Back, sack and crack - should Ralph stay in post

There’s only one person I want to hear from. When you’re ready Ralph, take a bow mate

 

We are still a few defensive injuries away from a crisis and the Board should not rest on their laurels and think all is fine now. Ralph has proved he is the man for the job, he now needs the tools to kick on and progress the club. A quality CB and cover for both RB and LB should be a minimum in January IMO.

 

Still yet to vote

 

For me Ralph proved he was the man for the job, as soon as he came in. He is a bit of a mercurial talent, a genius, Sam Allardyce he is not!

These people can sometimes lose their way a bit, which Ralph recently admitted he did. The guy is so layered and interesting, we could have a safe season with someone else but it wouldn't be as interesting and while we have Ralph in Ralphampton, there is every chance we can have a great season, and I see no reason why that great season couldn't be this season!

I love the guy, he's great and hope we are lucky enough to have him here a very long time.

 

I didn't say sack him, but I did say I thought we would go down under him. Mainly because I didn't think he would adjust from his "own" style and play more to the (limited) strengths of our current squad.

Fair play he has adjusted and settled on a back 4, working in the press again and we are seeing the results so credit to him for that. The players are obviously working hard for him and with Ings in great form we are in a situation nobody would've thought of a month ago

 

he hasn’t shifted from his own style. He was known for a 4222 pressing game, very high intensity and lots of turnovers leading to breakaways. That’s exactly what we are playing now. My own theory is - going from comments he has made about the wider squad not being ready to play his defensive game - is that he didn’t have the squad ready to play the way we are now, they weren’t up to speed so he needed to go a different way tactically and neither he nor the squad were very good at it.

Whether it was just patience or some significant changes that have paid off there’s no doubting the work the team have put in. Ralph still has the feel of a top top manager who is incredibly passionate about the game. I love the guy.

 

I suspect that the primary issue is that Ralph's system relies a fair bit on confidence. Players have to be willing to push forward knowing there's the possibility that we'll get caught out, and for the first few months of his reign, they were.

And then we got caught out enough that players became tentative, and it simply doesn't work if they start to seek the comfort of standing on the ball, especially because we still are not blessed with an overabundance of top-quality talent. When we strung together a few results, players started to believe again, and voila: suddenly the system is effective.

There's is no magic bullet though. We haven't solved the equation; a couple bad results and players are likely to become tentative once more, and then our lack of quality in some spots will show through. I hope that the powers-that-be don't look at our recent success and declare that the job is done.

 

Commitment and confidence are the two magic ingredients. Commitment comes first and The last few games we have been so quick to the ball. 6 weeks ago we were closing down, missing the ball and not getting a sniff when trying to track back. This last month we have closed everything down with 2-3 players, been first to every loose ball, got tackle after tackle in and managed to track every run from the oppo.

Then there’s the movement going forwards, the speed of our forward passes, finding passes between the lines. It’s like watching a different season we are so much improved. Every. Single. Player.

 

Ralph has got them back on track...there are teams better than us on paper so we can't let them settle. Not a coincidence that we are beating top sides....these are teams used to controlling the match, not being controlled. Unsettle them and attack before they can reset. Confidence comes when you see results...a lot of this is Danny's form...imagine how the team feel knowing that we will score if Danny gets the ball...as it was with Lambert and Le Tiss. And Ings has the belief that he will score every game...he knows where the goal is and just fires off shots. As Matty said once, not difficult...the goal doesn't move.