Match Day Thread Saturday 30th April 2022. Southampton v Crystal Palace. 3 p.m. KO. St. Marys Stadium.

For weeks now we haven’t played with the full press and we have looked very ordinary as a result.
It’s the press that gives us the edge and when we don’t use it we are being shown up as lacking ideas.
And some of our passing today, when not under pressure (if you are reading this Che) has been fecking awful.

 

Weird response. I didn't think we were that bad at all, bar a 15 minute period around their goal. I certainly don't think Redmond did anything wrong - he was actually one of our better players. I know Tella is much loved, and he runs and runs, but he runs and then loses the ball. Redders, when he got the ball, created chances.

Lost to a stunner from Zaha, and that happens.

Thought Salisu looked much more like the Salisu we love, and even Bedders improved after a rocky first half.

Broja looked like late season Broja. Stu looked like the off form player he has been for the past few games.

 

One positive is that Salisu's throw ins have improved quite a lot. Caused quite a bit of panic in the Palace box.

 

Well, maybe on the odd occasion Tom but this simple cant just be the players, they cant be doing the wrong thing the whole time - i mean Ralph gets all the ****ing plaudits on here when we were on our seasonal purple patch, so he can take the heat when we are on our lengthy dog **** patch.

I simply cant accept this is all on the players as you suggest - he is literally paid to coach them how he wants them to play, so you saying they’re not doing what he wants is also kinda on him.

Not a knee jerk this from me btw, I will assess how i feel about the manager at the end of the season.

 

Spot on summary for me.

 

So making subs is all the manager has to do. Jeez, tough crowd some of you are

Surely he sets out the formations, tactics and ****.

Are you happy with results? Are you happy with performances? I for one aren’t, and doubt i am alone…

 

Of course I'm not happy with the performances, we know how we can play. But we still have a relatively thin squad after our first XI (talent wise) due to years of no investment. Whoever is our manager will have us sitting lower mid table by next season if they're not backed this summer.

 

Of course Ralph shoulders some of the blame, but as is often the case with you Billy, it's not an either/or situation. Life isn't about absolutes.

You want to blame everything on Ralph. Others want to deflect everything on to the players.

It's both. Move on.

Fact of the matter is, he's keeping us in and around the middle of the table with little to no investment. That's a hell of a job. On the flip side, he should, you would hope, be able to keep a team motivated to perform a lot more capably at this stage, and sure some of his line-ups and subs can be peculiar.

The players know what they are being asked to do, and largely not doing it at this stage of the season (barring a 35 year old Shane Long a lot of the time). That's on them. And by that I mean both their outright effort, but also doing things like passing a ball five yards (not so much today, but in the past month or so).

 

Oh ok Laces, sorry there was me thinking this is a forum to debate and share views!

Im not blaming everything on Ralph - how bout you go back and read my posts this pm.

Im not sure what you mean either - about being an either/or situation - Ralph is the manager and performances and results stop with him - you and many others, including me, have rightfully praised Ralph when we played well - but this playing well is largely in the minority and he should get stick when we are clearly not playing well - it literally is Ralphs job to sort that out. And Im not having this **** about he can only play the players he has and they’re not good enough, as he has been here 3 years, he has some of his players and others that are good enough. These are the same players who are good enough in the purple patch, the manager is there to get the most out of them, sometime he does but many time he is lacking in being able to do so.

But the manager does set formations, tactics etc. I just dont believe it is working so well with him, that is my view, we have had 3 years and yes improved but the base was so low after MP2 and MH. I think we have stagnated massively and can see us easily getting caught in a relegation (not this season) if we are not careful.

 

Well that was rubbish. Thought we played well first 10-15 of each half but poor other than that.

The manner of it was gutting but can't say they didn't deserve the win as I thought they were excellent.

Which is odd in itself as I'm reliably informed that all teams on the beach with nothing to play for are rubbish at this point of the season

 

We just don’t have high premier league level creative/attacking players really.

Broja was for a spell which really ensured our safety. Stu is when he is fit.
I think Redmond can be on his day, and Elyou imo is capable at this level now because of his work rate.
But tella is too raw, Long Is terrible, Adams has been upper championship level this season and hasn’t really kicked on, arma isn’t even given a chance.

IMO Ralph is doing what he can and getting the best out of a pretty average group of players. We have exceptional full backs and JWP, the rest are bang average. I think any manager would struggle to improve on “just above relegation” with this group.

 

No, fair enough mate, I hadn't read the follow up posts, I only saw the one where you were trying to get Tom to dig out Ralph and my heckles went up a bit. Apologies.

Yes, of course this dip is on Ralph. It's also on the players. They both share the blame here. I'm not 100% convinced by Ralph - I think he can be stubborn as hell, he gets line ups and subs wrong (as do all managers), and he can react too slowly to on-field events. The main problem of those being stubbornness for me.

But the proof of the pudding is in the final tables. He's worked on a shoestring and we're basically a there or thereabouts mid-table side, along with clubs that have spent shedloads more than us over the same period. So, y'know, he must be doing something right as well.

Here's my take - We're hopelessly inconsistent, and he can struggle sometimes to pull us out of dips. However, I think with the other bad periods we've had you could at least very often see what we were trying to do, and that if we could get it to click we could go on one our positive runs. The difference right now is that we're not even trying to do those basics, and the things that do give our club a playing identity, because the players for me have packed up mentally now and are on their holidays. That part is on them (and it's impossible for a manager to change that, whether they're Pep or Klopp or Ralph), without completely changing the starting 11.

 

He's taken is as far as he can with the players available. . Ralph tinted specs for some but we either accept mid table or push on. Our owners have to decide.

Out sung, out fought and out classed today.

 

Thanks Laces (you’ll always be Laces to me!)

So, sure i wasnt trying to goad Tom into that, I’m not even decided on Ralph, but you’ve hit the nail on the head here.

Some **** happens with player mistakes and that’s not on Ralph, far from it, and worse players do more of the mistakey things.

But, the inconsistency for me is more with Ralph than just being the players level - he ****s around and over complicates things, and not naming names as I’m not up on good coaches, but i dont think someone else would do worse, and could do better. i also think saying bout him retiring end of next season is a major issue and should have been kept secret - wont help with transfers with players thinking why come when they may be out of favour with another manager. I think it was a mistake to say it.

And yes, he does some things so well, and loves our club and i adore that about him, and that is why he is so bloody frustrating as he could be exceptional, and I think he is selling himself short being average.

That said, i think the summer will be the best for many a year for transfers, and id be happy (i think but will re-assess end of season) for Ralph to be in charge starting next season.

 

A team selection that includes Redmond, Adams and Long is going to have at least one of those under-performing. All three were pretty awful in the order given from worst to least.

We were crying out for a change 5 mins before they scored and how Redmond remained on the pitch for 90 mins is another 'Ralph Mystery'.

Again Ralph ****ed up the line-up and his game management was poor once again.

I have been pondering whether to renew my season ticket. Today convinced me not to renew my season ticket. We have been shambolic for weeks and l simply refuse to pay for such incompetence.

 

Push on to where? We'd need investment of 100-200m to "push on" anywhere further than mid table, and that ain't happening.

 

You've got "Redmond-turd" glasses on there. He was good today. As was Long.

Adams, less so.

Redders was our most creative player.

 

Shall I give you your avatar now or beginning of next season?

 

I think we can easily improve on most positions if we give our great scouting department some money for a change