Charlie Wayman

We need an upgrade in many positions on the evidence of today's performance. Once Romeu was removed it was all over. S Armstrong was at his clueless best today. Our strikers really have lost the plot now.

Very lazy display from Salisu cost us both goals, stick a rocket up his backside Ralph. WTF is Smallbone doing up top get SArmstrong off and AArmstrong on.

Ralph seemed a bit tetchy at his latest PC, wonder what upset him? No homework yet on Watford, what's going on?

What you say is true and probably he is the right player for the City match but without in any way wishing to join the chorus against Broja, it seems to me that it maybe is no longer in the Club's interest to keep playing him in preference to AA, who cost us a relative fortune but still has questions to answer over his abilities at this level. Broja's loan made sense to help get us where we are now but may be becoming counter productive for the run in simply because it is unlikely we can move above 9th anyway.

You talk like an old man yet you are still a slip of a lad at 50. Get a grip, life is out there and starts getting really interesting at 60!

We didn't play badly last night but we did play without conviction or confidence and it showed in hesitancy and lack of creativity. It was all a bit flat and lacklustre. Obviously the heavy defeat at Villa Park has taken its toll on morale which is perhaps one problem with a young team. It is invidious to pick out some players as being more culpable than others but Broja never got into the game for the second match in a row and needs perhaps to cool off on the bench for a few weeks. With only a few games to play this season and the very unlikely scenario that he will be a Saints player next year, one wonders whether now is the time to drop Broja to the bench and give Adam Armstrong a run of games and one last chance to redeem himself this season. Livramento was ineffective, hesitant and altogether too cautious, memories of the dynamic young ace storming the right wing and threatening opposition goalmouths are beginning to fade. I agree absolutely with others on here that we should start a few matches with KWP / Perraud as our wing backs. The biggest disappointment for me was our blinkered and unimaginative forward play, time after time and fruitlessly trying to play through their lines, when it was perfectly clear to all that after the first umpteen attempts it was never going to work. Why didn't Ralph or any of his coaches wake up to where this was heading and change tactics? A few long balls into the box and on heads may not look particularly stylish but it worked for the Toon and it would probably have worked for us as well. Only Ralph knows why our best player on the night was subbed early on. If it was a precaution we must hope and pray that he is not heading to the sick bay for a few weeks.

Sounds that way.

I know it's a rhetorical question you ask but this situation will likely last for a very long time. It is hard to see any circumstances in which we in the West could return to business as usual with Russia. One solution may lie in the nationalisation of Russian assets in retaliation of the Russians nationalising western owned assets in Russia as they are threatening to do; then the subsequent sale of those assets to private sector buyers. One things for certain if we survive the nuclear dust, the lawyers as usual will have a field day

Beautifully touching comments from Ralph at his PC on how much he loves the club, living here and the people of the area. His perfect job, our perfect manager. Long live King Ralph!

Ralph will ask for a reaction, the players themselves will demand a reaction. Pride alone will ensure no repetition of Saturday's fiasco. This will not be like the Villa game, we will impose ourselves from the start and Toon will struggle to contain us. 2-0 to Saints is worth a £5 punt surely?

Poorly constructed questionnaire, too many assumptions, too many leading questions.

Probably just behind us.

Premier league matches are shown all over the world and demonstrations of support for UKRAINE in its moment of need sends an important message of unity in opposition to what Russia is doing to an innocent peaceful country.

Cheer up! No good throwing in the towel after one bad result. Any team losing a couple of key players will struggle not just Saints but that had nothing to do with what happened yesterday. As for "managing" to win against WHU, we played mostly bench players (nine changes!) yet still comprehensively outplayed a strong Hammers side who are 4th in the PL table and beat them convincingly. On that basis losing a couple of players to injury should make no difference to our performance.

Most of our players obviously fancied the day off yesterday and collectively took their feet off the pedals. At one stage Villa were scoring for fun and 9-0 headlines were looming again! Thanks to Forster and a bit of reorganisation it didn't happen. Both ex-Chelsea youngsters were awful, Livramento hesitant and resorting to safe and easy backwards and sideways passes while Broja was largely invisible and unwilling to do much running. Tactically we were out-thought and out-fought in mid-field which is normally our greatest strength and we seemed to play the game at a snail's pace. Unusually Oriel Romeu couldn't get into the game and maybe should have been subbed earlier. The CBs were depressingly error prone but to be fair were not given much protection. On the day Villa were by far the better team with Cash especially invincible at RB and Coutinho showing why he should be playing in a much better team at a much higher level what the heck is he doing at Villa Park? I hope this doesn't set in panic and wholesale changes against Toon because that will not be the answer. We have a formula that has worked well recently and this is not the time to try and re-write it.

Our strikers are not in the game either, need some serious changes at HT. Need KWP to inject some life, Livramento too tentative and Stephens having a nightmare. We need to up the pace in the second half, they will tire and we will pull this back to 2-2.

Why have you ignored Elyounoussi, he is one of the most creative and intelligent players we have, finding spaces and opportunities that Redmond would never see in his lifetime.

Should be a comfortable victory for Saints with morale & belief at an all time high. With Livramento, Perraud, Romeu and JWP on fire, Armstrong and Elyounoussi improving with every match and our strikers in form it is hard to see how we can be beaten. 3-1 to Saints on a sunny day in the midlands.

Me too! I gave Ralph some very good advice not to change his winning team and it's gratifying to know that he heeded that advice... 😳 To be fair to Diallo, he is not a DMF so it took him a little time to settle. Pleased that Ralph kept him on for the full 90. Djenepo has never impressed me from Day 1, okay he's had his moments but far too few of them. Expectations were high when he came in as one of the first of Ralph's picks but even our great leader cannot be expected to get everything right. Is it just me or did others feel that we never looked like losing last night? Weird, especially against a strong Hammers team.

Diallo, Djenepo, Smallbone off please

Wholesale changes in the starting XI means inevitably a loss of understanding in the team and a breakdown in its automatism. So, if things go badly even though 5 subs are allowed, introducing regular starters at a late stage to try to recapture automatism rarely works as there will not be enough time for the system to reboot and correct itself. For this reason if we are serious about winning the FA Cup then we must start with our current winning team. I suspect and hope that WHU will prioritise a top 4 finish and rest a few players but even if they don't we have enough about us to win at home with the proviso that Messrs Broja & Adams do not squander the many chances that come their way as they are prone to do

He did but he said also that the choice of colours for matches was pre-planned (months) ago and so would not have been influenced by recent events in Ukraine. Just a co-incidence even if a happy one.

That's debatable surely. What means better? Individual reputation counts for nothing if it is not successfully harnessed into an effective system of play. Anyway, it's good to see the good times back. Hail Oriol! Our player of the season by a country mile.

Stanbridge Ramsey Rochford, Smith Webber Mallett, Day Curtis Wayman Bates Wrigglesworth Of course we remember him.

Completely wrong thread mate. ...but, to answer you in part the empty seats behind the players areas that are never offered for sale are surely a Covid-19 barrier between the players and fans.