MAY-Z

So was Brett Ormerod but he worked well with Beattie and made us a better team. Adams works well with Ings and makes us a better team, Adam’s was our best player last week with other aspects of his game There is more to the game than just goals, I remember back in the days of Rasiak, he was a good finisher but everyone moaned he didn’t run around a lot

To me we seem quite similar to Sheffield United of last season i to this season. they had a system that was a bit different and worked well and eventually oppositions started to adapt to it and they couldn’t find another way of playing. Where we got extremely lucky was that our good burst of form spread over 2 seasons so we didn’t have any real relegation fears, next season however....

Problem we have is that is value must be dropping too as the injuries and poorer form mount up

I don’t think his hands have been as tied as he makes out Cleary the backup right back / left back thing is a complete and utter balls up (would love to 100% truthfully know what went on there) but a lot of the time there are other options that might work but we never know as he rarely makes a change, and the biggest thing then is our opponents also know this, they know we never play the long ball, or send one over the top to chase etc so they can set up exactly as they want as they know what is coming

You are 100% convinced Ralph is faultless, that’s fine that’s your opinion, but your comments about the bench are just wrong for instance in the away game to wolves you could see the game turning and Ralph did nothing despite Diallo being a perfect break up option, then when wolves did score he brought long on for Djenepo. a week later against Man U, again winning, the game changes and again he brings long on for djenepo the Newcastle game. Against 9 he keeps his defensive players on way too long has Djenepo and tella on the bench but brings neither of them on despite them being far more suited to how the game is actually being played at the time so even when there are obvious options to take in game he doesn’t take them

I know it would never happen as it’s not the done thing but sometimes thinking outside the box can work Ralph needs some time off to refresh, he clearly doesn’t know how to get us out of this and the players look like they don’t believe in it at the moment either. Ralph needs to take a break for a month or so, just like when a player is playing badly they get sent away from the first team (maybe he could keep coaching us for the FA cup and have that as his sole focus) Surely there is someone that wouldnt mind a short term role to get their name back in the system and there is clearly no way they could have us playing any worse than we have been for a sustained period. Long term I can’t see us getting someone better than Ralph, but short term I can’t see anyone doing worse than Ralph so let’s take a chance, do something different and take a chance

But the fact that it happened so many times in quick succession does seem to me that maybe the problem was more with the club as a whole, the coaching / manager set up being a huge part of that? remember Boufal was also considered a massive coup as other bugger clubs were interested in him too. if Ralph hadn’t come in Vestergard would be added to the list too

Elyonoussi - Not a PL player, no idea what the scouts saw in him to feel he's suited for the PL. Weak on the ball, poor off the ball, slow as hell. maybe they saw the Elyonoussi you were drooling over on page 1 everyone can agree that Carrillo was bad and was always going to be bad but the others had all shown a reason to be sign, even Hoedt who had played for Lazio and Netherlands at that point

It’s hard to know the answer as we don’t get to see the coaching interactions in training / pre game planning, but I would presume Ralph leads a lot of so I would assume he should get the credit for that. it’s hard for me to comment on the match day stuff as my first hand experience is from my role in Australian Rules Football where there is head coach making the final calls but a committee of maybe 5-6 giving various snippets of advice, my feeling is that football managers wouldn’t cope well with that set up? But I think something definitely needs tweaking on match day

What’s re the genuine missing ingredients? It always seems to be close to getting there like you say the team has performed well and in most games has started well before seemingly the opposition adjusts A quick count (so might be wrong) has us dropping 16 points from winning positions this season. That seems a massive amount ive said it before but it seems to me Ralph’s training ground and pre match stuff seems to be some of the best in the league but in game he would have to be close to the worst, so I think we need to find a way to improve that and it would be worth more than any money we could spend on players

I don’t think anyone wants to see us without Ralph but I dont think it’s too much to ask to see him improve in some areas that he is clearly deficient in

