MAY-Z

No other team around that position did the same? Why didn’t their players all hit self preservation mode? Because that’s probably not the real answer And if it is true it says a lot about Ralph’s lack of connection to the players at the end if he can’t get a single performance out of them

For me: 1) going top after the Newcastle win 2) Shane Longs winner at Anfield 3) 3-2 comeback win versus Liverpool 4) 8-0 over sunderland 5) 3-2 win over Tottenham last season 6) the first game back in the league and pushing city 7) the first win against Villa 8 ) Charlie Austin’s winner at Old Trafford 9) Spanking Chelsea at Stamford bridge under Koeman 10) beating Swansea

So I will ask again, as none of the Ralphists can ever provide the answer, why was the squad performing so well up until the Aston Villa match last season, and then overnight become a truly horrible team? This happened under Ralph’s watch it didn’t need miracles, these players are just horribly managed and as people can tell there are problems behind the scenes.

Lol. I have picked that amount of games for a very obvious reason, that was the Aston Villa game, where there has to be a genuine breakdown of something behind the scenes, the team went from playing fantastic stuff up to that to becoming one of the worst teams we have ever seen for now a full season and a half. if you don’t think that is relevant then that says a lot about you and your ability to process pretty basic things and what evidence do have to suggest that Ralph would develop and improve youngsters? And maybe the biggest flaw in your argument is upping Ralph beating chelsea, and being unlucky against United. Well Selles also beat Chelsea (away) and was unlucky against United (away).

Ralph ended up with 17 points from his last 27 games, which when you play that out for a full season gets you how many points??? drumroll……24! Exactly what we will end up with

This is spot on, I did a thing about a year ago showing how much worse almost all of our players got after about 5-10 games with us. nothing has changed (Lavia and Alcaraz exceptions) again this season, ABK looked fantastic early then crap, DCC fine then fell out of favour, AMN was ok early, now useless. it can not be that everyone of these players is no good, it has to be the environment

Clearly always been something up with him, was there ever any proper transparency about why he was locked away for so long after he joined?

I’m assuming the half time team talk must’ve been something like from RS. “ok lads, the longer that half went the more comfortable we looked, we started to cause them a few problems going forward and some great link up play saw us get a goal. Now what we need to do is forget all about that and all sit back as deep as possible and not look to get forward at all, let’s make sure this entire second half is played in and around our penalty box. I dont want to see Sulemana or Charly making those forward runs that pressure their defence, this half is all about inviting pressure. I will make sure I make some more subs that will definitely make us play worse, so look out for them. let’s make sure we have 0 shots and even 0 crosses in the entire half, that will make sure we are under the pump”

The single biggest individual reason we are going down.

That’s completely irrelevant at the 87 minute mark when you are 3-1 up. I just presumed Ely was coming off when Diallo was coming on, seemed the simple obvious change, so obviously that didn’t happen and baz, ffs 2 weeks in a row setting everything up on the penalty spot.

No, Moi had the player further back, KWP had Martinelli and then just left him in the middle of the penalty area, Moi then left his man to try and cover KWP

Nah, it was on the massive decline post the Norwich win last season, just like everything at the club. That being said I expected him to improve things more than he did

And even today Alcaraz smacks one against the post and gets in a dangerous position and blazes over, then he taken off. Completely baffling Paul is on for 30 minutes and had 1 ball delivered to him in the box, and he gets a header on target, any danger of putting more balls in the box?

Contemplating whether to stay up and watch this or just go to bed i was leaning towards starting up as this really is the last chance, but seeing that lineup really makes me think otherwise

hmmm, maybe i am overestimating the synergy of the club! but i also wouldn't believe every link we had during January but seriously though most of the games at the end of Jones tenure were seemingly 4-2-3-1 (according to StatsZone) and something like that just looks so right to me based on our current squad, its just a massive shame that it hasn't been played with this squad as as soon as Jones got these together, he was gone and back came 4222

I think this is a good point and one i was considering myself last night With Jones it was looking like he wanted to base his side around 1 big striker with 2 wide men and a central attacking midfielder just in behind. So we bought players that suited that, Paul upfront with Sulemana and Orsic/Edozie wide of him and Alcaraz in behind. We then sacked Jones and Selles wants a 4222 which has frozen out Orsic & Edozie, meant Sulemena and Alcaraz have had to play out of position (or not play at all) so we arent getting the best out of them. so like you say from a making use of the new assets it almost wouldve been better to stick with Jones (Shudder), sack him much earlier and buy to what the new manger wants, or hire a manager who is flexible enough to see what he has and utilise them as much as possible. As it stands we have done none of that and just left us with a miserable mix of failings

He hasn’t signed a new deal, so can’t play, Ely hasn’t signed a new deal but he can. What worries me is that I wouldn’t be surprised if Ely has done a McCarthy and signed a new deal in secret

Yes, the best shot of the game from perraud but the have a goalkeeper who believes in saving the ball

I had no idea who he was, but his commentary is awful

It’s not only that if we had drawn against forest, wolves and Leeds, all results that really should’ve been the minimum based on how the games were played, we’d be 13th. Amazing when you think about it.

I’ve thought about this a bit more and I think Whitey and Lighty are right The best thing for Baz to have done was flap at that cross, in the hope it put him off. Because if the header was on target there is close to zero % chance it would’ve been saved no matter where it went or how powerfully it went there

Was absolutely fantastic coming for that ball in the last minute and leaving an open goal wasn’t he. and his pass to the Leicester player was also fantastic You have just overtaken lighthouse for worse take on this forum I don’t understand how anyone can say he has done a good (or even competent) job this season

There has never been worse take on this forum. Ever. if we go down this year it will largely be Baz’s inability to make a save that takes us down. Forster was a massive reason we stayed up last year

Yeah, and as I put up above the core of that team is still here and they were all there for the end of last season. it just makes no sense that they have all (probably apart from JWP) regressed so far so quickly

Just going to raise this again; what happened to this club after that Norwich win and before the Villa loss truly can’t be believed We seem to have a lot of people who knew everytime someone farted when Jones was in charge, anyone have any idea what went on this fortnight