Match Day Thread Arsenal Vs Southampton 11/12/21 15:00

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Two CB’s back from injury, the rock that is Romeu suspended, our best creative player injured, all three of our strikers injured, and a geriatric stand-in keeper.

Of course this is all Ralph’s fault.
 
I’ve backed Ralph most of the way over the past 3 years, but if we lose the next 2 I think a change is needed.

Things look stale on the pitch, we can’t hold onto leads and very rarely come back when losing.

Way to easy to play against, especially away. I know it’s not everyone’s opinion.

Managers Available.
Lampard, Espírito Santo, Koeman, Fabre , Garcia etc
 
Two CB’s back from injury, the rock that is Romeu suspended, our best creative player injured, all three of our strikers injured, and a geriatric stand-in keeper.

Of course this is all Ralph’s fault.


Exactly.

All of those issues, and we play 4-4-2 all out attack away at Arsenal.

If ever there’s a game to park the bus and grind a draw it’s today
 
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We chase their goalie and defenders around for the first 30 minutes; which to be fair looks quite good when the oppo is forced into an error. But that’s it. That’s all we’ve got. Soon as our front four get knackered we start getting played off the pitch even by average teams.
Sometimes it’s like watching a dog chasing a bike.
When he does catch it he doesn’t know what to do with it.
 
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No one has said it’s nailed on.

And in all fairness most lower clubs set up tactically to be hard to beat away at the big clubs, so questioning Ralph is fair when he plays two attackers and suicide ball every week.

Yeah, it goes back to the point I made on here a few weeks ago. The players aren't good enough for Ralph's style of football. At a bigger club, with better players, I think Ralph would flourish. But with our squad, I think lesser managers than Ralph would get more points on the board.

Whether that is a good or bad thing though, I suppose comes down to individual preference. You could argue that going down that line of manager is akin to doing a deal with the devil.
 
I agree to an extent. I was very vocal about my hatred for Puel and how boring he was.

But Ralph is suicidal. The way he gets the players playing, but with more tactical nous would be perfect.
I agree that Ralph was suicidal at Liverpool. But today we started really well. But at the end of the day we were missing 2 of our best defensive players. We were always going to be vulnerable today. I just think the anger of conceding in the 98th minute last week has washed over to this week.
 
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Two CB’s back from injury, the rock that is Romeu suspended, our best creative player injured, all three of our strikers injured, and a geriatric stand-in keeper.

Of course this is all Ralph’s fault.


Ah we're back to blaming injuries again. Getting it out the way early this season at least. Blaming the refs/VAR by Xmas?
 
Yeah, it goes back to the point I made on here a few weeks ago. The players aren't good enough for Ralph's style of football. At a bigger club, with better players, I think Ralph would flourish. But with our squad, I think lesser managers than Ralph would get more points on the board.

Whether that is a good or bad thing though, I suppose comes down to individual preference. You could argue that going down that line of manager is akin to doing a deal with the devil.

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I'm really not sure what people are expecting from Ralph. OK, he could have tried something different but no guarantee it would work (see Liverpool game). Without a new owner this is our level - mid to lower table. The way people are saying relegation is nailed on is pretty pathetic to be honest.
To be honest Tom l think Ralph could be doing better. We have one tactic we use home and away. We never have a Plan B, he cannot seem to make tactical adjustments or intelligent substitutions. Ralph only seems to know how to attack/high press and not set up us to be hard to beat, e.g. why did we set up with 2 strikers today - not one and put another holding midfielder?

He should be doing better IMO.
 
Palace will be a tough ask. Looked decent every time I've watched them.

I don't disagree. But we need points from somewhere. If you're going to lose to Norwich and draw Burnley, Newcastle and Brighton, then you've got to be targeting the likes of Palace.
 
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Last season we had a decent first 11 but no depth. Now we have a decent squad but no stand out players. As soon as one or two players drop out, the team collapses. Potential doesn’t win matches.
A couple of weeks ago I compared our squad to a building site.
All labourers and no master craftsmen.