Ralph - Stick or Twist..?

[StJabbo1]

I thought this was an excuse we always mocked in other clubs? You could equally argue how lucky we were with injuries in 2020.

I don't think we will get a better manager, but this one needs to improve as well.

Bit of wedge to spend in the summer would help improvement.

 

[mowgli]

Best manager we have had in years, why the hell would anyone want him gone?

yeah it’s a bad patch, but every single player has improved under him

Ralph is playing the long game and slowly building a top half team. But these days very few fans have the patience to follow that long game. Fortunately, the board can.

 

[Le Tissier's Laces]

I want to keep Ralph but it is just as valid to say we are the worst team in 2021 as it is to say we were the fifth best in 2020.

Yes there is time to improve. I hope the 2021 stat does not last. However, over four months we are not the fifth worst team but the worst one.

Well it’s not, because one of them is a full year, and one of them isn’t even six months.

 

[Le Tissier's Laces]

I think that this is an intelligent post with some points being well made. Despite that, I disagree with a lot of the content.

The two 9-0 defeats were shocking but i feel that Ralph was only really culpable for the first one. It is really difficult to judge any team on the basis of this season. I would concede that we have been terrible in 2021 and am shocked that what seemed like genuine progress since "Project Restart" was squandered. There have been too many "non-performances" since the Fulham away game and the fact that a number of players had Covid will have manifested itself in how Ralph could have prepared the team for the game. All told, I am sure that if you went through the results of all the teams throughout the four top tiers of English football, there would be a high proportion which were "unlikely" at best and wildly against expectations. Who would have thought that Sheffield Utd would have been so woeful this season or that Liverpool would be so off the pace in their title challenge. I do not see that it is possible to make any judgement this season because Covid has effectively made the unexpected normal, I could be criticised in taking this stance as Man City look likely to reclaim the title in their usual, imperious form yet they started the season really poorly. Did anyone genuinely anticipate them losing to Chelsea on Saturday?

It is strange to read some of the negative comments on here about Ralph when as recently as December people were genuinely worried he would be poached by a larger club. Everyone was purring about our style of football and how Ralph had managed to coax the quality within JWP which had eluded previous coaches. I also agree that Romeu has been a massive miss over the last few months. Ralph's better performances have been quite stunning and I genuinely feel that he knows what he is doing. It is a high intensity style of play yet I wonder just how many of the players are able to understand what is required of them.

When it comes to criticism, it is always our defence which seems problematic. This is one area which does concern me. However, Salisu has been injured for most of 20/21 when, had he been fit and ready, I think he would have made more of a contribution. Bednarek seems to have gone off the boil and I think Vestergaard is probably going through a purple patch at the moment. I would like to see the defence tightened up and think that the problems which stem from the departure of players like VVD and Fonte have not been properly addressed. The criticism regarding letting Valery go out on loan is justified as I think we missed him after the transfer window and he would have been a far better option than the solutions we ended up with.

I will probably be opening myself for criticism in making this comment but I genuinely feel that we have not seen the full potential of Ralph. It still seems like early days with him for me. I concede that he is not in the calibre of Poch or Koeman but the club is going in the right direction. We are starting to see some younger players make an impact. At the moment, we have a manager who inherited a poor and dispirited side and players he had largely inherited. I still think that we are a handful of players short of achieving our potential but the squad is not as poor as has been made out. For twelve months he has had to inspire a team that has been bereft of support from the terraces and similarly coach them throughout the week in a fashion dictated by social distancing. I appreciate that this is the same for every manager yet I am staggered that some people on here are calling for his head. The board have never properly backed him in the transfer market and, in the circumstances, the signings that have been made genuinely look like they will be an improvement albeit the may not bear fruit until next season. I appreciate that the lows have been spectacularly bad during his tenure yet it is surprising to find any team fully motivated and not mentally drained at the end of what most be a dispiriting season for footballers playing at all levels.

Agree with every word, except I think Ralph is better than Koeman.

 

[mowgli]

Bit of wedge to spend in the summer would help improvement.

The commercial deals with Hummel and the shirt sponsor will undoubtedly help.

 

[Le Tissier's Laces]

7th Last year on form, 20th this year on form. That is sacking territory for any other manager.

Espírito Santo would be gone with you in charge too then. Bit daft when you look at it like that?

And no, across 2020 we were the fifth best.

