way down south

despite him seemingly banging them in at celtic, he still lacks the basic ingredients to succeed here in epl. pace, dribbling ability, clever passing, good shooting ability, strength. he needs a combination of atleast a few of these qualities coupled with instant decision making to make it here, which he just doesn't have. comparisons with scott sinclair seem fair as he seems to have found his level. sinclair was absolute sh!t in england then he went up there and notched double figures for goals and assists which means he found his level but doesn't mean he would do the same elsewhere, same with moi IMO. if they bid upto 12 mil for him, we should snap their hands off.

yup, ward mouse, its a mind boggler that one. i know there's a case for non glamourous players, esp. midfielders to play even for big teams as they offer something to the way the teams play, and although these players won't stand out for their incredibly weighted 30 yard passes or through balls or standing ovation worthy crunching tackles, but they remain a vital albeit small cog in the machine. i tried to look at JWP from that prespective these past few games, but he just isn't that kind of player. hes purely included in the XI because of his arguably half decent set pieces and NOTHING else. steven davis for example was one of those players for us. although he didn't do anything to stand out, he did the basics extremely well. his passing long and short, was good. intercepted opposition passes and read the play really well, covered a lot of ground and pressed really well. also occasionally popped up with a goal or two when we needed it. overall despite not being physically and technically gifted, you could see he was an intelligent player who used what abilities he had to help the team, but ward prowse, he isn't as such, very good passer of the ball, he is a timid and weak tackler, does cover a lot of ground but doesn't play with the intelligence davis did so him running around a lot isn't too useful. also despite being younger and of a similar build to davis, he's massively slower. these are just an amateur observation of a "pro" so i maybe wrong, but he is just a passenger who offers nothing, and we are wasting a spot in the team which could be used to for example give a chance to more promising and hungry players such as slattery or smallbone or someone else.

Dirt bag vardy is going to stomp all over our weak defenders and is also going to give them the run arounds which is a given. they are extremely quick and very aggressive on the counter. which will not suit us. they'll dominate our midfield, obviously, with ndidi, tielemans out muscling, out passing, and out running hoj and rom. pereira/whoever and chillwell/maddison will tear new @ssh@les to redders/bertie and JWP(bouf)/valery. soyuncu/evans will keep ings in their pocket. trying to look for a silverlining and be optimistic, but all signs point to one inevitable outcome come the final whistle, us 2 or 3 goals down and ugly @ss vardy and rodgers hi fiving while our players meekly head down the tunnel.

well, i feared the worst when i first saw the line up before the match. but we surprisingly kept it tight, apart from gunn's designated howler which almost resulted in yet another goal, and a few loose marking from the CBs. hoj still offered very little and isn't delivering whats expected from him. JWP wasn't as bad as previous games, but i still think armstrong would've offerd more with his mobility and better runs into the box.

trying to be as optimistic as possible, but where in that team do you see us creating the many chances we need to even score 1 goal? and where is the backbone to withstand the inevitable onslaught that follows IF we do manage to score?

you're just takin' a p*ss with jwp and jannik "the turtle" vestergaard starting and boufal on the bench. facing one of the quickest and most dynamic teams with one of the slowest and weakest team imaginable. Is ralph trying to lose the game on purpose? I just hope he has a better reason than that for fielding this embarrasingly limp team.

i know this thread is about the midfield but in ralph's preferred shape of 4-2-2-2 ideally he deploys his front pairing with one cf as a focal point for crosses and long punts forward in the shape of poulsen at RB leipzeig and a smaller, quicker CF in the shape of werner, who latches onto the knockdowns, lay offs and flick offs that poulsen provides. this proved a lethal combination of strength, aerial threat, pace and skill that most in the bundesliga and europe struggled to handle. the reason i brought this up is that i happened upon pelle's stats since his move to china, and they make for an impressive reading. he has provided, goals and assists combined, 58 goals in 84 games. including 15 goals and 3 assists in 20 games this season. he seems to be doing a zlatan in that his form isn't dipping despite his age(34). i get that the chinese league is nowhere near EPL levels, but after a few seasons of receiving fat pay cheques probs resulting a bank account with staggering amounts on it, maybe he could come here in january and spark our season to life. adams/ings could plunder goals galore with him holding up the ball and opening up space. Just wishful thinking on my part tho.

