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

There's investment and then there is investment! A La Everton and Liverpool!!

 

I agree that he wasn't great today (at least in attacking sense - which is primarily what he needs to be judged on; defensively, I thought he did put a decent shift in). And like you, I'm not yet convinced that he's a PL player. But I'm relaxed about Ralph giving him a chance in these essentially meaningless matches.

Generally speaking, I'd rather see someone like Tella on the pitch in these games than a player who won't be here next season, or a player who is clearly past it, or a player who we know inside-out in terms of what they can bring etc.

Would be a completely different story if there was any meaning to these matches.

 

The only reason I can imagine AA is so low down the order is a lack of effort in training. I know Long is likely to leave and Armstrong is (possibly) the future, but Long puts in work. Just postulating but it would send a terrible message if a player not making the effort still gets on the sheet.

 

Like MLT you mean?

 

Yes, but we had Francis Benali. Not much of a player, but man his influence in the dressing room.

Sorry.

 

Generally, that’s been Redders for the last couple years. He’s very good at not losing the ball, which is why RH likes him but going into the final third, turd (sorry but just rhymed). Unless it’s v poor opposition. I honestly believe there’s a better player in there but we’ve never been able to realise. Shame & that’s why I’d like to see him move on. Beneficial for him & hopefully for us but of course we’d need a competent replacement, hopefully improvement. Yep, tough with no ****ing £ tho.

 

Everyone tells me football at this level is very much a confidence game. Feel for him but if you’re right then jeez what a screw up purchase or man management!?

 

Ive backed Ralph to the hilt, but the Armstrong thing is totally inexcusable management for me

we are safe, broja is def not gonna stay here. So why not give arma some games. It’s ****ing ridiculous to be honest.

 

An alternative view is that today was a performance on par with the players we have and occasionally they punch above their weight resulting in a purple patch. They can't consistently play at that level because they are not good enough but Ralph has got them to achieve results despite their shortcomings. I think this is closer to reality than "we have good players but Ralph can't motivate them"
It says something when one of our best players this season has been a 19yr old Chelsea reserve. KWP is very decent but the rest (including JWP) are nothing special. This is a result of selling off players and not getting lucky with the cheaper replacements. I think it has caught up with us and the owners have some serious work to do.

IMO Palace were the better team all game. They moved the ball quicker, had more energy and looked like they wanted to win. Saints, on the other hand were slow, couldn't pass, couldn't tackle and couldn't be arsed.
I'm not sure where Laces got Redders as our most creative player from because he looked pretty uninterested to me and that's without wearing "Redmond turd" glasses. Fraser, although playing well for 92minutes seemed to be still trying to get down to Zaha's shot in the 93rd. The rest just spent their time giving the ball away.

 

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Yeah fair points, I thought Palace were better.

Id suggest though that if we beat a Burnley or Norwich that shouldn’t be punching above our weight. We have won 9 games all season (hopefully more to come). But 9 games, that is very low and I dont believe Ralph is doing a job no one else could. People point to MP2 or Hughes, those appointments were truly awful and under new ownership I doubt we’d be back to those sort of managers. I think Ralph is doing an average job, and its frustrating as I imagine many think he can do much better.

I wouldn’t be disappointed if he wasnt here next season the way I’m feeling today, but will keep judgement till seasons end, who knows we may go on another purple patch.

 

It's our squad that's turd, not you.

 

I love the fact that Franny has become a club legend for his never say die attitude (and being One of Our Own), but people forget just how, let's say 'ordinary' a football player he was. If he was playing now - ahead of Perraud, say -he'd be getting crucified on social media, and so would the manager for picking him..

 

Reading some of the comments in this thread which made excuses for a woeful Saints performance made me think that ,but for the fact that the internet is so terrible in St Mary's, they must have been watching porn on their mobiles.

I have to say that I have not seen such poor passing by either home or away team at St Mary's for ages. It was dreadful. I thought that the Long battled well but Tella was better at recovering the ball as opposed to going forwards. JWP and Romeu were ineffectual but Che Adams was non-existent. The defence were not threatened too often and Forster played well except for sme shocking examples of distribution form the back.

