Didn’t see the game but very surprised at so many negative comments on here & then the smattering of “wait till the fans meltdown”? We/you are the fans & I dislike the type “finger pointing” at the stadium fans & the seemingly association we are above. The thing is with these forums is that there’s twats & nurds & we have to / have the chance to objectively decipher. Read the general & all becomes really clear. It really does! GK, CB, etc. Sorry, beer & whisky’d up but all seems very clear at mo! Edit. Just read back! Makes perfect sense TO ME!
Though St James is almost as bad as Goodison for us and we've struggled at home to West Ham in recent seasons too. Really is an awful start for us. Could do with something next week tbh.
I don’t get the Theo starting my as much as I don’t get the Theo signing in the first place. He may be ok from the bench, but not much more than that. I’m sure Ralph will correct this though for the next game. And surely for the next game, we have got to change our formation and be hard to beat, like Chelsea at home last season at the start of Tuchel taking over. Didn’t he play a back five for that?
I think you could ask everyone on this forum Theo vs Armstrong and 99% would chose Armstrong, neither are particularly good defensively but at least he creates a hell of a lot going forward Don’t get me started on Djenepo
Yeah I was vocal on Moussa last season and my view hasn’t changed, he frustrates the hell out of me, yesterday there were countless times he made the wrong choice and ignored Perraud on the overlap, even when Perraud played Moussa in with a great triangle move that Moussa then failed to pull back enough for Perraud or Che to have a shot.
Djenepo was good yesterday. He regularly beat his man and got the ball into dangerous areas. It's a bit of a lottery if the ball gets to a Saints player or not as there were so many players in the penalty area when he got into the box. He certainly was a lot better than Walcott. At least Moussa looked like making something happen.
Read the comments on here and it seems we have not moved on from last season; bright opening period, take the lead, do not kill the game before half-time. Second half, opposition come out with tweaks in their formation, which we do not counter, opposition grows more into the game, we fail to make deft substitutions to wrest back control, opposition score, we suffer crisis of confidence, we throw on late substitutions but still lose. We may or may not go down, but we will be in the bottom quarter the table. Everton will be in the top half, we were away from home at a stadium we perform poorly in. It's crap, but that's where we are. RH needs to improve his game management and start to engineer points away from home. To date, his recent record away is appalling. No, l am not saying he should go, but he needs to sort out his '****'.
There are reasons to be cheerful, Livvy done good, I'd like to see him and Kyle in a right sided combo. Adz also impressed, took his chance well and stung Picko's palms with a shot from an acute angle. Mousa delighted and frustrated in equal measure and will (hopefully) improve. Perro will settle in his position and worked some good moves with Mousa. Onward and upward COYR!
Having let the dust settle a bit after getting back late yesterday I'll run through the positives and negatives: Positives: 1. Tino - 18 years old and has the confidence to run at players. Good defender as well. Going to be a super player. 2. Adam Armstrong - his game looks ideal for us and looks like he will do well in the PL. Looking forward to seeing more of him. 3. Salisu - yes he wasn't perfect yesterday but he's quick and he's strong and will only get better. 4. Djenepo - looked lively throughout. Yes he needs to work on his end product but he looked like making things happen. 5. FULL STADIUM!!!!!! - Loved being back in a full ground and the atmosphere in the away end was amazing - especially in the first half. Negatives: 1. Ralph not using his bench until it was too late - hopefully he will learn that now he has good options on the bench he will use them to try to turn the game in our favour before the opposition. We had a very strong bench yesterday but it was nullified by not using it until we were behind. 2. Theo - was completely ineffective and should have been brought off on the hour. 3. JWP - looked very rusty and I'm not surprised given he had no pre-season. Getting match time under his belt should help for next week. 4. The result obviously but at least we've got Everton away out of the way now. On the whole the performance wasn't a bad one. Everton came flying out of the blocks 2nd half and for the first 15 of the 2nd half we couldn't handle them. Then we got to grips with them and it was anyone's game after that. Unfortunately it was their day.
