saintwbu

That’s Phil Campion in the boxing ring as well I think, former SAS, he’s Saints. Will be a good watch if it’s a balanced view.

Last 10 minutes reminded me how exciting Djenepo is, huge boost to have him back for Everton. Pleased for a couple of the lads who came in and really played well, and a few who recovered from Friday, particularly Valery who was solid. Ings gave everything he had, as we knew he would. Everton huge, winnable.

Looked offside to me but no VAR tonight

Maybe JWP as a wing back again? Hard to tell really. Team sheet suggests 4 but I don’t see it. If so, Danso still can’t get a game in his own position. Not one player dropped from the squad entirely.

Maybe JWP as a wing back again? Hard to tell really. Team sheet suggests 4 but I don’t see it. If so, Danso still can’t get a game in his own position. Not one player dropped from the squad entirely.

Danso HAS to play, surely. He has played one game at CB since he arrived, away to Fulham and he found it possible to win at least one header which immediately makes him our best defender in the air. Maybe stick with Hojbjerg in these two games because we’re going to lose, then **** him off forever. Start Boufal. Start with Armstrong. Start with players who either give a ****, or at least haven’t made it abundantly clear to us that they don’t. NO VESTERGAARD. NO GUNN. Ralph shouldn’t fall on his sword for that defeat the other night, but his baffling selections mean he can’t be blame free, a lot of fans have called for certain players to be dropped and he hasn’t, and it’s losing some faith in him.

Fair play to the ones who stayed and kept singing - But I think it would’ve been great if everyone had left at half time. Singing gave the impression the fans were ‘by the players no matter what’ type thing. That shouldn’t be the case. There shouldn’t have been anyone left in the stadium for them to applaud at the final whistle. As I say, fair play to the ones who stayed, shouldn’t be criticised, just would’ve made a statement for everyone to have gone.

What happened to Ralph’s philosophy of using youngsters? Because they’re hungrier and have less to lose. Instead he’s using the same old ****e over and over again.

I just don’t understand why we want to play 3 centre halves. All of our centre halves are clumsy, error prone and relatively poor on the ball. I absolutely cannot fathom why we would want to play 3 of them at one time! It doesn’t make us more solid, it makes us more likely to make mistakes.

JWP ain’t the problem, he’ll regularly play 2-3 positions per game. He’s a perfect plug for the many gaps in this team. Hojbjerg, Vestegaard, Gunn are all genuine problems. They regularly make mistakes, regularly give the ball away in dangerous positions, and offer very little to our chances of winning. JWP is an easy whipping boy because he’s not exciting, but he does a lot of tidying up for this **** show.

Surprised to see he doesn’t have his own thread on the first few pages. Think he really deserves his own. Useless.

Within 5 minutes the whole stadium felt in agreement that Ralph completely ****ed it tonight. Felt sorry for Danso, absolutely shafted by the manager and can only assume it was his disagreement with Ralph on the touchline that meant he was hooked and not the awful Vestergaard. Very worrying that Ralph would pick Vest against a team that literally live for the counter attack at pace, very naive. I’m one of Cedric’s biggest critics too but even I felt sorry for him also, again completely stitched up by the manager, Danso had done a decent job at LB, why put two players out of position when one has already shown he can play there? And to be fair to Cedric, I thought he really put a shift in after half time and was one of our better performers. What a difference Bertrand made, never has a substitution been so obvious so early on, seriously worrying that Ralph doesn’t want to play him, and you could see Bertie whispering to Stephens/Yoshida/Long whilst warming up, i’ll be shocked if he wasn’t criticising Ralph and the decision to leave him on the bench whilst our makeshift back 4 was getting pulled all over the place. Romeu was superb, absolutely all over the pitch winning the ball back, mopping up, even tidying up after himself if he gave the ball away. I’ve been baffled by the love for Hojbjerg for a long time, tonight just proved yet again that he does not have the quality we need in CM. Romeu is the destroyer, JWP is the recycler, what is Hojbjerg? He’s not a box to box midfielder, he’s not a playmaker, he’s not a ball winner, he does nothing. I would say he runs around a lot, but even then I don’t actually think he does, and he has an awful habit of making a lazy tackle and completely giving up and letting runners go, his tracking at times is appalling, but nothing is quite as appalling as his passing. I reckon if you cut Prowsey’s legs off, he’d still pass the ball better than Hojbjerg. When he gestured to the Itchen to lift the noise in the second half I felt like running down to the pitch to tell him i’ll sing louder when you manage to pick out a single pass to a ****ing teammate, really wound me up. Bet he did a great interview after the game though. But I don’t wish to blame the players tonight, and I feel like the crowd actually were fairly positive overall tonight and the noise was pretty good considering the first half performance. Tonight all falls at Ralph’s feet. He hasn’t done much wrong since he got here, tonight he well and truly ****ed it up.

Absolutely head and shoulders above everyone tonight, possibly out of both teams. He plays CM on his own, Hoj is the biggest myth in history, he is nothing without Romeu, and not much with him either. Would love to see his stats tonight, between him and Bednarek the interception stats must’ve been huge.

I always wanted VAR. So far, it's doing its job well. Anyone who complains about its use only has to look at the two incidents we have benefitted from, the goal at Brighton and the goal yesterday, the fact that a highly paid professional linesman cannot see those offences without the help of VAR is a real worry and as clear justification as any that it absolutely is required!

Mane also has an incredible change of direction and ability to beat a play from a standing start, amazing footballer. Djenepo is going to be a lot of fun, glad he’s made a quick start because we all know these types of player don’t tend to get much patience round here!

Similar happened in the Nations League - Switzerland v Portugal. Ronaldo penalty appeal, not given, Switzerland go up the other end and get a stonewall penalty. VAR reviews the Ronaldo penalty appeal and give that one instead.

Having re-watched the highlights, it reminded me of more good work that Boufal did. Early shot which came close, he won the corner that led to the goal, and he set up Adams’ great chance. A good shift from him against one of the best defenders in the league.

The only derbies that come above or alongside ours in the UK are Celtic/Rangers, West Ham/Millwall, Villa/Birmingham. I know everyone thinks their derby is the best but none of the other ‘big ones’ come anywhere close to ours, Spurs v Arsenal is a tea party compared to this, United v Liverpool is only a big derby for Sky these days, nothing else comes close. We better ****ing win comfortably.

That Young free kick was also seconds before Danso’s red card, so had we got that free kick it would never have come to Danso hacking down McTominay as they broke. Another absolute **** show from a highly paid referee.

The corner he gave in the first half when Rashford had so clearly kicked it out, to the extent that Cedric walked alongside the ball as it went out, was a decision worth demoting to the lower divisions alone.

a CB at full back a long throw expert, Ralph's been watching Pulis

Important to point out that Boufal was up against Wan Bissaka too, for me the best defence full back in the league. Really wished he'd been switched out to the right hand side to face Young. Thought he did well, worked hard, they were definitely worried about him as he always seemed to have 3 players in front of him.

I like Adams, he’s strong and holds it up quite nicely, he just needs a goal for his confidence. His first two games he was getting into good positions, narrowly missing chance against both Burnley and Liverpool. Since then, he’s getting less chances and being quieter in games. To me that suggests a confidence issue. For me, as mentioned above, Ings’ ineffectiveness is much of a worry. Che will come good.

Yeah forgot to mention Romeu. What a performance, Hoj didn’t turn up at all so he basically ran CM on his own.

Silly from Danso but I really like him so far, will be great at CB I think. Very pleased for Vest, been criticised by all, including me, and I always say he should be more dangerous from set pieces. Well today he was a monster, and got an important goal too, great stuff.