Martin Out

Don’t be silly. They are robots, not human beings.

 

This would be valid except no one else in the top 6 of the league is getting pumped 5-0 like we are, and they have all had similar runs.

Plus one of the whole points of switching to this possession based football is to save our energy and legs.. doesn’t seem to be working at all.

 

This is exactly it. For all the criticisms/comparisons with Ralph, if we were 3-0 down at some point, he would have changed something to tighten it up, even in his broken period, not just gone "this is my philosophy...believe" like a deluded Scottish Jesus until we were 5-0 down. It's all well and good changing an individual as a substitute to see if the new guy can bring something to the game, but to blindly "follow the principles" whilst you're getting pumped is madness. Stubborn, absurd madness.

 

Cardiff had a ridiculous number of injuries when we played them - something like 17 wasn't it?

Boro were so short on CBs when we played them, that they had to play a 35 year old central midfielder at CB.

Loads of teams suffer from injuries or fatigue, that's part of football. But very few teams, at this level, have the squad depth that we do.

 

Leeds got smashed 4-0 by QPR. Leicester were losing to bottom half teams. We definitely aren't the only ones looking fatigued.

The international break was hardly a break for the top 3 squads either, as they all have so many internationals.

But the squad rotation has been poor by Russ. Should have handled it better.

 

I never wrote that he was, so l am not sure why you would label me with such a statement.

 

An individual can certainly change a game, whether he started the game or came pn as a substitute. The point under discussion is whether RM is tactically gifted in his game management. I think not, and to suggest that a moment of individual skill equates to great game management is, in my opinion questionable.

 

Yes, let’s get Sir Clive back as well.

 

Quite an interesting graph. So over the last 20 seasons, relegated teams have gotten (auto) promoted straight away just 20% of the time. With another 7% promoted via the playoffs.

 

The League Two stat is surprising given they have 3 auto spots.

Getting out of the National League is the true nightmare though with only the 1 auto spot.

 

We were crap last year and are better this year. I don’t think anyone is judging RM on whether we go up. What he is being judged on is how the team has performed at crucial moments.
How he has adapted to those moments.
The fact is that we have not looked good in big games and when we lose we all too often lose again. We also haven’t won more than 3 in a row all season.

 

About time the national league got an extra spot tbh.

 

Be interested in the last 5-6 seasons as things have changed a lot in 20 yrs.

 

2018

relegated
W’Brom, Stoke, Swansea
promoted
Wolves, Cardiff, Fulham

2019
relegated
Cardiff, Fulham, hudds
promoted
Norwich, Sheff Utd, Villa

2020
relegated
B’mouth, Watford, Norwich
promoted
Leeds, W’Brom, Fulham

2021
relegated
Fulham, W’Brom, Sheff Utd
promoted
Norwich, Watford, Brentford

2022
relegated
Burnley, Watford, Norwich
promoted
Fulham, B’mouthNotts Forest

2023
relegated
Leicester, Leeds, Soton
promoted
Burnley, Sheff Ut, Luton

If I was to generalise I'd say 2 out of the 3 relegated teams tend to bounce back over a season or two but the third dies a slow death. Also makes me think that Norwich are a shoo-in for the play offs as its been 2 seasons.

That's cheered me up no end. Not.

 

Yeah I think someone did the stats at the backend of last year. Was a very high % in recent times that got promoted in 2 seasons. After that the parachute payments run out and it becomes very difficult as there will be at least 3 teams who can blow you out of the water financially.

 

That's pretty much what I was looking for the evidence of.

 

Look at Fulham in that list. Perfect yoyo team that then cements a prem place. Ideal way to do it!

 

Yeah it’s why I can’t get on board with the not wanting to go up because “we will be destroyed in the PL, we need to build a team first”. Whenever we go up it is likely we will get battered in the PL, and it just becomes 10 times harder if we don’t go up this season or next. Go up, get battered, come down again is worst case scenario and that means we get parachute payments for 3 years again

Look at when we went up last time and had a much better side, we still signed something like 10 players the summer after promotion. You need the have a good window after promotion regardless as the gap in quality is massive between PL and Champ. That has only got bigger since we were last promoted

We need to go up this year or next, otherwise it is much more likely we become a former PL team that is now just a mid table Championship team

 

We need to go up for financial reasons, definitely.

For purely football reasons I would love more time in the champ.

I think we will be spending a rather extended time here tbh.

 

Depends what you mean football reasons. If you mean no VAR (it will come in the Champ relatively soon I think), no “big team bias” I agree to an extent but the refs are **** in the PL and even worse in the Champ, bias or not.

If it’s because we are winning games and one of the better sides for not wanting to go up, we have maybe one more year where that is likely to be the case. Beyond that we won’t be unless we recruit very well on a much tighter budget.

I actually think it is possible we could do that, SR did well with Brentford on a much smaller budget than at Saints. They’ve taken the “throw enough ****” strategy in my mind and it hasn’t worked. If they have to be much more prudent with the budget I think they could recruit well