Billy the Kidd

Ah I see. In that case - not close enough to the scorer. In fairness Lukaku would have tapped it in if Werner hadn’t have got there first. My point was more about recognising it was a well worked goals from Chelseas perspective.

Possibly out of position, you can call it bad defending, but we are playing one of the best teams in the world, they also have a say in what is happening on the pitch.

Or a well worked goal. I’m really happy with how we played, been excellent, particularly when Ralph changed formation in 2nd half.

Think most our better play came down the left side. Funnily enough i think that is the worst 45 mins ive seen from Tino. Although he set pretty high standards before. I wondered if it was a bit weird him coming back.

Could it be that the player is just injured?

And I literally said last post, what i meant was he has the players he wants, he brought half and used half that were already here that he wanted to keep. So yes, half is his squad he brought, the other half is players he wanted to keep - for me that makes it pretty much his squad. You could literally go to any club and no manager changes every player, as some are good enough to warrant keeping, when they change out the ones they dont want for ones they do, and buy other players, and have been it situ for c. 3 years it pretty much is their squad. I think you are being a little semantic with this one, but I do get what youre saying 👍 Oh and I do like the approach this season btw, i have been pretty impressed so far, but he still needs to address the balance of defence v attack. But simply we have to start winning games. The Wolves game aside, we were unlucky not to beat Newcastle and should have beaten Utd and maybe City with the penalty. I’m happy for him to be given more games just now, but the point, for me at least, is that we cant keep not winning, something would have to change, and I hope he gets his first win this season ion the next couple of games.

What I mean by his squad isnt that he has replaced 20 players with 20 of his own, he has got rid of the deadwood he didnt want. The players here are ones he wanted. There is no reason he couldnt have tried to offload Redmond, Moi Ely, Djneppo, maybe others if he wanted, but it looks to me like he wanted them around. Im not saying he will get sacked, i dont want him sacked, yet. But your second para doesnt stand up for me Minsk, in that the club backed him, brought players he wanted, and whilst they dont want to sack him after 6 games (which to be fair I said Id give him 10), they clearly cant let the awful run of not winning games carry on forever. If they did pull the trigger, maybe after 10 games due to not winning, why cant the club find someone who plays a similar way? Or failing that, if the way we play is the real problem, after all it didnt work out playing this way for so long, maybe they need to change that too. This is all hypothetical, as I image we will pick up wins pretty soon, but it is worth raising. Our squad is better than what Ralph is able to get out of the team results wise. I dont think we are top 10, but I dont think we are constant relegation form, which has largely been the case all year.

@John B - please see below: I do not understand why we should sack him without new players quality players we will not succeed This is largely Ralphs squad now, he has been here 3 years. Our squad is better than the last 12 months results. He got pretty much the players he wanted this summer. I watched our first game in Div we had Paine Davies Chivers and Sydenham we just do not have that caliber of player anymore and even with them we struggled I get that, but our squad is still better than results indicate. We have only had relative success when we had top class players but none of them despite them being pretty good stands out and puts in regular high class performances There are more to games and winning than individual brilliance. Again, you still won't answer how long you are prepared to go winless, whilst complaining about people that open to it or at least understand why. Any new manager will play a different style, and Ralph is playing a style that is virtually impossible for the players to work in. Any manager has to use the skills available to them, and play in such a way as to get the most out of the players at their disposal.

See I’m not sure we can write off the two strikers yet, as we’ve set up to be hard to beat and haven’t got the balance right on attacking intent. Hopefully we will once the Chelsea game is done, although we could also win that one out of the blue. A new manager is likely to play a different style, so could yield different results. Btw, I’m not sure you responded yesterday when i asked you how long you’d give Ralph if we still can’t win, apologies if I missed it, but can’t recall seeing it.

Im not so sure it is 'thick' as you put it - we are well versed in losing. Gaining credible draws, as good as they have been this season, is coming of a ridiculously poor run almost stretching one year. I see sense in waiting just now until we are playing 'easier' teams, and I understand people who want to change now. I think we will wait a few more games, and ive said many times, if we dont win I think the club will be left no choice but to change.

Yep agree with all this 👍

Do the woman’s team follow the same playing style and formation as the men’s team? I know Ralph wanted this system through the club, wondered how far through it went.

This team is pretty much Ralph’s team, are you aware of that? He has been here three years, and the club did a great job moving on most of the deadwood in the summer, I’m not sure how could any fans know if a possible manager would be prepared to come. That is the job of the club to convince them, which follow the last part of your sentence - affordability. Ralph is very well paid, c. £6m per annum, I think we could afford manager which could help attracting someone.

Not at all, and I’m not saying Ralph should go immediately. I’ve posed the Q of how long should he have, as we can’t stay winless forever without taking action. Although we do need to get into the habit of beating the teams around us as that will largely tell us our true position and not the games against the top sides. Wolves were around us and they are the ones we don’t want talking there points of us. My view was 7-10 games, am interested in what others thought. I also think the carry over off last season’s form is relevant as not winning games now isn’ta blip, it is a rut and teams in this type of run find it hard to get out of it. This is my major concern, and I have concerns if Ralph can get us out of it. The 2-4 games post Chelsea will be key for me, if we don’t get a win in either of the first two after, I think Ralph will be in huge trouble. I’d love for him to beat Chelsea or the team after them and go on a run, but I think the club and fans be have stuck by him and I can see that changing. Are you saying you will stick with Ralph no matter what or is there a point where you will have had enough? You posted to Egg that a sensible, rational person sticks with a manager who is improving performance and I don’t disagree, but you can’t do a like for like v teams last season and say that is a direct improvement, when considering our form over a long period. We couldn’t beat Everton away, whilst I acknowledge a historically hard place for us when being 1 up. We couldn’t beat a terrible Newcastle team for the 2nd year running, Utd were poor, although we were good that day and we were great v City. The fact is we really ought to have for one or two victories in that and the fact we er didn’t is concerning. Like I said previously, I think the next free games will tell us if he will stay, I hope he does as it means we are winning games, but surely you can accept people have concerns?

