Holmes_and_Watson

Loud

Swirl

I'd rather not be reminded of the dark days, when spreadsheet prints lined the streets after the xG/Pony wars. 😒

Fear

Yeah, but because it was Claude's team, all of those *must* have been random efforts from within our own box, which apparently where the team lived. Super Ralph has embraced xG, so although there are fewer shots, they are of a higher quality. 🙂

Tail

Donkey

I look forward to our intercontinental pre-season tournaments!

I'd be very surprised if he went anywhere this season. I suppose he could lose the dressing room, or we get a few more of those fluke cuffings in consecutive games. Something drastic happening. I've the concern that if our run continues, that it also goes into next season. Much like I had that concern last season/into this one. Then, there would be some questions. It remains to be seen how the transition works. In some places, things go on as normal. In plenty of others, the outgoing manager is seen as a lame duck, and ends up leaving sooner than planned. The club have their contingency plans either way. When he goes, it will be interesting to see how the new manager changes a team that has ridgedly followed Ralph's instructions. Or tried to at least. We've played some cracking stuff at times this season; We're doing better than I expected; There's always room for improvement, from the players, recruitment, and Ralph. That's what I focus on, repeating it like a mantra after Saturday, right enough.😊

Interview questions: Do you know every word of the playbook? Isn't it the best thing put into print? Would you consider contradicting anything in the playbook? Yes, yes and no. Well done Kelvin. Welcome to the coaching team. 😊

I watched a video with many similar clips recently. That bizarre Chelsea vs Barca goal is in every one of them. The one I saw had a Man City clip in it from earlier this season. I had seen the game. City were struggling, and had their 3rd choice keeper in. A kick out and backpass went badly wrong, resulting in a goal. I remember thinking that Salisu had got away with just such a horrible backpass, not long before. Nearly in a clip montage itself. He just had enough physical strength to save himself.

I'm trying to remember which player arriving to us off the Old Firm conveyor belt, when I finally stopped being a little dismissive of their quality. 😊 Each of them were already skilled. But their time there improved them. Celtic struggled a bit through some of Mo's time there. But there's a lot to be said about playing regular football for a big team that's expected to win every week. It's less the position than using a number of related skills against opposition who see it as a massive game every week. Ralph may also have improved him, in that he performs a function within the playbook tactics. I agree though that I could see a number of managers without the same tactical focus leading us down. There's possibly fewer of those around though, and those in charge have their shortlist. It's a risk, but one we'll be taking soon enough, one way or another.

I had us down at 14th with a good season. So I have to check myself when we have matches like the Chelsea one. And we're falling to that position. Which is better, although not great watching, to struggling our way to 14th from a relegation dogfight.

Yeah, Sheldon and his tweets have become an emba... Oh, wait... 🙂

It's going to be hard on whichever club loses that one. Another year doing well in the league below. But in our case still with Ipswich and Oxford (at least) looking to be the one with the chance next time round.

Since Perraud puts in so much effort, Livramento is just the sort of player you'd want to come off the bench. Switch across KWP and play Livra on the right. That still a lot of minutes for someone that age. Particularly after having had a good run in the team. And there would be starts ahead of him too, due to fatigue/ injuries etc. There's no point in running the kid into the ground in a slumping team, when we have a better balance available. We can still have an eye on The Magical Pathway by showing just how involved he and Broja have been this season. Loads of players would be queuing up to get those sorts of first team minutes in the Premier League.

A team at the upper end of the pool of quality that the figures are drawn from scored 6, when it was expected, from those opportunities, that they would score 4.4 ( from a wider, and generally less talented pool, although it probably wouldn't be a massive difference. Unless that understat has done it for individuals). While Chelsea still had to put in some work to win the game, they clearly had a few more gears to move up if they really wanted to. They had a plan and expoited weaknesses in our tactics without being countered. We failed to react tactically (or any other way) to their approach. That's been one of the damning things when things like this happen. We have a playbook. We have automatons that play to that playbook. If it goes wrong, and it's not in there, we're stuffed. The players don't seem capable of changing anything on the pitch. I get the feeling, even with a game going horribly wrong, Ralph would be upset that people weren't following his instructions. So 4.4 from the chances created. But with the knowledge that they could have created even more chances, if they had decided to switch it up a bit. They also took their foot off a very comfortable win for at least the last 30mins. That's what isn't being captured by xG. Which is why it's just one of a growing suite of x numbers to try and analyse various parts and positions of the game. Two flukes, and another fluke seems like a lot of flukes.

Inspector

Great to see the otehrs dropping points, when we have this and another "easier" game coming up.

From the OP, I'd definitely want Guardiola in charge. Clearly the City board have been vetoing his purchase of Redmond, due to their abundance of riches in that position. This is the only way to see that dream team in action. 🙂

Absence

Wave

Belated congratulations. That's the only bit of good news out of the last couple of hours. 🙂

Well that was wretched. Chelsea are a much more expensively put together team of more talented players. They’ve had a stinging week, and we had an opportunity to capitalise on that. But to do so, we needed to be towards our best. With 4 at the back, we offered no defensive cover from midfield. Worse, we once again played KWP out of position, and that widened that centre half pairing. So, they cut us apart. Everyone on the planet can see that Perraud on the left and KWP on the right is the better balance. But that’s everyone on the planet except for Ralph and he’s stubborn enough to think that he’s right about it. The club do get to show the pathway to future Chelsea academy students looking for first team action. Yes! Get first team football in a team that messes with its balance just to fit you in! Have no fear of being dropped, because the manager will dig in with his opinions. I’d like to think that Romeu just isn’t 100%. There was the comment about new pastures recently, but hopefully that’s not taken the edge off his game. But removing him, to go three at the back, offered even less cover, and they cut us open effortlessly just as easily. Diallo eventually came on for Livramento, so we still didn’t have the balance we needed. But the game was long gone by then. This is probably the players we’re going to be going with until the end of the season. Redmond is frozen out. Perraud must be wondering what he has to do to get a start. If McCarthy was fit, no doubt Ralph would be persisting with him rather than Forster who kept today down below double figures. It seems to me that we make it clear to players we want to move on, by limiting their minutes. Focusing on pathways, rather than points, when we think we’re safe for the season. I can understand the cold logic of it. But it makes for some poor performances. We are miles off the quick, high pressing game that troubled opponents earlier in the season. That’s where Ralph’s drive makes the team better than its individual parts. We’re probably mediocre at best without that. When Ralph messes about with tactics, personnel and balance we’re worse than mediocre. And it seems to take a long time for anything to change, and we get slumps like this.

Maybe Smallbone will be playing in that advanced role that worked out so well last time. The comeback is on! 🙂