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Yankee_Jack

Key Player
Ramsey's contract has been cancelled by Juve. Any takers? He'd have to take a crew cut in wages. If he is serious about being ready for the World Cup, then he has to be serious about discounting his wage expectations. Maybe Bale will find him a home in the MLS.
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
We are in for 25 year old, 6ft 4" CB Jacob Rasmussen it seems. Plays for Vitesse in Holland on loan from Fiorentina. Do we need ANOTHER CB????? If we do, who's leaving?
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
Here's the scoop on Rasmussen ... Jacob Rasmussen - Player profile 22/23

I would think that Martin has had a look at Darling and Wood and not been inspired by Darling and may be he thinks Wood is too green (I thought he looked the better of the two). Perhaps he wants somebody to play alongside Cabango in a back 4 or with Cabango and ANOther to release Naughton to RWB.
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
All other things being equal, you might expect the pecking order to be Cabango/Rasmussen then Darling/Wood. Ras is not going to get through international clearance before Sat, at best he would be on the bench. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out.
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
I read a regular piece in a newspaper regarding 'mystery rumours' and the latest one said that there is a Championship manager who, surprisingly, could shortly be facing the sack. Is it too much to hope that our mule, Russell Martin, might be that man? 🙏
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
Read that Joe Rodon is off to Ligue 1 Rennes on loan. At least he'll get games before Wales go to the World Cup.
Is he injured? He didn't feature this past weekend. Neither for that matter did James at Leeds. Are our players just late in their pre-season regimen.
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
I read a regular piece in a newspaper regarding 'mystery rumours' and the latest one said that there is a Championship manager who, surprisingly, could shortly be facing the sack. Is it too much to hope that our mule, Russell Martin, might be that man? 🙏
Here's the thing: what we witnessed against Rovers is a crop fully mature and ready for harvest having been seeded a year a go and cultivated during last season. Martin's Madness is void of creativity, movement, desire, problem solving. It didn't manifest over night and it's not going to resolve overnight ... even if Martin had a come to Jesus moment, confessed his sins and started to remediate. And, he's not going to do that. He's in an ugly marriage with his delusion and he's not going to walk and divorce from it any time soon.

For me, this season is already a wash. Best we can hope for is mid-table; worst is the worse possible. Each match will be approached with denial and optimism, and then by half time we'll have that sinking deja vu moment ... and the depression will deepen yet again. We will flatter to deceive. The truly weaker teams will succumb out of sheer boredom, impatience, and poor coaching. The better teams will play rope-a-dope, then blitz forward and kick our arse. The promotion leading teams will just turn us over. Although, the top teams may have their vulnerable moments as they're not going to park the bus. It will be last season all over again. Again, I have to come back to Andy Pandy, he was dire and had room for improvement, but he did a consistently better job and achieved undeniably better outcomes. Those are the facts and have to be the basis for comparison with the current regime. From an investors perspective, someone that say knows shit about football, a bad decision was made and the squad's overall performance and results (despite some arguably good acquisitions) has gone in reverse - it's what the data says.

It's not just Martin's Madness. What we witnessed was a complete absence of problem solving ability or even a hint that it is latent but shy in showing itself for fear of retribution. Whatever ingenuity is in this squad has been coached into a coma. And if it could get any worse, despite the mantra BS, this squad is not yet physically ready to play Championship football in any shape or system, never mind the "demands" that Martin's Madness supposedly requires. So, I don't know WTF he thinks he's been doing, but clearly living the dream is not happening.

There is only one remedy .... when the horse at water refuses to drink ... make dog food. It's going to take a clean out and reload in the back office. KOL takes the reigns in the interim. Somebody more "conventional" is hired. Here's the thing ... "conventional" today is what Martinez, Sousa, Rogers, Laudrup were 10 years ago ... we don't need to go crazy out on a limb with a replacement. Every coach with a brain coaches some flavor of Swanselona today, but they use it as a foundation not the be-all-end-all.
 
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ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Interesting to note that the coach who succeeded Martin at MKD made a far better fist of it when he took over. He probably used the good habits of possession and passing, and they ARE good habits, which Martin had instilled in his players but added his tweak of playing at a far higher pace and getting the ball into dangerous positions faster and more often. It's not rocket science. The more activity in and around the opposing box the more goals.
 

CroJack

Key Player
He probably used the good habits of possession and passing, and they ARE good habits, which Martin had instilled in his players but added his tweak of playing at a far higher pace and getting the ball into dangerous positions faster and more often. It's not rocket science.
And fixed the defence.
 

CroJack

Key Player
Did they do that by getting rid of Darling?
No. Actually the MK Dons manager inherited Martin's squad and style of play. They were probably more direct than under Martin but I can't see anything like that in the stats. There is a difference in set-pieces but nothing special. MK Dons scored 18 goals from set-pieces last season but conceded 13. The only stats that make a real deifference is Shots on target. MK Dons were top with 5.2 shots on target per game from a mediocre 12.8 shots per game, which means their players were extremely efficient.

Just one example. Accrington had most shots last season of all League 1 clubs, exactly 742 shots. MK Dons 589, which is 153 shots less than Accrington. But Accrington had 236 shots on target to MK Dons 239.

They had 8 players who contributed with goals and assists.

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They've sold Twine, Parrott, Darling, O'Riley, Watters, Kioso and Boateng. They are in trouble and now we'll see how good their manager Manning is. They've lost their first two games.
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
I think O'Riley was destined to come to us as Martin really wanted him but our 'owners' refused to stump up the cash. He went to Celtic and has been very successful there to the extent that he's now worth far more than they paid for him. Great foresight as usual by our bunch of twats! NOT!! :mad:
 

CroJack

Key Player
I think O'Riley was destined to come to us as Martin really wanted him but our 'owners' refused to stump up the cash. He went to Celtic and has been very successful there to the extent that he's now worth far more than they paid for him. Great foresight as usual by our bunch of twats! NOT!! :mad:
Yes. O'Riley plays for the Danish U23 national team and everybody here in Danmark says he is a real talent. He's got Danish mother.
 

CroJack

Key Player
Apart from Boateng, who is 26, all of the above mentioned players are very young. After spending a year together under Martin they started to perform under Manning.
It's interesting that MK Dons were top of the table for both possession and pass accuracy last season, which means they didn't abandon possession based football. They probably played it with more energy, tempo, and directness.

Not much is needed to fix our problem. Martin should

- stop using high line
- play players in their natural positions
- instruct players to either dribble, cross or shoot when they reach opposition third
- give order to Paterson, Piroe and Ntcham to operate in and in front opposition box and not on the flanks
- forbid our front 5 to pass the ball backwards
- send Cabango, Wood and Darling up front when opposition park the bus and put in million crosses, and at the same time move Obafemi, Sorinola and Manning to the back so they can use their pace to counter counter-attacks. Many teams do this during the last 5-10 minutes of the game when they chase the result, so why don't use this when opposition parks the bus?
- give order to our players to play at higher tempo
 
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