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Ralph sacked as Saints manager

Discussion in 'Southampton' started by Osvaldorama, Dec 4, 2021.

  1. Osvaldorama

    Osvaldorama Well-Known Member

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    Intrigued to see what people are thinking.

    For me, I love him, want him to stay and think he can still get more out of this team. But I am starting to see more and more losing patience.

    He has to make subs earlier, and realise that it isn’t a crime to put 3 men in midfield. (Diallo was the perfect choice to come on today imo.)

    Maybe an assistant manager can help him? His subs seem to make us worse most games?
     
    #1
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2021
  2. SaintsForTheWin

    SaintsForTheWin Any holes a goal

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    I want him to shake to it all about
     
    #2
  3. SaintMarv

    SaintMarv Well-Known Member

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    Anyone who thinks we would do any better with a different manager is deluded In my opinion. I don't think any so called top manager would fair any better with our squad or budget.
     
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  4. oakley1

    oakley1 Member

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    “Maybe an assist manager can help him? His subs seem to make us worse most games?”



    I don’t think there is enough input/Help from the dug out during games from the assistants. Would that be the case?
     
    #4
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  5. LincolnSaint

    LincolnSaint Well-Known Member

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    Out.

    71 points dropped from winning positions since he took over according to a stat I saw earlier.

    2 x 9-0

    Can't score against a team down to 9 players

    Can't defend a narrow lead against 10 men

    Second half capitulation each and every bloody time.

    But he cried when we beat Liverpool so he's great apparently
     
    #5
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  6. SaintMarv

    SaintMarv Well-Known Member

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    As far as I'm concerned it's only one nine nil. If Dean hadn't wrongly sent off Bednarek it wouldn't have been nine nil. Still a big defeat but wouldn't have been nine. As far as getting rid of Ralph be very careful what you wish for.
     
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  7. LincolnSaint

    LincolnSaint Well-Known Member

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    Well he did and it was....

    Yeah where will we possibly find a manager who can gather such amazing stats? He's Hughes with a personality
     
    #7
  8. SAINTOSPREY

    SAINTOSPREY Well-Known Member

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    Can't think of anyone who could do any better with the cards he has been dealt, I would rather give him the opportunity to put things right, his way.
    I remember defending Lawrie MacM in the days before the Internet, we won that batlle and the rest as they say, is history.
     
    #8
  9. Osvaldorama

    Osvaldorama Well-Known Member

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    I think it’s pretty obvious that Ralph is a good coach and improves players technically.

    The signings he has brought in since he arrived have generally been good for the budget. A definite step up.

    But it also seems pretty obvious he’s lacking in game management and substitutions.

    I’ve gone from being confident we will stay up easily after the villa win to being concerned about relegation again. Losing to Norwich, and then getting pegged back by 10 man Brighton doesn’t inspire any confidence.
     
    #9
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  10. SaintMarv

    SaintMarv Well-Known Member

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    I think you are still living in the Poch and Koeman era's but they have gone get used to it. Until we get good investment they are not coming back.
     
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  11. - Doing The Lambert Walk

    - Doing The Lambert Walk Well-Known Member

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    We have something around the 13th to 17th best squad, depending on how highly you value it.

    As of today, we are 14th. We have previously finished 16th (the job was to get us out of the relegation zone), 11th (an overachievement) and 15th (par for the course) with Ralph.

    If we were bimbling along like this with an ambitious ownership (or even one that’s prepared to back the manager and invest at all, tbh) then I’d be wanting more. But sometimes you have to accept where you are and where we are right now is treading water and hoping that each day we are a day closer to a prosperous takeover.

    I’m not sure that, based on current context, we can afford - literally - to gamble, rock the boat and end up going down.

    Ralph in.
     
    #11
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2021
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  12. Che’s Godlike Thighs

    Che’s Godlike Thighs Well-Known Member

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    Our first team is good enough to sit comfortably in mid-table, and compete against anyone on their day. The argument that the squad isn't good enough is complete bollocks.

    Also, anyone who thinks there is no manager out there who can do a better job, is being deluded too. The problem for us (on this forum), is that our knowledge of the footballing world is sh*t, and therefore we only know about a very limited range of 'options'. Pretty sure the club will know more, thankfully.

    There are good things and bad things about Ralph, but there are also infuriating things about him. Why has it taken a third of the season to give Tella game time? Why haven't we at least tried the KWP-Tino combo on the right? Why does he wait so long to make subs, when we are clearly running out of steam? and so on.

