Don’t worry guys. It was all a master plan to really confuse the blue few. Though to do that it really would have taken just playing decent football. We will be fine on Tuesday. 1-4 Saints
Your entitled to your opinion. I don't think there's much in it myself. Gunn has pedigree and great potential but as things stand id give McCarthy more game time.
Yeah there's part of me that would have been worried going into it on really good form. Sounds strange but this could actually be the better result for Tuesday.
Gunn is possibly a slightly better shot stopper however I haven’t seen McCarthy make calamitous errors like Gunn has done against Huddersfield, Burnley and Bompey I never understood why McCarthy was dropped last season and gamble on the youngster Don’t get me started on the full back situation otherwise I will be banned from the forum On to Fratton Park to exorcise this debarkle
This result will be long forgotten if we beat the Skates in the words of Redknob "foreshore" I suspect this will be the end of Ralph's experimentation with the defence, I think that he has tried to be a bit too clever with his team selections but they have backfired, but tbf last night was the first time we have been punished for it. Valery Bedders Kev and Bertie for me moving forward...bring in Maya or Vester in a back 5.
You're just relieved that you have been abdicated of the responsibility of the Skates match thread...... Who's the favourite for the job?
Yep c’mon. Who’s doing the Pompey thread? we need something positive to move on. _____________________
I could do one? I haven’t posted much recently so if anyone thinks someone else deserves it more just say
I suspect there might end up being an election for this one! I think the favourite might be OROW because his run saved us from the drop. What's your best run of matches, saintsfcfan?
We haven’t got time to fart around with elections! @saintsfcfan has volunteered, let’s have one ASAP please!
Clearly we don’t have a defence that works as a unit, yet despite that I would only blame Ralph for the first goal. Zonal marking just doesn’t work for us as an attacker, running and jumping for the ball, will always out jump our tallest defenders, who are jumping from a standing position. It’s made worse when players selected to stop the runs of the attackers show, week after week, that they can’t do it. We need to go back to man marking. The second and third goals were gifts, and out of Ralph’s control. As I said last night, Hojbjerg was at fault for the second because he didn’t track the runner who crossed the ball, despite having been on his shoulder when he started his run. Watch it back and you will see that PEH effectively stops playing and becomes a spectator, when he could have run with the Bournemouth player and would have been in a position to stop the cross from coming in. The third goal is just dreadful communication with Gunn probably at fault as he was facing the ball, could see the Bournemouth player chasing and as such should have taken control. Ralph really needs to decide on a settled back 4/5 and give them a chance to become a unit.
This last part is why I feel Ralph is to blame for all the goals. Too much tinkering. Players out of their natural positions. He has done wonders, but whatever his beef with Bertrand has led to disastrous results. Ryan and Ralph are professionals and need to put the team first. Ralph will be a great manager for us, hopefully, but at the moment he is making odd choices! When the commentary team are baffled by the team selection, and the opposition fans see we have benched the only player they all think would get in their team, you have to ask a few questions. Anyway, hopefully that is a line drawn under it. And we voted to lose that game, so we are also to blame. Stupid fans.
I'm not really defending him but I can see what he is trying to do. We are still a bit in transition and one of our trade marks under Ralph will be that no opposition can say for sure how we will set up and that makes it difficult for them to devise a plan that will unravel us. We can change shape numerous times in a game to confuse the opposition (and, apparently, our own fans). Unfortunately we came up against a manager who thinks very much the same way and he was well set up to respond each time. we changed. We won't see that every week. Personally I think he got it right at Bramall Lane. That said, Bertrand at LB and Danso at CB is a bit of a no brainer for me.
If we are going to play a RB at LB and a CB at RB we are not going to win much at this level. Ridiculous.