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Reply | Tactics, Squad, Mistakes
at 15:16 25 Nov 2024
You're right. Russell Martin does think he's copying Man City's style, but, in reality, he isn't. It isn't just about possession percentages; it's more to do with where your players are on the pitch. Key to it all is a central midfielder who controls the centre of the pitch, sprays passes forward from there and closes down any attempts by the opposition to break out. We don't have anyone doing that and neither do City now that Rodri's injured. The nearest we ever had to someone like that was probably Schneiderlin. Wanyama could also control the centre and close down opposition attacks, but he couldn't do the passing as well.
You're also right that we simply don't have the personnel for that style of football. [Post edited 25 Nov 15:23]
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Reply | Tactics, Squad, Mistakes
at 12:16 25 Nov 2024
It's an old style anyway that's been well and truly found out this season. Successful modern coaches are not going to use it, apart from, in limited spells during games, for players to take a breather or run the clock down.
Every tactic has its day until every man and his dog works out how to defeat it. |
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Reply | Tactics, Squad, Mistakes
at 11:53 25 Nov 2024
"But RM is trying to get a team of limited quality to play like Man City."
Nowadays, nobody in his right mind would try to get his team to play like Man City without Rodri, and as we never had Rodri, it was never going to be successful here - and I don't call finishing 9 points off the automatic promotion places in the Championship particularly "successful" for a newly relegated team.
But the truth is we never really did try to play like Man City. Apart from the fact we passed a lot and had a lot of possession, our styles were always very different. Man City's possession was mainly in the opposition's half; ours is mainly in our own half. They boxed the opposition into their penalty area whereas we let the opposition box us into our own penalty area- so, in effect, it's exactly the opposite. There was one chink of light yesterday though - and I don't know whether it was because Martin is learning at last or whether it's because the players are ignoring his orders - and that was the counterattacking goal we scored. [Post edited 25 Nov 12:05]
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Reply | 5 Things About The Liverpool Game
at 10:21 25 Nov 2024
1. I totally disagree. With the previous setup, Liverpool fans would have totally owned St Mary's yesterday and you wouldn't have heard our fans in the corners of the Northam at all. It was much better with the new setup. The atmosphere was good. [Post edited 25 Nov 10:22]
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Reply | Alex McCarthy
at 10:17 25 Nov 2024
I agree. His performance reminded me of those "Two good; two bad" sequences they sometimes show at the end of MOTD. |
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Reply | Russell Martin
at 09:40 25 Nov 2024
'Playing out is what got us to the Premier league'
It really isn't. What got us promoted was that, along with Leicester, we had one of the two strongest and most expensively assembled squads in the Championship, even stronger than Ipswich's. In spite of having that advantage, we only finished 4th, NINE POINTS OFF THE AUTOMATIC PROMOTION PLACES.
Then, in the play-offs our superior players went into cup mode, forgot about the sideways and backwards passing of the regular season, and then had the good fortune to come up against a Leeds team whose form had fallen off a cliff. |
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Reply | Is Anyone Positive About The Liverpool Game
at 09:00 25 Nov 2024
I don't think he's a 90-minute player at this level, but he played the best 45 minutes of his entire Saints career yesterday. Admittedly, he never really looked like scoring, but he showed a lot of skill that we'd never seen from him before, and he was definitely one of our best players in the first half.
I remember when we played Liverpool at St Mary's last year and drew 4-4: Sulemana was superb, ran their defence ragged and scored 2 goals, but we've seen little of him since.
On a positive note, it was an entertaining game yesterday, and, if not for the usual silly passing in our own penalty area, we'd have at least got a draw, like we did the last time.
If somebody could just instruct our players never to pass the ball inside our own penalty area, we would concede far fewer goals and get a lot more points. Just get the ball away out of the danger zone. It's so bloody obvious.
