Agreed. He isn’t good enough but he isn’t the problem today. The last two games, we have hung the FBs out to dry. That has been the problem. We need to give them more protection and we need to stop them from being the only player on the flanks putting in tackles. Perraud and KWP are putting in tackles in areas where the midfielders should be doing it, which then leaves a massive gap behind them if they don’t win the ball, which teams are exploiting. It also unbalances the back line as the remaining 3 defenders get pulled across to cover the gap creating unmarked players on the other side. Ralph needs to find some players who can, maybe, play in a solid 4-4-2 until he can solve the problem.
Fair. There should have been someone else at a similar price or even a lower fee - but in the creative attacking role. I wonder if we feel burned by multiple failures in that position a certain price range (Boufal, Elyounoussi, Djenepo and probably others who I’ve purged). Hence trying to go up to another level Seemed odd to target someone who we couldn’t move for until the UCL was decided. That left too little time in case it fell through. Easy to say in hindsight I guess
Not embarrassing. Losing 4-0 away to City this season is nowhere near as bad as losing to Wolves (or Everton, or Villa).
Been really good. Funny that. First time Ralph’s played him in his proper position since he started improving
Should have been last week to be fair. This game has come at a crap time. No one is beating City at the moment. Sadly this result won't mean jack **** to the board
Even this statement isn’t correct. From my reading people were not expecting this. They were expecting a far heavier defeat. Lots of talk of 9. Sure maybe it was sarcasm (isn’t possible to tell from text alone). But I’m not convinced it was
Bit of both. The full backs didn’t struggle like this last season. Stu’s lack of defensive ability wasn’t such an issue when Romeu was playing. Today we looked like we were playing 4-2-4 at times. No wonder we were opened up at ease.
