TWar

I was referring to the massive drop in form between February and March, Broja didn't look great in February. The others I listed did.

Broja did look good earlier in the season, but he certainly hasn't for some time now. Armstrong, I think it's unfair to say he looked anonymous. He got 45 minutes in which time we had like 30% possession and conceded 4 goals. It's not really fair to compare that to Broja who was anonymous for four games straight against much easier opposition and much more possession.

I disagree. Tino kept being left 2v1, he can't mark multiple men. Bednarek and Salisu were the ones who kept losing markers.

AA isn't a regular starter, I see him as like Diallo or Redmond. Decent depth option. And yeah, Adams is better than Broja. Adams has outscored and out assisted Broja in the league and hasn't had a massive drop off in form in the same way Broja had. He was up for prem player of the month in Feb while Broja has had one league goal contribution since mid january.

I'm a little confused, are we a midtable squad or not in your eyes. As Villa are the very definition of midtable and saying we are better than them you think is laughable?

I'm trying to get at we are a team who don't spend much money built on the backbone of a relegation threatened team before Ralph came in. We sell to buy, we have an OK squad but any quality in it was developed by Ralph because it sure as shit wasn't there under Hughes/Pellegrino and it sure as shit wasn't bought for big money. Since Ralph came in we haven't approached relegation and we have overperformed expectations this season again. Surely you can see that, if you want to see expectations, just look at the season prediction thread. These big losses might annoy you, they annoy me, but on the whole I'll take one or two woeful performances a season but safety and progress over what we had before. Especially given what we spend.

3 England internationals is meaningless, KWP and Forster are like 5th-6th choice in their respective positions at best. 20th was stupid, yes, and it's big of you to admit that so kudos. Genuinely. However, the average prediction on here was about 15th-16th so if we get 10-14th which we likely will then that is a good achievement for him. It's easy to realign your expectations after a run like we had in Jan-Feb and then get all annoyed we didn't kick on and secure 9th but it is worth grounding yourself and remembering this is a team that was 15th last season and we lost 3 regulars including our top scorer. Our current position is a massive acheivement and a ropey display against a team of the size and quality of chelsea doesn't change that.

Depends, when being negative about the team - 20th, when being negative about the manager within touching distance of top half is thoroughly unacceptable.

How can you say he has performed on par with what you'd expect when you expected 20th? When you say "you" do you mean literally me, as in someone who didn't make a silly prediction? Because he's overperforming what I predicted too...

I'd rather a manager who overperforms and then tails off than one who doesn't overperform at all. We are the 13th or 14th best team in the league. I still rate us to finish above 12th considering fixture difficulty. It's a shame that if we kicked on we'd be nailed in 9th but we are a team that fought relegation regularly pre-Ralph and since he's come in we haven't been close, despite spending comparatively very little money. Ralph has flaws but on the balance of outcomes he's worth it. Even if it doesn't feel like it after a big defeat like today.

Villa are level on points with us... why are you going back to rimming villa? Simple question, has Ralph done well this season? You said we'd be 20th, we are miles above that, how can you of all people complain?

Something has changed between February and March, I'm not sure what it is as we are basically the same team. A bunch of players who looked great (Salisu, Romeu, Stu, JWP, Adams) have been having off games and a few players who looked ok (Bednarek, Broja, Moi) have been very poor. I have to assume it's motivation. People are blaming dropping Perraud as it's the only thing thats changed but that doesn't explain the stark difference between Salisu, JWP, Romeu today and, for example, their performances against City and Spurs earlier in the year. Good players don't become bad overnight, I think they just realised we don't have much to play for and aren't fighting as hard as teams avoiding the drop or going for europe.

Yeah it's annoying, I'm not disagreeing with you, we have lost motivation and have been playing like we are on the beach for a while. We need new talent in attacking mid, defence, and up top. These things can all be true whilst also acknowledging we've had a good season and the manager who has given us that good season should be allowed to spend in the summer the money new ownership seems to be bringing to the table.

Ralphs not perfect. His lack of ability to motivate the team is a big reason why we are sliding away from top half and towards lower mid table. I just feel in a season where the most optimistic posters were thinking we'd get about 12th and the consensus was 17th-20th a season where we are comfortably safe by march and 1 point off 9th is pretty good tbh and people shouldn't piss the bed over a bad afternoon against the champions of europe.

I don't think the Perraud thing has much impact. KWP was great today and Livramento made some good runs and pushed us up the pitch. Our CBs and CMs were crap, I think the logic off "if KWP was on the right and Perraud was on the left today it would have gone better" is a fantasy. The fullbacks weren't remotely the issue. The CBs were the ones who kept fucking up and the mids.

I agree.

No one is saying the manager is blameless. But when the manager has us one point off 9th and the expectation preseason is relegation then maybe try not to wildly overreact. Our season is defined by our league position and cup performance, not by our biggest defeat.

Last season we had massive injury issues. This year we just seem to have lost motivation. Still nowhere near as bad as last season. I think we won as many games in February this season as we did in the entire second half of last season from Jan 16th onwards. (Don't know exact numbers as am out, before someone is pedantic)

It's amazing to me the people who said we were relegation certainties in the summer are the same people trying to say Ralph has underperformed when we are one point off 9th. How does that work?

you can currently get 259-1 odds at us getting relegated. If you genuinely feel this way put some money on it, you'll make a killing.

Very very poor. Ralph needs to motivate his players better, has been obvious we were on the beach for some time. Dreadful displays from our best players in JWP, Salisu, Romeu, Stu, Moi. KWP I thought did well as did Forster and Smallbone when he came on. I think calling to sack the manager is silly given we are still one point off top half and many predicted relegation preseason but he has definitely failed to motivate his team.

There is a chance we finish 17th, there is also a chance we get 9th or 10th. Right now we are safe, within touching distance of top half, and we made the quarters in the cup. Given half this forum predicted relegation and certain muppets predicted 20th and laughed at those who predicted 10th-14th Id say he's performed atleast up to expectations, wouldn't you? Maybe don't piss yourself over a bad afternoon against the champions of Europe when you yourself thought we were relegation certainties and we have objectively done a tonne better than that.

You started the season thinking we would finish dead last and we are one point off the top half. Maybe that could be a reason to back him?

Had to happen, he's not big enough to win the big punts forward to relieve pressure and we need another midfielder. He'll get it, I'd imagine.

Broja gets dug out for being anonymous in even games against teams like Watford, Leeds and Newcastle. Which is fair. You go after Armstrong for failing to score in games against City and Chelsea where we concede 4+ goals and barely see the ball. Which isn't fair at all.