Liam will be back on the bench for the next game and the game after and the game after....... Oh, well, as the saying goes, "you can't educate pork." And let's not forget, we still haven't won in SEVEN games so maybe Martin might relent and give him a chance. Some stats:
POSSESSION: 30-70 SHOTS: 17-17 OT: 9-7 CORNERS: 5-3 FOULS: 11-12 GOALS: 3-3
Look at the shots. What are Martin's analysts doing? Isn't someone telling him that they had the same number as us despite having had way less than half of the ball? It shows that our laboured snail-paced style of play, our pointless passing for the sake of it, does nothing other than boost our possession stats. It does NOT, repeat NOT, result in creating more shots at goal (or goals) than other more direct ways of playing. I'm not suggesting hoof ball, far from it, but we rarely seem to use one pass, or through ball, to create a dangerous situation when six or more will do. All it does is allow opposing defences to get organised and snuff out our attack.
The whole world, especially rival teams, have known for some time that they can allow us to faff about in defence and midfield before we make a mistake or lose the ball allowing them to counter when we are completely out of shape. I despair, I honestly do. This is so BASIC I'm at a complete loss to understand why we still do it!!! Maybe Russell's own staff are too reticent to tell him what he's doing wrong BUT there are the likes of Trunds, Curt, Leon and KOL who can surely have a discreet word. After all, they do have far more experience than he does or any of his assistant coaches.