Given how good we are at taking a lead and then losing it we should immediately appoint a Sports Psychologist Ralph In Psychologist in Willy In Hokey Cokey In Out
I guess my criteria for judging a manager is usually "are we making progress?" and it is difficult to argue that the team's results are better than two years ago despite having a deeper squad and Ralph having time to implement his plans and tactics. It's well documented that the team suffered a terrible injury crisis last season with limited cover but that is no longer the case now. The performances have been good but not consistantly for a full match and we still miss chances and make errors in defence. Is that the manager's responsibility? , ultimately the answer has to be yes because a team's mentality is under his remit. I happen to think that the current squad should be finishing 11th-14th this season and looking to progress from there. It is still too early to change the manager but the results have to get better because that is how he should be judged ultimately.
Lose to Palace, then home to Brentford is a must win. Need a minimum of 3 points from these 2 games. Think the reaction from the players will be a big sign for me. No reaction and a couple of defeats, a change is needed imho. Let’s see how stubborn Ralph is on Wednesday. Does he stick with his 4-2-2-2 or will he change it? He’ll have Salisu and Romeu back, maybe even Forster in goal. Will he see that Tino needs a rest. Big decisions to make, but that’s what he gets paid grandly for.
I am not liking how he is publicly shaming some of the players after matches atm. McCarthy the other week and then Bednarek in the Arsenal game. Somethings I feel should be dealt with directly with the payer and no need to shame in the press. My conspiracy theory brain makes me start thinking he is losing the dressing room
How would that make logical sense though? He is losing the dressing room so then performs actions that make it even more likely that he loses it and faster.
Oftentimes I think managers are unaware that they are losing the dressing room, or perhaps they feel the need to throw their weight around if their authority is questioned. Not saying this is the situation by the way, but perhaps this is what Sofa was implying. For what it's worth I don't think we are at that point yet, but I've always wondered why there have been so many youth players acting unprofessionally, as well as seniors running down their contracts.
The contracts thing is 100% not Ralph related, we all know why this has happened. We have been trying to offload all of these players for a reason, they aren't good enough and they know it - because they also know they can't get paid the same elsewhere so are happy to see out their contract here.
The authority being questioned and a show of his authority as manager is probably most along my lines of thinking. I feel like it shows Ralph’s frustration, although he has shown in the past he can let his emotions get the better of him. I put “conspiracy brain” because I knew it was a daft thought but wanting to see more is little things. To be honest all I really want to see is a Saints win. Then we can all get back on the Ralph’s a tactical genius train
Fair enough - they are different cases. But even still, we know the Bertrand situation was due to length of contract, Ings was motivated by something else (playing at the top... right?) and I can see why Vestergaard would want to join Leicester instead of us.
Well we don’t know the real reasons. Even if Bertrand says ‘length of contract’, that could be made up just to avoid any awkwardness. Hardly gonna say he’s leaving cos he thinks the gaffers a knob. But anyway, on the pitch the players generally look like they are giving 100% - it’s actually one of the few positives.
Although I voted for him to stay. I keep asking myself if he has lost the dressing room or wether it really is the quality of the players. Defence wise we are at the bottom of the pile. Goa and co are really twats and badly need replacing with someone who really wants us to shine.
A poor spell of whether we are having! It definitely is quality related, but would benefit a lot, if the best eleven could play three or four consecutive games. Hard to know what the best defensive pairing is. The Owners are very much to blame for our problems and even if they were to change, it will take a long time to rectify the problems.