    I think with Ralph in charge we will survive, but only just, and it will be more stressful than enjoyable. But of course there is also the risk that changing manager will go badly wrong.
     
    #12
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2022
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  13. LincolnSaint

    LincolnSaint Well-Known Member

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    As fun as it is reminiscing about when we were a good side, my problem with RH is not that he's not Poch/Koeman but that he has consistently shown us he is a poor manager and tactician. He's a fair to good coach but that's where it stops.

    The stats speak for themselves. I want to like him, I really do. He comes across well and has tonnes of charisma. However he simply isn't right for us. He's had plenty of time to coach the players to his style but it's very very clear it's not working. It's groundhog day time after time after time. He's had free reign over buying players and had what I'd considered a fairly decent window. I don't see how him choosing and continuing to play players in a system which doesn't work is anyone's fault but his own.
     
    #13
  14. Dark Lord SFC

    Dark Lord SFC Well-Known Member

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    Would like to see Ralph bring in a new experienced no2 to spice things up a bit as it seems a bit too comfortable
    Sir Alex F used to constantly change his no2 to keep everyone on their toes
     
    #14
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  15. SaintInKuwait

    SaintInKuwait Well-Known Member

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    Its exactly all this. I don’t understand what people are really after. We’re 14th. The disappointment, upset and spitting fury is because we’re not 11th? Jesus Christ. It also doesn’t really matter where we finish because all of mid table is immaterial anyway.
     
    #15
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  16. SaintInKuwait

    SaintInKuwait Well-Known Member

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    This is so reminiscent of the discussions earlier this season that the academy was a load of **** and too expensive and should be shut down because RESULTS weren’t good enough. Bunch of reactionary loons. Honestly. I don’t know how you build something by continuously running in the opposite direction when things disappoint you, but you do you I guess.
     
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  17. SaintinNZ

    SaintinNZ Well-Known Member

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    They are a team and if the players wanted Ralph gone, he’d be gone by now but the players got beat 9-0 twice - not just Ralph- and still seem to want him as a manager, our squad is universally better under Ralph, not one player is worse. Ings has had one amazing season and that was under Ralph, that’s not chance.

    Yes I think we need to change the game sometimes and it doesnt happen but the game should have been finished off 20 mins earlier, every, single, time.

    Until we start scoring two or three from 10 chances a new manager won’t make a difference. we are looking for a manger that will get us 20 chances and a 2-0 win, don’t see that happening.
     
    #17
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  18. ChilcoSaint

    ChilcoSaint What a disgrace
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    Will the board be watching this poll, I wonder?

    After yesterday’s game I was angry with Ralph for not setting the team up to close the game out, and particularly angry with JWP for being in the wrong place. Now I’m not so sure my anger was justified on either count. Football is a great example of chaos theory in action, where random events have unexpected consequences. Trossard’s lengthy injury timeout would have made those last ten minutes or so a nightmare for all the players, but more so for the obviously nervous Saints team. Alex’s injury, presumably incurred while making that save, was something neither he, nor James, nor Ralph, had any control over, but the pressure of the situation made it even worse. I suppose Alex should just have gone down screaming, like Trossard did, and got the game stopped, and then Ralph could have assessed the situation. But he didn’t.

    All that was meant to absolve Ralph from the immediate blame for dropping the points, but of course he isn’t completely free of guilt, neither are any of the players. We should have been comfortably ahead by the time of Trossard’s injury, and that is down to Adams and Armstrong and Redmond and Broja for missing chances, and down to Romeu and that utterly stupid foul, and of course down to Ralph, with whom the buck always stops.

    People will say that Ralph now has a squad he has built himself, which is true up to a point. The players he has bought have all been at the cheaper end of the market, as is obvious when we play a team like City or Man U or Chelsea, when their 3 subs are worth more than our entire squad. That’s what Ralph has to live with, and those are the constraints any replacement for Ralph would also be working under.

    Given all that, I am a Ralph-in voter. If Saints are bought by someone willing to invest heavily in the squad, I would still give Ralph a chance to see the kind of players he could attract with a larger budget. After that, it would be down to results.
     
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  19. thereisonlyoneno7

    thereisonlyoneno7 Well-Known Member

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    Stop it Chilcs.

    This is a football forum, you can't be measured and sensible.

    You have to be knee jerk, angry and reactionary with no viable offer of an alternative.
     
    #19
  20. ChilcoSaint

    ChilcoSaint What a disgrace
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    Thank you, I will be quoting the “measured and sensible” bit to my wife many times!
     
    #20
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