And you think somebody else can with our budget limitations ? Sacking Ralph is more of a risk than keeping him.
Than Jan was not defending high when 5 minutes earlier he was and won the ball, this time he didn’t and we conceded.
I hate to break it to you folks but even with Rafa Benitez as manager we still can’t buy Alex Lacazette for £50m or Gabriel for £30m. Players win games and the best ones are outside of our budget. We won’t get relegated by losing to Arsenal in December. Were some expecting points here? With a number of first team players unavailable? If you were, I don’t know what to tell you.
I think that the problem is too many individual errors, both with regard to defending and finishing. You can ony blame the coach up to a point. I think the style of football works yet the frequent mistakes with finishing and misplaced passes undermines the team completely. I think that if we had Ings up front, we would have been top half of the table and games like Norwich, Leicester and Brighton would have been finished off.
About 20 minutes in, I turned to my mate and said, “This is standard; we normally play well for 20 minutes then concede.” Almost the minute I said it… …I actually stopped caring after the second goal. What really hurt was that Arsenal were mostly **** in the first half, and their fans knew it; yet they still went in 2-0 up. I ****ing hate football.
Life’s all about perspective mate. Last Saturday the Brighton fans felt like they’d won, we felt like we’d lost. Today was our worst performance of the season imo. But with Romeu and Salisu back I expect an improvement. **** knows why I bought a ticket for West Ham on Boxing Day though.
I love Ralph. But saints being **** is not happened in the last few games. We’ve been **** since Koeman left. We have **** owners. And compared to teams on our level average managers and coaches. Only one way that’s going. Didn’t think I would say this but Ralph for me has to go.
Surely it’s to do with expectations. Palace were a lot of people’s tip for the drop due to releasing everybody in their squad and hiring a relatively novice manager. Most on here thought we would be good as it was now Ralph’s team and less fixture congestion would mean the team weren’t knackered and could play for 90 mins
No it is not Ralph's fault! It is not the fault of the players! It is your fault Chilco, Tom, Brendy. Lincoln, Libby, CGT, Badger!! Got to blame someone. On a serious note if relegation is the outcome after several seasons of near misses could it help SFC regenerate themselves as it did the last time it happened (albeit over seven seasons) Hopefully it would only take one, a la West Ham and Newcaste whenever they have been relegated
Saints lost away to Arsenal surely that didn't come as a surprise?! Do I blame Ralph? No, this squad will always struggle against those who are challenging for 10th onwards. So why are some treating this as a relegation match? I want Saints to do well. I want Saints to win every match but the reality of the situation is we don't have the squad and we don't have the chairman in place to make this possible.
I think they could. I think we get a bit fooled by Ralph, nice guy etc, talks well, talks a great game etc etc, however he also has some shocking accolades against him. 6 League losses in a row (sfc record) 50 goals conceded away in calendar year (premier league record) still 2 games to go 9-0 loss X2 (premier league record loss) 23 points dropped from winning position last season 15 points dropped from winning position so far this season 3 wins from losing position in last 31 games when going behind Tim Sherwood said today that the most worrying thing was that it looked like the players gave up today, maybe maybe not, but it’s a risk for things to carry on as they are as much as it is to change manager. I personally think we have a better squad than a few suggest. I don’t expect top 10 finish, but I do expect managers and players to learn from mistakes that they make week on week. Tella saying that we played a world class team today, please, really? Then why does the manager set us up so open as he sets us up most games, but never learns. Not a rant, just my opinion.
I agree- we need to rediscover whatever the Black Box was and find another Pelle-type that you just know is going to terrify defences and instil a bit of faith and confidence in the rest of the team.
Maybe there’s something in what Tella said - if he and other players believe they’re playing a world class team it hints, to me, of a lack of confidence.(also, wasn’t young Nathan rejected by Arsenal?). It’s pretty apparent that several of our players lack confidence and self-belief in front of goal. Maybe we need a psychologist
Not wanting to make any excuses, but just worth pointing out that Arsenal have won eight and drawn one of their last nine games at home…that’s some form.
