I want to see us safe before the end of the season....hopefully whilst playing with some flair*...then give RH a full summer to show what he is about. *Nice, but not essential.
We could have had 14 players on the pitch yesterday and not got the ball off City. That’s the way it goes sometimes, against a side of that quality. Unbelievable that anyone would genuinely start to doubt the new manager, on the back of that.
Ralph has got us 2 wins and, as said before, it is wins we need. In our previous iteration we couldn't score and got a few draws....be nice not to lose at all of course, but it's 3 points from wins that will keep us safe. Time to grab the oars and start rowing.
It's only because he has been so outstanding this season that some fans are angry, almost any other player facing a suspension in the same circumstances wouldn't be getting half as much stick.
Not as furious as Pierre is with himself I suspect....one of those moments that you want to be able to go back in time and change things. And the FA have written to Charlie Austin asking him about his two finger gesture to the fans. Another thing we didn't need.
If course it wouldn't bother me that much about our other players, he is our best player. Just gutted he will miss 4 games, hopefully we will draw with derby so he is back for Everton.
https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/1...-sides-3-1-defeat-to-manchester-city/?ref=rss Report in Echo of Ralph's comments after the match....already been alluded to earlier in thread. The fact that at 1-1 he would have made several changes to chase the game, but decided to save players for the Chelsea game instead at 3-1 down. Managers live and die by their decisions, so am quite happy to have a thinking manager...may work out, may not...if you want guarantees etc. He said before the match about wanting to see everyone on the pitch rather than just in training with the transfer window coming up. Interesting that he was pleased with Ramsay and JWP...saw something he liked.
I didn't think JWP was great. passing was poor and seemed to be prevented from getting forward, which i think was more down to tactics so he didnt get caught out. but he won a lot of important headers yesterday which is something you don't usually credit to JWP, or more aptly he was in the right place at the right time for them rather than winning them. Edit: just looked at who scored and he had by far the most clearances as proof of that and joint most tackles. might be because that side was targeted. Ramsay had quite a few too. Prowse also had the most touches of anyone on the team. they actually have him down as highest rated player on the team which i was not expecting.
He looks desperately short on confidence which is probably down to the lack of match time he has had this season.
I thought JWP was alright actually. I had always liked him, at least you know you will get 100% from him. He does the basics well and is a solid player. Unfortunately, we have loads of average players and sold all of our game changers and match winners, hence where we find ourselves.
I think that Chaz is burning his bridges here, but it doesn't hurt for some players to fight back against the abusive fans, I just wish that Fraser had done so too.
Both Adam Leitch and Ben Stanfield had JWP as outstandingly our best player, given that Højbjerg blotted his copybook. This week’s Podcast is well worth a listen.
Does anyone know if we can recall boufal/reed/Carrillo from their loans? I’d be interested to see how they get on under a new manager. Boufal is ten times better than Elyonoussi at least. Could be alright for us if RH lays into him?
I think Ralph would love boufal's playstyle. He's direct and likes to win the ball which is what Hasenhuttl's about. Reed would be useful though i think Ralph likes all 3 of our current DM's so might be unfair on reed.
