TWar

Norwich is worst. Leeds and us are joint 2nd worst: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/chancenverwertung/wettbewerb/GB1

Taken a bit out of context there...

You can work with what you have, but obviously there is a limit to what is feasible based on playing resources. A top form Liverpool are well past that limit.

I think the time you described if I remember correctly was a very good challenge rather than him messing up. The one he really should have put away was the Tella assist chance but it is hard to keep focus when you are feeding off scraps.

I merely ment the club are clearly more close to the "Ralph is doing well, give him time", like myself, people than the "Ralph out" people. Not me specifically. And its not a "Messianic" defence, I just think that the manager is much better than the squad at his disposal and therefore more often than not player error or lack of quality is to blame more than managerial error. Especially when playing one of the best teams in the world.

The issue with those formations is you would find it very tricky to break on them. If we play a 532 then the front two are super isolated with no link (also we couldn't play it as Diallo and Armstrong were injured), a 541 could work if the 4 had two industrious linking mids in front of JWP and Romeu (like Armstrong and Djenepo for example), but then it is basically a 3421 which isn't much more effective than a 3412

What do you mean by "competing"? You want us to be going for a premier league title? Or do you mean competing for europe? We can't compete right now, we don't have the resources. If we buy a load of young up and coming players, give them chances and improve them, sell them for big fees and reinvest then maybe we can crack the top 8 again like we did before. But "competing" for europe with this squad isn't something Pep or Klopp could do. It's a long road for teams who can't just buy their way there. Regarding the norwich game, we played well, made more chances, got a goal, and were fucked by two massive goalkeeping errors and an inability to kill the game in the first half. I imagine this reupped the people upstairs' urge to sign a keeper next summer (hopefully Johnstone) and the need to maybe look at better attacking mids. They will care about that game, and will address it hopefully with a bit of financial backing for Ralph.

Having a different opinion to the majority doesn't bother me. Forums aren't popularity contests for me, they are a place to discuss your views with other fans. If they disagree and have good arguments great, if they change your mind, even better (I am changing my mind on Lyanco for example). If you change their mind thats cool too. If you see forums as a super combative way to try and laugh at and win arguments and get some sort of embarrassing forum cred, then that's fine. But it's not what I'm about. I'm just here to discuss the team I support with other reasonable fans.

I really don't. I think I know better than you, but I think almost all posters know better than you. Regarding everyone else, there are a lot of very insightful and high quality posters on here who know easily more than I do.

I doubt Bednarek starts going forward imo. Stephens should be straight back in when he returns imo.

If we had an extra body in midfield it may have slowed their midfield down slightly (may not even have done that against an elite midfield). But would have been at the cost of a man in defence in the box marking Salah, Jota, and Mane. I think extra defensive measures are more valuable than throwing more resources at a losing battle in midfield. Regarding your second point. Liverpool when 3-0 took their foot off the peddle. They subbed off their best midfielder for a pretty mediocre player in AOC, and just generally seemed to calm down and pass it around, conserving energy and having the midweek merseyside derby in mind. If they needed to, they could have put a few more past us. They even brought off their striker on a hatrick to rest him so they could play Taki, a player we are all grimly aware of his quality... Where am I saying I do? I said maybe he said it to take pressure off the team, it's possible. Or maybe he was right the first time in my opinion and wrong to second guess himself. Either way I disagree with him.

Me too, Ralph did a good job of adding more composure to Jack Stephens game, as well as Bednarek, JWP and Romeu. I know Bednarek has off games now, yesterday included, but he is still miles better than he was under Hughes.

I wouldn't say he's a million miles away from Danny. Danny is a better finisher, no doubt. But Armstrong has traits Danny didn't. He is much much faster, he is very two footed, a better dribbler, and has hamstrings not made of glass. Danny is better right now, but not much better, and Armstrong is still a lot younger. Despite this, Armstrong has the exact same number of goal involvements as Ings this season (one more if the Che goal was not given as an OG which it shouldn't have been imo). He is a decent player and given the option to swap for Ings right now, considering Ings' injury record and the fact he's already done his hammy once this season, I wouldn't. This season he will level Ings for scoring, next season he will comfortably surpass imo.

Agreed. This was his worst game and I still thought he looked alright.

If you are going to lose the midfield regardless then why not just come to terms with this and have more defence for the inevitable floods of attacks anyway? Also, if this is such an unviable strategy then why is it used so often and consistently when smaller sides play bigger sides? Parking the bus, having a target man, trying to nick it from set pieces is not a revolutionary idea. Regarding Ralph admitting the tactics being wrong, maybe he believes that and I disagree. Maybe he doesn't believe that and is trying to take pressure off the players, which I agree is an admirable move. Who knows, the point is my views are my views and aren't based on "Ralph said it so it must be true, because he's so clever". I think parking the bus at big sides works, and going blow to blow in midfield mostly doesn't. Whether Ralph agrees or disagrees doesn't change that.