 

[Saints Fan4Life]

Ralph is playing the long game and slowly building a top half team. But these days very f fans have the patience to follow that long game. Fortunately, the board can.

Agreed.

As much as it pains me to say, but look how long it took Klopp and Liverpool to get a team worthy of competing? We are very much on a similar trajectory in my opinion (not that we'll be competing for league titles, mind!!

Yes, it's frustrating in the short term (and my god has it been **** lately!), but I can see a bigger picture too.

Just gotta hold the nerve and keep backing Ralph.

 

[Schad]

In fairness to Ralph (and my goodness, as you say, he's far from perfect), he did make those subs we've cried out for pretty early yesterday, but they made bugger all difference.

I think the loss of Oriol is far bigger than we anticipated (though I think Diallo has the makings of a very good player).

The point that worries me most, and I mentioned it yesterday, is this nervy mindset and the immediate compulsion to play things safe. I do think it was part of the tactic yesterday as we were trying to constrict them (which worked to a greater extent, but nullified us as an attacking force) and hit them with a set piece/on the break. It's typified by JWP, but you saw it in the previously dynamic Diallo too. We need that knocked out of the players, and they need to be braver and more progressive. Redmond's comments were really interesting after the Bournemouth game, saying that Ralph had been encouraging him to take players on and run with the ball, but he hadn't been doing it and he "didn't know why", which makes me think it's not a tactic that Ralph has been extolling, it's a weakness and fear in the players mindsets.

Now should Ralph be good enough to get more into their heads to fix that? Yes, probably. And that needs addressing.

Sorry, slightly rambling post, but there we go.

This is probably going to be an unpopular statement, but...at some point, we may need to move JWP on in order to be the team Ralph wants us to be. It's not that he's the primary problem by any stretch, and playing as we have for the past four months we have desperately needed his set pieces, but when your team captain and midfield distributor tends to play with caution as a priority, so too does the rest of the team.

That's a hugely risky proposition though, because we could well end up with no more forward momentum and no set piece wizardry...

 

[Le Tissier's Laces]

This is probably going to be an unpopular statement, but...at some point, we may need to move JWP on in order to be the team Ralph wants us to be. It's not that he's the primary problem by any stretch, and playing as we have for the past four months we have desperately needed his set pieces, but when your team captain and midfield distributor tends to play with caution as a priority, so too does the rest of the team.

That's a hugely risky proposition though, because we could well end up with no more forward momentum and no set piece wizardry...

Sort of agree, but then you look again him playing for England in a more advanced position and he looks like the player we might need. Which, in this instance, is with Ralph.

 

[Schad]

Sort of agree, but then you look again him playing for England in a more advanced position and he looks like the player we might need. Which, in this instance, is with Ralph.

It's a bit tough to say, simply because he hasn't really seen much action with England against good competition. It could well be that JWP is acutely aware that there isn't much of a screen behind him, but in that instance you'd expect it to be better when he plays alongside Romeu (and thus serves as the more attack-minded CM), but it doesn't seem to really alter matters.

There is an argument to be made that, at times when our players aren't up to pressing at full strength, we'd be best-served with a midfield three in order to attack the ball closer to the center circle rather than pressing defenders, allowing JWP to play a more advanced role...but we'd need to actually have three central midfielders fit to do that, which apparently is not a thing.

 

[ChilcoSaint]

Sort of agree, but then you look again him playing for England in a more advanced position and he looks like the player we might need. Which, in this instance, is with Ralph.

Until we get Romeu back, and then James could be moved further forward.

 

[RSS]

Until we get Romeu back, and then James could be moved further forward.

In theory, and yet they have played a lot of games together this season and for some reason JWP was the one sitting back and Romeu the one driving forward. Bizzare.

 

[ChilcoSaint]

In theory, and yet they have played a lot of games together this season and for some reason JWP was the one sitting back and Romeu the one driving forward. Bizzare.

Sorry, I meant Diallo and Romeu at CM, with JWP as a 10.

 

[RSS]

Sorry, I meant Diallo and Romeu at CM, with JWP as a 10.

Ah yes! It would be nice if they stopped tag teaming and we could see the dynamics of a midfield 3. Though such is our lack of depth it would leave us with no senior CM on the bench. I'd like Ralph to mix it up a bit more now. Why not try Diallo, Jankewitz and JWP as a 3? I'd like to see Tella get a run of games too. Maybe we should wait until we get another win, but hey, maybe it would help us get that win because the current status quo of formation, players and style isn't working.

