Match Day Thread Everton v Southampton 01/03/21 8PM Sky Sports

Oh, please, please please, let this happen.

 

We’ve got plenty of tools.... and we’d all come

 

LOL, you know it’d end in tears again.

 

Spot on Tobes.

 

Very little between the sides - Saints arguably had the best chances of the game late on. Everton clear winners on the scream-o-meter when tackled (I wish certain players would stop doing that!). Forster had nothing to do again - but looked confident in what he did. MoM performance from Armstrong, and Salisu and Djenepo did well. I hate getting on a player`s back, but Redmond was dreadful - that 50-50 he didn`t compete for on the edge of their box in the second half was very poor. No conviction in anything he does these days, half hearted shooting, easily eased off the ball etc etc

 

Alright guys, not posted in a while but thought I'd say a few things.

I find it amazing to read some of the negativity from some posters, as your reactions are the sort of feelings I have about teams I do not follow.

I have no idea how West Brom, Sheffield United, Fulham etc are playing as I only pay full attention to my team.

I would assume they are all playing pretty badly, 11 points for United is terrible. Sack the manager. Big Sam has hardly picked up any points since coming in, sack him. Parker seems to be slowly making some progress but no clue if playing OK or lucky with injuries VAR etc.

But when it comes to your own team, you really should have an idea of exactly how things are going.

Surely we all know how many players keep getting injured. How many bad VAR and ref decisions we have had. How little money we have to spend at the best of times without selling our top players. How this has become even worse due to no fans spending money coming to watch us.

Surely everyone knows that when we had a pretty much injury free squad we were able to get as high as 1st place. Surely everyone knows this was due to the players completely buying into Ralph's tactics as he is the best manager we have probably ever had.

We are so lucky to have him, and should have his back for his entire time here. If we did go down, I would be gutted if he left, I really would.

Klopp is feeling it and most people would consider Klopp to be 1 of the best managers in the game. We are 13 points behind Liverpool which is nothing, thats how **** it has been for them. No one would dream of getting rid of Klopp if they were Liverpool fans, would they?

Our form is poor yes, but we all need to look at the bigger picture, enjoy the wins when they come, hopefully enjoy a cup win and look back on this season as a season of ups and downs with a freak run of injuries and be proud that we all stuck together and got through it.

The good times will return, UTS.

 

I'm game

 

This "new manager effect"?

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From https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23724517

I agree with you, by the way, I just hate the idea that new managers generally improve things.

Vin

 

To be fair mate, Rakph does need to try to adapt with what he has at his disposal, and is incredibly stubborn.

We've said the latter during last season also.

It is his job to get the front players back in form, and play tactics that they will benefit from. This is where he has failed, consistently over a long run of games.

I get he has lost players, var etc, but he hasn't been able to adapt his style to get the best of wmout of what we have. He should receive criticisms, and whilst he has credit in the bank for previous performance, he needs to stop this rut were in.

So maybe, him changing slightly how we play could be an answer, rather than doing the same thing, over and over again and expecting a different result.

I also think losing Theo has cost us dearly, his ability to run at players got defenses on the back foot and was crucial to our attacking play.

But he failed to get Redmond and Moussa doing the same, and could have worked more on directness, and if they failed to deliver his requests, they come out the team.

I hoow we turn it around, but I can see if this same **** is served up over the next 3 games I can see him gone one way or other.

I think he deserves a chance to turn this around, and we know it can come good, but I’m not sure how long it should carry on before we need to do something.

Now, I dont think we will lose to Sheff, City and Brighton. But I think he needs a win from there.

Genuine Q for many on here, if this run continues on, when would you consider changing Ralph?

 

Lincoln

The elephant in the room with your post is the fact that we have managed to play some brilliant football under Ralph when things have gone right. When football restarted and throughout 2020, the style of football and the manner with which we dealt with opposition demonstrated just how good Ralph's teams were. For me, the turning point was the Fulham match as this was the point at which whatever strategy Ralph was coming up with did not work. There have been some dreadful performances since then but there have also been periods where we have looked liked being at our best. In all honesty, neither Puel. Hughes nor Pellegrino managed to get Saints playing to the standards of our best performances. In some cases the were pretty terrible.

It is impossible not to take in to account the injury list and the VAR which I would suggest are objective reasons to criticise the results we have suffered. I think tiredness is more subjective but this does not mean it isn't a factor. If I can be critical of Ralph, the 9-0 performance at home to Leicester was the most inept one I have seen a Saints side produced. However, those issues have been rectified. The similar reverse against Man Utd was attributable to poor refereeing. If we lose to Sheffield Utd I may feel a bit differently but the reality is many of the players instrumental to our earlier successes are crocked and the forward line has lost all confidence. It does make you wonder why we left Shane Long leave as this has left us weak up front.

