I agree with parts of what you've said, but the things he can change, he doesn't. Look at the lack of substitutions today for example. Is that something he could have changed? Yes Would it have made a difference? Who bloody knows but at least he could have tried. I wouldn't criticise trying something new. If he brought on Tella or another youngster for Ings/Adams and Tella misses a hatfull of chances I wouldn't blame Ralph! This is my problem with RH. When it works, great. But more often than not, when things aren't firing I'm not seeing changes to shape/formation/style or personnel. He doesn't seem to learn from mistakes. I appreciate he's been working against some god awful injuries, the ref and VAR conspiring against us and an owner who appears not to give two ****s but ultimately he shoulders the blame for today.
Bang on about that, Ralph is the best manager we have had in recent memory, debatable between him and Poch who is no doubt class. Have total faith in Ralph though.
Could this be as a result of Covid? There are many stories about the after-effects of contracting Covid, and how, months later, sufferers are still not up to speed/back to normal. You could argue that as an athlete, Danny should be less affected than an 'ordinary' person, but the results of Covid could well be stopping Danny from being at his pre-Covid levels.
Armstrong wasn't the same player for at least the first month after he returned. I wouldn't be surprised if it is indeed the case.
But that’s exactly it. The only ‘senior’ substitution he could have done today was realistically Djenepo for Redmond. Despite everything Redders wasn’t actually that bad first half - but his crossing second half was pitiful, granted. Look at what Djenepo’s game is - tricks and dribbles. That was NOT a pitch for tricks and dribbles, and at least Redmond has pace. Now Djenepo might have come on and scored a worldy. But then Redmond might have stayed on and done same. Ifs and buts, and the options are paltry. In the same situation, Bruce could (and would) have brought on Carroll. Huge difference, even in comparison with a team as bad as Newcastle.
Good point - took him almost a month to get back to his best. It was odd as well because he wasn't awful, but just looked slightly behind the pace of the game. Which is similar to Ings over the past few games.
To be fair to Danny, he is being judged by his hugely impressive standards. He's had disallowed goals, shots hitting the post and great saves against him in the past few games, might've had a couple of pens too. A similar thing happened to Rickie I recall but form is temporary and class is permanent.
Incidentally, I doubt there is a patch of turf anywhere in the British isles that isn’t completely waterlogged right now, so I’m quite happy to accept conditions as, if not exactly an excuse, certainly a factor.
I see that, it at the same time I saw our CM never giving him the ball earlier in space. I often saw him in 15 yrds if space, then Jwp or someone would turn backwards or play a five yard pass and the okay it to Redmond and the space was gone, but I recognize his lack of driving into the box
Agreed sir. Many seem to miss this amongst the clamouring about passing backwards and sideways when they go after specific players for it. Whilst there are certainly times where players like JWP show shortcomings in looking up and finding a progressive pass, or hesitate on the ball (less so in the past months with no fans) - there are vastly more times where they are simply playing to instruction. Most of our backwards passing is automatic one or two touch where the player in question's responsibility is little more than a bounce board or a middleman. This works when we are flowing, but when we don't have KWP flying up the right for diagonals, or attacking midfielders able to make themselves available or so on... We end up with the ball coming back to our CBs with no forward recourse other than hope. And more troubling is if the opponent has no reason to come out and allow themselves to be moved and manipulated, those bounce board passes become superfluous but still ingrained in our play. Certainly something I would hope Ralph is looking to address.
I've got a piece of turf in my back bedroom that I'm using to, er, practise outdoor coupling. I've said too much.
Can we stop talking about the weather being a big factor - we are starting to sound a little 'Kloppish' with that one
For me I'd prefer to at least try. It was clear nothing was working as we were set up. Anyhow, back to watching the results of the bottom 3 and hoping they lose too. Always the bloody same. I thought we'd turned a corner this year.
