Match Day Thread Manchester United vs Plucky Little Upstarts from the South Coast. Sat Feb 12, 12.30

MOTD pundits said exactly the same
Some people don’t like plucky little Saints having a go at the big boys

 

One of the things I like about Ralph is his almost Dutch-style honesty. We all know what he said is true (as do they), so for goodness sake!

 

It has been mentioned on several outlets, on BBC they said Ralph should have ignored the question and not told the truth! Double standards from our pundits. I am sure Ralf will take Ralphs comments and act upon them.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/60364671

No one will convince me about that stamp on Broja, Maguire knew what he was doing, it was no accident. The nonsense about clear and obvious doesn't hide the fact that it happened.

 

26 likes so far! Guess it resonates with everyone then.

Elyou’s transformation is the best one since Olivia Newton John showed up at the fair with permed hair and a *** in her hand.

 

Ralph says Ely took a kick on the ankle in the first half (McTominay yellow), and struggled on until being taken off after 70 minutes.

 

He's the one that I want (Oo, oo, oo)

 

On the radio they thought he would be coming off injured after that challenge

 

Since Christmas I have noticed there a number of Saints players are better than they thought,

Adams believes he can score goals in the Premier League
Broja believes he can make the step to 1st team football
Elyounossi is the player we thought we bought
Perraud is a top left back
Dialli is a quality midfielder
Salisu is a top centre half

If Tella, Lyanco and Adam Armstrong can do the same we will have a very strong squad.

The attacking football at times is incredible and the best part is that there is room for improvement. This team can get better.

 

Just watched MOTD from last night. I’m totally pissed off (again) that it was “United playing badly with no confidence” and not “Ralph and the players worked them out and played them off the park”. Having watched the whole of the game yesterday, which was a cracking game for the neutral, it amazes that they chose the obvious drubbing of Norwich by City, then the love-in for Lampard’s first win for Everton, over that Man U v Saints game. Then the highlights appeared to show that United were by far the better team and half of the press and great play by us were ignored, as was the McGuire stamp. Yes, they gave lip-service to “plucky little Southampton” but then concentrated on Ralph criticising United, which was A. True and right on the money and B. A direct answer to a question he was asked.
I give up …….

 

Suggested edit: "can and will get better".

 

And what he said is correct - better than anything they noticed.

BT Sport were pushing for him to be the next manager at Moan U - he said after the interview that they are basically not good at doing what they are asked of; The tracking back, the press, the fitness levels required, etc. They are a very talented set of individuals, but that is the issue. With us the group outweigh the individual.

"Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard"

 

I'm not waiting until next Christmas!

 

I thought Murphy gave us some genuine credit, and also agreed with Ralphs spot on comments re United tracking back. He also disagreed with Jenas, who felt the need to be precious towards United. Yeah, poor little diddums' not getting the success they deserve by divine football right, with this myth being sycophantically perpetuated by the football media.

 

I'm getting deja vu all over again

 

You're spot on, Dave, but the BBC has wider issues: Man City winning? Large following. Everton winning with new (ex-Chelsea) manager in charge? Large following. Man Utd not winning? Tricky, so we'll put them third, and show Man U in a (relatively) good light, so their large following can have their egos massaged. Oh, and the Royal Family are lizards, the earth is flat and the moon landings never happened (unless you count Wallace & Gromit)

 

Man City are going for the title (and the game had four goals).

Everton and Leeds are both hovering above the relegation zone (and the game had three goals).

Whereas we're stuck in midtable with nothing to play for. Sure, getting a point at OT (and playing well) was great for us. But I'd suggest it was somewhat less meaningful to the wider audience. Had it been, say, Palace or Villa who had drawn at OT, with MOTD duly deciding to give it top billing, I would be pretty sure that many people would be criticising the BBC for favouring Man Utd.

It was a draw, it only had two goals, it only involved one side with something to play for, and the result was hardly draw-droppingly unexpected - so third up seemed quite fair to me.

 

I think Ralph’s comments were accurate but, IMO, he was also offering up a defence for his mate, Rangnick.
There are plenty of rumours about how the players don’t like the training methods, the style of play etc and I even commented myself, a few weeks back, about how unhappy Rashford was looking.
Rightly or wrongly, I think this was Ralph’s way of saying that the United players were screwing his mate over, as well as being an astute observation of a defensive weakness.

 

As a mod, you know common sense and logic have no place on this board.

 

I thought that the reporter asked Ralph about his tactics and he pointed out that United are slow in going into reverse gear. So the comment wasn’t a criticism just an observation on which he devised our strategy. But bloody pundits eh?

 

A manager gives genuine insight into why he chose certain tactics and gets criticised for it. No wonder most football interviews are just generic bullshit cliches.