Indeed. Che, not working out yet, Moussa has been injured and Danso, young We lost Mario and didn’t replace him We should have bought Cahill JWP and PEH cannot play the way Ralph wants, he came with a philosophy and we need him to be pragmatic. I don’t think he’s willing to do that, but if we sack him we’ll get a pragmatist and lose his philosophy Trouble is the club have lost their philosophy, stumbling about rather than marching on
Read elsewhere that on talk sport that Ralph has been given vote of confidence by the board last night.
Maybe just paucity of resources He figures his best LB is Cedric therefore he needs a RB who at least has some pace, Stu JWP gets in because he can take a free kick and pen and scores occasionally After that I’m not sure what other obvious changes he could make. Nathan is lacking confidence but as much as Sophie and Moussa improved things for 15 mins we ended up conceding again following a big gap in the midfield I’m supposing that Danso isn’t doing enough to get in the team and whichever CBs he picks he can never be sure who’ll play well and who won’t. Jack was our best CB yesterday and I think Bedders may have been our worst!
We replaced VvD with Vestergaard. We replaced Pelle with Charlie Austin We replaced Mane with Redders (I like Redmond, but he’s not Mane) We replaced Wanyama with Romeu We replaced Tadic with Armstrong Etc.
To be fair we mostly replaced them with multiple players. Selling one player to buy 2 or 3 in order to balance the team i think was the strategy. But our hit rate for PL quality players has been far worse than 1 in 2 or even 1 in 3.
I think the team selections reflect those players who believe in his philosophy with those who don't being marginalised. It is strange that the two signings of Danso and Adams have fallen out of favour so quickly, especially as we were supposed to have been pursuing Adams for such a long period. Aside from the issues of players being chosen out of position, there are players like JWP who have been poor and are not getting dropped. Everyone appreciates that the squad is thin and that Ralph was not assisted in the summer but I just feel the more games he is given, the less likely he is to convince the players and get a response. I do not know what the answer is. Personally, I would replace the management , coaching and playing staff to a large extent. A wholesale reassessment is needed with a squad that has been allowed to deteriorate over the last four seasons.
IMO JWP gets in because he presses continuously throughout the game, and has the stamina and work ethic to keep that up which matches Ralph's desired style. Although as a team we seem to have stopped pressing recently which is worrying.
There was evidence of pressing yesterday, especially after we scored. Ings, Redmond and Boufal were certainly pressing for a while.
Other than the tea lady, does that leave anyone else? I'm not suggesting that a complete overhaul wouldn't be useful, but it's absolutely and entirely unrealistic. Why not try and present an argument which could actually occur? As far as I can see, the only priority right now is avoiding relegation. Our problems might be big right now, but they'll be even bigger if we go down. It's all well and good planning longer term - and we constantly hear how overhauling the squad, to repair the damage of the Reed era, will take a number of transfer windows - but that's of limited use if we go down. If we can't sell the likes of Carillio and Lemina whilst a PL club, good luck trying to sell them whilst a Championship club.
That is true enough, but it only works if he is playing in a team that is flying along like Leicester. He is not offering much in midfield and yesterday he shied away from making a lot of tackles. JWP is a passenger 75% of the time this season. Our midfield is dreadful. It doesn't offer any protection for the defence and doesn't provide support for the attack. Romeu has been a great for the club but his legs are going and he has become a more of a blocker. Armstrong and Danso would be better deployed in midfield with Romeu because they are both quicker, get stuck in and more attack minded. Having been to all the home games this season, there is a strong sense of negativity around St Mary's and yesterday was as bad as I have ever felt it. Fans are starting to turn on some of the players and all the stupid corporate garbage, free scarves, flag waving and the deafeningly loud pa system can't hide the feeling of creeping decay. St Mary's has become a depressing day out. Unless something drastic happens to turn things around, and I really am not confident that it will, we are going to be relegated. Buying a couple of new player and dropping them into this team isn't going to be enough. It will just be putting a plaster over a festering wound. There is something drastically wrong at Saints and my feeling is we are in for a lot of pain before things start to look brighter.
When Ralph arrived he had an infectious enthusiasm and positivity that motivated and installed belief in the club. That has gone now - I don`t know why, and I didn`t think he would ever lose it. I hope he does get his mojo back, but I struggle to see how. We win or we learn - well there doesn`t seem to be much learning going on just now.
Probably true but he’s not very good is he! And he’s got no pace He should start with Shane, he presses?! And he’s quick
Indeed. Everyone wants JWP to be a standout player but he just isn’t. Apart from free kicks he doesn’t offer much.
He plays too safe. You have to take risks at times. We had the ball on the edge of their area at 2-1 down and the ball came to JWP. He saw no safe pass and decided against taking a risk, so dribbled backwards until he had a nice safe pass back to the cbs... Who had no option but punt it forward towards the spot JWP had 'cleverly' worked it away from. St Mary's lit up with boos at that point - and who can blame them?
With all the inevitable talk of sacking, I still haven’t heard of one credible replacement. Ralph does appear to be lacking a suitable number two so he can put his head together with someone, so they can share the increasing burden. We have been left with a squad of players that largely we don’t want.... I genuinely can’t remember the time I last saw a story where another club wanted one of our players. Apparently, Katherina wants to buy Gao out.... I can’t imagine she hasn’t got access to a lot of money if she really looked hard. This is the time we are supposed to be appointing a DoF as the club stated after the Leicester shambles. But still.... I cannot see a successor to Ralph who would do better with the limited resources we have.
He served up the most turgid, awful ****e I’ve ever had the misfortune to pay for. The man gets results, but it’s truly abysmal to watch.