Gutted that we lost but slightly relieved at the thought of no Match Day Thread! #everycloud #ralphin
Got home and watched the full game. This was another game that in a good season, maybe we write off today and say we lost to a decent Palace side. But it’s ****ing Groundhog Day tbh. I think we will be relegated playing like this. Feels like 2005 again. The first 45 were so bad. The second 45 not signing a striker has absolutely killed us. Would it kill Ralph to try a 3 man midfield? He still doesn’t seem to know his best team
Ralph's teams used to put in good performances for the whole game but that is a rarity these days. We are not going to win many games when the team plays so poorly for half of the game. The old Ralph teams put the oppo under pressure from the first minute but those days seem long gone and it's like we are waiting to concede the first goal before we start playing any football and i'm losing faith that we will ever get back to that brave attacking team.
Good. ****. Good. ****. Good last week and back to ****. I haven't read the whole thread but have seen the players/managers point raised. I can see both and I was pissed with Che not putting 2 in the net today but bottom line is we don't look good as a side. WE ****ING USED TO! We have back-slid so far its not funny, the players don't look hungry or confident or brave, even in the second half they lack any belief at all and the majority have been under Ralph for years. Where is the identity now? Most of us accepted the odd bad result (yes, those two results) because we were brave, exciting, fierce and fast. What are we now? Who are our leaders? What are our principles and non-negotiables? I can't answer any of those questions any more. I don't agree with anyone that Diallo has had good games. He has had games where he has managed to complete his sideways and backwards passes without giving it away EVERY time but there is one game where he should be starting and thats when there are no other midfielders left available. Prowse needs a competent partner alongside that he can trust to lift his own game, its not chance that he's poor with Diallo and was great with Romeu. Maitland Niles first touch of the ball gave me instant confidence. When Romeo Lavia i back, I want to see him partnered with Maitland Niles. JWP goes off on holiday till the WC is well underway. Maybe with Romeo back it might be time to look at a diamond. We need some midfielders in front of the D when defending. Romeo JWP AMN Aribo And we've signed Edozie and Mara so we may as well play the bastards rather than thinking Che and Armstrong will suddenly score a brace.
Given that we don’t have a striker capable of scoring goals would anyone be opposed to playing without one? Pack the midfield? bazza Lyanco caleta-car Sally Perraud AMN JWP Diallo SArmstrong Aribo Elyonoussi
The problem isn't Che, the problem is that Che is being asked to be Che and Ings all at once. He is a hold up player who needs a good finisher playing off him. He will also score some great goals but he isn't a poacher/finisher. we need to roll the dice and give Mara or I don't know, Diamond Edwards a chance.
Think Edwards did his ACL recently. But yep, surprised we haven’t put Mara up with Che, I have a feeling Mara can finish, and Che can go back to being Che. But apparently Mara cant defend as we as we would like. Which is just what we need from our striker. Id be putting 3 in midfield, maybe more, we just get bypassed so easily.
Shame about Edwards, but I wasn't being 'serious'. I agree, one of the problems I have with management at the moment is that we seem to rewarding the wrong things, Elyonoussi and diallo are undroppable for being defensive and cautious. Where's the bravado and freedom? Yes Elyonoussi is there supporting the RB, doubling up but we aren't scoring goals so its worthless. It's not the players, its the system, just like it was when we were electric and exciting.
Ralph doesn’t feel we have the players to do bravado and freedom, and he’s scared of getting pumped again. Thing is, we can’t really do solid and defensive terribly well either, because we don’t have a striker to put away our minimal chances. Part Ralph, part squad for me. As I said before, if we still had Ings instead of Adam Armstrong, we’d be 12th and nobody would be all that concerned.
You’ve raised an interesting point here about not having the players for bravado and freedom. We have better players than when Ralph said he’d rather try to win than draw, as 3 points is better than 1, and so he used to talk about bravery. Now we have better players, and he stopped doing so. Maybe that is down to scars of the multiple heavy defeats, but he stopped us doing the things we admire him for, without that, there really isnt anything that Ralph offers.
I think it is the scars, yes. I mean it when I say that with an Ings we probably wouldn't be having this conversation, but then I look at a team like Brighton, who also don't honestly have a striker worth the name (Trossard has done brilliantly for them, but he's not an out and out striker. They only really have Welbeck, which is a slightly quicker version of Che but made of glass). Brighton are what we used to be. Fast, aggressive, exciting. Yeah, they'll lose their fair share of games, but that's what I'd like to see us try and return to. I just am not sure Ralph has that in him any longer.
If you’re giving us the benefit of ‘if we had a striker that could finish then we would be fine’, then you have to do the same for the teams we’ve played imo. It’s not like it’s just us missing chances. Arsenal should have scored 4 or 5 first half, same as Palace. If we had a striker that was a top finisher and scoring most of the chances they get, I still think we lose if we give the opposition that mythical striker too as we generally concede more chances than we create, and it would be papering over the cracks of largely inept and directionless football anyway. Sure you’d take it, we all want a goalscoring striker, and hey, maybe it would be the catalyst for improved performances but the manager needs to work better with what they have and this season we are pretty directionless. I wish our only problem was that we need a more clinical striker, but we are **** all over the pitch far more regularly than average or good.
I agree to a certain extent. I think he does havre it in him, just no longer with us. He looks frustrated and jaded and I think he needs a new challenge. Not Ralph out from me, but more a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and I hope that SR have someone who can be as good as he has been at times lined up.
The cult of Ralph now that's a crock of ****! Thought old Duckhunter had returned for a minute. Oh and by the way you do realise there are two teams on the pitch don't you?
Least we forget, we have +£100m of talent missing atm, pretty much our four best players atm (Tino, KWP while ABK and Lavia have been our best performers this season) None of those are going to get the goals we need though.
Watched the game in full y’day. Just watched motd highlights. We looked pretty good! They didn’t seem to show much of 1st apart from their disallowed goal, the goal & Che’s post effort which was of course offside. 2nd half all Saints. 2x Stu efforts & 2x Che “efforts”. Analysed CP afterwards, especially forwards & then …….. didn’t even mention us! Hum!!??
