You make some very realistic & fair points. I didn’t manage to get on here until we were 2-0 down. I said before the game, win or lose, don’t draw but reading this is pretty hard. Not sure what RH was trying to figure using 5 at the back again? Maybe he feels it has some legs to develop further but he’s definitely not doing himself any favours. I couldn’t work out the 1 up front vs Watford nor the formation against Chelsea. Arsenal sort of worked but could have easily gone tits up. Yep I’m ok with putting a bit of pressure on Everton but expected at least a performance. Again, I appreciate the beach vs fighting for lives argument but it’s wearing very thin. It’s RH’s job & of course the players to be motivated & both are failing enormously. I’ll be still on holiday for CP so at least I won’t be tormented with that; however it goes. Edit; Just heard RH’s post match comments. Sounded quite disappointed & kept referring to our lack of bravery. Hard not to like him but he is the manager.
Yes of course, just support City or Liverpool! I really didn't think of that I don't expect us to win every week- I expect them to try. I expect not to get a massive tonking every sodding season, and I expect the manager to change things up when things aren't going well. Proper princess, with those standards eh?
Agreed, but surely it his job to get the players to turn up. I loved his high pressing tactic. But when was the last time he got it right and we played that style. I don't think he can do defensive doggedness and maybe he needs to go back to the high press and attacking intent, because the current wayof playing is going now where
Oh well, we made the dogfight a little more interesting. I don’t want Burnley to go down, they’re the 90’s Saints of today.
Your posts would suggest that you do expect us to win every week. Your expectations of the manager and the team are totally misaligned with reality
Our issue is less that we play poorly relative to our talent level, but that we're high-variance. Thing is, being high-variance as a team with a middling base of talent isn't necessarily bad. We're underperforming our xG/xGA (narrowly), which is a good thing looking forward: we're getting unlucky* and are comfortably mediocre, rather than there being strong signals that we're getting much better results than we merit. *Read: most of our squad can't ****ing finish.
I can understand the sentiment in this post but I am not convinced that the fault rests with Ralph and that the players are more culpable. I was listeing on the radio last night but missed alot of the commentary as a friend rang up but what I did catch seemed perfectly summed up by Dave Merrington as our Jeckyll and Hyde mentality. As i said back in January, I thought we were a few players short of a good side and seemed to be demonstrating that the squad had depth. With the passage of the last few months, there seem to be too many players on the sidelines which strikes me as odd. I am not sure why Alan Armstrong has been cast aside. He does not seem to fit into any future plans. Redmond only seems to make cameo apperances and has not scored in the Prem for 12 months. Perraud has been used too sparingly. Tella look promising until injury took him out of the equation. I feel Diallo is unlikely to replace Romeo in the squad. On top of this key players like Stuart Armstrong., JWP, Bednarek, Livramento and Adams all seem to have gone off the boil. Using Broja as the sole striker makes him ineffectual. Some of the players who have come in have been inconsistant. I cannot make my mind up about Elyounoussi and the love in for Lyanco seems misplaced. I think that the team needs refreshing. I am less convinced that we need to ditch Ralph although, by the same token, there seems to be an underlying problem there somewhere. The alienation of Alan Armstrong strikes me as odd having forked out the money for him. There have been a number of signings who have not really been successful such as Djnepo,Lyanco, Diallo, Armstrong and even Che Adams who have been bought by Ralph. We have a 50-50 success rate with our signings. The priority for me next season would be for the players who are not committed to be bombed out and replaced with a Jimmy Case type leader and maybe forward - a second striker will be required if Broja is not retained. I think I will be more confident of judging Ralph and seeing how he manages to address the issues which have dogged his tenure. There are too many poor matches and we seem to blow hot and cold too often. He should get next season to sort things out. A series of poor results in 22/23 would make me reconsider. However, I am more of the opinion that he does not have the players at his disposal to carry out his vision.
Disappointed of course but agree with the majority that Ralph will be managing next season. What the new regime will bring during the summer remains to be seen. Not just the players but in the coaching staff.
Sometimes good and sometimes not so is ok but our ability to be really crap and crumble mentally is something we need to stop next season. Its very difficult to watch and people will stop wanting to watch it. Burnley could have won this by a lot more
I think with Ralph and current finances we need to accept we will always be a lower mid table side. Not in real threat of relegation but never likely to be best of the rest. It’s hard to say how much better Ralph would do with a bigger budget. It’s also impossible to tell whether a replacement would do better with the current. We are where we are. Ralph has really shored up the ship since Hughes, “interesting possibilities” and “difficult moments” and I don’t want him to go. But if the club decided that things had run their course I wouldn’t completely disagree.
A lot of people keep going on about our finances. You do all know that Gao is no longer part of us? We have been bought out? We won't be a Newcastle or even a West Ham, but we are one of the financially better placed teams and no longer have to sell to buy. We have to be sensible yes, but we are not paupers.
This. People are just using the argument that we still have to sell to buy to justify their opinion that Ralph needs to go, not because it's accurate.
'No longer have to sell to buy' I think that's yet to be proven tbh and I've seen nothing to even strongly suggest that as of yet.
It's yet to be proven because we haven't had a summer transfer window yet. The fact we were in talks with Chelsea for Broja suggests we don't need to sell to buy however.
Agreed to be proven, but Toby Steele has come out and said exactly this and he has been pretty open with us over the last few years.
This is how I feel, the overall level of performance since the Villa match has been well below acceptable especially against Chelsea and Burnley apart from Fraser and there are no valid excuses to justify it. The squad have proved that they can compete and play at a much higher standard to which they are currently and that is why this current run is so frustrating. We could've easily conceded 20 goals in the last 3 matches and that is worrying moving forward. The priority in the Summer must be to sign a CB leader to organise the backline on the pitch and possibly bring in a new defensive coach too and review our team psychology as we are weak in that area.
