What can Marti do?

[topperharley]

International break, we are bottom, 10 points from a possible 45. Offically worse off than when he took charge. In the post match interview he sounded as downbeat and out of ideas as i've heard a coach.

What can he do in the next 2 weeks? Nourry can be blamed for whatever but the possible solutions to this current shower of sh&t3 land soley at the feet of Marti and his staff.

What are our solvable problems, given we are not getting a new striker etc.

Assume all players are fit and healthy in 2 weeks time.

[cross it Dave]

He should show the players a wage slip of the average League 1 footballer.

[DJ Hooper W12]

Can’t change the team,so only other option is change tactics as far as l can see. Or admit defeat and find the door. Tbh though l don’t think any of these is the answer it’s a much more bigger problem. Where we are now is rock bottom I’m afraid to say

[Martinmalta]

The club needs to bring some solid free Championship players in. Starting with Hayden. Realistically, even Man. City will struggle with eight players injured. Pity that the most important players are injured ... Chair, Dembele, JCS, Frey, Colbeck. Need to say more? It would be different if instead of these players, those missing are Celar, Santos and Madsen.

[Stanfan]

I’m optimistic. We’ve had no luck on or off the pitch. I hope the players don’t read social media as it doesn’t help!

[ragr]

Presumably what we're seeing is Marti's preferred method of play and it's not working. It's not working because the players he's been given, or already had, can't enact those ideas particularly successfully and the clock is ticking. You could further argue that those plans don't work in this league, but that they might in Sweden or wherever. He can try to keep pushing those ideas with a less injured squad but there's not a great body of evidence that his methods were working especially well earlier in the season pre-injuries - and there will always be injuries. He can carry on ploughing the same furrow but it's likely to end up being an Einstein definition of madness result and can only end up with either he or the recruitment team getting their marching orders. The overall result of that will probably be relegation for the club. Or, he can change his methods - assuming he has that kind of adaptability both in terms of skill level and mentality. Sticking to your guns is admirable and is exactly what's happening with Russell Martin at Southampton but changing what you do is also an admirable trait in a tactician - no plan survives initial contact with the enemy. Marti has to change his approach, assuming that he's capable. We can't get a raft of new players in with Championship experience because - presumably again - we can't afford the premium that accompanies such players, which is why Nourry took the route he did and other teams ended up with players like Rudoni and Johansson (or even Bowler) as just two examples. I wonder whether Nourry sees himself as a revolutionary or "visionary" to use a common, corporate phrase - otherwise known as ######## - and has come in to the club using it as a springboard for his own future rather than use a sprinkling of that accompanied by some traditional good sense. Like having a full compliment of strikers and left backs for example. Maybe in January we can add some experience to the squad but it feels like that may be too little, too late going by the rate we are in freefall. The only possible flex here is for Marti to adapt and use what he has in a different way. It would be interesting to be a fly on the wall at HQ and hear what's being said and whether or not there's peace in the jungle or a very quiet war going on.

Personally, I think this time we're relegation bound this time and we're all out of punches to throw. Would love to be wrong, of course.

[Martinmalta]

Marti already changed his methods. Was going to Burnley and Leeds, plus Sunderland at home and have only 30% or something possession not a clear indication? At better times, he always insisted on keep pushing to win games. He cannot do this atm because of the many injuries and lack of quality in the squad. We were starting to breath again after three good draws, however the last two games again put us in a very precarious situation. Still time. However we need to recruit cleverly. Forget players for the future. We need expirience, the likes of Cook and Colbeck give to the team. Its about survival.

[daveshads]

Our best 11, I believe, shape up pretty well against a lot of teams best 11's in this league. But I believe the confidence of our players is shot. This is not a recent thing but Marti appears not to be a man motivator. I have for some time arrived at the feeling that Marti needs to leave. We must thank him for helping to keep us up but in hindsight, new manager syndrome seems to have played a large part in this. Our 4-0 win vs Leeds was achieved against a side at their lowest possible ebb. Leeds were truly awful that evening.