I would also have to say that I am still not convinced we have ever been in a position to properly judge Ralph. In the Covid-world, I am not sure quite how "realistic" any judgement would be yet before the pandemic, I do not feel that he had been given the chance to rebuild the squad to his liking. Clubs always go through bad runs in a season. I remain to be convinced that we would have experienced nothing like this with fans in the stadium and income coming into the club to rebuild a squad of "Ralph's players" as opposed to those he has inherited. Not sure what you can do about the loss of form of the likes of Ings, Adams or Redmond albeit I will say people were purring about their performances on this board three moths ago. Letting Ralph go would, in my opinion, be a mistake in a way that getting rid of Puel, Hughes and Pellegrino wasn't. The sacking of these three was entirely merited no only on results but the kind of football we were forced to watch.

 

Just after our next league game against Leyton Orient.

 

Fair post mate, I completely see what you're saying but....

Its not a bad run, its the worst run in our PL history

He's not overseen some bad results, its two of the 3 worst results in the PL full stop.

Loss of form of players? Is it not his responsibility to fix that? If 3 or 4 players have gone off the boil is this a result of his coaching/tactics? When Che was playing well that was down to RH's genius, now he's a bit **** again thats Che's individual responsibility?

Referees/Var, yeah thats not on him

 

I think youve got a point here - the rub runs both ways, but id still stick with him at the moment and give him space to turn this around. I think he will, but I think f we are still winless after Brighton, im not sure how long he has left.

 

This would be absolutely huge. Brings mobility and some much needed power and guile to the midfield. Allows us to push Armstrong wide and (please God) to drop Redmond

 

Ralph has improved everyone individually and the first 11 as a whole. He had us believing we were world beaters

He got us playing better than should have been possible given the actual level of talent at his disposal

Maybe we missed the risk in that some key injuries and lesser replacements left us vulnerable and then some drops in form of individuals compounded that. When compared to teams we would like to be competing with we just don’t have the same individual talent and depth in the squad e.g. Leicester. To an extent we still have almost the same team of relegation battlers we had before

We can compete with the teams that are currently below us though. So let’s get some points and move on

However, we were unlucky yesterday. Their goal was a result of Salisu being smacked in the face and on the deck and we were so close to equalising late on

I hope Moussa is ok. How was Diagne not carded for standing on him

 

Yes and no. Form is a funny old thing. ALL players, even the very, very best had bad runs of form. Yes, it's incumbent on a manager to try and help them through those, but it tends to be psychological, not technical. Adams/Ings aren't necessarily doing anything different to what they were (though Ings seems to have let it get to his head more than Adams IMHO). Adams is still getting in the right positions (although occasionally those positions are offside). But it happened to Shearer, Henry, Bergkamp, Le Tissier etc etc etc etc. And as any ex-pro will tell you, what you actually need is a goal to go in off your arse or something, and then you hit a purple patch again.

Sustained improvement technically (which we have seen in the vast majority of our players during Ralph's reign) is absolutely down to the coaching and management (and hard work of the player). So, again, it's not as black and white as you present it.

 

I don’t personally believe in it, although subjectively lots of teams seem to experience it.

Nice graph.

 

We really, really, really werent unlucky yesterday. If this is what the average Saints fan thinks, then we are more doomed than I thought.

We played average at best, had 2 good opportunities late on, but Everton were in 1st gear throughout.

Salisu had a off'ish game yesterday. He wasnt too bad on the deck, but he was absolutely destroyed in the air by DCL, it was as simple as that. Their goal was a good goal, well worked from their perspective. I was a little annoyed at Bertrand, seeing Salisu out of position, not tuck in to cover the hole he left, which would have stopped the ball that went through for their player to score.

I also thought their press worked ok against us, and Ralph could have tried to bypass their press with little balls over the top of the players pressing more, and having more movement out of the midfield, and through the forwards.

What teams can we compete with that are below us? We lost to 9 man Newcastle!

And I dont think that was a red for Digne, it looked accidental to me.

 

Billy, Ralph has managed to get the most out of the players he has, and that is precisely why Saints were sat on top of the league a while back. We have never been in that position before and many of us won't let the current poor run of results diminish that. We are crippled by injuries, suffered some criminally bad refereeing decisions and it is highly possible that quite a few key players have been badly affected by the situation we are in.

You should just come right out and say what you think about Ralph because you often ask what others think regarding how long 'we' should give Ralph before making a change. Are you hinting that you really do feel Ralph should be sacked but you really don't want to say it in case you take a crap load of flack? At least Lincoln has the balls to say what he feels and is prepared to stand up to the inevitable abuse he receives. I don't agree with everything he posts but I do respect him for having the courage of his convictions.

Saints are involved in a massive root and branch rebuilding process but it ain't going to happen overnight and right now it is hard to feel positive with so much going wrong, but it will change for the better. This is the time for everyone to pull together and to take the bad results on the chin without falling apart like a soggy paper bag. Yes Ralph has undoubtedly made mistakes but who hasn't? We are all in this together and it hurts to be where we are but we are not giving up or wondering whether to bin off one of the best managers we have ever had.

 

Diagne definitely got away with one there, he’s the same player who chased KWP down at at Mary’s and stood on him.
Got a deserved red that day, and on appeal his 3 match ban was reduced to 1.