SKD

A good old telling off, who knows, as men maybe even a bit more physical (certainly what I’d expect after a record defeat... twice). I’ll put it into terms you may be able to related to and understand... like when your mum turns off your wifi when you’ve been a naughty boy.

Because he does not strike me as the sort of bloke who’ll dig someone out for effectively not trying. As I said, he’s a model pro and a great lad. This isn’t a dig at his as captain but more that we have no leaders in our dressing room and more so that the mentality and desire of the players is pathetic.

Personally, I’d rather us play Stephens at RB than Ramsey, especially against Chelsea who’ll have Wener on the left wing. KWP is so important to us not just defensively but going forward as well. We are simply going to have to change our play a bit. personally, I’d go Stephens, Vestergaard (RCB) Salisu (LCB) Bertrand and use JV’s diagonal passes to Bertrand who’ll push up (like KWP) and have Stephens tuck in a bit more, like Bertrand does currently. it works so well down the right, as Armstrong is soo good at dropping into the 10 creating space for KWP, miniamino will just need to do the same (or swap their sides).

Very good point and I agree with this. McCarthy doesn’t seem to install confidence in the defence at the moment. Will Forster make a difference, who knows, but at this point it’s worth a try. Another player who is used to being in a winning team. To be honest, I think Bertrand is one of the worst for negative mentality and for giving up, seems to sulk every time something doesn’t go his way (one of the worst for the anti Puel camp, I believe). I dont know if it was losing players with the ability of Mane etc. Or leaders in the dressing room like Fonte and mentally VVD, but it seems the slump started when Puel arrived. Imo, he was too much of a nice guy and player power took over. I don’t think it’s all about shouting and being aggressive, it’s about having that self pride and desire to give 110%, regardless of how the result is going. To their credit, I do think OR and Armstrong do this. I look at Leeds, who player for player (especially defensively) aren’t as good as us, but the have the heart and desire. Had we been 4-0 down, we go on to lose 5 or 6 (or more). I mean the fact that The players didn’t like playing at home in front of our crowd says it it. Spineless cowards.

And Adams for that matter.

I think our biggest issue and has been for a few seasons now (since the loss of VVD / Fonte) is the lack of leadership on the pitch. For me, JWP isn’t really captain material. A team player and a model pro, but not nasty enough. But that being said, the best choice at the moment (other than perhaps Romeu) and if we had other leaders in the dressing room then i wouldn’t mind, but we don’t. It seems to me that our current set of players, mentally are weak as piss. A team full of losers, who when the going gets tough give up. None have won anything of note in their career (other than Bertrand, more out of luck than anything else), and I don’t think any of them have the mentality to in the future either so if any think they’re too good for the club, then get rid ASAP please. Armstrong and Romeu who are 2 of our better performers are the only players who’ve been in a winning team and I think that’s telling. Time and time again we’ve thrown away leads and this pre dates the current manager. And generally speaking it’s the same set of losers that are in the starting 11. A squad out together in another loser in Les Reed. The transfer strategy seems to have improved over the past 2 seasons since les’ sacking, but we desperately need an overhaul of the likes of Redmond, Bertrand, Stephens and even arguably bednerak and the keepers and to bring in some true leaders. A shrewd signing of the like that Leicester made in Johnny Evans is much needed. Until we improve the mentality and leadership in the squad, we’ll continue to throw away leads and probably lose 9-0 again whoever the manager. As I said, going in the right direction and I do not blame the current board or manager, but I do fear our transfer strategy won’t allow us to look at something much needed within the team. i truly hope the board back the manager regardless of what happens from now until end of the season. I’d much rather we got rid of a group of players, who give up and don’t try whenever the don’t fancy it, than the manager who clearly has the passion to improve us. Regardless of what you think of his tactics, this squad cannot keep getting away with it.

Valery is shite. Never has been any good to be honest. Hidden at RWB, so made to look better than he was, but cannot defend.

Hang on, I’m not sure that’s right. They asked for a catch, which it was. They didn’t review all footage to make said decision. Root clarified what was asked for, whilst the review was on going. Also, if that was the case, why did they review the LBW, which it clearly wasn’t. happy to be proven wrong, but I don’t think you’re right on this one. Anyhow, it’s India, so reeks of corruption.

Ultimately this is all it comes down to and is the issue in football. VAR is just a video reply, it’s the idiots controlling it and the idiots implementing the rules that are the issue (look at the Leicester goal today. By the letter of the law, onside, but clearly gained more of an advantage than ings or Adams did). I see people use cricket as an example of how VAR should work, but today, the 3rd umpire made 1 (arguably 2) terrible mistakes. It wasn’t the footage, it was his lack of competence. Until Mike Riley is gone from being head of PGMOL, things will never improve. Im not a fan of the call for ex players to be refs (another job for the boys and nothing to suggest they’ll be any better - you can see that from their punditry), but I do think they should have involvement in training and VAR room to add context to a situation. you can’t have it both ways and if you want complete consistency, then the rules need to be black and white. Personally, I think this is ruining the game and interpretation and opinion is part of the game I’d hate to lose. keep VAR, but only use it for the howler. Remove the lines, remove 25 reply’s, 2 or reply’s at a maximum if you can’t decide from there, go with infield decision. Some will go for you, some against, but at the end of the day, that’s football...

To be fair, having just seen us lose 9-0 and fail to beat 9 men, I think anyone would fancy their chances. that being said, now we have players returning I suspect our form will pick up again. Bournemouth are pretty poor though, absolutely nothing about them worries me to be honest (the fact they have Long starting for them says a lot). The only thing in their favour is it’s potentially the biggest game of their history. Anything other than a comfortable win will be disappointing.

