Its not so baffling. It’s not like he put Romeu on as striker. He was sick of seeing Armstrong giving it 50%. Not the only offender but a key player letting us down. He deserved to come off more than needed to come off to hange the game.
Absolutely. I mentioned in my previous post that I'm concerned that some players have lost faith in his methods a bit. I'm convinced that the announcement of him leaving/retiring has weakened his position in this respect too. He's had a poor season for sure and the collapse this season has been worse than last but I'm happy to give him the start of next season at least to see how we go. Particularly if we do end up having a better Summer than normal as rumoured. If we lose both remaining games though I think he'll go at season's end. Hard to recover once the fans turn.
Yeah i get your point, but in a game where we needed an attacking threat, he puts on our most defensive midfielder. Maybe he was trying damage limitation, maybe he could have done that v Leicester, Man Utd, Chelsea etc. I think there is more to the AA stuff this season, too. I fear Ralph may have alienated him, and to me Ralph seems to be losing the players.
Yeah he had a shocker yesterday for sure but it was the timing of it more than anything and it contributed to the feeling that we didn't even try to get back into it in the second half.
Yeah agree with this. If we are going to make major changes this summer, and I think we will, I can see a degree of keeping Ralph, but after the collapse with this latest run of his, I’m not sure he can recover from it. For me, the stuff he said about retiring really seems to have backfired, and in reality, not even hinsdsight, was a stupid thing to say. The more i think about it, I think there is a real arrogance about Ralph, I think he believed in his own hype too much. If it were me making the decision, and thankfully it isnt, I would look at seeing if there is a DOF type role for him with us. Id be loathed top lose him totally, but think his time managing us is up.
Another disappointing game not unexpected given recent form, no reasons to be cheerful. Can only hope for improved performances in the last games of the season. I know what hope does. Looking forward to taking Mrs Jab for her second mothers day lunch. One more to come she gets the English, Dutch and Indonesian versions.
On his day, Stuart is very good. It seems to me that he hasn’t been the same player since his Covid and calf injury.
I like your opening paragraph because I don't think it just applies to yesterday. We're not Man City. Having possession doesn't automatically equate to us playing well, or being on top, or going through a purple patch. Some fans read far too much into that. How close did we really come to scoring once yesterday, let alone three times? How concerned were the Brentford players and their fans? Opponents are rarely idiots. They will know how much we struggle to either unlock the door or finish off chances at one end, whilst having a tendency to totally naff it up at the other end. So they can often afford to just sit in, let us play some pretty football, all whilst they aren't feeling under too much pressure. To some degree, I can maybe understand why fans get excited by seeing us having possession whilst 2-0 down...because when the boot is on the other foot, it often is the case that the opposition score. We don't know how to control a game when leading, hence the huge number of dropped points every season. Unfortunately, not every side (in fact, no other side) is as bad as we are at that. Completely understandably the focus on recent weeks has been on how vulnerable we are at the back. But in attack, we're pretty bad too. 41 goals this season is our lowest since the horrendous MP/Hughes season (45, 51 and 47 have been our totals since).
It’s quite disappointing- how long is it still we could turn up at a game anticipating that a reliable striker such as Lambert or Pelle would put most of their chances away? ( I don’t include Ings as he wasn’t fit for so long). Creating chances isn’t a great problem but sticking the bloody things away really is.
A crumb of solace, our season isn't such an abject failure as Everton's. "Everton have the worst away record in the Premier League. They have collected six points from a possible 48 on the road this season. The Toffees have lost their past seven on their travels in the top flight."
Just like to say that the offside goal by Adarma was a cracking finish. Out of form, out of sorts, out of Ralph’s good books or whatever the reason for him not being picked, it was good to see him put that chance away.
The awful run was terminated against Arsenal, then resumed again when we went back to trying to play football. Result apart, that Arsenal game was more depressing than getting thumped by the Chavs.
Unless someone else is primed, I will offer to do the Match Day Thread, Southampton v Liverpool. Is everyone OK with that?