His touch is superb, takes the ball under control well and his "turn" is good too, he has had some excellent moments dribbling through defences where it seems like the ball is locked to his foot. The only thing he lacks, imo, is composure. When he is feeding off scraps all game and then the big chance falls he snatches at it. It looks like panic. Hopefully he is just a little overwhelmed by the league at his age and it's a confidence thing that will pass as it wasn't good enough yesterday or against united where he had similar issues.

Luckily the club is run by people like me. I was one of the few calling for Ralph to remain at the back half of last season when a lot of others were calling for him to go. He did remain and now he's doing better. The people running the club won't be too bothered by a loss to Liverpool, I promise you that. A win is great, a loss is expected.

If we had gone toe to toe in midfield, had an extra man like Diallo, and tried to win the midfield battle we almost certainly would have lost. Henderson, Thiago, and Fabinho is probably the best midfield in the league and potentially the best midfield in the world. We could have had a go, JWP is certainly a top level player, but with the likes of Romeu and Diallo we would have needed them to be seriously off form for our players to have won the midfield battle against theirs. Instead we employed a tactic as old as football, park the bus, lots of defenders, cede the midfield battle, and try to catch them on the break. It didn't work, as it often won't, but it was by no means a bad move. There is a reason most small sides employ this tactic against the big boys rather than trying to match them in midfield and outplaying them.

No one has any idea of the inner workings of Ralphs head except Ralph, yourself included. 95% of supporters can believe what they want, I expect that if he did do it to take pressure off the team he'd be happy that so many of supporters buy it. I don't know what this "supreme analyst" thing comes from. I gave my opinion, that a back three/five is a good way of parking the bus against a big team and trying to nick it on the break and had already worked this season against bigger teams so wasn't inherently a bad idea. It's not even a particularly complicated opinion, I'm not sure where this "supreme analyst" thing comes from, I'm just giving my views like everyone else.

I expect it could change soon. City, Leicester, Liverpool are their next fixtures. Have been quite fortunate in these last two wins too judging by underlying stats.

We don't win with a 541, if we park the bus a team of that quality breaks us down eventually. We needed some attacking threat on the break to even have an outlet and a chance, and a 3412 can provide that. We didn't win, because liverpool are exceptional and played as such, there was no formation imo which would have resulted in anything but a loss against that side today with their quality imo. The formation we played, if they were off form or unlucky, may have yielded a draw. But they weren't. I don't think that's the case for a 541.

I reckon he probably took blame to take pressure off the team, which is fine. But honestly, against a liverpool side of that quality, playing that well, I genuinely believe there is nothing we could have done with our players to have gotten anything there today.

Firstly, never said Villa were nailed on for relegation. I think they are a poor side, worse than us, and I stand by that. They have a risk of relegation, certainly, but the favourites are Norwich, Watford, Burnley, Newcastle, and Brentford. They are two points ahead of us right now but their next three games are City, Leicester and Liverpool whereas ours are Leicester, Brighton and Arsenal so I would expect there is a decent chance that won't be the case for much longer. Regarding a one off game, I agree, that's why I said "consistently". We took points off City and United so we can take points off bigger teams in one off games but they are better and if the team are on form and playing well then we will lose, and Liverpool were. I'm not saying we can never beat them, but a team the size of liverpool, you have to expect the occasional game like this one. Especially when they play as well as they did today. Also we did finish above them, but that was a different time. Liverpool were struggling at the time and we were at our absolute apex. We are no where near that team anymore and Liverpool are miles better than they were then, having won a premier league and champions league since then. Finally, we did set up solidly to defend. We played three at the back, two holding mids, and not very adventurous wingbacks. We played two strikers and a 10 but it was a pretty defensive formation. Unfortunately such a thing can only take you so far if you have players like Bednarek playing against some of the best forwards in world football.

I ment just as an example. Like if we play a 352 then we are basically parking the bus. We need a 10 to connect play. We chose a guy who is normally a striker but that's not any less defensive than picking one of our normal 10s imo. If we picked diallo it would have been, but that's far too negative imo

We still played with 3 CBs and 2 DMs and our wingbacks were pretty pinned back. That is a pretty defensive formation tbh. Having Che linking our midfield and attack instead of, for instance, Djenepo doesn't make it more attacking imo. He wasn't playing as a striker really.