One other thing: our players need to be told to face the opposition's goal after they get the ball, not ours. So many times, a Saints player gets the ball and then immediately turns round to face our goal and look for a backwards pass instead of looking where he should be looking, which is at the opposition's goal. I know that passing the ball backwards is the easy option, but it's also a pointless option if you want to win football games. At least Tyler Dibling seems to understand that. [Post edited 25 Nov 9:28]
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Reply | Dibbling
at 21:09 24 Nov 2024
Yes, that substitution when Ugochukwu came on instead of a forward was one of those "Oh no" moments. |
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Reply | Russell Martin
at 20:56 24 Nov 2024
One of the Liverpool players said in his post match interview that they'd been told to focus on our passing around at the back as we made mistakes which they could score from. So, there was no surprise when they did. Of course, the manager of every team we play must tell his players that, and that's how we give away most of the goals against us.
What really pIssed me off is when our players were doing the slow sideways passing in our own half in the final minute when we were losing and needed to get the ball into the Liverpool penalty area. |
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Reply | Dibbling
at 20:33 24 Nov 2024
Dibling lasted OK. The problem was that at the end he was under instruction to play deep in his own half and defend. I've seen Russell Martin shouting at him, telling him to get back. If he'd been allowed to stand on the halfway line when Liverpool were camped in our half near the end, there was one occasion when we got the ball and a long pass to him would have seen him through unchallenged on goal to make it 3-3. Instead he got the ball passed to him near our own corner flag.
The one who didn't last was Onuachu. That first half was the best he's ever played for us, but you could see he'd had enough and didn't want to play the 2nd half. I'm very sceptical about that injury as I've seen him feign injury before when he wanted to come off. After all that shenanigans with the stretcher, he walked off without a limp, admittedly looking very tired.
Even if either of them was totally exhausted, they'd still make more of a contribution than Ugochukwu. It's almost like being reduced to 10 men when he comes on the pitch. Total waste of space. Russell's substitutions clinched the game for Liverpool in the end.
It will probably be best for Dibling to move to another club as Russell Martin is trying to spoil his natural game, which is to take on defenders and attack the opposition goal, not pass sideways and backwards or be an extra defender. A better manager will give him free reign to use his exceptional talent. [Post edited 24 Nov 21:12]
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Reply | Liverpool Game Matchday Thread
at 20:26 24 Nov 2024
Captain in name only today. Harwood-Bellis was the one shouting out the instructions and trying to organise the players around him. He also led by example. He could be an England captain one day. |
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Reply | Could This Be Russell Martin's Last Game ?
at 11:35 24 Nov 2024
Whilst most experienced Premier League managers would steer well clear of us, van Nistelrooy and Carsley would take the job. They'd see promotion next season and establishing us back in the Premier League after that as a step towards a job at a big club.
The thing is they are available right now, but won't be for much longer. |
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Reply | Could This Be Russell Martin's Last Game ?
at 10:56 24 Nov 2024
They must be bit thick if they can't see that the old possession style of football has been well and truly found out and that we need to play a more effective style in future. Successful teams now use a fast counterattacking style which is far more effective than the outdated possession style we are still persevering with. Successful teams now only use the posssession game in patches to run down the clock or to take a breather during games. [Post edited 24 Nov 11:00]
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Reply | Will Saints Be Cast Adrift At The Bottom Before They Kick A Ball This Weekend
at 19:44 23 Nov 2024
On the bright side, at least our recent form isn't as bad as Man City's. They've lost their last 5 games. The possession game really is sh!t unless you have a player like Rodri, who acts like a quarter back, spraying passes forwards from the halfway line to keep the opposition's penalty area under siege and then stops them whenever they try to counterattack. And there really is only one Rodri. [Post edited 23 Nov 19:56]
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Reply | Is Anyone Positive About The Liverpool Game
at 19:40 23 Nov 2024
The Dell could be a hostile place for away teams to play at. David Beckham said it was the ground he hated playing at the most because the crowd were so close to the pitch and really gave him some stick.
Our home record against Liverpool used to be good too, at least until the mid-90s when the terraces were replaced by seats and the capacity was reduced. |
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