I despair of most sporting authorities ever considering the people who pay from their hard earned salaries. I've a couple of mates who are giving up their season tickets and instead, going from match to match. They said with change of dates/time etc it's pretty hopeless for them to keep up with every home match. I've never had one so can't comment one way or another, but with the recent shambles of FIFA/UEFA and Olympic decision making I just wonder how these organisations end up in the wrong place as far as the paying public are concerned.
One reason for some of the absentees was because they couldn't have their own seat in the Northam, so they didn't make the effort.
Am confident, but still don't tempt fate by coming out from behind the sofa. I lasted till 1-1, but decided the boys needed my help so stopped watching the game. I did manage to watch the whole of the Norwich game though...am expecting my medal in the post.
In the cold light of day I realise that I owe Mr Caballero an apology; I'd just finished whining about how unconvincing he was looking and then he went and pulled off 'that' save. Good hands on that Willy.
Now I admit I was wrong and Ralph got it right, and possibly a little disrespectful, but we're all desperate for a trip (or two) to Wembley. In that moment when I saw the team, I was convinced we were going out. After all, these fringe players made a horses arse of their chance against Coventry. Sorry Ralph.
In my case I was just perplexed as Valery as I don’t see him as a CB in a 4. But that said he did that role against Spurs after the red card. And presumably he plays there a lot now in the training matches they seemingly have (with Lyanco’s injury) It sounds like they do 11 v 11 in training occasionally. I guess someone from the B team is in CM. Or maybe Smallbone as there was definitely something said about him playing in the B team to get more experience as a 6.
He's right. It was disrespectful. If we are going to reach the next level (whatever that is!). we need to see 22 players rotating. That said, I personally think rotation should only involve about 4 or 5 changes as a maximum on each game. Just my opinion. There is a high risk with 9 changes but fair play to Ralph it worked. It's less of a risk in cup games when you can make 5 substitutions.
I don't think we will ever see Valery as a right back now. He looks OK going forward but his tracking back is horrendous. As a CB, he's not expected to drive forward to the same extent and that's why I think he looks solid.
I was never against making some changes last night, I was just wasn't expecting 9! That, for half an hour, floored me. This is why he's the manager and I'm a supporter.
For all the concerns about taking the cup seriously, there was the tweet last night that confirmed Saints have made the quarter finals for two consecutive seasons for the first time in over 110 years!!
What a lovely first touch by Perraud for his goal. Set it up perfectly…. although he still had a little bit to do
The players did a very good job of bailing him out. 9 changes is still utterly crazy for a game of this magnitude - and it easily could have backfired. I am not changing that opinion just because we won. The fans deserve better. With that being said, fair play that we won & played well. He’s a truly great coach to get those players to play like that.
Yes and no. I mean, it was a high risk move that worked. It's great that it worked, but that doesn't take away from the fact it was high risk (or that we looked a lot better when the first team players came on in the second half). And that's from someone that thinks the sun largely shines out of Ralph's bottom. He's an excellent coach and a very, very good manager. We're extremely lucky to have him. But if we get one of the big teams in the next round, I don't want him thinking he should use his "cup team" again, particularly out of loyalty.
It’s called game management. Ralph knew he had 5 upgrades on the starting team ready to bring on at any point. As he explained in the presser earlier, he has a responsibility to the second string players to keep faith with them. He particularly mentioned Smallbone’s contribution last night, and asked how he was supposed to judge Will’s progress without actually playing him. Ralph also knows that a few injuries to first choice players means that he might have to rely on at least some of the players who started last night, so giving them match time was important. Plus, West Ham’s bench wasn’t overall an upgrade on the starting XI, and Moyes only made 2 subs anyway, which meant that we finished much stronger than they did. Having said all that, the 6th round won’t be a midweek game, so hopefully there won’t be a need for anything like the amount of rotation as last night. Unless we get Boreham Wood at home, maybe…
Yeah, I mean I get it. There's a good piece in the Athletic today where Ralph very sensibly goes through his thought process. I just don't want him to think that he *has* to do the same thing in the next round out of loyalty. We could easily have been a couple of goals down against a more clinical team last night, before Romain's Rocket.
All round, I think we can now see the way things are progressing. Ralph has been after a squad of 22 first team players from the start, now we're getting there. The movement, tenacity and determination from whoever, or whatever formation is selected, we can see the same patterns coming through. Bit of a gulp myself when that team sheet came up, but excellent performance and another scalp from the higher echelons of the PL. As we said before, in Ralph we trust!!