This will not add to the sum of anyone's knowledge about Saints (just like most of my posts, really) but Saints seem to have an inability to maintain/defend a lead. So what about letting the opposition score first? That way, we'd have to think about moving the ball forwards, to our attack force, rather than keeping the ball, in an attempt to stifle the opposition. Expanding on this, we should equalise, then go ahead, inside the last five minutes of the match, so that we don't have time to revert to our normal style. Can't see any problems with that. (Extracted from the Mike Bassett training manual)
The thing that bothers me as a Ralph fan, is that I totally get his thought process that after the 15 minute onslaught at the start of the second half, we were beginning to regain some control, hence the (too) late subs, when he had thought to do them prior to us getting control back. I get it. What I don't get is that even despite that, surely he could see that Theo wasn't really offering too much through the whole game, and despite us beginning to wrest back control, it still would have made sense to try and capitalise on that and replace him with a more effective option? That kind of thinking really does need to change, and quickly. I think everyone 'likes' Ralph and ultimately wants to succeed (even the more vocal of Ralph Outers - it's better to be successful and admit you were wrong, than have the whole rigmarole of very risky change). Lots of love, Captain Hindsight
Interesting you had Djenepo as a positive as I think he was bloody awful. It is probably because you were at the game and the one thing he did well was beat a man and look like making something happen - which of course gets the fans going. Ultimately though, he lost us the ball constantly yesterday and not once did he actually beat his man and then go on to offer anything productive after. No chances created or shots that tested the keeper. We lost the game in midfield because JWP/Romeu were off the pace and Walcott and Djenepo offered next to nothing.
I think that is a really fair and balanced view. It wasnt Ralphs fault the goal came within 2 mins of the re-start and even he must have thought, FFS, not this again. But it was his choice to pick, IMO, the worst of 2 very poor keepers, and I dont really blame Salisu for leaving the ball thinking our keeper would get it, I’d argue 19 other keepers in the league would have at least tried to get the ball, seeing as he could see Richarlison was hovering - really poor keeping. But the other bit I dont get is that Ralph didnt react in those following 15 mins - fair enough they scored when we started to get back in the game, but in honesty they could have taken the lead prior, such was their dominance. So, to say I get his point once we had got back in the game was slightly irrelevant for me, as yes I can see the logic, but he got to that point with a bit of luck that his inactivity in the preceding 15 mins hadn’t caused us to go behind. And yes, Theo coming off, along with Djennepo for Tella and S Armstrong was a more obvious move, and even if Oriol had to come off, he could still have put Diablo on for him then. All ifs, buts, and maybe’s - but Ralph is paid to get these things right, and I’m afraid his last 6 months are showing he is in danger of not being able to stem this tidal wave we seem to be on. I actually wonder if it is stubbornness or arrogance, as I fail to believe he isn’t tactically capable.
In fact, I’d go as far as saying I fully expect a Utd defeat, and dont hold that against Ralph, but I expect us to compete and be hard to beat. That for me is the minimum of what Ralph needs to achieve. If he sets us up the same, and we get dicked, then I think he is fundamentally failing at his job. As ai say, I dont expect to win, but we are easy to beat and as soft as ****e, and this needs to be addressed before we can move forward out of this. If we changed manager (which isn’t what I’m yet advocating), the first thing a new person coming in would be to look at why we defend so poorly, communication etc and they would make us hard to beat. Hell, even Poch did this when he first came in with a good 0-0 at home to, iirc, Everton at home, and we were hard to beat and also could have won. Even Hughes when he came in did this.
Poch was excellent at the defensive side in fairness. Remember the run of not conceding we went on under him. Was a lovely time!
Yep, oh for those times. I do genuinely fear for us and Ralph, as in context it is one game of this season, with the mother of all hangovers from last.