Another very poor performance from Ralph today and again the majority will put the blame solely on the owner but... we were playing against 9 men and still had it set up with plenty behind the ball and these players just passed to each other in the middle of the park so may times letting Newcastle get in position and save energy only 1 substitute made with Tella and Djenepo on the bench, playing on such a heavy pitch we needed fresh legs and energy to make their defenders run and tire but as always we just kept doing the same thing over and over again

VAR isn’t the problem all VAR does is highlight the incompetencies of those who implement the rules and those that officiate on them. the che Adam’s offside isn’t the fault of VAR, that is the fault of continual indecision from lawmakers about what is offside and the confusion stemming from this. Bednarek getting sent off isn’t the fault of VAR its the fault of a referee with no idea what he is doing VAR needs 2 things 1) better rules implemented so we know what the decision will be most times 2) we should hear the communication just like in other sports so we know why a decision has been made

There are a lot of questions that need answering from a lot people. The blame it all on Gao / board doesn’t sit well with me (without these answers) As a team under Ralph we have given away an absurd amount of points from winning positions, a lot of them we can all see the game changing before any subs / changes are made, so Ralph has to take some blame here. I personally think our season started to deflate at wolves when we were leading and could see wolves getting more dangerous possession but nothing was changed until the equaliser. We also need to know how the whole Valery / Vokins leaving came about, was it because the board said we needed the money or was it because Ralph was happy to let them go? If he was happy, why was he happy? Like it or not part of managing the game is managing the officials and by being silent about the Villa officiating has guaranteed we will be on the bad end of tight calls as officials will see this as the easy and safe call for them. Ralph is clearly a great coach and working with the players pregame but I’m not convinced his in game stuff is at the same level, so whilst he is the best we can get (probably) we need to also ensure he isn’t given a free ride from responsibility as that can breed a dangerous attitude

Has a to from 2 yards out (which surely even he wouldn’t miss) if Ings doesn’t over hit a pass by 50 yards to make it 2-1

Being based in Australia I use this site to try catch up on all of the information happening at saints, but at the moment this site is becoming completely unreadable as the same 5 or so posters are posting the same stuff on almost every thread over and over and over again. I suggest we have a thread that isn’t for comment, just for posting each piece of news/rumour With a quick summary along with a link to the story from the official site/ newspaper site or website. That way if there are any new posts everyone knows that there is something to look at, not a thread that has gone up by 50 posts only to read that it’s the same stuff that has filled the previous 100 posts

No way that is correct The Bayern job was became about because he left If that’s as the reason he left the club would’ve been advertising that as “look how good our staff are, they are being poached by one of the biggest and best clubs in the world” instead there was diligence for ages until a mundane rohl has left statement

Would love to 100% know the truth about A) why Rohl left, and B) why he wasn’t replaced Today the half time change was right and put us back in the game but why wait until the game is over before making subs 2 and 3?

= first priority is right back and centre back Next I think goalkeeper, McCarthy flapping costs is goals at man city arsenal and again today Then extra central midfielder

Playing as we are we clearly aren’t one of the 3 worst sides in general play We are definitely one of the 3 worst teams at game management though

Can’t believe how many people are praising the defending, if aguero had a decent game it would’ve 4-5 conceded easily, he had so many touches in the box without a single defender having any sort of touch on him

Stephens and McCarthy showing why they are both out of the team on a regular basis

Plenty of people on here saying blame Gao or the previous administration But this side is practically the same available as when Ralph joined us, it’s probably a stronger side as we now have ings instead of Austin, and the option of Boufal who has been quite good this season. The level of performance is so far away from what it was when Ralph joined that he can’t be held blameless and it’s also been in a downward trajectory after his initial burst, would love to see his rolling average points per game

Glad I got up at 4:30am to watch that Ralph shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the team sheet No surprise in the 2nd half we looked better when we played a left back at left back and a right back at right back We were lucky the game wasn’t lost early last week with his djenepo experiment and clearly tonight we couldn’t overcome his random selection

Over here in the A-League the first couple of months it was a bit dodgy as everyone was working out the best way to use it Later on in the season it worked really well One thing to remember is we should never let perfection get in the way of better, so whilst var won’t get every decision right, we will have more correct decisions