Yeah I’m not saying we will get nothing, just that it wouldn’t be a massive shock if we did end up with 0-3 points after the opening 5 games. Which isn’t ideal considering the end to last season and having a lot of young players coming in who may be affected by a poor start.
United are kind of an unknown quantity as it isn't clear what Ten Hag would have managed to do in pre-season alone
It is way to early to make any proper judgements on new players so my comment was meant to be taken with a pinch of salt. Lets wait and see how the season pans out and fingers crossed I am wrong and some of the young talents can follow in Tino's footsteps.
I understand. But from what I have seen and read all of the new signings have had good and not so good moments in pre-season. Apart from Mara who hasn't really had chance yet
Sorry, yeah, should really have added, “at the moment”. If he reverts back to ‘21 Sally, then happy days. It’s just been a scarily long blip!
I think a lot of goodwill has been generated through these signings. But Ralph is still on very thin ice with many fans. A poor start the season - which, as you say, is very possible - and it won't be long until the atmosphere turns toxic. A continuation of last year's results into this season won't be tolerated by many fans. And if that was to happen, it would hardly be an ideal environment for the new youngsters to thrive in. The signings themselves, I suspect will be given time. But Ralph won't be.
Aribo isn't scared to run with the ball or take players on. Djenepo should take note TBH rather than a couple of stepovers and then pass backwards.
The fans giving the players time. I think most reasonable fans expect any new player needs to be given time, let alone young players who have played little if any top level football. So whilst we might quickly get to a point where the cries for Ralph out are heard, I doubt many fans will be expecting every player to settle in as quickly as Tino did. (I'm pretty sure the owners will be giving the players time too though!)
Strange how we see games differently. I thought all three CBs did ok today as I thought the other three did on Wednesday. I like the 3 at the back (given how advanced the ring backs are, I don’t see how we can call it a back 5). Lots of positives today. Most notably the chemistry of the defence which is very good and the performance of new signings who will only get better. Given the shift they put in Armstrong (both) and Djenepo look like new signings too. I was also impressed on how they covered each other. We saw a few mistakes that last season would have resulted in goals but there was often someone else on hand to recover today. It’s unrealistic to expect people not to make any mistakes. We’ve signed a load of players and they will improve as they settle in. Aside from us Spurs have impressed me the most with their transfer dealings but they will have the same settling in period. Maybe longer. Would rather face them on opening day than later on!
I meant with regards to Ralph as well. I just don’t see them pulling the trigger unless things go appallingly. Otherwise they would have done it at the beginning of the summer when they restructured the coaching staff and brought in a new head of recruitment People are quick to say things to the affect of Ralph being out of excuses now that he has been backed. That doesn’t mean they will give him ten games after being backed and that is it The fans may well turn toxic if things are tough at the start but I’d expect the owners to be more measured
And I think it’s right he is. It’s less the temperature of the fans as the players/new coaches that I suspect the owners will keep an eye on.
Completely agree. The biggest concern for me (as someone very much Ralph in) at the end of last season was that some players had appeared to have lost faith in him/his methods, and if that were to continue into this season then I doubt he'd last long at all. I'm fairly confident that won't be the case though.
I know it's a results business but i'll be looking just as much at the style of play and performances, if there isn't an improvement on the last third of the season in the play then the atmosphere might become a bit toxic but equally if it looks like coming together on the pitch and the games are exciting then the fans will be pacified even if the results are not quite there yet.
As Libby reminded us above, we need a volunteer for the Spuds thread. This is a whole new world, all of last season’s threadmasters have a clean slate.