What to do post Marti, that is the question. But we have to get somebody who knows this division well and can get the players to believe in themselves again. I hope that, within the club, somebody remains with a modicum of wisdom.

I remain strangely optimistic.

[Abseits]

I could go on for 10 pages about everything that was wrong yesterday. I'll just sum it up briefly though: we looked like a team of 11 strangers who'd only met 24hrs earlier. No cohesion, no joint endeavour and an unwillingness from any of them to be spontaneous or react to situations.

It wasn't a "bad day at the office". Cannot blame injuries or Nourry for a team playing dull, unadventurous, cautious, timid football. Its all down to Marti. There were a few occasions of the ball ending up in no man's land, our no man's land yesterday. 3 of our players would dawdle looking at each other and a Leeds player would think "aye up, these clowns are asleep" and sprint to a ball they had no right to win. Really bad. Several occasions of players openly moaning at each other too. A collective shambles basically.

it's a complete failure of coaching, tactics, motivation, preparation and set-up.

Marti's had all season to see it, deal with it and sort it out but he's done nothing. Game after game it's same old same old. Irrespective of his contract situation I'd be fuming if he's still here in 2 weeks. The best thing he can do is call it quits - do what Ryan Lowe did at Preston and walk away.

[70sQPR]

As someone wrote earlier its the combination of Board, Manager and Players see us in this current Predicament. Agree with Abseits tho, in some way Marti has to make the difference (If still here after the break) as do we on Sat 23rd against Stoke.

[ragr]

Marti already changed his methods. Was going to Burnley and Leeds, plus Sunderland at home and have only 30% or something possession not a clear indication? At better times, he always insisted on keep pushing to win games. He cannot do this atm because of the many injuries and lack of quality in the squad. We were starting to breath again after three good draws, however the last two games again put us in a very precarious situation. Still time. However we need to recruit cleverly. Forget players for the future. We need expirience, the likes of Cook and Colbeck give to the team. It's about survival.

Those are fair points.

[Dedders]

He can’t control the injury issues but he does have to take responsibility for on pitch performance as manager - we can’t keep making excuses for him. His style of play just doesn’t work in the Championship - yes we drew against Burnley and Sunderland but single pointers aren’t going to keep us in the league.

What can Marti do? Walk away now and take Noury with him. What do we do after that? Who knows? We seem to have gone from calamity to calamity the last few seasons

[Sunglasses Ron]

Even with a fully fit squad, two points from games against Sunderland, Leeds, Burnley and Middlesbrough is realistically about where I would have us. The next two games though are where we need 4 points from 6 as a minimum, really.

How we go about it though, we have to change. What we have seen all season hasn't been good enough and we have to play a different way, even for the short-term while plays return from injury.

[pauly]

4 4 2 with a low block when defending, play our football only in opposition half would be is only other way me feels. I know celar has been poor but I'd like to see him upfront with frey when he's back

[topperharley]

I could go on for 10 pages about everything that was wrong yesterday. I'll just sum it up briefly though: we looked like a team of 11 strangers who'd only met 24hrs earlier. No cohesion, no joint endeavour and an unwillingness from any of them to be spontaneous or react to situations.

It wasn't a "bad day at the office". Cannot blame injuries or Nourry for a team playing dull, unadventurous, cautious, timid football. Its all down to Marti. There were a few occasions of the ball ending up in no man's land, our no man's land yesterday. 3 of our players would dawdle looking at each other and a Leeds player would think "aye up, these clowns are asleep" and sprint to a ball they had no right to win. Really bad. Several occasions of players openly moaning at each other too. A collective shambles basically.

it's a complete failure of coaching, tactics, motivation, preparation and set-up.

Marti's had all season to see it, deal with it and sort it out but he's done nothing. Game after game it's same old same old. Irrespective of his contract situation I'd be fuming if he's still here in 2 weeks. The best thing he can do is call it quits - do what Ryan Lowe did at Preston and walk away.

I completely agree with you.

How do you solve that?

Players like Colback coming back will certainly help, but we had enough professionals on the pitch yesterday to set the right tone.

I can only imagine it's too complicated or beyond the ability of our players, what Marti is asking of them.