Match Day Thread Wolverhampton Wanderers v Southampton, Saturday 19 October 3pm

Vesty gets caught flat footed sometimes, but he's still adapting to this league. And whilst by and large I am a proponent of the "just get it away" school of defending, I don't really think that's how modern players are coached.

Yoshi used to be the occasional weak link in a solid defence. Now he's the solid dependable one in an error prone defence. What's really changed imo is the players around him.

 

Defence was my priority to upgrade over the summer and we certainly seemed to have not done that. if we can just cut out these stupid mistakes then we would be half decent i think.
Entire team just seems low on confidence and panicky

 

Which is largely why it feels like we're asking Ralph to do his job with his hands tied behind his back. I'm absolutely convinced that Ralph doesn't want to play three CBs, but he keeps on finding himself with little alternative.

That Ralph improved us last season without making a signing is another reason why it feels like a missed opportunity. What could he do with a decent, rounded squad? But that said, it was hardly a stellar 6 months. We still took a total of one point from Cardiff home, Cardiff away, Huddersfield home, and Newcastle away, for example. And, moreover, we aren't the only ones to have improved since last November. Brighton, Leicester, and West Ham (at a minimum) I would suggest are all better now, through a combination of managerial changes and new signings. Not to mention the fact that so far there are no signs of a Huddersfield or Fulham from last season, or WBA from the season before. Newcastle have dropped back, by losing Rafa, and Watford have had a horrid run of 15 - 20 matches. But they are probably the only two who have gone backwards.

PS. We certainly do have better attacking options now. But do we yet have a top striker? Jury is still massively out for me on Adams.

 

Can't just look at the negative results, overall we had top ten form after Ralph joined. I still put the Cardiff results down to a culture shock for Ralph and he will have learned a bit about English football.

Danny is a top Striker (and footballer) IMO and i'm sure that Che will come good, he has been unlucky so far. We were unlucky also to lose Djenepo when he was on fire too.

I feel that the squad has improved but the central defence is still potentially a big drawback and not signing a back up LB could be costly too.

 

The other thing I'll say is that with Danso being an Austrian, presumably Ralph had some say in his signing so maybe he hasn't settled quickly enough to come straight in at CB. I would've liked an experienced leader in the mould of Fonte to have joined personally.

 

Bloody hell, Arch, he’s been here a season & a quarter - how long do we give him? I’m all for giving players a chance but I’m sad to say he ain’t got it. That said, it’s been pretty obvious the only defensive plan that really works for us is 3x CB’s including Vest & 2x sort of WB’s.

 

So I basically gave up watching when we went 1-0 down. Couldn't be f*cked to watch us get beaten by 2 or 3 goals to nil again. Plus it's Saturday night here during the games. So I f*cked it off and when down the pub.

And whaddya know...

Goal gets cancelled, and we go and earn a creditable draw. It's amazing the power I possess.

 

but we played with red and white socks so this post is rubbish!

 

My issue with Vestergaard isn’t the mistakes (although it would be nice if there were none) but the immobility. Not the slowness, but the immobility. Bednarek is slow but he is mobile and I believe that Vestergaard gets into trouble often because he just isn’t mobile.

However, as mentioned before, it’s tough without any real quality there.

 

I agree. Regrettably though the culmination of results is not helping Ralph. Yesterday was a relief and needs a solid performance on Friday to keep up the improvement!

 

pretty sure that if we part ways with Ralph this season it will be his decision not ours....

 

Can a defeat have a solid performance? That’s often the issue with some fans.

 

Of course it can as it can be a platform to push on to better things, ie results.

Do you think our home form needs to improve? Or that our performance is getting better?

I think we played pretty well against a Wolves team not unlike us in years gone by.

I also thought we were good against Chelsea until Gunn farted in his own brain again.

That said, we simple have to start getting results particularly at home or I can see him walking or the fans noise getting louder...

 

It was a rhetorical question really. I also think it will be difficult to perform well against this Leicester team, then City too... bring on Everton

 

So was mine but I couldn't spell that word you used

 

#autospell

 

Yeah I'm not up with all this super tech the kids of today use...

 

Me niehter

 

Today I discovered that Pelligrino means Pilgrim in Italian. Surely Mauricio was a match made in heaven for Saints.

 

I agree...sadly.