronic failings at the back and up front, we have played some nice football at times and I don't think the way we've controlled games has been boring. We've got a good number of players who've shown they can mix things up or produce a bit of creativity - Alves, Page, Doyle, Braybrooke, Howell etc - which wasn't always the case in Maresca's team, for example (where we relied on Fatawu and Mavididi for most of the creativity). We've only failed to score in one game and, by any measure, it's still incredibly early to judge where we are - particularly considering we have a new manager and pretty much an entirely new squad.

 

Should we support him? I've said Yes, but I guess I mean in the sense that we have to support the team - we can't really want them to lose, no matter how much of a personal dislike or distrust we have for Russell Martin. He has the obvious arrogance that puts a lot of people off (me included) and a highly questionable track record that made many people not want him (me included), but he's here and he's obviously trying to get us up. To be fair to him, he generally seems to be liked by his players and there are several who've followed him around so he must have something. The style - more specifically, some of the flaws in it - will consistently make people uncomfortable unless we eradicate those problems. But we just need to do a job this season and then evaluate things for the Championship if we get there. I guess the ideal scenario for many would be that we have a full repeat of the Enzo season - storm the league and the manager gets picked off at the end of it by a bigger team (hopefully Chelsea go for it!).