the question is, what are those problems? is it that the players he has are not upto scratch? well that must have been obvious since last season as little has changed in regards to his available personnel. or is it that the structure of the back room staff and those in positions of power in the club are inadequately equipped to pave way for him to succeed here? that's probs it IMO. having kelvin, the previous u18s coach and dave watson who seemingly clings on to his job based on his good hair, as your assistants must be a struggle for any manager. also him being privvy to the info that the the club is planning on hiring another inept DOF to replace ross, all this would no doubt be concerning to him and probably feels he can't succeed here anymore. All just speculation on my part tho.

sky pundit claiming ralph seem a bit beat down currently, and isn't as motivated as he was last season which will undoubtedly rub off on the players. i agree that if there are indeed problems behind the scenes that ralph feels cannot get fixed and isn't as motivated as he should be, then on pitch form will not improve. i hope thats not the case tho.

despite the frankly non existence of funds, from that article, could we tempt ragnick to come to us? if we were to give him what he asks and let him manage the income however little, from player sales and sky money and also whatever amount the owner can/might give, it would be the dream ticket. it sounds like he'd be interested in an opportunity to come to the premier league. and seeing as how the big clubs might be reluctant to hand over significant control over the goings on of their clubs, we on the other hand have nothing to lose. and the ralph connection might be a catalyst for us. it is doubtful that he'd leave his post so soon after taking on a new role, and his current circumstances are ideal compared to the shambolic situation we are currently in, but maybe just maybe he could be tempted by the prospect of saving our asses and making a name for himself in the process. after all we all thought hasenhuttle was too good to come to our mess of a club before he took the job, so there might be a slight chance of the same happening with ragnick.

Agree. i think the club's plan was to emulate european clubs such as dortmund, athletico and the like, who don't splash the cash they get from their owners, but instead maintain their status through good recruitment of players and staff and effective but attractive playing style. but those clubs are still prone to losing their best players to their endless pocketed rivals but will always get premium amounts for them so they invest wisely on younger players of similar potential to the ones sold and pocket the leftovers. now where we miserably failed was when we started hiring lame and incompetent coaches and charged wee ross with the signing of players, who then went on to completely and inexcusably waste massive amounts of money. we now have ralph so if we can get him able assistants with better know how than the likes of kelvin davis, and we get a competent DOF to use our finances wisely, then we can get back on track. IF we avoid getting relegated that is, in which case we will probably lose ralph and everything will unravel on the financial front aswell, and will get us in a hole we can't dig ourselves out of.

boufal/djenepo, ings, redmond bertrand, rom, hoj, valery maya, danso, bednarek mccarthy in a 3-4-3 which prob mirrors wolves shape, also our best chance to get anything from this is if we bypass the midfield during buildups as wolves midfield will dominate our lame hoj rom combo. Go long and direct and try and counter at every opportunities. our front three should be decent enough for counters IMO as bouf, djenepo and redders do well in 1 on 1 situations.

the fact that we have no money and that we have lots of rubbish players to sell to generate an even meagre amount will definately hinder our chances of getting anyone decent in. which is why another deeply disappointing appointment is probably going to be made.

i just hope the club won't decide to promote from within, and try to shove it down our throats and say that he has made great strides and is showing immense talent after announcing dave watson taking the job.

well, we can't sell him as i doubt that despite some pundits and match commentators speaking of him as an heir apparent to david beckham, most managers realize he offers very little apart from slightly decent corners and 1 in 15 of his free kicks troubling the keeper. so there would be no takers if we put him up for sale.

they are on a high after beating citeh last time out. and have better players than us in every part of the pitch. let's hope we can avoid a thrashing there.i doubt jota jimenez and traore are having sleepless nights at the thought of facing our defence. one thing i fear is ralph dragging vest back into the side, in which case a thrashing will be a matter of fact. if and that's a BIG if, we play well and ralph doesn't have any brilliant ideas of playing vest or deploying jwp at FB, then there is a chance to get a point there i suppose.

