He's not the only factor at all, the players are massively to blame for completely under performing compared to last season.
However occasion after occasion last year our man Martinez was quick on his feet to make the correct subs and change our tactics and formations accordingly. Not seeing any of that any more, the subs today were useless and if it wasn't for them being pretty much forced we probably wouldn't have even made a change of note.
Possession is great but we actually don't even try to do anything with it. We are toothless, players passing sideways forcing us into bad situations and tucking in all the time instead of going out to the wing genuinely must be on the managers instructions. It's not like we're knee-jerking over this one result either, we've actually had a terrible premier league season and the win against Villa was the only convincing one we've had in the league. If that isn't enough to ring the alarm bells I honestly don't know what is, we are VERY close to a relegation battle. Have you seen our fixture list!!
We click 'a little' against a Stoke team. Stoke. At home, on boxing day, on the back of a 3-0 drubbing, under the lights... Not good enough for me.
This is what he is up against.....he made two subs forced by injuries. Why was that useless?
He has a squad in which no player is looking much better than the other....as opposed to a squad in which people came in and did make a difference. Perhaps that is why he isnt changing it as much? Just a suggestion but its a possibility.
I dont know what your point is about what we do with the possession...we all know we are doing nothing with it. We are talking about why. I think its mostly due to form/confidence.
I dont agree we are close to a relegation battle, but I guess we will see.
And yes, when a team is in terrible form then you can take a little hope from them looking a little better at he start today, and its reasonable to say the refs decision/McCarthys defending didnt help this at all.