It does amuse me when comments are made about where the squad needs strengthening as we do have depth in the team. What I think is interesting is how many of Ralph's own signings are successful. Top of the pile is KWP. The best incoming player this season has been the loanee Broja after which I think Livramento is quality. After that, I would have to say that Perraud looks the next best acquisition. Of the others, I think we have squandered millions of players who are fringe at best. Salisu looked like the heir apparent to VVD at one point and I feel that he just needs better coaching to retain his form.

The other signings for me are problematic and I wonder whether their neglect is part of the problem with Ralph and whether the dressing room is unsettled as a consequence. I am underwhelmed by Che Adams as he does not put in a good performance too often. He is band average. Djnepo and and Diallo are problematic for me too. The former does not seem to have a future here but I do feel Diallo is another who could benefit from more coaching. The biggest problem for me is Armstrong. I cannot understand why we signed him given that he never plays. He has ability although I am not 100% convinced that it is sufficient to play at this level. As we have rarely seen him, it is difficult to judge. The crux of the problem for me is that Ralph clearly does not like him to the extent that less suitable players get te nod ahead of him. I concur with the comment above about there being an element of poor management on Ralph's part. If he is not part of the picture, I was surprised Armstrong was not loaned out in January.

I am wondering how many of the current squad are "pro-Ralph" and how many he has alienated. This could account for the recent poor performances. I wish Ralph had bombed out those players who did not want to be part of his plan in January whilst I also think that we have stopped pressing and playing at pace in the last few months. If you had asked me in January, I would have thought that not a lot needs to be changed. I now think the coaching staff needs refreshing and the players who clearly do not fit need to be moved on. With Livramento now out for the rest of 2022, I can see the squad being quite radically over-hauled over the summer with more players leaving that may have been the case in January.

The other point I would make is that I think the new owners will probably be prepared for Ralph to see his contract out but will have an idea already of who they would want to come in to take us on to the next stage. I am imagining that the board will not be looking to make a risky descision here.

 

Our expectations were lower then, we were MLT and a bunch of try-hards and Franny tried harder than anyone and his head never dropped

Ralph went and messed with our heads by making us so good .... occasionally

(Obvs Nigel, Ronald and MP1 started this whole issue)

 

Pretty much agree with this but I gave it a like because of the opening paragraph.

 

It's a toss up on which opinion you favour. Is Ralph doing a good job with a substandard team or is the squad good enough but Ralph is substandard? Occasionally there may be a cross over but in general I'm in the Ralph = good, Squad = bad camp.

I think your points regarding Burnley, Norwich and the number of wins shows how good our players really are because I don't think we are that much better than the teams mentioned and the performances bear that out. The fact that sometimes we beat them and sometimes we lose suggests we are at a similar level. Obviously others feel it's more down to Ralph and that's fair enough.

I can give you a small example of lack of quality in our players. When watching us against the better teams I've been impressed by defenders that even when under pressure, their headed clearances have still found a team mate. Our clearances quite often are headed out of play or blindly upfield to the opposition.
In yesterday's game there was a moment when Bednarek met a cross that was unopposed by Palace. You could see he was trying to head his clearance to Romeu but couldn't do it and we lost possession yet again. For a PL defender that should have been a simple job but he was just unable to do it. I know this is maybe unfair to single out Bednarek for one error but that sort of deficiency in basic skills is quite common across the whole squad.

 

Fortunately I’m in Italy for a wedding, so I missed the latest **** show!

 

I don`t normally call out players for errors, but Bedders was at fault for Zaha`s goal. Zaha had his back to goal and he was allowed to turn and get his shot away - shouldn`t happen to an international defender.

 

He was also happy to just stand there leave Fraser alone to try and deal with Eze's shot for the first goal, rather than attempt to block it himself. Someone like Tarkowski would have flinging himself at the shot.