It is 90% confidence which comes from less good results when the first team was stretched, it doesn't always change immediately after they return from my experience and I still think that KWP is a massive miss for us with Stuey. On another day in better conditions we may have got a result without the individual errors and we hit the post too. The bigger picture is that 2020 was one of the most successful in the club's history with these players and Manager so a temporary blip (which I think it is) doesn't concern me all that much because things can turn around quickly with a fair wind.
Maybe Ralph. and the club, are playing the long game: We're not threatening the top few places, there are (just) enough poorer teams than us for relegation to be unlikely, so we are biding our time until a mega-rich owner takes a shine to us, whilst making out that Ralph is tactically inept, and not worth poaching. On the other hand, this is a disaster, I've had it with football, we are doomed, there's no point in carrying on. Or somewhere between these two views.
Agreed no chance of relegation, but also certainly a season of missed opportunity.(Leicester). Looks like we will finish 12-15, when we should have been pushing top 6 after our start.Injuries and bad reffing+Brighton game apart) have hurt us. But we are too soft. We need a guvnor on the pitch to drive things. There don't seem to be anymore around, maybe a Steve Williams or Jimmy Case player
We can blame injuries We can blame VAR/referee We can blame young players having a rush of blood to the head and ****ing up We can even blame the weather. Steve Bruce had all that today and still took the 3 points. I know there are other factors at play, however in my opinion this weeks results are all on Ralph.
Ralph will be questioning many things in his mind tonight but one question he doesn't have to answer is about his future here. During this recent rubbish run we've had everything to deal with alongside an increasingly weaker squad. We have played some superb football this season but not with the B team so to speak. If there is a weakness it is trying to get the B team to play like the A team, that is an area which is worth exploring. But Ralph is the manager to sort that out and will. As you rightly said, we will recover.
No problem with doing that in the league match a few days later but I'd rather not throw in an untested player in our biggest match of the season.
Ralph has some hard decisions to make with a team desperately lacking confidence right now, and with very little to play with. So let’s say he drops Che next game for a youngster. Or even a misfiring Ings. Let’s say he starts Tella because something needs changing up (or some players need a hurry up). And say that goes wrong. You’re going to be the FIRST person on here complaining that he played Tella instead of Adams, and therefore he’s a blah blah blah. And yet you’re the first one here saying he needs to change this and that and the other. It just isn’t that simple. You can make changes and take chances, but usually you’ll play the percentages. Look at our options. They’re far fewer than pretty much every team in the league right now. That, far far far more than Ralph, is our issue.
SA. Yes the conditions were poor, but why did we not use that to drop a few defenders on their arse. I defend this team all the time, but, I struggle to find a good reason we could not get an equaliser today with everything in our favour. Somehow the players need to understand when to change the tempo if the game. For hugely rewarded players they seem to lack an intelligence if the game that the players if yesteryear had
Mistakes happen and Bednarek has had a week to forget. We'll get our confidence back but not in time for he cup game I fear. What disappointed me was the lack of urgency playing against 9 men. I know they parked the bus but we the tempo was lax. Credit to Newcastle, they battled and deserved the win.
PS - by some reckoning, Klopp is doing a far worse job right this millisecond with far greater resources. Maybe they should sack him?
One concern I have is that we come across as quite 'weak' team. Can be phenomenal when it's all going our way but when things don't go our way then they really don't. We rarely dig one out in those situations imo, never felt like a goal was coming after the injury today to me.
I thought Danny was really off it today. Hope he refunds his mojo soon. Completely different player to the player in July
PPS - what you genuinely could criticise Ralph over in this game, was urgency to move the ball forwards when they were depleted. That might be the downside of having ‘programmed’ the players to play in a certain way in order to patiently open opportunities up. That’s most evident in JWP a lot of the time.
Feel free to come up with an alternative if you're advocating sacking the manager. No one is happy with the recent run, no one is clapping the result today.
If we lose on Thursday, then Sunday can barely can even be called a league match. It essentially becomes the start of a glorified pre-season for us - and hence absolutely the chance to try something different, eg Salisu.
