StrangelyBrown

I hope we rediscover the drive and energy that has been missing for the last few weeks, but can't help thinking this will be more of the same. If it is then this has to be the end for Ralph. Result wise I can't see us winning this one, but the approach is far more important for me - if we show some spine, some fight and a willingness to attack then there might be a glimmer of hope. If not then we need to make a change.

That's not a million miles away from our best side (with Lavia injured). Only question for me is where is stuey.. Somehow djenepo, elyuseless and Armstrong will start. Fuck knows how though.

Having thought overnight I'm now of the opinion that we are really missing a leader on the field (I know this has been said many times before on here - perhaps I'm just catching up :)). Ralph and the players comments are about a lack of intensity and it was there for everyone to see. What I didn't see was anyone leading on the pitch - we desperately lack a Jimmy case type of player who can drive the youngsters to up their game. Instead we have JWP who leads by example, but when his example is shit, we also seem to be shit. I'm not excusing Ralph for this... He should make sure he has a proper leader on the pitch

Putting djenepo, elynoussi and Armstrong in the starting line up is asking for trouble. JWP was incredibly poor with the ball tonight. Not convinced we had any sort of plan tonight against a villa side who were absolutely shit. Very poor.

Did you not watch the branfoot era or the Hughes era or the puel era or the Pellegrino era... They were worse than this in my mind, but I take your point

How exactly are we weaker in attack than last season? Ok we don't have broja so comparing with the start of last season you maybe have a case of you ignore aribo, but if you look at the second half of the season we've lost long (so fucking what) and a can't be arsed broja and replaced with aribo who looks like he's got something about him and mara who has something a bit special. I do wonder if some people will ever be happy....

Fantastic to see Ralph celebrating with the coaches and the players. A united management team if ever I saw one. We're finally showing some back bone, strong positive football and exceptional character. Long may this last. Good performances all round and special shout outs to ABK and Salisu who were magnificent tonight. A couple of surprise signings and we may be in for a really good season

Jan is playing football at elite level. It is not good enough to make last ditch blocks and tackles some of the time and the rest of the time be slow to react, out of position, ball watch, etc. At this level he shouldn't just be a reactive player and his speed of thought in possession should be significantly better. That's why he gets stick and deservedly so.

So we went up a few gears and showed what we can do!! I'll give Ralph the benefit of the doubt and say well done for managing Che and Stuey's fitness well. Great performances from almost everyone. ABK and Lavia look like they are going to be very good indeed. Djenepo barely put a foot wrong. Most importantly Leicester Cunty didn't get anything from their relentless diving and niggly fouls. What a thoroughly hateable side they are.

And there is the danger of our approach today, expecting us to keep the ball out of the net with Madison, vardy and Barnes falling over every 2 minutes was always going to result in a dangerous set play. Now we have to have a plan b where we go up a few gears...

Ive wondered the same - it seems like he hasn't been quite fit enough for a whole game/starting position since then. Maybe the club are sensibily managing something we're not aware of

At times we've been really hard to beat and have defended very well - the problem seems to me that we are really streaky and things either click or fail spectacularly. What I can't work out is whether Ralph comes up with something clever, it works for a bit until someone works us out and then he stubbornly sticks to the "winning" formula or just simply that our players are collectively prone to massive swings in confidence/form.

Bear with me on this, but having read through some of Ralph's strangely worded comments (particularly the one about 4-2-2-2 being our DNA) I'm wondering whether the 3-5-2 is his idea or sport republics? It would make sense for the group to want a way of playing across all teams...

Good character to fight back from 2 down. The question is has Ralph learned from this? If he starts with 4 at the back, drops Bednarek, starts Aribo and Mara next time then I think he buys himself a bit more time. If he starts with 5 at the back and Bednarek is in the starting line up he can just fuck off.

So will be interesting to see whether Ralph addresses the obvious problems at half time or does something completely random...

How the fuck does bednarek keep his place? Ball watching for 3 of the goals against spurs, shit for the last 6 months - shouldnt be anywhere near the team at the moment.

Good post - I wonder if the players who have turned on Ralph are the same ones that have been here for ages and have performed poorly for manager after manager (e.g. Redmond, Stephens, Bednarek, ...)?

Interesting, maybe he maintains a public persona (in the same way that Robbie savage does) in order to spark controversy - in which case anything he puts on twitter is well worth ignoring as it won't even be his real view!

To be fair, Charlie Austin is an A grade bellend so I'm not sure it is worth reading anything into it... However in the interests of balance Ralph does seem to have a bit of a problem with strikers - perhaps it's an ego thing that Ralph doesn't know how to handle or a hoddle like problem that Ralph has with strikers?

For me I've no problem with players being played out of position - plenty of good managers do this well. Valery may just be getting game time because Ralph has lost faith in Lyanco and Stephens - and who could blame him? What frustrates the hell out of me is the inability to see what isn't working and change it or the rigid sticking to the plan no matter what. For example how many times can we all see that a particular player is having a stinker and yet that player is the one who stays on the pitch and then stays in the starting 11 the next game or how many times have we looked exposed playing 4-2-2-2 and yet there's been no tactical changes.

Don't come on here talking sense - this is clearly all Ralph's fault

I like the look of this but can't help thinking Ralf will either stick with the 5-3-2 or revert to the 4-2-2-2 God help us if it's the former, if it's the latter I'd like to see: Bazunu KWP ABK Salisu Perraud JWP Lavia Aribo S.Armstrong Adams A.Armstrong (Not that I think Adam Armstrong is good enough - just simply the best of a bunch of bad options) Whatever happens this is a game we should win and a loss should see Ralph walking IMO

Where did I say I didn't give a shit? We lost a game against a side who are expected to finish top 4 at their place with a bunch of young new players and with a bit of a tradition of a crap result in the opening day. Last season our season fizzled out due to being safe very early on. I'll have a little mantrum about things when we lose a game I expect us to get something out of - perhaps you should be a bit more realistic? We are what we are - a lower half team having a majorly transitional season. It will be shite for a while yet.

Nice to see the usual spazweb meltdown

Priorities for me are fullback (left sided, preferably someone who can play both lb/rb) and a striker who is going to contribute 10 or more goals. CB and no 10 are still worries even though we've improved a bit - particularly CB going into another season with Bednarek and Stephens anywhere near the 1st team.