Some fans will never be satisfied unless we are punching above our weight and achieving european qualification year after year. That may have been achievable had Markus been around with Cortese calling the shots but fans have to be realistic and understand that with the current ownership we are going to have to try and compete without excess investment. Ralph has had an 11th and a 15th place finish which is probably a good achievement given the quality of the squad and I have hopes of maybe a top 10 finish now that he has the squad depth that we lacked before and it is still early in this season to judge too much. I would say that i'm happy if we can have a cup run and stay relatively safe from relegation and occasionally bloody the nose of an elite club.
Our current squad is going to get better and better. We will have a more than OK season and we will not get relegated. Kids today watch too much reality TV where people are voted off for the most ridiculous reasons. Southampton FC is not a reality TV show. Get ****ing real for goodness sake. Our board will not be sacking Ralph anytime soon.
And let’s not forget we sold out best player in the summer. To Aston ****ing Villa. I’d like to see how well Pep or Klopp deal with that sort of **** happening to them.
I suppose it partly depends on how one defines "better". I imagine it differs between people. I don't think there is a manger (who we could attract) who is better than Ralph in terms of their preferred style etc. In fact, I think we're lucky to have him. He really should be working at a higher level than us. (And if one assumes that Newcastle will be at that higher level before too long, I find it laughable that his name hasn't been linked with them, when you consider some of the names which have been). He would be more than entitled to feel aggrieved that someone like Ole is managing far higher up the chain. But if you look at it purely from a results point of view, I suspect a different type of manager would be better at extracting more points from this squad. The football might become horrendously dire - at the very least, it would be more defensive and more pragmatic - but factoring that in would mean looking beyond just results. Whilst I am convinced that Ralph is a top manager, I'm not wholly convinced that he's a top manager for our players. They are too limited for him. I don't think it's any surprise that with a bigger squad this season compared to last, Ralph's substitutions suddenly seem far more proactive. He has a wider range of tools available to him. I'm sure there were many times last season when he wanted to change things, but felt he couldn't. Subject to staying in the division, points are not the be all and end all, for me. I would much rather have Ralph and a slightly lower points tally, than a more pragmatic manager and a few extra points. Because whilst Ralph is in the dugout, I can retain hope of a better future (and in the meantime, not have to sit through horrid football from someone like Puel). Clearly the ownership would need to change first, because until real investment is made into the squad, Ralph's hands will be tied. The bigger squad this season has slightly loosened those ties, but they are still very much on and holding him back. In the meantime, we have to sit in hope. And sitting in hope with Ralph, I believe is better than sitting in hope without Ralph. I would only envisage that changing for me if I ever believe our place in the PL is in serious danger.
A very entertaining game. Once again we do well but don't get the results. I suppose its to be expected that 1 point instead of 3 has the Ralph out contingent getting vocal. For me its still a case of what more could the manager have done when we draw a game that we should have won by two. This is an incredibly competitive league now and if you are creating chances but not taking them then the tactics are good but the individual finishing is a problem. Burnley got a draw from a top drawer strike, we lost a win through 2-3 good opportunities that better players would have tucked away. To use a preposterous example if we have Mahrez or Grealish in for Redmond and Walcott we win comfortably. Any number of other players could have been used in that example but if that's the case then the same players missing chances for another manager isn't going to fire us up the league..
I posted about this a couple of weeks ago. Social media is driven by engagement not by whether the poster is in the majority. If I post on twitter or FB about how we played well and were unlucky and you post about how Ralph is ****house and he looks like a twat in the stupid waistcoats we all know which post will attract the most reaction and consequently it gets amplified. At least with a forum you can read a thread and get a balanced opinion. Reading here I get the feeling that there most of us understand the situation we are in and have a pretty balanced view.
Absolutely right. People will comment from both sides on the idiocy of a “Ralph Out, Lennon in” post (honestly, I did see one today) and it’ll amplify it.
You know what, I've just seen the highlights on the official site. You're absolutely right about today's game. I didn't realise quite how impressive the missed chances were, especially from Redmond. Today is certainly a case of the players ****ing it rather than RHs fault (still don't rate him mind)
The only vague criticism I'd level at Ralph today wasn't tactically or any of that, but I'm just not sure on starting Theo these days, and I would have got him off the pitch prior to 72 minutes. But that's it, really.
Just realised that I haven't yet said Chris Kavanagh's name. For someone who I usually rate, he was awful. Over and over and over again, he just gestured to Pope to get a move on. When a simple waving of the yellow card would have stopped it dead. Even after having that long word with Pope, whilst there was that injury break, he still allowed the time wasting to continue.
I wasn't even that fussed about Theo starting. But I did question Che coming on before New Armstrong. Found that very odd.
He was trying to keep the big guy/little guy dynamic. Armstrong is Redmond's replacement, Che is Broja's (as I see it).
Yeah he was very rusty. I believe he had covid at the back end of last season and suffered quite badly. This was his first PL game this season and it showed. Of course he refereed some lower league matches to get his fitness levels back up but they're nowhere near as intense as a PL game. Obviously that doesn't excuse him failing to book Pope but I'm putting his off day down to his long absence more than anything.
I actually disagree that we could do better by playing more pragmatically. One, our defense is fairly error-prone; sitting back and inviting pressure isn't really our forte. Two, most of our attacking players are rather bad at finishing, which makes the whole "play deep and nick a goal" thing more difficult. Playing on the front foot is our best chance of surviving, IMO.
yeah I agree and he’s in a position of adapt or die really. If he persists with Redmond and Walcott over Tella and Armstrong and the results continue to be no more than close but not close enough then he is putting himself on the chopping block. It will be the players that bring him down but that won’t help Ralph. I’m not saying that tella or Armstrong would have been a better option but loyalty could be what does him in eventually.
he pressed really well last season when he arrived but we aren’t playing that game anymore and he has offered very little else since.
Agree with that, although I thought his subs were off, and too late. Keeping Theo on, or even starting him was strange. And I’m no Moussa fan but him and Perraud played better v Leeds last week, so weirdly he changes it. How come? Better than last session mind, this season I think it was this game and Wolves where subs could have been better. I think Brendy summed up how I feel about Ralph, in he is likely better than we are, but hasn’t got the team to play his way. For me, I think you play to suit the players we’ve got, and we need results. Whilst the performances are better than Jan to May this year, it is still 1 win in 9. We simply have to win a couple of our next 3 league games, and if we don’t, that is the time I’d be thinking of a change. I do find it confusing reading on here how a number of people defend Ralph regardless, surely you can’t be happy with 1 in 9 even if we are playing better. I said it prior that I hope we manage it, I just don’t think we will.
