Personally I'm glad we didn't splash out £30mil plus on a striker. We'd break their morale. Can't think of any striker that would have made a difference the way we played yesterday. Che was given nothing. Absolutely nothing. Honestly believe that the players we have are good enough. The tactics we have however are not.
Its ridiculous that he left AMN out of the squad. But it’s even more ridiculous that he’s thrown him under the bus already: “We have with Ainsley a lot of work to do also because he has to adapt to our game and this is something that takes time a little bit,” Hasenhuttl said, speaking after the match. “We see also during the week what we ask him to do and especially in the midfield position it takes a little bit to understand how we want to do it. “It doesn’t make sense to throw someone in who isn’t ready for what we want to do. When he is ready and on the level we think he has to be then he will help us for sure.” Joke manager. Diallo/JWP as a pair has never, ever worked. Even an off the pace AMN could have helped? He looked ok last week.
I missed the game but looked at the lineup and thought what the actual **** is that. I was hoping the coaching staff would put a stop to these god awful Ralph lineups that he likes to throw together every now and then. It’s obvious to everyone but Ralph that Stu is/has been our best attacking player for years and we regularly don’t work as an attacking entity without him, Ely is a massive downgrade, so whatever issue he has decided he has with Stu he needs to get over it. We have established over the last few years Djenepo is not good enough as an attacking player, turns out he can put in a good shift at LB, well done for finding that out, but doesn’t mean he should be shoehorned into the attack (especially when we have several far better options). AArmstrong despite some good performances isn’t good enough as a PL starter. Can’t comment on Diallo/JWPs positions as didn’t watch but Diallo and JWP as a defensive midfield partnership (if that’s what it was), doesn’t work. Either need to play alongside a more defensive minded unit (Lavia, was Romeu, hopefully AMN otherwise we are ****ed in that position whenever Lavia is out). Players can play 90 minutes of football, start your best ****ing players from the start and we still have some good options to bring on to freshen things up. 5 subs, despite working for us on several occasions this season seems to make Ralph overthink things. We don’t need starters and finishers. What if the opposition start the game ****e but we don’t have the players on to take advantage because you start so ‘defence first’ and hope we can change the game with the ‘finishers’. We seemingly have a better defence this year so trust them and stop blunting our attack. What if you can influence the atmosphere by starting a game on the front foot? Games are still 90 mins, just play your best ****ing players from the start. Rant over. As I said, didn’t watch the game just pissed off with the team sheet and inevitable but predictable awful performance.
Saints played like a side that had never played together, truth is several of them haven't, it is going to take time to figure what our best XI is going to be, but even then they are all going to have to give 100% if we are going to get any results. The failure to get any real strikers in, is going to bite us badly.
Two things from yesterday’s game. Firstly, Ralph pretty much united this forum with everyone looking at his lineup and thinking “nope, that ain’t gonna work”. Secondly, I saw a match report with all our players being given (IMO) a very generous score of 6, except that is for one player who was given a 7 (seven). Take a bow Moi
Bravery kept us in the PL the last couple years. Bravery got us thrashed pretty frequently, but it got us enough results along the way to survive. The past two games we have not been set up to be brave. Che -- for all of his good qualities -- isn't really a lone striker. He has always done his best work alongside someone who attracts their fair share of attention. Adam Armstrong, Elyounoussi and Djenepo doesn't even approach adequate in attacking midfield/wing play. It's time to be brave again. Start Mara alongside Che. Give Edozie or even Ballard (who should probably at least be in the squad over Walcott) a start. Something to inject a bit of energy into the lineup.
I didn't read the caption initially. I just immediately identified with it, as us watching last night's game. Should bee an emoji.
What has Stuart Armstrong done to Ralph to not get games? anyone know if he’s struggling with injuries or anything? Him and Aribo are by far our best attacking player and he never plays them in their correct positions
Total mystery. We have 2 FBs that will get as far forward as possible, but for them to be effective and able to do this we need advanced midfield players who can hold the ball up. Stuart and Aribo can both do this, and I strongly suspect that Fandab can as well. Those 3 should be our go to attacking midfielders for the next few games, to see if it makes us more competitive going forward. Or maybe Mara for Fandab. It gets a bit embarrassing watching Adarma and Djenepo turn good attacking positions into a lost ball, simply because they have too heavy a touch and lose control of the ball so, so often. And we need to find a way to release JWP from total defensive duties, and have him getting forward in support of the advanced midfielders so we can try and build possession and pressure.
I get the feeling that Ralph sees him as a liability defensively and he dropped him a few times last season as well. I think that his creativity far outweighs any doubts about his defensive duties and we would become a far more potent threat with him and KWP on the right.
I think Ralph sees everyone that has a modicum of attacking football talent as a liability. He wants to see a team of people that run around a lot but doesn’t care what they do when they get the ball. “Mara - you show creativity. **** off to the bench. Stu? Aribo? You are far too good for my team. Ralph ball demands only sideways passes and negativity. I will NOT have any flair in this team”