the lack of pace in the middle i hope is clear as daylight to ralph, just as the lack of it was obvious at cb. problem is danso was brought in to address this very obvious problem. the same danso who played at full back at first for no apparent reason and is currently rotting on the bench for consecutive games. Very mind boggling IMO. if he played and failed to impress at cb, we would have had an idea of why he would be benched. but he hasn't played at cb since coming in. why would you bench a player you signed to fix a problem position without trying him in said position. as for the midfield, trying armstrong instead of jwp seems the only personnel change we could make. apart fron that a change of approach is probs the way to go to fix that issue. encouraging hoj to be more proactive in linking the mid and attack with more forward passes and more vertical runs while dropping rom closer to the cbs is IMO the way to go.

mccarthy bednarek maya danso valery hoj rom bertrand boufal ings redmond IMO if we went with a back five that should be it. valery is much better having more offensive duties and less defensive ones. him and bertrand would provide ample width to the side while bednarek and maya would be aided by the pace and strength of danso if caught on the break. boufal and redders you'd hope will create enough chances for themselves and ings to score a few if hoj can link the midfield and attack with some success which is the biggest doubt i have about the side, hojs passes and movement seem too timid to link the mid with the attack which usually means the front 3 become isolated and very little chances are created. valery and bertrand might put in a few decent crosses but chances of ings latching onto their crosses are quite slim.

5 at the back means less player for the offensive side of things, but as things are our attacking players aren't clicking and leaking goals while not scoring goals is a clear recipe for relegation. so i guess shoring up the defence and getting a minimum of 0-0 draws out of games we are currently losing after scoring as a base to build from seems a more sensible approach. im certain our attack will start to produce goals if we don't concede morale sapping goals on the other side. whether 5 defenders is the answer or not is a question for those responsible to answer.

maybe we should get alfie jone back from gillingham in jan if we have a recall option. he's been playing at DM in a two and seems to be doing well. he's grabbed a couple goals aswell i see, but his passing seems a lot worse than our lot and after all its league 1 so the the curve might be a bit too steep to expect him to make an impact here but dele alli handled it well. unfair comparison i suppose.

problem is that ralph won't and hasn't played 4-2-3-1 formation during his time here. 4-2-2-2, 5-3-2, 3-4-2-1 or more recently 4-3-3 are the only formations he's tried out and seems to prefer. but i agree that 4-2-3-1 seems to be the only formation we have suitable players for. why ralph has opted against trying it out is a mystery. also choosing formations isn't even half the job as its the instructions and the players that carry them out have the most impact on the result you get. when you have a defence that unravels at the sight of an oppo attack build up, and a midfield slower than an ageing turtle to complement it, there isn't much you can expect to achieve.

its a real connundrum what to do about hoj. dropping him requires us to select another captain. is bertie or jwp or the very quite romeu captain materials? i'd call for maya going by experience but he hardly leads by example as he's due a howler every game. also who would take his place in the line up? armstrong seems the best alternative next to rom but that may mean a lions share of the workload would be dropped on romeu's shoulders. would he cope with that?

yes i saw a few of his games this and last season. thing about him is he certainly gets about the field and makes tackles and interceptions, but one thing he lacks IMO is ability to drive with the ball also as mentioned by one of his previous coaches he lacks positional decipline to be effective in the middle of the park in other words kind of a headless chicken who doesn't know where to be so runs around everywhere. if they can coach that into him at fulham then great as his engine is something special. now lemina had all the tools we are currently desperate for but if the attitude ain't there what can you do? was hoping slattery was the answer but he seems more of a static playmaker which isn't what we need as of now.

in my view, we sign a mobile and tenacious cm in jan for whatever and play him alongside rom or hoj or both and play danso alongside maya or bednarek or both and pray that gets us over 18th come the end of the season, and sign whoever else we need in the summer.

my biggest fear is we won't get to the summer transfer window without being relegated as the january window is too much of a complicated window to use it to plug the gaping holes in the squad. as it is i reckon we'd need a minimum of 3 starting XI players in to be relatively competent. as stupid as player prices currently are it'll only be far worse in january.