Thanks for the response. Ralph is technically the line manager of the players, so similar to my situation. My employee had started his tenure well for6 months, then performance fell off a cliff. We dont know what Ralphs objectives are, but they sure as hell aren’t the run we’ve been on in 2021. I’m not saying he hasn’t pulled his weight, but something is clearly wrong with Ralph and the team performances - he is responsible for those. Ralph also is presiding over our worst ever run of results over a sustained period. The fact this season is only 6 games old is irrelevant, it would only be relevant if we had managed a couple of wins in our first 6 games. We haven’t, and our form for results has continued this season. We can assume performance cant continue, as if it does we will be relegated if it does continue. We can assume result are all over the place, as his objective is to get as many points as possible, and wins - it simply couldn’t be he has objectives to lose or draw, or to get as few points as possible.

Possible we would have, and im not writing his ability off. We may have lost some of the games he played in this season, also. Im not sure you can say we are 16 points off last season without him, as someone else would have got some goals and some assists, it is unlikely we would have 0 points from those same fixtures.

It really isnt that simple. Ings got 12 goals last season. Adams got 9 i think. Same Q to you as I just posted to John B: So, would you keep Ralph then if we continue to lose? I mean, how long would you continue to back the manager?

Of course I do recall Ings was playing. Is that the same Ings that did next to nothing after that period - so no guarantee he would have continued then. Why do you think my view is Armstrong and Adams will terrorise defences with Klopp in charge? I think they have the potential to get the goals we need to stay up, Ings only got 12 last season, or did you mistake him for someone who won the golden boot? So, would you keep Ralph then if we continue to lose? I mean, how long would you continue to back the manager?

Arent lots of players the same that went on the best run in 2020? If so, im not sure how this relates into the team not being good enough now, or how it in part cant be to do with Ralph.

Yeah, i do get the injuries and it did make a massive difference. My criticism of Ralph when that happened was he didnt really appear to adapt our game to suit the situation, like playing different formations or using subs. The issue with writing off that part of last season, would be more paletable had wewe won more than we did from Mar-May when our players came back from injury, and we didnt. That coupled with our run into this season, when we have played ok against some sides, but the facts state we are winless this season. And I agree it wont take long - we will either win a load of games post Chelsea which keeps him, or we dont and doubt he will still be here.

So I am confused with the line from you and TWar - 'changing for changes sake'. Surely the change is absolutely required if it appears unlikely the incumbent isn't going to work out. I have a situation at work (a real one as it goes). Ive employed this person since 2015 and I have brought him with me to 3 successive firms I have joined. For the last year (again true) he hasn't been pulling his weight, results are all over the place. Now I need to act, as it is causing lots of issues. Im not changing for the sake of it, I need to act as the performance cant continue. Ive tried everything with him, he even admitted 2 months ago he thought he would have lost his job if elsewhere. Now, I need to find a replacement before I can act, and I hope with my experience I can find a really suitable person to be better, but it is a risk and they may not be. But that doesn't mean it is changing for the sake of it, I simply have to act. Now, I dont feel it is so different with Ralph - it isnt changing for the sake of it, if we carry on as we are we are going down. This isn't a knee jerk reaction to a few shit games, it has been nearly a whole calendar year. We will find someone to take over, and they may work out or not. We could employ Klopp and it may not work, but the change would still have been necessary.

Ralph code to spend what little money we did have on the players who came in. He now plays are last season first choice RB ahead of our biggest expense this summer in Perraud. The ownership is one problem here, yes, but Ralph knew what we are working to so we’ve hardly screed him over. Ralph wanted to post Theo c. £50k pw which could have gone elsewhere. I can see where you’re coming from but Ralph is part of the problem too, his results in 2021 have been an utter disgrace, and I can’t think of another club who would have kept a manager with the performance this year.

Oh I think he has had more than a fair chance. I have liked Ralph and thought he could succeed, I said give it around 7-10 games this season. A draw with a pretty shit Utd, and a good performance v City doesn’t change the fact I think we may need to change manager. Winning games keeps us in the league, for almost a year we don’t win games. I think he will go, and soon.

I think some fans are maybe more reactionary than others, for sure. My main concern is we can’t carry on not winning, playing well is a bonus just now we need three points from one game. Who to say we won’t go down with Ralph? As it stands on form over nearly a calendar year we will. Now I don’t know who will work out better than Ralph, the club are there to sort this out, and who knows EH May do better, I’d be amazed if he did any worse. I think the club are getting ready to act, personally, this has gone on to long. I do think s heavy loss to Chelsea or failure to win either of the next two games after and he is toast, won’t be surprised if it happened around the next international break.