I thought as a defender he looked solid. A few touch and go moments on the ball, but that’ll come with match fitness and confidence. Huge improvement on Stephens. Was refreshing to see someone actually Mark and win a header after the past month.

Hopefully not..... But yes, he is unfortunately.

I can’t say that I think either of them are any good. Both a liability with the ball at their feet, both capable of making pretty basic mistakes as well and funny enough, both make the odd world class save. Forster just edges it for me though.

Exactly the sort of player we should be going for, if our strategy is to buy, develop, sell. However, I think he’ll go to a club bigger than us abroad. Also; a big risk replacing our only goal threat with a young lad. Feel like we’d need him to complement another striker who’s perhaps a bit more proven. Sack off Theo, very average.

The difference is, Theo looks like bambi on ice when it comes to anything near end product. For his many faults, Redmond has some technical ability about him. you’re right about the idea of Ralph being happy with him though, our system is essentially there to recycle the ball and go back if the break isn’t on. So it is possibly a tactical thing, although he’s done it under many mangers now.

I can only put it down to confidence. Always too safe and predictable. he’s got it in him to be a top player, but generally speaking he has more bad games than good. Ralph needs to install that confidence to take a man on, a bit like Djenepo does. It won’t always last work, but I don’t think anyone would give him stick for trying.

The difference between RB and this mob is that RB have the money to use this model. This mob don’t. From what I can gather, they’d struggle to fund 1 club, let alone a network of clubs.

No and that’s the issue. Talk is cheap, it’s easy to throw out ideas that sound great (I could also do that). History would suggest he’s an awful owner. Best case, we stay as we are selling our best players to fund cheap replacements. Worse case, we get relegated and some crook has brought the club with loans against us. Gao isn’t great, but I’d rather him than this clown. I think the fact it’s been dismissed by Blackmore (who’d get his info from those running day to day things at the club), would suggest we do as well. FAO: New York Saint - if / when you next speak to DaGrossa, tell him to fu*k off and he’s not welcome. Regards Any saints fan with half a brain 👍🏻

I mean it’s clearly nonsense and most likely agents drumming up interest, but we do have a fairly sizeable chunk we’ve put to one side for ings contract, which he’s clearly not going to sign. That could theoretically finance a deal.

Angelino a LB currently on loan at Leipzig would also be a very good addition, if we were able to persuade him to join.. although suspect he’ll be aiming higher than us. I think you’re right though. We could do with the 20-30m to reinvest in 1 or 2 attacking players.

Simply has to be our strongest possible team, with perhaps a few rotated who are having a rough time of it atm. The cup is now all we have to play for to salvage this season. forster KWP (I pray, or we have no chance) Vestergaard Salisu Bertrand JWP Romeu Minamino? / Djenepo Armstrong? / Redmond Adams Ings Their pace out wide worries me if KWP isn’t fit. 2 teams in poor form, could go either way which I can’t call.

The very reason we lost 9-0 (other than school boy defending) was because we were too attacking. Not breaking down 9 men camped inside their box and defended for their life isn’t negative, we’ve always struggled to break teams down and will continue to do so until we get a proper creative CM. we also miss our RB, who offers us balance going forward and defensively hugely. if there is anything you could question Ralph on is his lack of a plan B. Not negative football...

To be honest, he’s completely right. Bruce, unlike Ralph Tuesday (perhaps due to options he had available to him), managed the game at this point perfectly. I guess the difference between us Tuesday and them today was that we had 4 attacking players on midfield, 1 kid at RB 2 CB’s who aren’t up to PL standard (on current form) and United are just a lot better than us. the Pitch also really didn’t help. You need to move the ball quickly, the state of that pitch today prevented that. Not breaking down 9/10 men wasn’t really the issue. 3 completely unprofessional mistakes and pathetic defending is.

Tonight feels like Rockbottom, as Everton did last season. We’re in a bad run of form at the moment and lack of confidence is clear. 11 v 11 I actually thought we looked okay going forward. As soon as they went down to 10 men and shut up shop and defended with desire (take note please Southampton CB’s) the game was gone. As always, we’re missing someone who can break teams down in the middle of the park. It’s been this way since Tadic left. Redmond should be this player, but just doesn’t want to take on his man (started sharp though and is getting a bit on unwarranted flack, imo). Defensively, we are simply not good enough. We have no one who can cover KWP and its a huge issue. Stephens isn’t a PL player and neither is bednerak at this moment in time. simply put, you cannot make 3 mistakes like we did today in the premier league. Every team will punish you. Stephens caught out of position for the first 2 but clearly Bednerak should have done better and McCarthy has a clanger like that in him, we’ve seen it a few times. overall, we’ve been bloody unlucky these last 3 games (granted we would never have beat United, but wouldn’t have lost by that score) and even today we missed a few good chances, hit the post etc and it just felt like the ball wasn’t going to fall for us. Villa and today could have easily gone our way on another day. calling for Ralph is ridiculous, he’s not blameless but with the limited resources we currently have available, I don’t think anyone could do better. We’re an average team who our very good on our day and very bad on others. I think we need a bit of a clear out. Cash in on Ings, don’t bother with Bertrands contract. And invest in a proper leader at CB. we go again Thursday for what is now our biggest game if the season.

Any less than Ramsey, Djenepo or Valery? JS is by in large our best back up option at RB (without having to move a CM).