 

[Le Tissier's Laces]

Sorry, I meant Diallo and Romeu at CM, with JWP as a 10.

Yeah, I'd like to see that.

 

[tomw24]

Yeah, I'd like to see that.

Yeah I called for that on the thread/poll you created several weeks ago.

 

[LincolnSaint]

Agree with every word, except I think Ralph is better than Koeman.

Come on mate!

I know there's fully signed up to the cult of Ralph posters on here but on any measure how is Ralph better than Ron?

Ralph has had us flirting with relegation each season he's been in charge. He's managed to get equal the record for the worst ever Premier league defeat twice!! A record which had stood and hadn't been equaled since 1995. Ralph has managed that home and away. He's overseen the worst run of results in our history. We couldn't beat a team who were down to 9 ****ing men! Our game is one dimensional and predictable, and dare I say it, ****ing boring. Sideways pass, sideways pass, backwards, giving the opposition ample opportunity to get back and defend, counter attack against us and score. He can't organise a defence and sure as **** can't coach them. I no longer feel confident about going into a game under his leadership. Every record he has set with Saints has been negative.

(He did however win us the top in October for 23 hrs trophy.)

Compare with Ron
Winning games scoring 5, 6, 8 goals in the process. Placing high enough in the league that we were playing European football. Walking into St Mary's and no matter what the opposition thinking we could beat them. Playing some genuinely exciting dynamic football.

Ralph is worse than Puel, marginally better than Pellegrino. He's basically Hughes with a personality

Crying when we beat Liverpool was genius. It has fans desperately clawing at ways to defend him because they believe he cares. Football is a results business, and all the excuses in the world doesn’t change the fact that he's not getting them. Any other team would have sacked him, everyone here seems to think that's because the club/Players believe in him. We can't afford to sack and replace him

 

[ChilcoSaint]

Come on mate!

I know there's fully signed up to the cult of Ralph posters on here but on any measure how is Ralph better than Ron?

Ralph has had us flirting with relegation each season he's been in charge. He's managed to get equal the record for the worst ever Premier league defeat twice!! A record which had stood and hadn't been equaled since 1995. Ralph has managed that home and away. He's overseen the worst run of results in our history. We couldn't beat a team who were down to 9 ****ing men! Our game is one dimensional and predictable, and dare I say it, ****ing boring. Sideways pass, sideways pass, backwards, giving the opposition ample opportunity to get back and defend, counter attack against us and score. He can't organise a defence and sure as **** can't coach them. I no longer feel confident about going into a game under his leadership. Every record he has set with Saints has been negative.

(He did however win us the top in October for 23 hrs trophy.)

Compare with Ron
Winning games scoring 5, 6, 8 goals in the process. Placing high enough in the league that we were playing European football. Walking into St Mary's and no matter what the opposition thinking we could beat them. Playing some genuinely exciting dynamic football.

Ralph is worse than Puel, marginally better than Pellegrino. He's basically Hughes with a personality

Crying when we beat Liverpool was genius. It has fans desperately clawing at ways to defend him because they believe he cares. Football is a results business, and all the excuses in the world doesn’t change the fact that he's not getting them. Any other team would have sacked him, everyone here seems to think that's because the club/Players believe in him. We can't afford to sack and replace him

Ron was able to put together a great team only because we had just sold Lallana, Lovren, Shaw & co. for big bucks. The only comparable sale since then was Virgil, and that money was squandered long before Ralph got here, with Ralph still lumbered with all that dead wood, mostly out on loan now. Give Ralph the equivalent of Koeman’s resources and then you can legitimately compare their abilities.

 

[Saintmagic]

Koeman is a bang average manager which he has proven at every club he has been at except for Saints where he did well.

I think a big part of the reason he did so well was because of the hangover from the black box days with Paul Mitchell meaning we recruited very well with the large amount of money we had at the time.

No denying that he has done better that Hassenhuttl has done in his time here but I think it is really hard to compare managerial ability when you take in all the factors

 

[Schad]

Yeah, I'd like to see that.

Think we're all broadly in agreement here. I like the 4-2-4 with us pressing from the front, but it only works if our players can actually sustain it; we're still pressing, but nowhere near with the consistency, and our transitions when taking possession have slowed. As the season progresses, a 4-3-3 (or 4-2-3-1 or whatever you want to call it) where we put the clamps on high in midfield might work better, though it would definitely ask a lot of JWP as the man to facilitate.