Hmm, no. You said that he hadn’t been replaced, which he has. Whether he’s been replaced well is another question.
A couple of months ago, everything seemed rosey, we`d just been taken over, we were in a mini purple patch, and Ralph had competition in every position it seemed. Today was a polar opposite. You can tell if a team is at it if they are winning second balls, and 50/50s. We weren`t. I don`t get how things can change like that. I couldn`t figure out what Diallo was supposed to be doing today - his contribution was to get booked, and get caught under the ball for their first goal - no protection for the defence, no support for the forwards.
I believe that Broja has not scored since February. It is a staggering stastistic when you continually read his name being touted so often as going to other clubs. Radio Solent suggested that we looked decent going forward but were naive in defence. It is frustrating that Ralph has never sorted the failings of our defence albeit albeit there were moments earlier in the season where Salisu's form was so good that the comparisons with VVD were not unreasonable. We currently have too many players being out of sorts. That strikes me that the problem is probably with the coaching . Not sure why so many membersof our squad can lose their form at the same moment.
There is little doubt the manager/coach is not getting through to the players. Today they had most of the possession yet didn’t have clue what to do with it. Sorry Broja seems to be on another planet, it’s almost seems they want us relegated. I am so sorry for the manager he seems to have gone backwards. On this form not sure he will be with us next season.
Now reflected on the game. I am calmer after reading Hassenhuttle's comments as they were spot on. Not much between the middle teams. We desperately need a striker and a centre back.
I said can, not always does this. This awful run should have been halted a long time ago. I no the aim should be to win every game, but we’ve been in fee fall for some time yet we’ve done the same thing time and again. Turn some of those losses into draws and things might look a bit different.
That's how I see it. Also think we lack a leader on the pitch, I know Romeu has slowed but he needs to play, I feel he is the only player who regularly comes out of a tackle with the ball. I imagine that, in training, all the players move the ball slickly enough but can't produce it consistently on the field. We're too nice!
At the very least we needed a performance today. We were absolutely pants, ****ing ****e until 2-0 down. With all things considered; Unacceptable. Said it before; thank **** we got that “deserved” Arsenal win & don’t anyone tell me if we’d drawn / lost that game, we’d picked up points elsewhere. No chance & we’d be truly cracking ourselves now instead of all being “confident” we’re not going down on 40 points.
Having slept on it I'm still bitterly disappointed. Just such a dreadful performance basically from start to finish - I don't buy the fact we had loads of possession meaning us to 'dominate' periods of the game, they let us have lots of the ball cos they knew we had neither the quality nor the heart to punish them and that they had the game won after 15 minutes. Thought Redders was probably our best player in an attacking sense. Looked the only one trying to make things happen and trying progressive passes and through balls. Cba to watch highlights but don't recall us actually creating too much of note? Felt like Brentford had more chances in a 15 second period in the second half than we did the entire match. I'm still Ralph in but there's definitely some underlying concerns with the direction we're going and I'm worried some of the players have lost faith in his methods (still think announcing his leaving date was a poor decision all around too). Regardless he deserves the start of next season for me unless a long term target becomes available over the Summer. Another mention for the fans as aside from a 5-10 minute spell after the second goal I thought they were superb with at least half the end engaged in singing almost throughout. Best away I've been to in a long time in that respect though personally the booing and Ralph chants wasn't nice to hear. Weird little ground and although I like it has 4 separate stands it's a bit dull for me. For the sake of 5k or so not sure it was really worth moving from Griffin Park? But that's likely the traditionalist in me talking and GP needed renovating anyway. Was odd there not being any sniffer dogs outside away end too, no wonder all the pyro got in One thing I thought was telling was how much the fans were taking part in self mocking which I've not really seen under Ralph as he was supposedly the one who made us dream that we could be better. Very Pellegrino/Hughes era vibes in the away end today. We never win at home and we never win away
Agree with a lot of this. Personally, I was far more disappointed with our second half performance. No effort to get back into it at all. But I did like the ground a lot. Unique entrance through apartment blocks and a unique design. Security was very lax though and not surprised so many flares were brought in.
Yeah the second half was definitely worse on reflection as we did have have a ten minute or so rally in the first half but even then I never felt we'd get back into it. I'd have love to have seen Dibling brought on in the second half. I'm convinced he couldn't have done any worse and would have at least given everything. I'm still baffled by the Armstrong/Romeu sub tbh.
Isn’t this part of the issue here Libs? In that after about 4 years, we still have baffling decisions by Ralph most weeks? Ive been on the fence for a while, and last few weeks were turning me, y’day is me done. He seems to have lost the players, they just dont seem to know what to do. Now that may be them not trying, or that they are confused, but both these are huge issues with keeping Ralph, imo.
armstrong has been off it for weeks now. He was poor and sloppy. Yesterday, I wanted him off but maybe I was alone in that. Romeu wasn’t there to win the game just show some heart and care. I too would have liked to see TD but a 16 year old against the Brentford pros would have had a very hard time.