Interesting LTL, I had you down as a die hard Ralph fan,like me and I know we have all been extremely positive. I think we will be okay after tonight. Che awesome
I was, but I think the rot has set, sadly. If we pull out a stunner against Arsenal, and this result is a springboard back to ‘early Ralph’, then great. I’d be very surprised though.
Umm not sure you understood. I completely stand by my comment - odds of a bournemouth win were essentially 8/1 (if you believed we would sack after that), which was bloody good value.
Yeah, I have mixed feeling about last night, it was important to get the three points but I fear that the method in which we gained them might encourage Ralph to continue to get the team to play less expansively and be boring to put it bluntly. It's all about the style of football we play for me and I would rather us risk relegation and be an attractive team than watch dull negative stuff and just survive but that's just me. I do think we have the players to be more expressive but Ralph has been scarred by past results and has changed his outlook and style.
There is a chance that his fate might already be decided but this result at least gives a temporary stay. It seemed unlikely he would be sacked prior to Man City but also unlikely during a run of three games in 7 days. It might also depend on the arsenal game. Capitulate with a whimper and he might well be gone. Pull out a surprise and a good result against the top team? Who knows I’m sure Sport Republic are also watching the performances as well as the results. What I’m saying is I don’t think they’ll suddenly lurch in one direction or another just because of that win
Agreed with that. And I suspect the die may already be cast for post Arsenal (as alluded to in the excellent new Saints blog, Sportato ).
Yeah - whilst we showed determination and game management to see out the game I would expect the owners were just a unhappy as many fans were at seeing us basically dominated for the beginning of the second half, unable to retain the ball and then brining on a third centre back at around 60 minutes against the side who are on paper the worst in the league And a dodgier ref could have cost us two points with that handball shout
I thought we were very poor in the second half, despite the result. Most other premier league teams would have scored yesterday. Although I am very happy with the result, I’m not sure it was a big positive for Ralph. Now; the big question is can we build on it and take some confidence from it? Arsenal is a free hit but Palace and Newcastle will be a big test for us. Both are playing well this season.
Let's imagine for a minute that Ralph was sacked before West Ham and the new manager was appointed. Would we be happy if he secured a draw and a win in the exact same circumstances as what played out on Sunday and Wednesday? The answer of course is yes, surely nobody would be moaning. In reality Ralph has kept his job and overseen those games, 4 points from 6 is decent. A clean sheet against Bournemouth is decent( I know it's Bournemouth but considering how long we have waited). The fact that we have(for now at least) stopped the rot, albeit with some iffy moments is decent. I'm not sure SR would be too upset at seeing a team battling for the manager, fans, each other. I'm not sure they would be too upset at seeing Lyanco come on and have a solid cameo and did what was asked of him. 11 points from 11 is a good return for a club relying on so many young and inexperienced players, just look at the teams below us at the moment with their big name signings, Lingard anyone? The failure of not signing a top striker is not Ralph's fault at all, with that piece of the puzzle, who knows where we would be. Hopefully this will be revisited in January. Likewise the injury to Lavia is also not Ralph's fault(also not SRs fault). I would say this season was always about gaining experience, improving those youngsters and reaping the rewards in the future, either with big money sales or further seasons. We are on course to stay up in my opinion.
I generally agree with what you are saying. I am just musing on what sports republic might do. Perhaps he will get until at least the World Cup and we’d need at least one point per game When you look at the table and some of the sides with similar (and fewer) points than us (including frustratingly ones we lost to and shouldn’t have) it doesn’t look too bad. I also red something earlier comparing Everton’s appalling attacking stats to the sides with the worst in several metrics. And interestingly we still weren’t in any of them Sides like Leeds, Wolves, Villa, Everton and Leicester have had so much more net investment that us over the last few years it isn’t even funny. I think even the one window for forest blows them ahead of our net investment for something like 3 years On the flip side Brighton and Brentford are really over performing and doing well (Brentford largely due to Toney it seems). Fulham too. It’s quite mixed really A minor nitpick is signing Lavia and releasing the only reasonable cover and expecting an 18 year old who had never played professional games to last the whole season was clearly a blunder from a squad planning perspective. Suitable cover a DM has been a curious blind spot for us for years now. But it hopefully seems to have been recognised…
My expectation at current is that it'll be hard for Ralph to lose his job prior to the World Cup break, and also hard for him to still have it following. It's a pretty rational time to go manager-shopping, so it's likely to require a real uptick in performance (7 points from the remaining 4 or some such) to keep them from wanting to scratch that itch.
Based on one win with a poor performance? What happens if we lose Sunday, will you change to 'out' again? Not a dig, just genuinely curious if and why you think one win is enough to keep him in a job.
Not sure about that. I’d love to have ‘day one’ Ralph back in charge. It’s the scars that are the problem.
Or even project restart Ralph when he was able to take a step back, and almost start a fresh with renewed enthusiasm and passion following the covid enforced football break. That's what I was hoping for at the start of this season following all the new incomings in player and staff but it never materialised. If that wasn't enough to bring about the old Ralph and the exciting, energetic and successful football of the start of Ralphs reign or after project restart, than I don't think we can ever get back there with Ralph. One win, in which we still struggled against a really poor side isn't going to change that. I agree with a lot of what @lewebster said but still think we need a fresh start and so does Ralph.
